Lexington native shows write stuff to lead at MSU

Note: The folks in Lexington actually did a great job showing this article on a web page here. Published May 8, 2009.

His Michigan State Spartans football team made a New Year's Day bowl game; his men's basketball team made a magical NCAA Tournament run.

Even his Croswell-Lexington Pioneers made their deepest run in the high school football state playoffs this fall.

Mediate, Achatz seek more than PGA title

Note: Localizing a big event. Without many Michigan ties to the field of the PGA Championship in 2008 at Oakland Hills, we had to resort to writing about the caddies. Achatz is a great guy and I also hooked him up with my friend Jamie Samuelsen for a radio interview on WDFN-1130 AM. Published Aug. 7, 2008.

BLOOMFIELD TWP. -- Rocco Mediate has dreams of making his first Ryder Cup team.

His caddie, St. Clair's Matt Achatz, feels like he's already living his own dream.

The pair is hoping for a strong weekend in one of golf most prestigious events so they can qualify for another of golf's most prestigious events.

The upcoming Ryder Cup looms and Mediate is right in the thick of things, hoping to fill one of 12 spots on the American team in the international event.

Pirates didn't do what was necessary to ensure stay

Note: However, things weren't so rosy off the field for the Pirates, who left Port Huron midway through the second season for Flint, only to have attendances go from bad to worse. Here's a column I wrote after the team's unceremonious exit from town. This ran June 21, 2007.

One thing that Josh Reasoner said to me about a year ago has been sticking in my head lately.

I asked the then-president of the Port Huron Pirates if the team would be sticking around for the offseason in the Blue Water Area.

"No," he said. "We came in like Pirates, and we're going out like Pirates."

Now, as the team sets sail down I-69 to head to Flint, the former team president's words seem prophetic.

Proud to be an American

Note: One of the highlights of my time in Port Huron has been serving as beat writer for the former Port Huron Pirates of the Continental Indoor Football League for two years. Some of these guys had some stories to tell. My favorite profile was of Wael Jarbou, an offensive lineman from Iraq. From July 5, 2006.

Seated in McMorran Arena's promotional "Best Seat in the House," Wael Jarbou of the Port Huron Pirates recounted his long and arduous journey from Iraq to the Blue Water Area.

There were the dirt fields he played in when he was 9 years old in northern Baghdad, enemy fighter jets patrolling the skies above.

Legendary Kelso would help program

Note: This article appeared in the Feb. 11, 2004 issue of CM Life. This is my only "award-winning" piece as I took second in the Michigan Press Association college newspaper contest for sports column writing. Maybe still my favorite (not best) piece I've ever done. I interviewed Kelso in the stands during the 100-year CMU men's basketball celebration and connected the dots on something I thought could work. Looking back, I wish I had gotten to the message sooner and, also, come out and said what I think: Jay Smith, pictured above, should do whatever he can to get Ben Kelso on his staff.

The old adage says that sometimes it isn’t what you know, it’s who you know.

And while most of the focus of the weekend’s 100-year celebration of men’s basketball was Dan Majerle’s return, the man who knows everyone went largely unnoticed.

Although Ben Kelso watched the game at Rose Arena in relative anonymity, it was apparent that he enjoyed returning to his alma mater.

But as the team struggled to hold its halftime lead, Kelso expressed the importance of bringing the legendary players back.

“It is a responsibility that all of us guys have to try to maintain CMU at a winning level,” he said.

Kelso is a basketball icon in the state of Michigan. It is part of men’s basketball coach Jay Smith’s job to make sure that guys like Kelso continue to be involved in the program.

Stadium turf needs altering

Note: For my first post on the new site, I went with probably the first column I was proud of from my Central Michigan Life days. This was published on Sept. 10, 2003:

As freshman running back Jerry Seymour shuffled his way through holes Saturday, Herb Deromedi had to be cringing slightly, despite his glee over the new star.

The CMU athletics director has to be thrilled about the emergence of the tailback and prospects of several years of a potent ground weapon.

But as Deromedi watches Seymour go to work on what should be his long term canvas, the former CMU coach knows the he has five more home games on the outdated Kelly/Shorts Stadium surface.

Five more games to watch would-be tacklers' knees buckle and turn every which way as their arms grab nothing but air. Five more games for Seymour to cut and twist, juke and jive on the ancient surface.

"We certainly feel like this will be the final year," Deromedi said.

It better be.