biggunsbob said:

I will do a rundown of each final championship game like last year with all the stats but I thought I would try this and see if I can predict who makes it.. Or should I say jinx them lol

D-1
Bottom half of the bracket is so much harder then the top half but I will take
Detroit Cass Tech verses Clarkson.. Cass Tech three peats.
Rockford could make a deep run..

D-2
This one is easy.
District winner between Muskegon and Lowell verses Birmingham Brother Rice.
Rice wins a three peat also..

D-3
This on is wide open I will go.
Grand Rapids Christian verses Lapeer west .. others maybe Dewitt, Battle Creek harper Creek,Zeeland west..
GRCC wins again... probably won't win it all if Harris does not play.

D-4
probably
South Christian verses Sexton but I do not like South Christian.
Others.. Detroit country Day, Marine City, Grand rapids catholic central .
Sexton wins it all.. (I can't pick SC who will win it).

D5.
Another great division..so many so teams.
I will go
Menominee verses Jackson Lumen Christi.
Christi wins it all..
Look out for Portland (defending champ) and Grand Rapids West Catholic winner.

D-6
Have no clue I guess I will go
Madison Heights Madison verses Saginaw Nouvel
Madison Heights wins it all..

D-7
Rematch of last year.
Ishpeming verses Detroit Loyola
This time DL takes down the kids from the UP.. This game was so interesting last year.


D-8
Bottom half is a lot tougher
Crystal Falls Forest park from the top half always seems to make it.
Verses Muskegon Catholic Central.
Sorry CFFP you will lose another final game.
MCC wins it al..

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gotime909 said:

Mona Shores gave Lowell all they could handle last night. A couple late turnovers did them in though. Muskegon @ Lowell next week

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michchamp said:

Bro Rice stomps Groves 42-0.

Nice!

I don't think Seaholm's upset of Southfield is as big of a deal as the press made it out to be... suburban schools usually play better team sports.

I don't know if Seaholm can keep it going against Rice next week. I hope not; I always hated Seaholm & Seaholm kids.

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byco42 said:

All of them? Seaholm and Southfield did not generate the animosity that the other schools in our league did: Berkley, Hazel Park and Ferndale. (depending on the sport, well the Hazel Park kids were animals) ... and there was Dondero, but that's a different demographic altogether. We (Kimball) had a huge rock in the front of our school. Some enterprising Dondero kids stole it, borrowing a dump truck from one of their parents. The prank was impressive, we all agreed.

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michchamp said:

well, our biggest rival was Catholic Central, of course. even our cross country meets would get pretty heated with them, but it wasn't like we really encountered CC kids outside of sports anywhere.

the closest school geographically to us was Seaholm, I think and there was a lot of mutual dislike there. maybe it came from the social scene more than athletics. we'd party in the same areas around Birmingham/Bloomfield, and there were always lame rich kid fights that would break out sometimes.

Country Day was also just down the street, but there wasn't a lot of overlap between us, since they were Class B, and were mainly composed of nerdy rich kids or drug-addict rich kids, in either case who didn't care.

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byco42 said:

My only direct contact with Rice kids were when we played them in baseball. I thought they were equally classy win, or lose, though we beat them three of four when I played on the Kimball varsity. I also had a good friend on the Rice team at the time.

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michchamp said:

we had no issues with Royal Oak. I hung out in Royal Oak a fair amount of time. one of my good friends lived at 12 & woodward, and his dad was one of the assistant coaches on our track & cc teams.

there are actually a fair amount of Rice students from all over the metro Detroit area, so to visit friends/hangout, I'd be all over, from Northville or Farmington Hills to the corners of Rochester, and in most places it seems people liked/respected us.

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michchamp said:

it's a pretty awesome story so far, with Fracassa going out like this... they're undefeated and playing really well. I have no idea who will replace him when he's gone.

The Rice QB, Alex Malzone, is apparently a huge Michigan fan. I read he's sent Borges tape, but we haven't shown more than a passing interest in him. I don't think Rice has ever sent a QB to Michigan who saw playing time for us.

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RedeemerKid said:

My $$ is on Dave Sofran taking over for Al. He has an "Assistant Head Coach" title as it is.

I think Rice has leaned the coaching staff in preparation for Al's inevitable departure. Some mainstays of many years have left in the last couple years (including Jamie Boerkoel), and I suspect it was so that the named successor would be more of an obvious choice that would be difficult to second guess.

Malzone is a great high school QB and it is interesting that he ended up at Rice while his older brother was at CC. When you are a passing QB, you are better fitted in the Rice system for sure compared to that of CC where your job is to hand the ball off, or run it yourself 90% of the time.

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michchamp said:

interesting. Sofran was a good guy.

Rick Fracassa isn't the frosh coach anymore, is he?

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RedeemerKid said:

No, not for quite some time. It seems Rick had some kind of falling out with Brother Rice and perhaps his father. I have heard that he has little to nothing nice to say about Brother Rice.

Rick ended up sending his son (standout QB and baseball player) to Sterling Height Stevenson instead of Brother Rice. The kid set all kinds of Michigan HS Football passing records I believe. Not sure of all the reasons he didn't end up at Brother Rice, but there were stories of Rick somewhat shopping his kid around looking for the best place he could start at QB very young.

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michchamp said:

interesting.

story I heard from a Rice teacher (this was circa 2002, and is not surprising to me because Rick was a "loud, outspoken, short fuse" guy) was some parents demanded the school remove him as the frosh football coach. Al stood by him at the time, and the school administration backed down. Any parting of ways must've happened after that.

I didn't know Rick had a son, but yeah, I could see his decision to send him to play for someone else sending a pretty clear message and accounting for any break.

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RedeemerKid said:

Heard similar stuff about Rick while he was at Rice and I think it got to the point where Al could no longer "provide cover" for Rick, and had to ask him to leave.

I suspect Rick wasn't happy that Al asked him to leave, so when the time came, he shopped his kid's talents to anyone who would listen, not named Al Fracassa.

Ironically, in 2009, the younger Fracassa had a terrific Senior year leading the Titans of Sterling Heights Stevenson to the State Championship game only to lose to............CC!

Someone I know who knows him says Rick has said very negative things about Rice on social media.

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