Lake Orion, Rockford set to battle for first-time state crown
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BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
BATTLE CREEK — Nearly three hours apart, Rockford and Lake Orion are truly on opposite side of the state. But they both share some common threads being from the state’s two largest metropolitan areas.
Rockford is 20 miles north of the heart of Grand Rapids, while Lake Orion is nearly 30 miles north of Detroit.
The schools share a thread of being two of the top 10 largest schools enrollment-wise in Michigan at the present time. They will also share the volleyball court on the season’s biggest stage.
Rockford and Lake Orion will face off for the Class A state championship at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena. Game time is approximately 2 p.m.
“It’s going to be a whole new experience for us,” offered fifth-year Lake Orion coach Bob Howey. “We have never been there before.”
The two have played three times this season at various tournaments, with Rockford going 2-1 against the Dragons. At the Portage Invitational in late September, a tournament that featured numerous state-ranked teams in Class A, Class B and Class C, Lake Orion defeated Rockford in power pool play, while Rockford downed the Dragons in the finals.
ONE MORE TIME: Lake Orion's Melanie Heath and the Dragons are in Saturday's Class A state championship game against Rockford. File Photo | Larry McKee, www.lmckeephotography.com
Rockford (58-9-0) also defeated Lake Orion at the Farmington Hills Mercy-hosted East-West Showcase in late August.
Last spring during softball season, Howey, who is an assistant coach in that sport at Lake Orion, talked about putting in place a loaded schedule to prepare the Dragons for a possible long tournament run.
Lake Orion has knocked off No. 4 Birmingham Marian, No. 9 Macomb Dakota and No. 3 Clarkston in three of its last four games after a brutally tough regular season that featured dozens of games against ranked opponents.
“This is why,” pointed Howey towards the court at Kellogg Arena following his team’s win over Clarkston ion the state semifinals. “I got us the toughest schedule I could possibly put together. I got us in the toughest tournaments. We played a lot of great teams this season and beat some teams we had never beaten before.”
Lake Orion, which carries a 54-12-3 school record into Saturday’s match, is a senior-heavy team with eight seniors on the roster. The Dragons returned 13 of 15 players from its 2010 roster, a team that lost in the regional finals to eventual state champion Birmingham Marian last season.
Rockford has been a top-10 team that past few years, but has not been able to get to this point, annually running into top teams from the Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek areas. The Rams, a state powerhouse in multiple sports, lost in the state quarterfinals in 2009.
Lake Orion did reach the Final Four in 1988, long before any of the current players were even born.
“We’re excited. This is everything that we worked for. We knew with all of the seniors that we had that this could be our year,” said Howey. “We just have to finish it. But (Rockford) is good, very good. We’re fortunate enough to have played them. We have an understanding of what their strengths are.”
2011 STATE FINALS PAIRINGS
November 19
Kellogg Arena, Battle Creek
Class D
Battle Creek St. Philip (58-4-2) vs. Wyoming Tri-unity Christian (39-13-2), 10 a.m.
Class C
Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central (48-6) vs. Morley-Stanwood (57-4-2), 12 p.m.
Class A
Rockford (59-8) vs. Lake Orion (54-12-3), 2 p.m.
Class B
Fruitport (49-8) vs. Tecumseh (55-3-1), 4 p.m.
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Category: Featured Articles, High School, High School (M-Z), Lake Orion, Prep Wraps
