Sports

The Blissfield Athletic Department and Athletic Director Steve Babbitt is accepting applications for the 2016 Phil Kerbawy Volunteer of the Year Award until April 15. According to the athletic department, the award is given annual to a school employee or volunteer who has consistently served the Blissfield High School athletic community in an extraordinary fashion over many years, or whose efforts during the past athletic year were exceptional. The award will be presented during during the fall sports Meet the Team Night. The winning nominee’s athletic program of choice will receive a $250 award and the winning nominee will receive the award presented directly to them by the original winner of the award himself, Phil Kerbawy. For a nomination form, criteria and more information, Babbitt can be reached at sbabbitt@blissfieldschools.us. For the complete story, please see the March 2, 2016, edition of The Advance. To subscribe for automatic weekly delivery of all the area’s local news and sports, just call 517-486-2400 and have your credit card ready.

The Madison Varsity Competitive Cheer team set a new school record on their way to qualifying for regional competition  Saturday, Feb. 27, in Mason.
The Trojans placed second in the district at Michigan Center after a strong finish in the third and final round, which moved them from sixth place into the regional qualifying spot. The Blissfield Royals, under the direction of first-year head Coach Liz Court, finished the district cheering rounds in 11th place out of 15 teams.
 For Brad Heineman’s full story, please pick up The Advance’s Feb. 24, 2016, edition on local newsstands now.

Six coverage area wrestlers went into the regional wrestling rounds this past Saturday, Feb. 20, in Bronson and now only two wrestlers remain on their quest for a state wrestling title journey.
Blissfield junior wrestlers Caleb Bangerter and Noah Nieman finished a respective second and first place in their wrestling weight classes to qualify for an appearance at the Palace of Auburn Hills, March 3, 4 and 5 for the Michigan High School Athletic Association division-four wrestling state meet.
This will mark Nieman’s second trip to the Palace of Auburn Hills, having finished third overall in the state last season.
This will be Bangerter’s first state meet appearance, as he bowed out in the regional rounds last year.

For Brad Heineman’s complete story, please see the Feb. 24, 2016, edition of The Advance, on newsstands now.

Blissfield High School varsity women’s basketball player junior Kelsey Wyman has been a scoring standout for the Royals since stepping onto the varsity court as a freshman. Thursday evening, she scored her 1,000th career point in a 54-50 win over Ida. In doing so, she joins Nikki Pawson (2005) as the only Lady Royals to ever break 1,000 points, according to Blissfield High School Athletic Director Steve Babbitt. As a junior, she still has the rest of this season and her senior year to raise the total even further.

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Blissfield High School Athletic Director Steve Babbitt has announced the brackets for the MHSAA district basketball tournament. The women’s tournament will be hosted at Summerfield High school Feb. 29-March 4 and Blissfield will host the men March 7-11. (Brackets courtesy Steve Babbitt, BHS AD)

 

 

With Kendall Hudson’s three-point shot at the end of the second of quarter, the Madison Lady Trojan scored her 1000th career point in varsity basketball in a game against Britton Deerfield.

The Blissfield and Madison men’s basketball matchup at Blissfield has been delayed from Tuesday, Feb. 16, to Wednesday, Feb. 17 and still at Blissfield.

Junior varsity play begins at 5:30 p.m. with the varsity tip-off to follow at 7 p.m.

A little Blissfield home cookin’ was all Blissfield wrestlers Noah Nieman, Austin Hall and Caleb Bangerter needed Saturday at the Blissfield-hosted Michigan High School Athletic Association Wrestling District 31, division four competition. Both Nieman and Bangerter placed first in their weight class division, while Hall placed in a qualifying third-place spot, ensuring all three Royals another shot to wrestle in the regional rounds.
The top four finishing wrestlers in each weight class move on to the regional rounds of wrestling held this Saturday in Bronson.
For the Madison Trojan varsity wrestlers, they too will send on three Trojans to Bronson this Saturday in second-placed Frankie Najera and fourth-placed finishers Isiah Wyatt-Young and Clarence Burger.

For the complete story and several photos, please see the Feb. 17, 2016, edition of The Advance.

A tougher competitive basketball game would have been hard to find than the Blissfield and Columbia Central women’s matchup Thursday evening, Feb. 4, in the Royals’ gym.

When time ran out, the Royals finished short on the 59-57 scoreboard ending their  record 44-game winning streak at home and likely will result in them finishing second in the Lenawee County Athletic Association. The Royals’ only two losses on the season both came at the hands of the Golden Eagles.
“I thought it was an incredible basketball game between two very solid basketball teams that featured big shots, great defensive plays and both teams playing with tremendous passion,” varsity coach Ryan Gilbert said.
“It was a great game to be a part of, the bad thing was that we were on the lower end of the point total,” he said.

For Melissa Burnor’s full story, please see the Feb. 10, 2016, edition of The Advance.

Billed as the game of the week, hopes were high in the Blissfield High School gym Thursday night, and the Lady Royals played hard, but dropped a heartbreaker to Columbia Central 59-57.

This is only the second loss for the Royal women this year, both at the hands of CC. And to make this loss more difficult, the loss also broke the team’s long home win streak.

For the complete story, please see the Feb. 10, 2016, edition of The Advance.