Lakers Form a Scrimmage Team For Younger Players
By Ryan Schlehuber

Mackinac Island Lakers junior varsity scrimmage team includes (from left, front) Blake Ruddle, Jesse Straight, Robert Chaffee, Morgan Brodeur-Bunker, Paul Fisher; (back) assistant coach Sam Kamphuis, Thomas Rilenge, Andrew Chambers, Michael Gamble, Robert Chambers, Tymon Horn, and Head Coach Jimmy Fisher.

One of the major dilemmas for small school coaches is whether they can recruit enough players for a team. For Ryan Fox, athletic director and boys varsity basketball coach at Mackinac Island, that’s one dilemma he won’t have to worry about, as he has created a scrimmage team, consisting of athletes from sixth grade to eighth grade. The team has 10 players. Last year, the team had about a dozen, said Mr. Fox.

Those numbers are quite healthy, considering the school’s enrollment this year is only 65 students.

“It makes it very optimistic for our varsity basketball program,” said Mr. Fox. “We have a good number of players coming up and a number of good athletes coming up.”

The junior varsity scrimmage team will participate in eight games this season, four each against Paradise and Grand Marais. The team’s five sixth graders will not be allowed to travel on road games, a policy set by Coach Fox that ensures that his younger athletes be introduced to athletics gradually, so as not to impede their classroom studies.

There are only eight varsity basketball players on the Lakers this year. Two of his players, eighth grade students Robert Chambers and Michael Gamble, are allowed to play on the varsity team under a Michigan High School Athletics Association (MHSAA) exemption that allows small schools that cannot form an organized junior varsity team to fill their roster with athletes below the ninth grade level.

Because the Lakers’ junior varsity team is only competing against scrimmage teams at Paradise and Grand Marais, and scrimmage games are not sanctioned by MHSAA, the two eighth grade players can also participate on the varsity squad. It basically is just more practice for them, said Coach Fox.

With only eight players, Coach Fox has had and will continue to rely on the team’s hard work and conditioning.

“Foul trouble and stamina are our biggest troubles,” said Coach Fox. “We’re going to do lots of conditioning and I have to rely on my starting five quite a bit, however, we do have really good reserves, too.”

With the establishment of scrimmage teams for his younger athletes, Coach Fox hopes those numbers and early playing experience will foster a healthy and strong varsity team down the road.

“At the junior varsity level, they’re learning the fundamentals of basketball, passing, dribbling, and team work,” he said. “It gets them interested in athletics and, if they stick with it, it will go a long way for our program.”

INFO BOX

Lakers Junior Varsity Scrimmage Schedule

January 7 and 8 vs. Paradise

January 14 and 15 at Grand Marais

February 18 and 19 vs. Grand Marais

February 25 and 26 at Paradise

NOTE: call the school at 847-3376 for actual game times.