2008 sees changes in sports landscape
Published 7:28 pm Monday, December 31, 2007
By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Change was the name of the game for the Niles area when it came to local sports.
There were new coaches, a changing of the guard in southwest Michigan wrestling and even a change in sports seasons.
After nearly a decade of battling, the Michigan High School Athletic Association lost its court case to keep girls' basketball in the fall and volleyball in the winter.
So when August rolled around, volleyball kicked off the sports year.
In April, legendary Niles basketball coach Jim Arnold announced he would be retiring.
Arnold, who also coached softball for the Vikings, said he would hang up his whistle following the 2007-08 basketball season.
He retired from coaching softball at the end of the 2007 season back in June.
Replacing him is long-time Brandywine softball assistant Gary Collins, who was named in late junior.
Another coaching change at Niles High School came in girls' soccer where Joanna Schau took over for Denise Peters.
In wrestling, Niles was able to knock Lakeshore from atop the mountain in the Big 16 Conference and at the Berrien County Meet.
The Vikings captured the Big 16 Conference team and individual tournaments and won the county meet.
Lakeshore had been the only winner of the Big 16 tournaments and had held the Berrien County title for the previous 10 years.
The Niles wrestlers would go on to defeat Lakeshore in the district tournament as well.
Also last winter, Southside won a pair of Special Olympic state basketball championships, while Kenyon Ellison finished fifth at the state wrestling finals.
Buchanan tennis kept rolling along in the Lakeland Conference as it won its 15th straight championship. The Bucks would also win its eighth consecutive regional title in the spring, but with the switching of the seasons, were unable to win a ninth crown in the fall.
The Brandywine boys' track team won the Lakeland Conference title in May of this year, while in June, the Bobcats captured the Class C District baseball championship by defeating the defending state champion Berrien Springs Shamrocks.
Also in June, Niles' Kurt Poehlman won a state championship in the high jump and Niles' Jenna Ignowski and Brandywine's Angela Newman were named first team All-State in softball.
The Niles varsity cheerleading squad captured first place at the national meet in July, while the Niles Little League All-Stars won the Central States Regional to advance to the World Series in Bangor, Maine.
Another July highlight was Matt Bizoe broke a 14 year old record in YMCA swimming in the 100-meter butterfly.
This past fall, Buchanan qualified for the state football playoffs for the third time in the last four seasons.