1st Place, Sports News Story
2023-24, Division 3, News Writing
By Madalynn Emeott & Nora Edgington
Focus
Midland HS
In the middle of the field, a mass of orange and white lacrosse players surround each other, hugging,screaming, cheering, lifting a district trophy above their heads. Gabriel Malace, a junior at the time, had never felt better.
“The whole team had worked hard all year to get to this point,” Malace said. “It especially felt special to win at home.”
Malace walked off the field that day already excited to get back on the field for his senior year with a team that had become like brothers to him. Little did he know, his senior season would look drastically different.
Over the summer, Malace received news there’d be a change to the lacrosse team the following year.
A split.
The Saginaw Valley League (SVL) saw it as unfair that the Midland Lacrosse Club had won consecutively and was a team composed of two schools while other schools didn’t have the opportunity to combine. For those reasons, they were told they couldn’t play as one school any longer.
“When we got the news, a lot of the guys were texting each other between both schools and we were all pretty upset,” Malace said. “I’ve been playing with them since kindergarten and we wouldn’t be playing together for our senior year.”
These changes have created a new goal of rebuilding the team this year in hopes of, for the first time, playing and beating their newly-made rivals: Dow High.
With rebuilding, however, come challenges. The MHS team didn’t have a head coach as Joe Stadelmaier agreed to coach Dow. Replacing Stadelmaier for this season is Tanner Diment. Diment coached lacrosse at the college level as an assistant coach for two and a half years at Wilmington College in Ohio. This will be his first year as a head coach at the high school level.
“I feel honored being the one selected as head coach,” Diment said. “Being able to teach the guys what I know about lacrosse and give back to the sport is a big deal to me.”
Diment is a Midland High alumnus, so is grateful he is able to come back to his hometown and be a part of the first Midland High lacrosse team.
Many students decided to take the opportunity to play lacrosse for the first time this year, which comes with the obstacle of learning an entirely new sport. Diment believes the person best suited for the job of teaching them is Malace.
“He’s a great role model,” Diment said. “He understands the game and wants to make sure he’s helping everyone else who hasn’t played and no ones left out.”
Malace especially enjoys seeing his teammates learn or start to get into the game and grow passionate about playing. He is starting to see a program he’s been involved with for so long grow, and is glad he could contribute a part to it. This year especially, he has strived to be a role model for everyone.
“I never want anyone to feel left out, like they’re behind, or down on themselves,” Malace said. “It’s their first year. We don’t expect them to be the best right away.”
Malace has learned that patience is crucial, and that as long as everyone is putting their best effort in there’s no reason to get upset with himself or his teammates.
“The only reason to get upset with teammates is if they’re not supporting each other,” Malace said. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is that brotherhood is the most important thing in this sport. It’s all about lifting each other up.”
Unlike Malace, senior Jason Davenport decided to take up lacrosse in his final year of high school. Even though the two teammates have a 12 year difference in experience, lacrosse gives them both the same enjoyment, which results from being on the field with friends.
“My friends are my biggest motivation when I play,” Davenport said. “I don’t want to let them down and I’m going to give it my all for them so they can have a fun senior season.”
Davenport, Malace, senior Colin Coffee, and senior Dean Wolfe have been a close group since the 4th grade. After finding out about the lacrosse team split and that the team needed new people, they decided to play together for one last bonding season, while also staying in shape for collegiate sports.
Davenport has played varsity football since his sophomore year and varsity basketball since his freshman year; so going into a brand new sport was a very different dynamic.
“I’ve learned to never give up,” Davenport said. “It’s so easy to get down on myself and be like ‘Oh I suck,’ but I have to realize its a new sport for me. I need to be patient with myself.”
NW-21. Sports News Story
Sports news stories may include general sports news or sports events and are constructed in news style.
Judging Criteria
- Lead features interesting, important angle
- Uses colorful, lively style
- Avoids cliches, editorializing
- Displays knowledge of sports; uses understandable terms
- Shows research/interviewing skills; emphasizes how & why
- Effective use of facts/quotes
- Proper diction/grammar; use of the third person
- Unity/coherence