Longtime readers of mine may recall that I used to liven up the summer with an annual sports quotes of the year collection, in which I shared some of the more remarkable, interesting or just plain funny things said to me on the record in the course of sports coverage in a given academic year.
We're bringing that feature back at the Mirror, but with a slight twist. In the past, I compiled quotes that previously ran in stories as well as ones that didn't. This collection is exclusively made up of quotes you haven't read before. As per usual with collections like these, I have zero objective criteria for determining what's in this article, and I just picked the ones that stood out to me the most for one reason or another.
"It's interesting. On staff right now, we have coach (Jack) MacArthur, coach (Brandon) Rake, coach (Terrell) Harris, and coach (Casey) Huizenga. We also have a middle school coach, (Jarrean) Sargent, and all of them played for me. I don't know if that means we're creating a good experience and people want to be a part of it, or I'm just getting old. Maybe both." The 2024 season was a special one for the Whitehall football program, and not just because the Vikings won a district championship. Five former players coach Tony Sigmon coached when they were Viking players were on staff as assistant coaches within the program this year - a reflection, he wryly noted, of his lengthy tenure as well as the program's positive atmosphere.
"I appreciated the refs tonight calling those fouls down low and my guards looking to me and giving me the assists." When game officials get shouted out in interviews, it's rarely complimentary, but Montague forward Amanda Cederquist was pleased and grateful that she was sent to the free throw line several times during a Wildcats win over Whitehall this winter.
"I knew it was a fluke. it happened at the start of the year too, when I got caught in a headlock. I felt like I had a statement to make." Whitehall's Wyatt Jenkins' confidence was not shaken after being stunningly pinned in the team quarterfinals in February, instead using it as fuel as he entered the individual finals the next week. He made the statement he was looking for with authority, rolling to an individual state championship at Ford Field.
"I think $7 for a kid to come to a postseason game is terrible, and it makes the student section sparse, and I hate that. I really wish the MHSAA would do something to get kids to come because I love it when kids are here." It was a fairly quiet Montague gym when Whitehall defeated Orchard View in a pre-district girls basketball game in March, and coach Brian Milliron shared that he'd like to see a change made that would remove a barrier for students to attend postseason games.
"It's a unit out there. We talk a lot about 11 players scoring a goal, and it takes 11 players to have a goal scored on us." As he did in a preseason interview, Montague girls soccer coach Chris Aebig likes to keep the focus on the team and not on the individual, and especially when negative things happen, it's a mindset that's all the more important to have. It paid off for the 'Cats this spring, as they won their first-ever district championship.
"Failure is a component of a life lived boldly." Former Whitehall star Hannah Loucks was on hand to share her thoughts on her multi-sport journey at Whitehall during a May event, and her quote about not fearing failure was part of the pitch made to potential future Viking stars. Whatever the reason, Whitehall girls basketball coach Brian Milliron said in May that 20% fewer girls than boys at the school play multiple sports, a stat the event was designed to combat.
"I'm a big proponent of playing as many sports as you can and having as many diverse experiences as you can. Individual sports, team sports, I think there's a lot of value in all of it. I think you learn how to handle situations. You learn resilience. You learn toughness. You learn hard work." Believe it or not, this wasn't at the same event as Loucks' previous quote, but remarks delivered by Hope College assistant women's basketball coach Courtney Kust at a Whitehall district-wide event celebrating women's sports in March wouldn't have been out of place there, either.
"He's obviously very skilled on the ball, but his decision-making and pace of play and also patience at the same time has gotten way better. I know his three brothers, the twins Ashton and Preston, and Jaxon who we had going back four years now, I know they're proud too of the way he's playing." Reeths-Puffer boys soccer coach Kody Harrell only has one more Carpenter - rising junior London - left to coach, but his lineage, and results to date, suggest another terrific R-P career is unfolding.
"Our team captain looks at us and says, 'Don't you dare throw the ball. Run the ball.' Everyone was all in on it. We were going to ride with it, and it was going to work or we were going to have some egg on our face." To hear Sigmon tell it, the decision on what type of play to call on a pivotal fourth down late in the Vikings' district semifinal win over Forest Hills Eastern was taken out of his hands by a group of players sure in their belief that a run play would work. Fortunately for Viking fans, it did, and Gavin Craner later powered in the winning touchdown in the final seconds.
