WHITEHALL — As far as the Whitehall girls basketball program is concerned, this month's JV league, which brought 12 groups of mostly incoming freshmen and sophomores to the Viking Athletic Center, was a win-win for all parties involved.
Whitehall was able to use admission costs to help defray the cost of its annual trip to a college basketball summer camp, which this year will be at Hope College. Participants got to play games with and against friends. And programs got an opportunity to keep their players sharp during the summer without traveling very far or paying exorbitant sums of money, which can be an issue for schools and families.
The league capped its season Monday with a single-elimination tournament, which ended when Shelby defeated Ludington in the finals. Montague fell to the Orioles in the semifinals, and an exceptionally young Whitehall team - much of the team will be eighth-graders this fall - was bounced by Shelby in the quarterfinals. Reeths-Puffer also participated and lost their quarterfinal game against Ludington.
"We had 12 teams here, and they're all within shouting distance of Whitehall," Whitehall varsity coach Brian Milliron said. "My girls have played AAU, and they've gone all over the state and all over the Midwest, and it's expensive. I think we do a good service here by keeping it local. We keep it inexpensive and just give opportunities for the kids to get some reps in and play with, literally, their friends from across the river in the Montague-Whitehall situation.
"Ludington, I think, is our furthest school. These are guys and gals we get to see over the course of the basketball season, and we get to see them this summer. These are really dedicated coaches that are good at their job. They're doing it for all for the right reasons, which is pretty awesome to see."
Besides the three area schools, Ludington and Shelby, other schools in the league were North Muskegon, Hart, Hesperia, Fremont, Oakridge and Mona Shores. Shelby had so many players available that it split into two teams during the league's regular season, but the two groups were reunited for the single-elimination tournament.
Because of the league and other fundraising efforts, Milliron said, the Whitehall program was able to cut the cost of attending this summer's Hope camp, originally $235 per player, by more than half.
"We usually alternate with the kids because I want them to see (different places)," Milliron said. "I want my kids to go to school if that's what they want to do, and so we don't go to the same camp every year. We usually alternate: Hope, Grand Valley (State), Central (Michigan), we've gone a number of places...I'm not asking a parent for $235. I just won't do it. Thanks to our fundraising efforts and doing stuff like this, we can cut that."
On the court, the Vikings defeated North Muskegon in a first-round tournament game before facing what proved to be a Shelby buzzsaw; the Tigers won each of their three games in the tournament by double digits. The experience, Milliron said, was good for the incoming eighth-graders, which made up about half the Whitehall team.
"They didn't win today, but I think they all got better and saw the stuff that they need to work on, and I think they will," Milliron said. "It's a really good group of kids and really good families coming up, and I'm excited about it."
New Montague varsity coach Lauren Ross helmed the Wildcat JVs, which easily handled Oakridge in the quarterfinals before falling to Ludington in a close game. It has been a whirlwind experience for Ross, whose hire was only announced late last week before she jumped right into coaching the Montague JVs Sunday and Monday, as the Wildcats don't yet have a JV girls coach in place.
"I just want to get in the gym with them," Ross said. "I feel like we had a little bit of growing pains tonight just because I'm still learning their names and their faces and their strengths and what they know and what they don't know. I haven't been able to have a true practice with them...I think we'll be just fine. This freshman class has a lot of potential."
Milliron said having the VAC is a major asset to the program, as tournaments like this would not be staged as easily without it.
"Having this facility to be able to do it (is great)," Milliron said. "Summer ball up in Buckley, where I went to school, is not air-conditioned. To be able to have an air-conditioned environment that we have and this facility that we have, we're very fortunate at Whitehall."
