It’s back!
OK, perhaps you weren’t exactly on pins and needles waiting for my long-running tradition of revisiting some of my favorite sports quotes of the year to be resurrected in Oceana County this summer. However, thanks to my returning to Oceana sports coverage for the 2025-26 academic year after a few years away, it felt right to dust off one of my old summer standbys.
As I’ve done in the past, I plumbed through the interviews I did with coaches and players over the course of the school year to dig out quotes that stood out to me for one reason or another. There is absolutely zero rational or objective method by which I determine what quotes I selected. The only thing they all have in common is that none of them ran in prior print stories, usually just because of space limitations.
For me and hopefully for you, it’s a nice palate-cleanser as we reach roughly the halfway point between the end of spring sports and the beginning of fall. Soon enough, we’ll be back on fields and courts. For now, enjoy some of the greatest hits of the year that was.
“I think the biggest thing is just making sure our guys understand that we want them wrestling for six minutes. Sometimes it’s just about being a six-minute man. Continue to work hard in practice. Get better, be there, and be there for themselves and their team.” - One of the most interesting things about covering dual wrestling is that often the biggest bouts aren’t some dramatic, unexpected win, but rather a less heralded wrestler delivering a valiant effort in defeat to turn a presumed pin, which is worth six team points, into a decision or a major decision to save their team a couple points. Hesperia coach Mark Arbogast outlined well the concept of “a six-minute man” after his Panthers wrestled at the Mason County Central tri meet this winter.
“Going into that halftime, we were still down by one, but I think we went in the locker room a lot happier than they did, and we kept our energy throughout the game.” - Probably the most dramatic game of the school year in the county was Hart’s district championship upset of Shelby in girls basketball. Pirate junior Reese Smith noted that when Shelby led by just a point at halftime, it was probably Hart, which lost both regular-season meetings by an average of 10 points, that was energized going into the locker room. Smith later hit the winning three-pointer to deliver the Pirates to the title.
“Blake Helenhouse, we bumped him up. He’s normally a 157-pounder and we bumped him up to 175. He’s got two torn ligaments. He’s got surgery scheduled, but he’s a senior. He wants to wrestle, and he came up huge for us. It’s great for him to have that moment.” - It feels like every year I hear a wrestler or a coach say something that reminds me wrestling is just a bit different than most other sports. When Hart coach Rocky Smith almost offhandedly shared that one of his senior wrestlers was competing with torn ligaments after the Pirates’ regional championship triumph in February - and winning key matches to boot - it was just another example.
“Evan’s a really good player and we were talking about it in the locker room. (We said,) ‘Evan, you’re letting everyone else (take over) because you came up from the JV. Everyone believes in you. Let’s go.’” - Freshman Evan Conkle played a huge role in Hesperia’s come-from-behind boys basketball win over rival Holton in February despite being a JV call-up. Coach Scott Warsaw, who resigned following the season, noted that Conkle was perhaps a bit too willing to defer to his more experienced teammates down the stretch despite the success he was having, and the team made sure he knew they wanted him to take over.
“It’s an amazing thing to me. There’s 10,000 kids that I’ve gotten to know, but you tell me who they are and I don’t know who they are. But kids and parents, they find an official that respects them, and knows what they’re up to, and how good they are, and they remember who you are. Do most kids come up and talk to officials in a contest? No, but wherever I go, it’s like, ‘What are you doing?’” - The number of officials that carry close to a 100% approval rating can probably be counted on one hand, but on and off the mat (and the softball diamond), Shelby native Edmundo Flores is seemingly one of them. Even Flores, who was inducted into the Michigan Wrestling Association Hall of Fame in 2025 and then received a lifetime service award from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame’s Michigan chapter in 2026, is amazed at his own popularity - which is probably part of what makes him popular.
“They’re hungry. They had some success as JVs, but they haven’t had success at the varsity level, so they want that. I came out of camp and two-a-days thinking how much we love to compete. Our kids love to compete. They just want it so bad, they don’t care. I’ve got wide receivers telling me, ‘Run that ball! They can’t stop us!’” - It probably won’t surprise readers to learn that any of several witticisms from the quotable and now retired Shelby football coach Phil Fortier could’ve found a spot in this article, but I landed on this one, delivered after the Tigers’ exciting rivalry win over Hart. You won’t hear wide receivers implore their coach to run the ball all that often, but the Shelby players ached for team success on the field no matter how it came, and last fall, they got it with a district championship - the program’s first since 2013.
“It’s hard because you don’t want to do that to a kid. They almost get faulted for being good at the game. But I told myself before the game started, if Jayna comes up in a big spot, or if first base is open and the game’s close, we’re going to walk her, and we’re going to take our shot with somebody else in their lineup. Today, it worked out really well for us.” - Softball and baseball coaches often have to weigh being fair to a really good opposing player versus giving their team what they consider a better chance to win a game when a star comes up in a big spot. Hart softball coach Dean DeVries picked the latter in a May doubleheader against Shelby, intentionally walking Tigers’ star Jayna Burmeister in a clutch situation in game one. Hart later won the game as part of a split featuring two thrilling contests.
“We know we’re in a monster of a league, and we talked about how we were one of only two in that league left, Fremont being the other one, so everyone else is out. To be able to last that long is impressive. We’re building step by step trying to push ourselves to where we can be considered amongst those big guns in the conference.” - It was a big year for Shelby girls soccer, with a third straight district championship and some credible results against big-time conference opponents, including a 0-0 tie against Fremont. Tigers’ coach Joe Gorton shared his belief after a season-ending regional defeat that his team will continue to be on the upswing.
“She’s a captain behind the dish. She’s always a gamer. She gets beat up back there. It’s hard to catch a doubleheader. It’s hard to catch 35 games or 36 games in a season.” - Catchers are not often the glamor players in baseball or in softball. Usually it’s the pitchers and the shortstops who get the glory, by virtue of the importance of their positions and the athleticism of those who play them. Shelby softball coach Kevin Burmeister, though, knows it takes more than that to win, and he gave catcher Emma Stovall credit for her work behind the plate, which helped the Tigers capture a district championship win over rival Hart in May.
