ScuttleBu(r)t: IM grads eye another state trophy
ScuttleBu(r)t
ScuttleBu(r)t …
The Iron Mountain guys are after another state football championship Saturday.
Unbeaten Portland (13-0), with Kevin Veale directing the athletic department and John Novara coaching the football team, face Hudsonville Unity Christian (11-2) at 3:30 p.m. (Central time) for the Division 5 title.
Portland, located near Lansing, won the 2012 D5 state title with the same successful combination of 1989 IMHS grads.
“This is one of the hardest-working group (of seniors) that we’ve had come through,’ Novara told the Lansing State Journal. “They started in the weight room in sixth grade. Just a great group of kids that love Portland.”
One of those seniors is Kevin Veale’s son, Jacob, a standout running back who transferred this season from Ionia. Veale rushed for 157 yards and two touchdowns on 32 attempts when the Raiders ripped Marine City 35-14 in the semifinals.
“I expected us to be good, I expected it to be fun, but I couldn’t even imagine (it),” Jacob Veale told the LSJ. “This was something I could only ever dream about.”
Kevin Veale and John Novara were IMHS football and basketball teammates along with contributing to Coach Rick Olds’ 1989 UP championship track squad …
“TV Teddy” Valentine, not assigned to ref Big Ten Conference college basketball games this season, will “miss the coaches.”
“I’ll probably shed a tear when I see a couple of them,” Valentine told the Chicago Tribune. “(Tom) Izzo because he’s a funny dude and he has called me his friend. Bo Ryan was zany and cool and I understood him.” …
A reader dropped off a dated newspaper clipping, probably from the mid to late 1970s, regarding former Michigan State star Ralph Simpson playing an exhibition game with the Detroit Pistons against the Milwaukee Bucks in Green Bay.
Simpson forgot his basketball shoes and set out for the local mall to find a pair of size 13s. None other than Iron Mountain’s Don (The Man) Zambon and Marty Bunnin came to the rescue. They parked next to the Pistons bus and Simpson piled into Zam’s Buick Riviera for the shopping trip,
Simpson scored more than 11,000 points in the ABA and NBA …
Sonny Anderson, son of former Tech and NMU head football coach Bernie Anderson, is in his third season as Michigan’s assistant equipment manager. Sonny lettered four years playing football at NMU. I’ve been told he usually sticks close to Jim Harbaugh during game days …
Happy Thanksgiving, sports fans! …