Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
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By JASON JUNO [email protected] M ike Swartz and Gary Giancola both had the first-night jitters when the Hurley boys basketball team tipped off the season in Solon Springs. "I remember it like it was yesterday," Swartz said. It was a long time ago as it marked the start of the 2003-04 season when he was a sophomore playing in his first varsity game and Giancola was coaching his first varsity contest. They lost that night, but it was just the start of their journey together toward hall...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] IRONWOOD — Things are trending up again for GCC after a tough start to 2025. After losing three of their first four, the Samsons won all three of their games last week and welcomed their biggest playmaker back in X’Zavion McCoy. They fell short in a big game at DCTC Monday, but they were competitive in a 96-84 loss, giving them hope for the rematch on Feb. 3 in Ironwood. It was a four-point game, 45-41, at halftime. “(We) hung with them,” GCC coach Dennis Mackey said. “DCTC’s size wore us down.” McCo...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] DOLLAR BAY - At first glance, Ironwood's 53-49 win over Dollar Bay looks like an upset. The Blue Bolts were the ones ranked second in the U.P. Division 4 poll coming into Thursday night's game. But the Red Devils would be the No. 1 seed in its Division 3 district if the postseason started today. And in fact, their MPR, the formula the MHSAA uses to seed teams, is better than any D-3 or D-4 team in the U.P., except for Crystal Falls Forest Park, whom...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] LAKE LINDEN — Ewen-Trout Creek keeps getting better at defending Lake Linden-Hubbell’s All-U.P. backcourt. When the Panthers gave up 51 points to Cleo Milkey and Emily Jokela in a regular-season game last year, they lost. In the next meeting, that number was down to 34, and E-TC won a close regional tournament matchup in March. And on Thursday night in Lake Linden’s gym, the Panthers only surrendered a combined 22 points and they dominated the Lakes for a 56-41 victory. “They’re both really good,” E-TC...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] IRONWOOD — Gogebic started 2025 right, with wins at Mesabi, 67-36, last week and at home over Central Lakes, 53-42, Saturday. The Samsons have won three straight overall with a win over Minnesota State CTC to end 2024. “Anytime you can string a couple together, it’s a huge confidence boost for the team,” GCC coach Denver Sharow said. “To start the second half of the season on a three-game run — huge, huge. Just watching them play at a different level is great. They’re starting to come together and...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] IRONWOOD — It’s been a tough start to 2025 for the GCC Samsons. After a loss to Hibbing to start the calendar year, they lost a tough one at Mesabi Range, 77-76, last week. They returned home and picked up a nice win, 87-62 over UW-Baraboo Friday night, before losing the next afternoon, 89-78 to Central Lakes. On Saturday, they finished with 78 points, but it was still a big scoring drought in the second half and the handling of a brash defense that cost them a chance to win. Gogebic shot well in the fir...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Ewen-Trout Creek girls are ranked fourth in the first Michigan Sports Writer Girls Basketball Poll of the season. The Panthers are still second in the U.P. Division 4 poll. St. Ignace is first in both the D-4 U.P. and statewide polls. The Saints avenged an earlier loss to Sault Ste. Marie, which is ranked fourth in the U.P. big-school poll, last week with a 57-46 road win. E-TC picked up a big victory last week as well, winning 56-41 at Lake Linden-Hubbell, which dropped two spots to f...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] HURLEY — Hurley’s success against Range rivals continued into the 2025 portion of their schedule. The Northstars beat Bessemer 60-44 victory Friday night after wrapping up 2024 with a victory at Ironwood. They can pull off a sweep of area teams with a win against Wakefield-Marenisco on Feb. 6. Hurley won their fourth straight game after starting the year 1-2. “We want to keep stacking good days on top of each other and I thought this was a pretty good day,” Hurley coach Mike Swartz said. “I thought i...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] BESSEMER — Coming into 2025, Wakefield-Marenisco wasn’t the team with a scoring problem. Bessemer was the one who failed to hit the 40-point mark twice, while the Cardinals hadn’t scored under 44 points in a game. The Speedboys turned the tables on the Cardinals, holding them to a season-low scoring output in a 45-37 victory Thursday night. “We couldn’t score, we couldn’t make a shot,” W-M coach Pat Libertoski said. “We must have missed 10 wide-open 3s. What are you going to do? Bottom line is you can...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] WAKEFIELD — Wakefield-Marenisco won’t need their bus anymore come February. The Cardinals end the season with seven straight home games followed by the district tournament in their gym. All of those late home games don’t come without a lot of travel early on. After six straight on the road, the Cardinals played their home opener, Friday night, Jan. 3, before going on the road for another three-game stretch. Lake Linden-Hubbell spoiled their first home game with a 68-53 victory. The Lakes are ranked third...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Ewen-Trout Creek girls are second in the first Upper Peninsula basketball poll of the season. The Panthers, ranked behind St. Ignace in the Division 4 poll, started the season at 7-1 with their only loss coming at the top-ranked big school, Negaunee. E-TC has a pair of top-five matchups coming up this month with a trip to No. 3 Lake Linden-Hubbell Thursday and a home game against No. 5 L’Anse on Jan. 21. Perennial power St. Ignace got more first-place votes, four, than E-TC, which had two...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] NEGAUNEE - As far as girls basketball goes in the Upper Peninsula, it doesn't get much better than Negaunee. The Miners are a mainstay in the big school top five and they made it to the state semifinal last season - in Division 2, the second biggest of the four groupings in Michigan. Ewen-Trout Creek, with 58 students in their high school compared to Negaunee's 433, wasn't deterred by any of that. The Panthers went into Lakeview Gym Friday night and made...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] MERCER, Wis. - When basketball games end, most kids in most places grab a basketball and shoot. In Mercer, many grab a volleyball and pass. "It's always one of those things that makes me smile," Mercer coach Robyn Schoeneman said. "They developed a love of the game, and I really do, I hope that continues." That's part of what Schoeneman leaves behind as she retires. She also goes with a legacy that includes still-running streaks of nine straight regional c...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] IRONWOOD - After waiting for the rain to stop on Saturday, the finals went off without a hitch on Sunday for the Pro Vintage Racing event at the Ironwood Snowmobile Olympus. A big race on Sunday was the Formula 500, where every driver rides a Polaris 500 carburetor model from 1989-92. Derek Meyer built a big lead after the first restart following a caution flag. But his advantage went away with another wreck on the last lap. Brad Kolecheck of Medford,...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] IRONWOOD — Christmas came early for Hurley. The week before the big holiday, the Northstars won all three of their games, and perhaps more importantly, found a style to run with, literally. After a tough loss to Drummond the week before, the Northstars have found what works. Their pressure and faster pace of play overall helped wear down hot-shooting Ironwood for a 51-44 come-from-behind win over their archrivals. That’s after it helped them past a popular choice to contend in the Northern Lights Conferen...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] Jake Witt started 2024 as an Indianapolis Colt. He’s entering 2025 in his new job in Watersmeet, as the Health and Wellness Coach at the Lac Vieux Desert Health Center. The offensive tackle from Bruce Crossing played in all three preseason games in August, including seeing more extensive action in the second contest. He didn’t make the Colts’ 53-man roster, though, for the regular season. What he did have were multiple practice squad offers, but without the guarantee of a roster spot, he decided to end h...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] BESSEMER — Wakefield-Marenisco and Bessemer both ended the 2024 portion of their schedule on a good note. The Cardinals won their second straight game, a 72-45 victory over the Speedgirls Thursday night, and got back to .500 in time for the holiday break. “I was hoping for 4-2 at this point,” W-M coach Alex Metas said. “We stumbled in the Ironwood game, so we’re going to have to settle for 3-3 and just continue to work harder to be able to make up some ground, what we lost with the loss in the first gam...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] BESSEMER — Rivals Ewen-Trout Creek and Bessemer can usually be counted on for some pretty entertaining matchups, whether it’s in the district tournament, or for positioning in the league. Tuesday night was not one of those games. The Panthers were nevertheless happy to take the 43-33 low-scoring win. “Anytime you can win on the road when you’re not scoring it worth a darn is good,” E-TC coach Brad Besonen said. Both teams are battling injuries. Bessemer missed Leland Hollenbeck, who should return af...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] HURLEY — The Northstars didn’t have much luck slowing down Quintin Bresette the last time Bayfield came to Hurley. He scored 29 of their 53 points to lead the Trollers to a big win here. “That was the big thing we talked about, let’s let someone else beat us other than (No.) 2,” Hurley coach Mike Swartz said. That was last season. The last game Hurley played didn’t set very well with them either. They went to Drummond last week and lost 55-49 where they missed a lot of shots and played sloppy overall. Th...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] IRONWOOD — These are the types of games Ironwood is going to be in — night in and night out, coach Adam Mackey expects. They’ve played three of them so far. Two of them were decided in the final seconds and the third in the fourth quarter. So far, the Red Devils have pulled all of them out for a 3-0 start, with the latest being a 53-50 victory over Bessemer Monday night. “I think every single night it’s going to come down to the last four, five minutes of the game,” Mackey said. “I expect the same thin...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] EWEN — One week into the season and Ewen-Trout Creek already appears to be living up to the preseason hype. First, they went to Norway and won 61-35 over the Knights while holding All-U.P. First Team selection Lauren Adams to just four points. Then, they hosted Ironwood and fended off one of their biggest challengers in the Copper Mountain Conference for a 58-35 victory Friday night. They smothered the Red Devils’ top two scorers, who combined for eight points. “Ewen is probably one of the top teams...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] IRONWOOD — Bessemer has some pretty strong options inside with bigs Audrey Stone and Maddie Guglielmotto. Ironwood made sure they didn’t get the ball very often as they blitzed the Speedgirls for a 56-13 victory Tuesday night. “That was definitely the game plan going in, to limit scoring opportunities for the bigs inside,” Ironwood coach Jesse Mackey said. “I thought our girls had great position all night and our guards brought a lot of pressure to their guards. They couldn’t even get the pass in.” B...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] IRONWOOD — Gogebic started the weekend with an 86-79 victory over Alpena Friday night, but they fell 87-63 to Rochester on Saturday. Rochester held Gogebic to their second worst offensive output of the season. The Samsons were 24 of 63 (38.1%) from the floor compared to Rochester, which was better than 50% at 34 of 63 (54%). “Just physicality, they got it down low and took it to us down low and that was the difference,” Gogebic coach Dennis Mackey said. “They had inside play; we didn’t, they had more...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] IRONWOOD — Gogebic picked up its first win of the season Friday night, but co-coach Denver Sharrow liked the way the Samsons played on Saturday better. Unfortunately for them, the No. 1 team in the country was in Ironwood. GCC beat Alpena CC 75-59 Friday night and fell 91-49 to Rochester CTC Saturday. Gogebic trailed 27-24 after a quarter in Saturday’s defeat. They struggled to score in the middle quarters, totaling just a dozen points against a Rochester program that won the NJCAA Division III nat...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] IRONWOOD — Gogebic’s biggest crowds of the year are usually reserved for the postseason or other big late-season matchups. A chilly Tuesday night in November was the exception as fans turned out to the Samsons’ matchup with Bay College to be a part of the dedication ceremony for what is now officially named Coach Mackey Court. “It’s one of those things, a little overwhelming for me,” GCC men’s coach Dennis Mackey said. “But at the same time, a nice honor and very appreciative of getting the award, and...
