The trophy cases at Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice are a little more crowded this past scholastic year with the addition of four state championships — in football, golf, hockey and lacrosse.
The Warriors enjoyed the most success in state tournaments among the 10 Catholic League high schools who won a total of 13 trophies: six for the boys, seven for the girls.
Most notable was Brother Rice’s eighth-in-a-row Division 1 crown in lacrosse. Coach Rob Ambrose’s team has won every state championship since lacrosse was recognized as a varsity sport in 2005 by the Michigan High School Athletics Association. In that span, the Warriors are an astounding 116-0 against teams from Michigan (56-0 in the CHSL), and 169-14 overall.
Birmingham United was the last team from Michigan to beat Rice, in the 2002 championship game of the old Michigan Lacrosse League. Records for the undefeated 2003 and 2004 seasons are not available, so certainly Rice’s in-state winning record is much higher.
Here’s a roll call of CHSL 2011-12 state champions:
BASEBALL: Division 3, Madison Heights Bishop Foley (coached by Buster Sunde) — This was the Ventures’ second state title in a row.
GIRLS BASKETBALL: Division D, Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes (Steve Robak) — The Lakers became only the fifth girls team in state history to win three state titles in a row.
FOOTBALL: Division 2, Brother Rice (Al Fracassa) and Division 3, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Prep (George Porritt)*— It was the Warriors’ seventh overall state title, and the fifth overall for the Eaglets.
BOYS GOLF: Division 1, Brother Rice (Dan Bumpus)* — The Warriors rallied from eight strokes down heading into the final round to win their eighth state championship, the first since 1998.
BOYS HOCKEY: Division 2, Brother Rice (Lou Schmidt Jr.) — The title game victory gave the Warriors their third hockey championship and concluded a dramatic 25-4-1 season that began with five wins in the first nine games before they caught fire, going unbeaten in the remaining 21 games (20-0-1).
BOYS LACROSSE: Division 1, Brother Rice (Rob Ambrose) — What more can be said?
GIRLS SOCCER: Division 2, Bloomfield Hills Marian (Barry Brodsky) — The Mustangs racked up a 22-2-1 record en route to their third state championship in the last four years. Could next year be four out of five? Marian will lose only three players from its championship roster.
GIRLS SOFTBALL: Division 2, Livonia Ladywood (Scott Combs) — Sophomore Lauren Hayes wins the “clutch performance” award of the state tournament. When Miss Softball Briana Combs had to leave the mound with an injured knee in the last inning of the semifinal game, Hayes, who had pitched only seven innings all season, came on in relief to strike out two batters with two runners on base to advance the Blazers into the state finals, where she pitched a 4-0 three-hitter against Saginaw Swan Valley for Ladywood’s first state softball title. Of interest: Briana Combs, in her four-year prep career, had a 148-19 record with a 0.28 ERA.
GIRLS SWIMMING: Division 1, Farmington Hills Mercy (Shannon Dunsworth) — It was Mercy’s seventh overall state crown, but fifth in a row: the first in Division 1, four consecutive in Division 2.
GIRLS TENNIS: Division 4, Bloomfield Hills Sacred Heart Academy (Judy Hehs) — It was the school’s first state tennis championship.
GIRLS TRACK & FIELD: Division 2, Dearborn Divine Child (Tony Mifsud) — The Falcons had to win the last event of the day — the 1600-meter relay team (Mallory Myler, Liz Muller, Nicole Urbanik and Paige Patterson) — to forge a 60-60 tie and co-championship with Bloomfield Hills Detroit Country Day for the Falcons’ second state track title in a row.
WRESTLING: Division 1, Novi Detroit Catholic Central (Mitch Holland) — The Shamrocks won their second title in three years, and ninth in school history.
Don Horkey is a freelance writer from Shelby Township.
