Cleaning out the reporter’s notebook before the 2014-15 athletic season gets into high gear:
Grandmother Plaskey’s pride — My column in the June 14 issue about Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice’s 10th straight Division 1 state title in lacrosse sparked a phone call from Barbara Plaskey to let me know that her four grandsons were members of four of those state champs — and each was a team captain!
“Just call me a proud grandmother,” said the spritely 78-year-old Royal Oak resident, the mother of five children and 10 grandchildren. Her husband — “he was called Big Al” — died 20 years ago, she said, and “he would have been a proud grandfather.”
The Plaskey lacrosse players at Rice were Jim (Class of 2008), who went on to play football at Hillsdale; Peter (2009), who graduated a year ago from Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., where he played lacrosse for four years; John (2013), a rising sophomore at Mercyhurst, where he scored five goals his freshman year; and Joe, who graduated this spring from Rice, was an All-American lacrosse selection, and also will be taking his talents to Mercyhurst in the fall.
But, there are many more reasons for Grandmother Plaskey’s pride, which has strong Catholic League roots:
Starting off with her own adult children: Jim, who was a football captain at Royal Oak Shrine; Lori, a cheerleader at Shrine and the first female class president in her junior and senior years; Michael, who also was a football captain at Shrine; Lynn, who competed in figure skating and now coaches future skaters, and A.J., the current hockey coach at Shrine.
And the other grandchildren: Margaret, who played volleyball and basketball at Bloomfield Hills Marian; Alexandra, a dance major at Oakland University; Harrison and Vince, both on Albion College’s football roster; Isabelle, a swimmer and lacrosse player at Marian, now at Marquette University; and 10-year-old Clare, member of a travel soccer team. “I have to go pick her up after practice,” said Mrs. Plaskey the afternoon we talked.
Moving up to next level — In addition to other Catholic League athletes listed in my June 27 column, these student-athletes from Dearborn Divine Child will be moving up to the college ranks: Baseball — Anthony DiPonio (Kalamazoo Community College). Basketball — Nicole Urbanick (Detroit Mercy). Cross Country & Track and Field — Lindsay Brewis (Loyola University Chicago). Golf — Joe Biscaro (Wayne State). Tennis — Vincent Colarossi (Lawrence Tech University). Volleyball — Christina Porada (George Washington University), Jasmine DeMare (The Master’s College, Calif.). Volleyball & Softball — Julie Bonk (Siena Heights University).
St. Mary’s and De La Salle rivalry — When Warren De La Salle shut out Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 7-0 last fall, it broke the Eaglets’ 28-year-old 125-game scoring streak at home. The last time St. Mary’s didn’t get into the end zone on its own field was the last game of the 1985 regular season, losing to Allen Park Cabrini, 18-0. It also was the Pilots’ first win at OLSM after six straight losses.
In basketball, the Eaglets had lost to De La Salle 15 consecutive games, both home and away — until the Catholic League tournament in February when St. Mary’s upset the Pilots, who may have been looking ahead to a CHSL finals matchup with Detroit U-D Jesuit — who, in turn, handily disposed of St. Mary’s for the league championship.
Oops, Shamrocks! — In the rundown that appeared in this space two weeks ago of Catholic League schools who won state championships this past academic year, I overlooked Novi Detroit Catholic Central’s third consecutive Division 1 title in wrestling, a most notable achievement.
The quote of the year ... and wisdom for a lifetime was uttered by Detroit Loyola junior linebacker Darryl Clemens after his team lost to Ishpeming, 22-12, in the Division 7 final last fall for the second year in a row: “There are no losers. There’s a winner and another team that learns. We just learn from this.”
Don Horkey is a freelance writer. He may be reached at [email protected].
