Column: Recapping My Sports Year of 2022

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Dave Wolf – WSJM Sports

Usually at this time of year, you’ll see all kinds of countdowns of the top whatever of 2022.  Top Stories of the Year types of things.

But this one will be slightly different than those usual countdowns.  Because this is 2022 from my perspective and how I experienced 2022 around sports.

Like everybody, my sports year started in January, but that’s the literal truth, the 2021-22 Winter Sports season for me didn’t start until January of 2022.

Some of you that know me know of the recent health issues I’ve dealt with over the last three years.  A heart surgery, leading to a kidney transplant on Halloween of 2020, then followed by a bout of rejection around Thanksgiving of 2021.

So while I was out of commission recuperating last December, I did my best to keep up with what went on until I was back in action.

I came back to my new normal life, still working in my home studio and back to the scorers table at St. Joe behind the mic announcing basketball.  One of the first games I got to work when I came back was the boys basketball contest between St. Joe and Benton Harbor at the Bear Den.

Benton Harbor seems to always come into the game blowing out their opponents, but when the Tigers and the Bears play, St. Joe doesn’t try to outshoot them basket for basket, St. Joe does something that almost seems like a lost art in today’s game.  Play defense and get stops, and St. Joe, on more than a few occasions, pulls off a win in that fashion.   However, that time wasn’t one of those times as the Tigers pulled away late for a 66-56 win over St. Joe.

To me I’m glad that this rivalry continues, even after the Tigers left the SMAC in 2016.  St. Joe and Benton Harbor is a rivalry that goes beyond conference membership, or enrollment numbers.  It’s the Twin Cities rivalry and I’m glad it has kept going, and will keep going in just a few weeks.

That St. Joe boys team also did the improbable by winning the Division 1 District Championship with a win over Lakeshore, before falling to Kalamazoo Central in the regionals.

During that time, I got to see a St. Joe girls basketball team start an 11 game winning streak on the way to a SMAC West Division Championship.    Two starters both coming back after season ending knee injuries, a daughter of a former classmate of mine (Boy I really am getting old).  A daughter of a former Miss Basketball and one of the best goalkeepers in the state in soccer, were joined by two freshmen and made a great run for a league title.  St. Joe would eventually fall in the District Semifinals.

Unfortunately, I again had to step away for a week while hospitalized once again.  That week in the hospital took place while the Olympics were being held in Beijing.  I had the chance to catch up with what was going on, on the other side of the globe.

Another USA hockey disappointment from the Men’s Team, a loss in the Gold Medal Match of the US Women’s hockey team to Canada once again, the almost never-ending coverage by NBC of Mikaela Shiffrin’s struggles in the downhill.  Then of course, another Russian doping scandal, now in ladies figure skating.

During my first day back in the hospital back in February was also the Super Bowl.   Matthew Stafford not only got a playoff win, but a Super Bowl championship after decades of failure with the Lions.   And to answer your question, I’m not was of “those” Detroit Lions fans that were donning the Detroit Rams shirts rooting for Stafford.   I will not root for players on other teams just because they once wore a jersey of a team I like and follow.   I was rooting for Cincinnati, one because my favorite National League team is the Cincinnati Reds, and the other reason is playing out this season, is because the Detroit Lions hold the first-round draft picks of the Rams last year and again this year.   That pick was 32 last year.  Right now that pick is a top 10 pick, and could be a top 5 pick by the time this season ends.  I want my Lions to have every advantage as they rebuild and turn this franchise around under Dan Campbell.   Us Lions fans have suffered long enough.  Sure it’s not the 100 year drought the Cubs have had, but Detroit has only 1 single playoff win in the Super Bowl era.  (I should point out that I actually ran that game in my first year with the radio station back in 1992.)

A rested Wolfie was back for Spring high school sports, and for me that’s girls soccer.   Now while I have been working sports at St. Joe for 36 years, staring when I was in 7th grade.  I’ve only done soccer games for the last 10 or so years.  And while at first, I was like Ted Lasso, I didn’t understand the first thing about soccer, it grew on me.  And I got to see a lot of great play from St. Joe this season.      St. Joe won their 3rd straight district championship, and really should have been 4 straight, if not for the year Spring Sports were cancelled because of COVID.   During this season St. Joe did the improbable by blanking Gull Lake.   St. Joe’s first win against the Blue Devils in the time I have been working those soccer games.   St. Joe would again fall in the Regional Semifinals to a Zeeland West team who they beat in the regular season, but couldn’t repeat in a downpour in the game at Harper Creek.

I was also back doing track meets, and if you remember this past spring, it was either raining, cold, or both at the same time.   It never ceases to amaze me to see most of the runners put aside the weather while going full throttle on the track,  but then when their race is done, they’ll catch their breath and go find the warmup pants and jacket they had on a few minutes earlier.    I’m glad to see the annual St. Joe Benton Harbor Rotary Track Meet coming back to where it was pre-pandemic.  It’s also notable that the Track Meet will continue to be held at St. Joseph again this season and for the foreseeable future.   Dickinson Stadium is, and will always be a special place for me and the venue is one of the best in the area.    Although, on a personal basis, I would love to see the facilities at Benton Harbor’s Filstrup Field be improved.  The grass at the Tigers venue is always spectacular when football season comes around, but the track itself simply does not allow for the competition to be held there.   And Really, Lakeshore’s Al Stockman Stadium should also host the Rotary Track Meet in that rotation as well.   I know the St. Joe Benton Harbor Rotary and the Lakeshore Rotary are two separate organizations, but they have a common goal at heart and having the meet held at Benton Harbor, St. Joe, and Lakeshore on a rotating basis would be a great thing.

Earlier I mentioned baseball.   Now my baseball season was rough… and I mean really rough.   More appropriately, it was AWFUL, and even Awful doesn’t go far enough.    You already know my favorite NL team is the Cincinnati Reds.  My American League team is the Detroit Tigers.   So you know my spring and summer baseball was difficult for me to watch.  The Tigers lack of hitting, the Reds lack of…. Everything made me look forward to fall just to distract me from what was happening on the diamond.   Eventually the Reds and Tigers were able to sort some things out and avoided finishing dead last.

Fall high school sports got started on my birthday this year.  Starting with a St. Joe boys soccer 1-0 win over Plainwell.  A game that I could almost was unable to do.   I take a lot of medications after my kidney transplant, and my doctors want to try some different medications to correct some of the anomalies in my weekly blood tests results.   This new medication caused my face and tongue to swell up a bit and when you have puffed up cheeks and a puffed-up tongue, you tend to bite said cheeks and tongue.  And boy did I.    I bit my tongue so hard the day before that soccer game that it hurt to talk, and remember I do news and sports here at the station, and the PA Announcer for a number of sports at St. Joe.  If you want to guess what I sounded like, then try to talk after you’ve had your mouth numbed at the dentist and the Doctor has that suction device in your mouth.     I got through the game, and thankfully I didn’t have to do much talking because the game was only 1-0.    The St. Joe boys had another great season, including winning what is the strangest traveling trophy you will find.     St. Joe and Lakeshore play for the Anchor Trophy in football, the Dig Pink Trophy in volleyball, now for boys’ soccer.  St. Joe and Lakeshore will play for the Big Boy Trophy.  And yes… It’s an actual Big Boy.  All 6 feet of the Big Boy statue that used to sit in front of the old Big Boy Restaurant in Stevensville goes to the winner of the St. Joe and Lakeshore boys soccer game.    I spoke to St. Joe head coach John Brown, and he told me that they weren’t sure how they were going to get the trophy back home after the game.   They eventually did and It’s currently sitting at St. Joe High School, probably because it’s difficult to moved.     Again with my involvement with St. Joe girls soccer, I’m waiting too see what kind of trophy we can get for the girls game.    I wonder if Chili’s has a giant chili pepper that could be painted half maize and blue and half red and white.

Right before football season is when I officially became Sports Director here at WSJM, my first game as sports director was the St. Joe season opener against Traverse City Central, which was played at Ferris State University.   St. Joe was able to keep up with the Trojans early, but eventually lost the game.   It was the second time in the last 6 years that St. Joe opened the season at a NCAA venue.  In 2016, St. Joe was able to open the season against Kalamazoo Central at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor at the home of the Wolverines.   It’s only fitting that our former Sports Director here at WSJM Phil McDonald, when he broadcast that game had to deal with a wheel falling off of the WSJM truck on the way to the game, it’s fitting because after the St. Joe game at Ferris State, we hit a deer.  So let this be a permanent reminder, that when St. Joe plays a football game at a collegiate venue, bad things happed to the WSJM vehicle, and I should not ride in it.

St. Joe then turned on the magic switch after the first quarter of their second game and never looked back and went on to finish with an 8-1 record and 7-0 in the conference for a SMAC Conference Championship.   I should also point out that the annual War By The Shore game at Lakeshore would probably been a much thrilling game if not for the season ending injury to Lakeshore’s quarterback the week before.   You never want to win games because of injuries to other players, especially in high school.  Kids only get 4 years in High School and most of them are done after that.  Over my 36 years doing games at St. Joe I’ve seen too many seasons come to early ends because of injuries, not only for St. Joe by players on opposing teams.   I know injuries are a part of sports, but an injury playing a game in high school should not have repercussions after they graduate.

Continuing with Football, and I don’t know how to end with football because the ending hasn’t happened yet for the Lions and Wolverines.  Michigan’s undefeated season continues this Saturday night in Glendale Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl against TCU.  The winner will face the winner of Georgia and Ohio State in the National Championship game in Los Angeles.

The Lions are also not finished yet, although I was ready to say they were after the first 7 weeks.  The Lions going 1-6, then beating Green Bay and turned things around to win 6 of their next 8 games to improve to 7-8.    They play the Bears this weekend before that showdown at Green Bay next weekend, which could be a winner take all for the playoffs.    For me, for the Lions to finally drop the “Same Old Lions” moniker, they would have to win their last two games, which would mean Detroit would have to beat Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, in Green Bay, in January.   If they can pull that off that would mean that the Lions are for real and I would be more than happy to pay for the YouTube.TV subscription next year to watch them on Sunday Ticket.

My year, well, last three years have been complicated by my health.  But I’ve managed to stay out of the hospital for 10 months.  I finally am getting back out there to do the things I love doing, which is area high school sports.   Now that I am the sports director, I’ve had the chance to step out of center of my sports universe and visit places that I used to consider the outskirts, places that I’ve only known about while passing them along I-94 on the way to a St. Joe game in Kalamazoo or Battle Creek.   I had never stepped foot in Decatur up until a few months ago, now I’ve been there twice this year after going 46 years without.  I’ve been to Lawrence for the first time since I was in high school.  I was in Lawton for the first time in about a decade.  WSJM’s Player of the Week, is a chance for not only me, but everybody else to hear about some of the amazing things these student athletes are doing, either just a few minutes or 30 minutes down the road.

While I will always be found at the Bear Den, or Dickinson Stadium in St. Joe, or where the Bears are playing that night.  I can’t wait to see where 2023 brings me…