The Leelanau News Blog
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The Sleeping Bear Point Trail takes you on a spectacular climb ascending from forested dunes all the way to open dunes. You can either follow the trail around in a 2.8 mile loop, or you can detour and walk down to the beach for a nice cool dip on a hot day - but please stay on the trails, venturing off the trails disrupts the ecosystem and causes erosion.

Cool things to do: bring a Frisbee or soccer ball and play up in the dunes or along the beach, fly a kite on a windy day, detour to the lake and go for a swim, bring a sandboard and board down the dunes - just watch out for other people. Make sure you give yourself enough time to stop by the Maritime Museum and wander around Glen Haven.

For more info on the Sleeping Bear Point Trail, please visit the National Parks Services website here.

DO NOT TOUCH POISON IVY!!! Poison Ivy can be found on the sides of the trail at the very beginning. A way to help remember about Poison Ivy is this little rhyme: Leaves of three, let it be. Before you go check out Wikipedia: Poison Ivy to learn more about it. The Poison Ivy in Leelanau County is normally ground cover and not a shrub. As long as you do not touch the Poison Ivy you should be fine.

A magnificent beach along a stretch of Good Harbor Bay. This beach offers clear views out to the islands and has a long sandy beach. Just a few seconds walk south is a stream running from the woods into Lake Michigan. The stream is great for kids to play in, fun to follow into the woods, and nice to just stand in the warmer waters of the stream after a cold dip in Lake Michigan.

Cool things to do: Bring a soccer ball, football, or frisbee to have a rowdy game on the beach, on a windy day bring boogieboards, surfboards, or skimboards and play in the waves, and after all the hard play make sure to stick around to watch the sunset - there is nothing better than watching a sunset over Lake Michigan (don't blink - if you look hard enough you might be able to see the Green Flash when the sun sets).

March 12

The Record-Eagle has a feature on  Leland's 72-45 loss at the hands of Muskegon West Michigan Christian in the Class D quarterfinal:

"I thought we were playing some of our best ball as of late, but we just did not get it going tonight. I give West Michigan Christian credit. They took us out of our game. We had a hard time shooting it over the top. We had a hard time getting it inside. They're a fine basketball team."

Marcus Whittaker paced Leland with 22 points.

"They played great defense," Whittaker said. "Defensively, they were prepared

Congratulations on a great year, Comets!

March 10

The Record-Eagle has a cool feature titled Links to the past that compares Leland's team with the Northport team that Leland coach Jason Stowe played on:

"I was joking with the kids about the unheralded guy hitting that last second shot," Stowe said, "because 20 years ago on the exact same court, the exact same basket, I got the chance to do the exact same thing."

Stowe's buzzer-beater in 1988 propelled Northport to a 67-65 win over Glen Lake in a Class D district final at Central a victory the Wildcats used as a springboard to winning a state championship.

March 6

The Record-Eagle reports that Leland Comets (21-4) pulled out a 48-46 thriller over Bellaire to win the Regional championship. Leland will face Muskegon West Michigan Christian Tuesday's quarterfinal at Traverse City West at 6 PM. Check out Larsen lifts Leland to regional title for more (including photos).

March 4

Leland survived a charge by Mio and went on to a 83-59 victory in the first round of Regionals last night. They will meet Bellaire (who managed to hold off a tough Posen club 67-60) on Wednesday at 7 PM at Traverse City Central.

March 3

Leland captured the District title on Friday night at Northport, handling St. Marys 76-28 to become the last team standing in the 2008 high school basketball tournament.

Leland faces Mio tonight in the Regional opener at Traverse City Central at 7:30 PM with the regional final on Wednesday.

For a nice preview of the tournament road ahead for the Comets, check out Boys' Class D District survivor going to T-C in the Leelanau Enterprise.

(updated Thursday, Feb 28)

Glen Lake pulled off a hat trick by beating Suttons Bay for the third time this year with a 56-50 victory on Monday (see Record-Eagle story). Last night against Charlevoix the Lakers lost a 74-73 thriller (story coming soon we hope!).

In Class D action Leland followed up a 72-31 victory over Northport on Monday with a 79-42 defeat of Beaver Island. Lake Leelanau St Mary likewise rolled into Friday's final with a 79-24 victory over Leelanau School on Monday and 69-16 triumph over Grand Traverse Academy.

Our 2008 Tournament coverage continues...

On Saturday night, Leland native Alisha Glass set her Penn State volleyball team to the national championship. From Nittany Lions lay it all on the line in NCAA title win at ESPN:

After losing two straight games, the second by 11 points -- letting Stanford tie the match at 2-2, Penn State simply regrouped, slapped on a happy face and took the championship. With Glass setting for Christa Harmotto and Nicole Fawcett, the Lions reeled off seven straight points in the deciding game to win 30-25, 30-26, 23-30, 19-30, 15-8.

You can also see a video report from the match right here (Alisha is #6 and you can see her in a lot of the action!)

In addition to seeing Alisha take charge in the final game with some key plays, I thought it was especially cool in the little video bits of players telling where they're from that ESPN does to hear Alisha say: "My mom was my high school volleyball coach and my grandpa was my high school basketball coach." Congratulations to Alisha and her team!

Photo credit: Breakwall Rocks II by Andy McFarlane

News from the Week

News from the week included a story about Leland grad Alisha Glass's success in college volleyball, including being names to first team all Big Ten and helping Penn State to a #1 ranking. Right now they are in the Sweet Sixteen, so look for her on TV! Other stories included a nice Enterprise piece remembering Leelanau historian Larry Wakefield and a photo of a storm building over the Manitou Passage.

The Week's Weather

We had some stormy, windy weather last weekend and though the winds have died down, we've been getting steady snow and cold temps. Great news for area ski resorts!

November 29, 2007: Breezy & low 30s (33°/19°)
November 30, 2007: Snow, wind & 20s (24°/16°)
December 1, 2007: Windy & low 20s w/ heavy overnight snow (24°/15°)
December 2, 2007: Wet snow & low 30s (34°/24°)
December 3, 2007: Light snow & low 30s (32°/24°)
December 4, 2007: Light snow & 20s (27°/19°)
December 5, 2007: Snow & teens (21°/17°)

Click for the Leelanau news archive from December 2006!

The Record-Eagle reports that Penn State setter and Leland graduate Alisha Glass was named first team all-Big Ten in volleyball. This is a great followup to her selection to the all-freshman team last season.

CSTV.com adds some details on Alisha's accomplishments:

Glass earns her first career All-Big Ten award as she was named to the All-Freshman team a year ago. She was named the Sports Imports/AVCA National and Big Ten Player of the Week on Nov. 19 after leading the Nittany Lions to a combined .350 hitting percentage in wins over No. 9 Wisconsin and Illinois, having three players average 4.10 kills per game. Glass is setting the Nittany Lions to a Big Ten-best .337 hitting percentage, also good for second in the nation, is averaging 12.97 assists per game and has five double-doubles for the year. She set a new school record with 14 blocks at Illinois.

Penn State is ranked #1 in the nation this year and opens the NCAA tournament tonight.

UPDATE Nov 1: The Record-Eagle reports that  Muskegon Western Michigan Christian (ranked #1 in the state) defeated Suttons Bay 5-1 last night in the Division 4 soccer semifinal match - congratularions on a great season Norsemen!

UPDATE Oct 25: Suttons Bay defeated Lincoln-Alcona last night 2-0 to win the regional soccer title. The Norsemen (26-1) will favce the winner of the Bridgman vs. Muskegon Western Michigan Christian game on Wednesday at Holton.

The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that One goal was enough for Suttons Bay to defeat North Muskegon in the Regional soccer opener.

Jason McKisson scored the only goal of the game with 9:17 remaining as Suttons Bay edged North Muskegon 1-0 Tuesday and advanced to Thursday's Division 4 regional soccer final.

Suttons Bay (25-1) will play Lincoln-Alcona at 7 p.m. The Tigers advanced with a 1-0 win over Harbor Light Christian.

To view more photos from the game, go to the Suttons Bay Schools web site, note the user name and password, click on the Norse Pix link and then select the "Suttons Bay Soccer" album.

UPDATE: Suttons Bay defeated Glen Lake on Saturday night. The Norseman face North Muskegon Tuesday night (Oct 23) at 5 PM right here in Suttons Bay in the regional opener. The final is on Thursday (Nov 25) at 7 PM. Keep updated through the MHSAA Soccer Page!
District Soccer action starts next Monday night (Oct 15) at Suttons Bay with Glen Lake vs. Traverse City Christian in the first match at 5 PM. The best game of the tourney just might be the following game, however, as Northwest Conference co-champions Leland & Suttons Bay face off under the lights at 7 PM.

On Wednesday, Glen Lake advanced on a forfeit by Leelanau School and then Suttons Bay cruised past Northport 5-0. Saturday is the District Final at Suttons Bay @ 7 PM.

Photo credit: The Chase II by Andy McFarlane

With all the events and otters and what-not we almost missed this article on Leelanau Communications' Jeremy Steck in the Enterprise.

Read Web designer appreciates working in his home county.

You might also enjoy checking out Jeremy's awesome Leelanau & Michigan sports blog: