Author: Betty Moore

Some of the larger Michigan high school sports markets garner more statewide attention than the Blue Water Area. No nationally recognized program attracts scouts every weekend, nor is there a single school that dominates all conversations. Instead, the area surrounding Port Huron typically produces the more subdued kind of excellence: athletes who set records game by game, week by week, in gyms, and on fields that are primarily featured in local box scores. Even outside of the county boundaries, a few of those athletes did noteworthy things this week. This week, Adeline Jones of Port Huron Northern has the stat…

Every great athlete’s story has a point at which the numbers cease to be statistics and become proof of something more difficult to identify. The numbers for Jenica Matos, the pitcher from Cheshire High School who struck out 20 batters and gave up just one hit in a 10-0 victory over Oxford on May 1, exceeded that threshold long ago. The 20 strikeouts are impressive. When you realize that Matos lacks central vision, they change. What she sees, if you can call it seeing, is more akin to a pinhole than a rectangle when she stands in the pitcher’s circle…

On a Sunday during the 2025–2026 school year, a Cherokee High School student and his father arrived at the Volunteer High football field house in Church Hill, Tennessee, to meet with head coach Jeremy Wagner. He stayed for about 30 to 40 minutes and took part in planned activities that are considered practice under TSSAA regulations. During the visit, a college program was contacted on his behalf. Wagner claims he was unaware of the student’s arrival. It’s highly likely that he now realizes how much the visit has cost his program. At the end of April, the Tennessee Secondary School…

On the evening of April 30, the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center hosted a program that explains why there are disagreements over whether this sport is expanding or merely in-season purgatory. The men’s 100-meter free final was not attended by Caeleb Dressel. In the men’s 100-breast, nobody broke a minute. Leon Marchand’s time in the 200 fly was 1:53. The fourth-fastest women’s 50-meter backstroke in history was swum by Isabelle Stadden. In less than thirty minutes, Kate Douglass won both the 100 free and the 100 breaststroke. The entire evening may have been perplexing to the uninformed observer. Those who were…

About 49 teachers at New Britain’s public schools received pink slips in their mailboxes at the end of April. The digital equivalent, which feels less ceremonial but lands just as hard, is the equivalent. In the same week, the Consolidated School District of New Britain proposed to eliminate half of all after-school clubs and all middle school sports due to a $19 million budget deficit. Twenty percent would be cut from high school athletics. The 158-student Northend Elementary would close completely. It was the kind of proposal that only makes sense as a last resort, and the way the district’s…

Voters in certain Louisiana parishes were receiving absentee ballots with US House candidates listed on them early on April 30. The congressional primaries were completely suspended by an order signed by Governor Jeff Landry by that afternoon. After the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais the day before, the state found itself attempting to overturn an election that was, in theory, still underway. It is hard to imagine a clearer picture of what happens when a significant court decision is rendered without any way to mitigate its effects. The Court’s conservative majority ruled 6-3 that Louisiana’s 2024 congressional map…

Each week, sports trivia reveals something somewhat depressing about the connection between watching games and truly remembering what happened during them. Even after years of following a sport—calling yourself a fan, watching the highlights, and keeping up with box scores—you might still be unfamiliar with a name that made headlines three days ago. The quizzes from The Athletic and The Guardian this week accomplished exactly what a good sports trivia round should: they rewarded those who paid attention and subtly embarrassed everyone else. Probably the most instructive question was the one about baseball. The 24-year-old Milwaukee Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski,…