All-Thumb football team announced

FIRST TEAM - OFFENSE
Name: Erik Dhyse
School: North Huron
Position: Quarterback
Year: Junior
Height: 6’1”
Stats: 79-of-148 passing for 1,169 yards and 17 TDs, 328 yards rushing on 57 attempts, set school records in passing yards and TDs in a season
Coach’s Comments: “Erik is one of the toughest kids I have ever seen,” coach Travis Fischer said. “He threw for 150+ yards and two TDs after breaking his thumb vs. Whittemore-Prescott.

Name: Justin Stutler
School: Millington
Position: Running Back
Year: Senior
Height: 5’9”
Weight: 170
Stats: 1,521 yards rushing on 175 carries, 16 TDs, two two-point conversions
Honors: Player of the Year

Name: Justin Cleary
School: Ubly
Position: Running Back
Year: Senior
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 180
Stats: 1,112 yards rushing, 10 touchdowns and four two-point conversions

Name: Mike Daniel
School: Caro
Position: Running Back
Year: Senior
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 175
Stats: 1,228 yards rushing and 14 TDs, 137 yards receiving and two TD catches

Name: Clint Nothrop
School: Sandusky
Position: Running Back
Year: Senior
Height: 5’9”
Weight: 205
Stats: 1,128 yards and 15 TDs on 207 carries
Coach’s Comments: “Giving the ball to Clint was like having four yards in the bank,” coach Brad Bays said. “He was not a home run threat, but was a workhorse for us.”

Name: Troy Hecht
School: Vassar
Position: End
Year: Senior
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 175
Stats: 359 yards receiving with 4 TDs, 357 yards rushing with 7 TDs, 35 yards passing

Name: Justin Heinlein
School: Reese
Position: End
Year: Senior
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 185
Stats: 430 yards receiving with 7 TDs
Coach’s Comments: “Our best receiver,” coach Bob Saylor said.

Name: Steven Gilbert
School: Ubly
Position: Offensive Line
Year: Senior
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 205
Honors: TSA Co-Linemen of the Year

Name: Brandon Lemke
School: Ubly
Position: Offensive Line
Year: Senior
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 170

Name: Matt Berlin
School: Millington
Position: Offensive Line
Year: Senior
Honors: TSA Co-Linemen of the Year

Name: Cory Barbersek
School: Millington
Position: Offensive Line
Year: Senior

Name: Alex West
School: Cros-Lex
Position: Offensive Line
Year: Senior
Height: 6’4”
Weight: 270

Name: Brent Speer
School: Marlette
Position: Kicker
Year: Junior
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 165

Name: Keif Vickers
School: Vassar
Position: At-Large
Year: Senior
Height: 5’5”
Weight: 150
Stats: Rushed for 1,145 yards and 14 TDs, while adding 21 yards receiving and 1 TD, 328 yards on kick returns

Name: Luke Voelker
School: Lakers
Position: At-Large
Year: Senior
Height: 6’1”
Stats: 854 yard s rushing with 11 TDs, 416 yards passing with 5 TDs

Name: Steven Weber
School: Ubly
Position: At-Large (O-Line & End)
Year: Senior
Height: 6’6”
Weight: 225
Stats: 82 yards receiving and 2 TDs

This team is loaded with talent

Brandon Bitzer, A.J. Burton, Sean Clancy, Tyler Reinert and Jack MacPhail. Missing is Jordan Kaufman.














Here is the 2008-2009 All-Thumb Boys Basketball Team. Please support your local newspaper(s) by picking up a copy of their publication and seeing their coverage of the team announcement.
All-Thumb Player of the Year
1st 2nd 3rd Totals
A.J. Burton, Brown City 2 3 -- 19
Jordan Bitzer, USA 3 1 -- 18
Tyler Reinert, Millington -- 1 -- 3
Jordan Kaufman, Ubly -- -- 3 3
Justin McPhail, Brown City -- -- 2 2

All-Thumb Team of the Year
1st 2nd 3rd Totals
North Huron 5 -- -- 25
USA -- 3 2 11
Brown City -- 2 3 9

All-Thumb Coach of the Year
1st 2nd 3rd Totals
Mark Gainforth, USA 4 1 -- 23
Paul Empkie, North Huron 1 4 -- 17
Tony Burton, Brown City -- -- 5 5

First Team:
Brown City senior A.J. Burton
USA senior Brandon Bitzer
Brown City senior Jack McPhail
Ubly senior Jordan Kaufman
Millington senior Tyler Reinert
North Huron junior Sean Clancy

Second Team:
North Huron senior John Iseler
Kingston senior Jordan Pennington
Peck senior Zac Overstreet
Caro senior R.J. Fritz
Reese junior Josh Pickell
Cass City senior Chris Summersett

Hon. Men.:
USA sophomore Jake Holland
USA senior Ryan Zimmer
North Huron senior Anthony Irvine
Brown City junior Josh Moffit
Peck senior Bill Burns
Harbor Beach junior Jacob Murawske
Harbor Beach junior Justin Braun
Sandusky senior Tyler Loding
Elkton-Pigeon Bay Port junior Chris Rowe
Ubly junior Tyler Kubacki
Owen-Gage senior Brent Reil
Vassar junior Troy Hecht
Caro senior Andrew LaPointe
North Branch senior Deane Baker
Akron-Fairgrove junior Josh Repkie

All-Thumb girls team announced

Here is the All-Thumb girls team. Check out the individual newspaper sites on the right and papers themselves today for more coverage of the team...

ALL-THUMB TEAM

POY- Alicia Leipprandt - Ubly

TOTY - Brown City

COTY - Cindy Burton - BC

FIRST TEAM

Marisssa DeMott - Sandusky

Kristen Greene - Brown City

Kayla Doshier - Millington

Alicia Leipprandt - Ubly

Amber Gotham - Reese

Jillian Williamson - USA

SECOND TEAM

Kayla Verbeek - Vassar

Dani Gremel - USA

Jade Ackerman - Reese

Stephanie Maxwell - EPBP

Amara Wilson - Marlette

Meaghan Fortsch - Caseville

HM: Whitney Fox - Kingston, Sarah Clancy - NH, Allyson Coglin - PH,Michelle Burgess - BC, Madie Hale - Sandusky, Ashley Hatfield - EPBP,Jackie VanderGraaff - Cros-Lex, Amanda Ellis - Caro, Lyndsay White -Ubly, Dawn Albrecht - CPS, Jamie Frahm - MIllington, Kaylee Lochrie -Harbor Beach, Jennica Richards - CC, Bethany Grates - Caseville, SamBreault - Bad Axe

Girls Breakdown (by class)
Freshmen 0
Sophomores 1
Juniors 9
Seniors 17

The All-Thumb Girls Basketball 1st team includes...

A photo shoot was held last evening in Sandusky for members of the first team of the TSA's All-Thumb Girls Basketbal Team. It was our first venture into doing something of this magnitude and it was a huge success.

Thanks to Al DeMott for all his help in making this a reality.

While it is now obvious who the first team is, to find out who is on the second team and who received honorable mentions, as well as who won the individual awards, you'll have to check out the Wednesday edition of your local newspaper, as well as this blog, where photos that did not make the paper will be posted.

Let us know what you think

Next month we will be conducting our All-Thumb meeting and voting on the boys and girls basketball teams, Players of the Year, Teams of the Year and Coaches of the Year.
SO give us your feedback. We have some nice suprises planned for this awards season, which should we think you'll like, but you tell us...
What do you like about what we've done? What things don't you like? What if anything would change or tweak? What types of things would you, the fans like to see added.
Because aside from doing this to bring recogntion to our local players, we also do this for the enjoyment of you local readers. We value your input as to how we can make this process work better for all involved.

North Branch honored

Here is a picture courtesy of Chad Wingert from an awards ceremony, where Wingert presented North Branch with their various awards.