Marquette head coach coach Rich Ledy, standing at right, watches during a high school boys basketball game played against Westwood at the Barb Crill Gymnasium in Marquette on Jan. 28. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — Two of the top four high school boys basketball teams in the Upper Peninsula came from Marquette County, even while neither of their coaches could earn a Coach of the Year honor.

It wasn’t for lack of trying, however, at the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association annual basketball meeting held at Northern Michigan University last Monday in the aftermath of a U.P.-wide winter storm that weekend. About three-quarters of the membership was able to make it to Marquette, coming from both local areas and far-flung sites like Ironwood and Sault Ste. Marie.

Marquette and Westwood won or shared the Team of the Year honor in various divisions, but with the top three divisions all thrown together for Coach of the Year consideration, a former — but not current — Marquette County coach carted off that honor.

It might sound somewhat confusing, but here’s how it went:

• Supporters for Marquette and Kingsford gave impassioned explanations for why the Sentinels and Flivvers should be voted Team of the Year in Divisions 1-2, and in the end, the voting came out as a 9-9 tie. Without any other schools to eliminate, no runoff vote was held and each were declared co-Team of the Year.

• In Division 3, Westwood won by acclimation — i.e., no vote was taken — over Iron Mountain for that Team of the Year honor.

• And in Division 4, Forest Park won a 15-3 vote over Pickford for its Team of the Year.

Next came the Coach of the Year vote:

• With Divisions 1-3 lumped together for this honor, former Gwinn High School and now-Kingsford head coach Ben Olsen was nominated, along with Westwood’s Luke Gray and Marquette’s Rich Ledy.

In the end, the vote was about as close as was possible, Olsen gathering seven votes, Gray six and Ledy five.

• Division 4 was also close, with Pickford’s Tracy Peterson getting eight votes, Forest Park’s Jason Price seven and Bessemer’s Richard Matrella three.

Marquette and its coach were noted as the only U.P. team in Division 1 as the Sentinels reached the regional final before falling to Flint Carman-Ainsworth.

Along the way, MSHS won 18 games in a row, and during that streak, defeated two of the past four state champions in Division 1 — a 66-65 win at 2021 champion Grand Blanc on Jan. 18 and impressive 76-59 neutral-site victory over 2023 titlist Detroit Cass Tech on Feb. 8.

Marquette’s only losses were to Traverse City Central and Traverse City West less than two weeks into the season — those schools combined for a final 34-11 record — then to Kingsford to end the regular season after they beat them about six weeks earlier, and finally to Carman-Ainsworth.

Kingsford got support in its own way for the Flivvers’ regular-season split with Marquette, then for advancing to the Division 2 semifinals at Michigan State University before being eliminated by Romulus Summit Academy North on March 14.

Actually, both the Sentinels and Flivvers finished with identical 22-4 overall and 7-1 Great Northern Conference records, so a tie vote shouldn’t have been all that surprising.

Westwood already impressed in Division 3 with a 17-5 regular-season record that included a split with Iron Mountain.

Then the Patriots won their district to set up the rubber game against the Mountaineers to open the regional tournament, which Westwood prevailed 55-53 to continue in the tourney.

The Pats continued on with a 62-40 win over Maple City Glen Lake to win its regional, then a 48-40 victory over McBain in the quarterfinals before being eliminated 76-40 by the Arts & Technology Academy of Pontiac in the semifinals at MSU.

That gave WHS a final 22-6 record.

In Division 4, Forest Park, Pickford and Bessemer all reached regional finals, but it was the Trojans who defeated Bessemer 53-42 for one regional title while Pickford took out Harbor Springs Harbor Light Christian 68-46 for another regional crown.

In the quarterfinals, Forest Park prevailed narrowly 45-43 over Pickford before being eliminated 67-46 by eventual state champion Wyoming Tri-unity Christian in the semifinals.

The case was made for Pickford’s Peterson as top coach after he took over the Panthers late during the previous offseason and picked up the pieces of a program at least somewhat in disarray.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 552. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.