Local prep sports fans should be giving thanks right now for the privilege of getting to see Birmingham Brother Rice's Matt Ruppenthal and Lake Orion's Brad Schaenzer, a pair of first-class All-American hurlers on the baseball diamond, throw bullets for the last four years.

Gentlemen, it was an honor.

These two are rare specimens at their craft. That's why they'll probably be drafted into the pros next month and will be throwing in the super competitive SEC next spring, with Ruppenthal heading to Vandy and Schaenzer bound for Kentucky.

The perfect ending would have been in East Lansing in a couple weeks. But they're careers on the mound in high school were quite perfect in their own right. Some of the best pitching the OC has witnessed in some time.

See ya, fellas.

It was great while it lasted, boys, that's for sure!!

You both will be missed greatly....and as Burney likes to say.....THAT'S A FACT!!

The WB turned into CLUTCH CITY Thursday on the prep baseball diamond Five For Fighting

Five For Fighting – The Top 5 most exceptional efforts from the LakeShow's 9-7 upset of Birmingham Brother Rice

1 Chandler Sedat – BEAST MODE ACHIEVED: Sedat did it all, 5 RBI, including the JACK heard 'round the state, & the save on the hill

2 Josh Birnberg – Was just soooooooooooooo CASH MONEY at the plate, bagging two hits and 3 GINORMOUS RBI, my main LAKESHOW HOMEBOY JB should consider starting his own BILLIONAIRE BOYZ CLUB....….(on a quick sidenote; whichever college nabs this kid, they've got itself one major league diamond in the RUFF)

3 Pearson Mateika – The throw-out heard 'round the state came in the 6^th when Mateika summoned his inner MIKE TROUT and sent a bolt of lightning to his boy JSeidel……biggest defensive player of the season in the OC and the 'TURNING-POINT PLAY' of the day by far!!

4 Dazon Cole – Dazon Cole aka D-Crush went all DAZON COLE aka DCRUSH on the comp….'NUFF SAID!!          

5 Jake Seidel – The quiet field general behind the plate, JAKE was the CAKEMASTER CATCHER Thursday, laying down a sweet-as-sugar tag at the plate on Mateika's bullet from left

Five For Fighting – Burney's FAB 5 Power Hitters on the OC Prep Diamond

1 Alex Sobczak (FH Mercy) – She might be a lady, but this Marlin MASHER is the top deep threat in Metro Detroit…….YEAH, I SAID IT!!!

2 Nate Grys (MH Bishop Foley) – Nate the Great is a PILL CRUSHER like few the Catholic League and the area has seen this decade

3 Ty Kiafoulis (Birmingham Brother Rice) – When KING KONG KIAFOULIS gets loose in the batter's box, all bets are off….'NUFF SAID!!!

4 John Van Hoef (Troy Athens) – The TEAM MORRIS Master BLASTER has been at SWAGGER LEVEL 5 HUNDRED THOUSAND TRILLION all season long!!

5 Jake Sutherland (Ortonville Brandon) – Does the moniker 'JAKE the SNAKE' mean anything to you? This NORTHSIDE OC CLUBBER LANG is VERY, VERY venomous with the stick in his hands

 

DESTINATION EAST LANSING;

Birmingham Brother Rice baseball – Destiny will be fulfilled in RIKERLAND...Book it!!

Madison Heights Bishop Foley baseball – The Ventures are about be playing a little 4SQUARE with the wooden mitten next month!!

Farmington Hills Mercy softball – TOO MUCH FIREPOWER....'Nuff Said!!

Former Birmingham Seaholm MEGA HOOPSTER Richaud Pack will be Big Ten-BALLING in 2015.

Pack, the three-time Class A all-state selection in MAPLELAND and well-traveled college basketball cager, will finish off his career in the NCAA as a Maryland Terrapin.

The 6-foot-4 shooting guard arrives in College Park from North Carolina A&T. Before suiting up for the Aggies, the OC PAC MAN was at Florida International, playing for Isaiah Thomas and then locally at Adrian College for a one-year stint in 2012.

With one year of eligibility remaining, Pack could press for floor time right out of the gate. He's shown he can more than hold his own at the DI level; In 2014, he averaged 17.5 points per game for NC A&T, reminiscent of his days in the Mitten, torching the twine for TEAM ANDRADES.

While cutting a rug on the hardwood under Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon in the upcoming campaign, Pack, who already has his undergraduate business degree, will also be working towards earning his MBA.

During his days demolishing the local basketball terrain, Pack averaged 25 points per game for three straight seasons, being the last player in the county to eclipse the 50-point plateau (yeah, he dropped a 56-spot against Troy as a senior with Seaholm).

The 2015 season will be Maryland's first in the Big 10 (coming over from the ACC) and Burney for one is stoked to see his main man Richaud PACKING UP the points getting his PRIMETIME COLLEGE HOOP ON!!!

Get busy, brah!!! Do you're thang HOMEBOY!!

According to inside sources, Detroit Consortium will be closing its doors next month and re-opening next fall under a different name and administration. This is big news primarily because the state's No. 1 prep basketball player, Josh Jackson, attends Consortium and this situation reportedly puts his return - already far from a sure thing - even further up in the air. There have been rumblings all year that Jackson, the Nation's top tenth-grader on the hardwood, will finish his high school hooping days out of state. His dad is said to live in California and that could be a landing spot for him in the 2015 season. Consortium's internal issues are most likely only further pushing him out the door. Just two months ago, Jackson, a whirling dervish of a 6-8 do-it-all playmaker extraordinaire led the Cougars to a Class C state championship, absolutely decimating everything in his path. He's actually from Oakland County, residing in Southfield and attending Southfield Public Schools for his non-HS days.

Longtime Troy boys basketball coach Gary Fralick is a class act.

Word is that he's saying nothing but glowing things about James Young, as he fields literally dozens of phone calls from NBA teams doing their homework on the homegrown future 1^st round pick.

That shows what a genuine, good-hearted man Fralick is. And why if you're a parent he's the type of man you want mentoring your son. He stands for everything that is right about prep sports.

Ya see, most probably wouldn't be so kind. Less than two years ago, Young left Troy after three seasons wearing a Colts uniform – leading the club to back-to-back league championships – and transferred to Rochester for his senior campaign, where he sparked the Falcons to an appearance in the Class A Elite 8.

The reasons for his departure were complicated (far too much so to go into it in a public forum), however unequivocally had nothing to do with the relationship between coach and player.

Whatever the circumstances, many would have trashed the guy and tried to undermine his draft prospects, which coming off an excellent freshman year at Kentucky (Can you say Final Four?) are soaring right now. They would have held the transfer against him personally.

Those who know Gary, like I have since I was a player going up against his Troy squads in the 1990s, understand that's just not who he is. He deserves props for it, too!!!

Coach Fralick knows its ALL and ONLY about the kids and their best interest, whether we're talking about an All-American Blue Chipper like Young or the last man on his bench, not the off-the-court nonsense that can often surround them

The Buckeyes are coming, the Buckeyes are coming!

Translation: Urban Meyer and his Ohio State Buckeyes football program are coming hard after Oakland County's best and brightest.

Evidence: Meyer and his staff have offered each and every one of the OC's Top 3 underclassmen in the past week.

They are:

OL St. Mary's linebacker Josh Ross – The COMPLETE PACKAGE as a captain of a defense, intelligent, savvy, fast, powerful, poised, hungry, rattle-proof, rugged,   

OL St. Mary's tailback-linebacker Daelin Hayes – In terms of projection of success, few in OC history have attracted as much hype as this BLUE CHIP SPECIAL. And it's VERY warranted. He might wind up being an ALL-TIME GREAT  

Southfield's running back Matt Falcon – GAME-CHANGER toting the rock with sprinter speed and championship instinct

A plan to attack the state, trying to better take advantage of the Mitten's always-fertile breeding ground for recruits, was implemented by Meyer the moment he walked in the door in Columbus.

Recent Michigan State-signee Malik McDowell out of Southfield and one of the nation's most sought-after defensive linemen, was pursued heatedly by Ohio State.

While the University of Michigan and Michigan State have long been known to cultivate talent from the Buckeye States, the Buckeyes themselves have traditionally shied away from vigorously recruiting players in their neighboring state to the north.

 

Man, does this kid have a CANNON or what?

Clawson's two-sport RAZZLE-DAZZLER Ty Sparks is 5-1 on the pitchers' mound this spring for the Trojans baseball squad.

You might remember Sparks from the last couple falls on the gridiron in CLAWVILLE. He's one of the OC's most lethal and productive prep quarterbacks, amassing 2,300 yards and a county-leading 23 touchdowns as a junior in 2013.

So obviously, whatever his athletic endeavor, the Trojans HUMAN SPARKLER throws STRAIGHT FIRE!!!

Beware all future competition; it's inevitable, you're probably going to get burned when going up against THE TY GUY

Sound the alarm CLAWVILLE constabulary, we've got a THREE-ALARM SPECIAL on the corner of 14 Mile and Main St.

Watch out for spotted dogs and large red trucks with latters on top!!!

FIVE FOR FIGHTING – Top performances from quarterbacks on the baseball diamond in 2014

1 Alex Malzone (Birmingham Brother Rice) – The OC Golden God shines at third……Like there was any question?...Mr. Human Highlight Zone is the best baseball-football two-sport stud the area has seen in quite some time...does the term 'CLUTCH AS THEY COME' mean anything to you?

2 Travis Janes (AH Avondale) – Only a sophomore, this kid is going to set multiple records on the baseball and football field alike before it's all said and done on his career in a Yellow Jackets' uniform…TAKE IT 2 THA BANK!!

3 D.J. Zezula (Clarkston) – COOLER than the other side of my pillow, whether under center on the gridiron or cutting it up on the diamond…THAT'S A FACT!!

4 Jevon Shaw (FH Harrison) – Simply put; an ELECTRIFYING presence in EVERYTHING he does!!!

5 (tie) Connor Grant (Lake Orion) – You can't stop this Dragons Den DIAMOND/PIGSKIN GEM, you can only hope to contain him….and even that's pretty darn hard to do!!!

5 (tie) Ross Heiman (Lakeland) – Just SO SO CASH MONEY in whatever sport he chooses, the Lakeland administration should consider renting out a local bank branch to hold a special graduation ceremony for him in addition to the one he goes through with his fellow Eagles classmates.

Per inside sources, the recent "coaches posting" by Detroit Cass Tech is NOT standard operating procedure.

The state prep-football powerhouse Technicians might have another head coach come this fall.

Thomas Wilcher, who has led Cass Tech to a pair of state titles and more than one national-ranking in the last three years, has a "50-50" chance of returning on the sidelines in 2014, according to several insiders with intimate knowledge of the situation.

In fact, the admin at Cass Tech could have already offered his job to other coaches.

Wilcher is said to have upset people at the school and within DPS with his handling of all-state quarterback Jayru Campbell, recently readmitted to CT and the Technicians football program following the latest of his behavioral issues, being criminally charged with assaulting a security guard on school grounds back in the winter.

Cass Tech beat OC GRID juggernaut Novi Detroit Catholic Central in the D1 state championship game down at Ford Field in 2011 and 2012, before losing to the Shamrocks 28-0 in the final four of the 2013 tournament (after the game Campbell took a swing at an opposing CC player in the hand-shake line and incurred a one-game suspension)

The Birmingham prep boys basketball scene is in a time of transition.

Both public high school hoop squads in the city, Groves and Seaholm, will have new faces on the bench when the 2015 campaign tips in December.

Last month, we found out that Groves was in need of another sideline general when the Falcons and Scott Sheckell parted ways.

Then, this week, Seaholm coach Jose Andrades, one of the most underrated cage tacticians around, decided to simplify his life and take the Almont job, so he could coach where he teaches.

Therefore, now both jobs are open.

Should be interesting to track.

RaRedding Murray has been hired as the new boys basketball coach at Southfield Bradford.

Murray was at Class A Walled Lake Western the last three years. Prior to that he was on the bench as an assistant and then head coach at Class B Detroit Crockett (state title as asst, final four trip as sideline general).

Bradford went 22-2 in 2014, but was upset by MH Bishop Foley in the Class C district finals.

The Bulldogs feature incoming junior Jalen McFadden, an athletic slasher and the squad's leading returning scorer and rebounder.

Some names to watch out down at Comerica Park Thursday afternoon for in the ALL-OC Catholic League baseball finals

John Garry (Birmingham Brother Rice) – WARRIORNATION'S G-Funk Era is about to RIP IT&GRIP IT with a clutch effort….Burney can feel it!!

Sammy Stevens (Birmingham Brother Rice) – Set to officially reach SWAGGER LEVEL FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND TRILLION while manning his post behind the plate at the COPA...GUARANTEED!!

Devin Rose (OL St. Mary's) – PLAYA PERSONIFIED, PLAYA HATER PROOF!!!

Julian Jones (OL St. Mary's) – "The Jet" will be in FIGHTER-PILOT MODE…..Take it 2 tha Bank!!

Nate Grys (MH Bishop Foley) – Calling my shot; Nate the GREAT will go YARD!!!

Cameron Horwath (MH Bishop Foley) – Calling my shot: "The Glove" will make a spectacular play in the field...….Can you say WEB GEM? This kid is going to major in WEBOLOGY in college in a couple of years!!

Aiden Cullen (Pontiac NDP) – AC is the definition of a CLOSER on the diamond and off…..MARK THAT DOWN!!

Luke Schilling (Pontiac NDP) – Cool as the other side of my pillow…'NUFF SAID!!!

 

 

"Mr. Rock Steady" aka Clarkston's Mitch Baenzinger has departed the DI ranks.

After logging the past two years on the hardwood at Oakland University, Baenzinger has transferred to D2 Saginaw Valley State and will be eligible immediately.

During his prep days, Baenzinger was a two-sport sensation for the Clarkston Wolfpack, earning all-league honors as both a quarterback on the gridiron and a point guard on the basketball court.

Coming on board with OU as a preferred walk-on, he eventually cracked the starting lineup for a period.

SVSU finished 9-17 in 2014 and Baenzinger's arrival will help fill a serious void; The Cardinals are losing Mike Fugate (Lakeland,another OC SIR-GRIND-A-LOT floor general, that is set to graduate next month.

 

Here's a quick look at former OC Grid studs that have caught on with NFL squads as undrafted free agent signings

Bennie Fowler (Birmingham DCD-Michigan State WR) - Denver Broncos

Anthony Baskin (South Lyon-Carson-Newman RB)- Indianapolis Colts

Tyler Hoover (Novi-Michigan State DL) - Indianapolis Colts

Aaron Foster (West Bloomfield-Bowling Green DB) - Dallas Cowboys

Walled Lake Central's Justin Nafso blasted onto the local prep boys basketball scene this past winter, playing some of the best point guard the KLAA has seen in at least the last half decade. My main hooping homeboy Naf got straight NASTY on the comp!!

Next winter, he'll be out-grinding & OUT NASTYING the opposition at the next level, inking with Rochester College late last week.

In his first year starting in the backcourt for the Vikings, the 5-foot-9 sparkplug literally took his team on his back and willed them to victory in several critical contests and some hardware to boot. His game is all craftiness, intelligence and grit. When let loose on the hardwood, quite simply put, he is a genuine force of nature. With all due respect to the rest of the CentralCageCrew, this kid was THE reason the Vikings bagged a share of the league title

There is outstanding value in this snag for Rochester College, which went 23-7 in 2014. NASTY NAF cements TEAM PLEASANT in the toughness and ferocity department for the foreseeable future.

In honor of Allen Robinson (Penn St-OL St. Mary's) being selected in the second round of the NFL Draft Friday night, going 61^st overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars, let's breakdown the Top 5  OC HS athletes your boy, Burney, has covered in his 6 years on the job

1 James Young (Troy-Rochester-Kentucky) – Per my exclamation 5 years ago, THE CHOSEN ONE has finally arrived…...'NUFF SAID!!...Best prep hoopster I've had the pleasure to watch since CWEBB.  Simply put, THE TRUTH…....will be a first-round pick in next month's NBA Draft, has the chance to be a genuine star in the LEAGUE

2 Ray McCallum, Jr. (Birmingham DCD-UD-Mercy-NBA) – Most dynamic point guard I've ever personally seen on the prep hardwood, killed it with SACTOWN this season, will be a fixture in the NBA backcourt scene for years to come

3 Allen Robinson (OLSM-Penn St-NFL) – AL B SURE is a surefire stud in the SHOW, take it as a BURNEY GUARANTEE; he'll be stretching the field as a consummate pro at the wide receiver position for the next decade at least, the kind of guy that will be a leader in the locker room and workhorse on the field, alas recently departed Lion Nate Burleson

4 (tie) Eric Fisher (Stoney Creek, CMU-NFL) – No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft in 2013 that blossomed at the college level, saw tons of potential when I used to go and catch the BIG FISH banging pads on the line for the SC grid squad and banging bodies in the post for the Cougars cage club

4 (tie) Devin Funchess (FH Harrison-Michigan) – That "next era" tight end that everyone will be raving about (alas Ebron right now) come the 2015 NFL Draft

5 Alex Malzone (Birmingham Brother Rice) – Best, most elite prep quarterback the state of Michigan has seen since Drew Stanton…..YEAH, I SAID IT!!!

Five For Fighting – Top outings from a gorgeous Thursday on the prep baseball diamond

1 Anthony Gunn (Pontiac Notre Dame Prep) – Burney's boy DOUBLE BARRELL tossed his second NO NO of the season, fanning 11 in a 4-0 defeat of Riverview Gabriel Richard....SWAGGER LEVEL THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND TRILLION; ACHIEVED!!!

2 David Walczyk & Jalen Cooper (Walled Lake Western) – Like a Walled Lake version of Miggie and VMart, DWall and JC each clocked two home runs in a doubleheader-sweep of Waterford Mott...TOO HOT 2 HANDLE TOO COLD 2 HOLD (Take it 2 THA BANK!!)

3 Brad Schaenzer (Lake Orion) – The future UK Wildcat pitched a 2-hitter with a very SCAHENZER-like 13 ks, as the Dragons beat Rochester 7-0......No. 1 lefty in the state....THAT'S A FACT!!

4 Shaun Martin (Ortonville Brandon) – Dealing from the hill like a Blackjack pit boss at the MGM Casino downtown, Martin hurled a one-hitter, sending 11 opposing batters down in strikes in the BlackHawks 11-0 throttling of Lapeer West

5 Eric Gilgenbach (Stoney Creek) – DA CREEK'S G-FUNK SPECIALIST was in BEAST MODE in the Cougars two-game takedown of crosstown rival RH Adams, going 4-for-6, with a homer and 4 RBI

David Walczyk expanded his already mega-stuffed resume over the weekend.

Therefore, from this point forward my main man DWALL is no longer three-sport star David Walczyk, but FOUR-sport star David Walczyk!!! (Yeah, you read that correctly!)

The Walled Lake Western SUPERSTUD hit the local high school track and field landscape for the first time over the weekend and hit it in full stride, SHOWING OFF aka GOING HAM at the city meet Saturday.

While helping lead Western to the city crown, he finished second in the high jump competition

Is this kid THE MAN or what?

Is there anything he doesn't excel at?

All-League wide receiver on league-champion WLW's gridiron gang – check!!

SIR GRIND A LOT on the hardwood for the Warriors hoop crew – check!!

College-bound diamond-cutter for TEAM LARGES on the baseball field – check!!

Scholarship to play on the diamond at Saginaw Valley St – check!!

High-jump HOUDINI – double check!!

I see you DWall, doing your thang, setting the example for all young aspiring athletes in the OC!! Note to the public: This is the prototype!!!

Former OC grid stud Van Jefferson is getting MAD LOVE from the SEC.

The one-time OL St. Mary's all-league wide receiver has been bombarded with college football scholarship offers from the nation's NO. 1 conference. In a nutshell, it's a BLUE-CHIP RECRUITING PARTY and my main man Van is at the top of the guest list!!

Florida, LSU, Tennessee, Auburn, Clemson, Ole Miss, Mississippi St, South Carolina, Vandy and Georgia have each already extended bids.

Can you say BIG TIME? Man, does Burney miss watching VJ going all MEGATRON on opposing secondaries and wishes he got to witness his entire prep career catching the pigskin first hand, not from afar alas is the current situation because his family moved to Tennessee last winter (Ravenwood HS).

When he was a sophomore plying his trade in the OC in 2012, Jefferson (6-foot-3, 200 pounds, sticky hands, deceptive speed, smart, reliable route-runner) had a breakout campaign and helped the Eaglets claim a Catholic League championship and advance into the D3 state finals at Ford Field

His dad is retired NFL split end Shawn Jefferson, who was an asst coach with the Detroit Lions for several seasons. There's absolutely ZERO doubt in Burney's mind that wherever this kid ends up playing on Saturday at the college level he's going to be a SUPERSTAR

A familiar fellow has surfaced in the job search for the vacant Birmingham Groves boys basketball head coaching job.

His name is Scott Sheckell and he was Groves' head coach the past four years before resigning following the recently-concluded season.

Now, word is filtering out that Sheckell, an OC prep hoops standout in his own right back in the day at Seaholm, has officially rescinded his previous resignation and is seeking to return to his old post.

Sheckell took the Falcons to league and district championships in 2013, however, this last campaign was a strenuous one – the team finished well below .500 and Sheckell bumped heads with some players and their parents, as well as school administrators.

Scotty is a good guy and a good coach. He's proven that again and again on the hardwood, both with the boys and girls programs alike.

I sincerely hope he gets his due when this situation is finally resolved.

Birmingham Brother Rice senior football star Shon Powell is a jitterbug of a tailback.

The Warriors' 'Dancing Machine' in the backfield is going to be doing his two-stepping in college as a West Sider, set to be jitterbugging to the next level soon; he recently committed to do his ripping, running and gunning on the gridiron at Kalamazoo College.

Powell (5-foot-7, 165 pounds) is a slippery speed demon with juke moves upon juke movies in his arsenal when carrying the pigskin - his versatility is one of his best traits as a ball-toter, he's fast enough to get the edge and strong & gutty enough to bang pads in between the tackles. And, boy, is he clutch!!!........Just a primetime playmaker in so many different ways.

During the winter sports season, he's also an all-state wrestler.

As a prepster, Powell helped spark ORANGECRUSHNATION to consecutive state football championships the last two years and stacked up hardware on the mat, too.

The Kalamazoo College football program finished 6-4 in 2013.

 

 

Two of Orchard Lake St. Mary's best athletes will be moving westward for their college ball.

Eaglets senior baseball star Joe Giacalone and Eaglets senior basketball standout Roger Hood both recently landed at the next level on the west side of the state with Kalamazoo College.

They are both winners in every sense of the word and true workhorses in their respective sports of choice (each has helped their squads to district titles in their time wearing the OLSM Red&White)

Giacalone is one of the craftiest pitchers in the OC……cool, calm and collected is an understatement when discussing JOE the JACK HAMMER and his presence on the mound……just nails tough, a bulldog on the hill, all heart!!!

Hood is a 6-foot-4 sweet-shooting wing with an upside on the hardwood that's through the roof. He has the opportunity to really blossom in a Hornets uniform the next few years.

Kalamazoo is 16-22 so far on the diamond this spring. The Hornets hoop crew went 10-15 this past winter.

 

Just a fast non-OC prep sports thought;

I don't like how on local radio I'm hearing so many Jayru Campbell apologists.

The lesson in this morality play is actions have consequences (sometimes extremely severe ones) no matter who you are, adult or teenager. Whether that security guard did or did not provoke his attack is no excuse and IMO is really a non-issue when discussing this situation. I've heard way too many people, both hosts and callers, giving the Detroit Cass Tech all-state quarterback a partial free-pass for his recent assault. REALLY? A body slam is a body slam, physically fighting with an authority figure is exactly what it sounds like - very, very bad. This kid is supposed to be THE example.....he's literally one of the most recognized sports figures in the state of Michigan, prep, college and pro ranks alike. That's a fact. He needs to be setting the bar, not acting a fool, which he was clearly doing on more than that single occasion (another reason I don't understand this free pass angle being fed to me on sports radio). If it was up to me, Campbell would not be playing for the Technicians in 2014 or at the very least, forced to sit a significant portion of the campaign. That should be his punishment. I'm pretty sure it won't be, but it should. OBVIOUSLY, some people need to get their priorities straight.