Once upon a time, yours truly went to a high school called Pontiac Central. Back in the day, we had great prep hoop teams year after year. Though PC would often dominate the district during the playoffs, there always seemed to be a team from Flint or Detroit that would come along and knock them off in the regionals or states. They never won a state title.
On that note, not too many years later, we "Chiefs" had to eat the ultimate crow as our cross-town arch-rival Pontiac Northern went on to win TWO state championships, back-to-back, if I remember correctly. Oh my, did we hear about it from the "Huskies".
Now, neither school technically exists anymore. There are no more Chiefs or Huskies. They merged into one school that calls it's team the Phoenix. Problem is, instead of rising from the ashes, what's left of these once proud programs seems to be on the verge of extinction. Even having combined their once formidable talent pool, they aren't very good anymore.
Certainly, other forces have been in play. Student enrollment is a fraction of what it once was, state funding has been slashed, the facilities have eroded, etc, etc. Some say they struggle to merely keep the heat on during the cold months. Translation? What is now Pontiac High will likely never see another state title again. For that matter, tt could well be in the not too distant future, this high school will fold entirely, dispersing whatever students are left into surrounding communities. A sorry state of affairs indeed.
On the other hand, Clarkston is very much alive and well. Yet, much like their Pontiac Central counterparts of old, their boys basketball team was always very good, particularly under head coach Dan Fife -- but they could never get over the hump either as they got deeper into the playoffs. Yes, Clarkston is a much more affluent community than the Pontiac district, and the tax dollars and resulting athletic facilities certainly reflect that. But in the end, it's also a small town, and despite getting kids into the "program" to slowly develop them when they've barely learned their ABC's, Clarkston has always eventually run into the same wall. Some urban school somewhere will have assembled a team that is just too much for them to handle when the pressure ratchets up in later playoff games. Same with their football team. Always good, but never quite good enough for glory. They've never won a state title either.
Today, they have a chance to change that. Clarkston will square off against Novi Detroit Catholic Central in a football final at Ford Field. You know, where those other highly paid brutes play half-way decent once in a while.
Idle thought: Why does a school located in Novi have the name Detroit as part of it's name? Beats me. Novi's in Oakland County. Detroit is in Wayne County. Somebody needs to straighten this out, but enough about that.
At any rate, the Clarkston faithful no doubt think this is finally -- FINALLY -- their year to break through with a state title. After an opening game loss months ago, the Wolves have been pretty well steamrolling everybody to arrive at this point. These guys are really good.
Besides the rabid Clarkston fans, even the all-knowing prognosticating Kosmo from this same newspaper predicts they will win it -- but yours truly begs to differ. Novi CC is the real deal, and methinks despite the speed and talent of Clarkston -- they're destined to fall short once again.
Like my alma mater of many years ago, some things just aren't meant to be.
I hope I'm wrong.
We'll see.....
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