Remember prep basketball box scores? Old newspaper brings back flood of memories
A copy of The Grand Rapids Press sports section from Friday, March 4, 2011.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Who knew an old newspaper could dig up so many memories?
When I posted an image of the high school basketball scoreboard page from on social media - from an issue of The Grand Rapids Press sport section from March 4, 2011 - I never expected the flood of comments from area fans.
“I thought ‘holy crap I haven’t seen that in like 10 years,’” said Drew Zuidema, who was a freshman at NorthPointe Christian that season. “I started zooming in on the box scores and trying to find my friends and where they were playing at the time.”
Zuidema would score more than 1,000 career points and play four more years at Spring Arbor University. He’s still involved in the game as a referee.
One old newspaper took basketball fans down memory lane, recalling their days in high school and even about NBA stars JaVale McGee, Devin Booker and prep star Wes Leonard.
“Seeing all the box scores when I was in high school and seeing my name meant everything,” said Ryan Krombeen, who played at Calvin Christian. “Kids don’t get that now. I’ll never forget flipping to that page the next day after Tuesday and Friday night games.”
Krombeen is now the head basketball coach at Grace Christian University.
Ryan Klingler remembers scanning The Grand Rapids Press sports pages as a player and calling in the scores when he became the coach at Fennville and Grandville.
“In 1995, when I was in high school, you wanted to see how other guys did,” Klingler said. “You had to look it up in the newspaper.
There was no social media. As a coach, it was frustrating to call it in every night. But you looked forward to seeing the scores in the newspaper for scouting etc. Those were important tools.”
So how did this come about?
In 2011, I was still working at The Grand Rapids Press as a copy editor and a part time writer. I had written a story, that was the main feature on the cover of the sports section. It was about how NBA star JaVale McGee had played one year at a now-defunct Providence Christian High School in Fremont. McGee lived with one of the players on the Providence team, Luke VanBoxel. VanBoxel would go on to play at Calvin College.
I came across the newspaper this week while going through some old boxes. When I opened up the paper and noticed the high school basketball scoreboard page, it brought me back to the days when we at the Grand Rapids Press would publish it twice a week.
Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker grew up in Grand Rapids and played one season at Grandville High School before moving to Mississippi.
Zoom in on the Grandville vs. West Ottawa game. You’ll notice a few things. Jorddan Myrick scored 21 points as West Ottawa beat Grandville 60-59 in overtime. The leading scorer for the Bulldogs was Ben Lanning with 21 points as well. But a freshman kid from Grandville scored two buckets for four points. His name is Devin Booker. Yes, the NBA star from the Phoenix Suns is from West Michigan.
“It takes you back,” said Zuidema. “He was only at Grandville for a year. Its fun to see a box score. He wasn’t putting up big numbers back then. He was just a baby.”
Zuidema is good friends with Booker. They are both from Grandville and played travel ball together as kids.
Myrick, who would go on to play at Lake Superior State and Central Michigan, recalls Booker.
“I just remember a young D-Book with a ton of potential and flashes of greatness as a freshman on the Grandville varsity team and on the AAU circuit,” Myrick said. “When I first saw the post (of the newspaper) it made me laugh because it wasn’t what it looks like.”
It would be fun to say you guarded - and shut down - a future NBA player. Even if he was a freshman.
“I don’t remember anyone in particular who was guarding him,” said Myrick, who is now a trainer. “But I think it was more of the offensive scheme that held him back than anything.”
Wes Leonard is lifted up by his Fennville High School teammates after hitting the game-winning bucket on March 3, 2011. He would die moments later. (Photo by LaShell Photography).
Seeing the date of the newspaper hit Klingler pretty hard.
“I kinda zoomed in and saw the date,” said Klingler, who was the coach of Fennville in 2011. “I saw that it was from the morning after Wes’s passing. It takes you back a little bit. I thought about the game we played and how he played against Bridgman and we finished 20-0.”
Wes Leonard was one of the best basketball players in Michigan.
On March 3, 2011, he hit the game-winning shot to help Fennvile clinch a 20-0 regular season. Seconds later, he was dead. Doctors said it was cardiac arrest due to dilated cardiomyopathy -- an enlarged heart.
“I know no one called in the scores that night because of what happened to Wes,” Klinger said.
That’s why there is no Fennville vs. Brigman score in the newspaper that day. There was no Twitter back then to hear the news minutes later.
Press reporter Steve Kaminski didn’t post a story online until after 4 a.m. Later that day, the news spread across news outlets across the country.
“You get the feelings again because you lost a friend, a player and a brother,” Klingler said. “He was important to the community. But what a fun game it was for Wes and the community. You think of the good and then the bad.”
Klingler now works at Grandville and is an assistant coach at his alma mater, Hope College. The Wes Leonard Heart Foundation helps with funding to get AEDs in schools.
“Its a blessing that his name is still involved with the Wes Leonard Heart Foundation,” Klinger said. “That his name is still making a difference.”
Krombeen worked at The Press when he was in high school. He was one of the group of kids who answered the phones and took down the scores from coaches. We called them the Night Crew.
“I remember answering the phone “Press Sports”, Krombeen said. “You knew about 8:30, you’d start to get the first phone calls and you’d be busy the rest of the night with games.”
High school sports still exists, but the box scores in the newspaper are long gone. It’s too bad.
