Sports
Michigan Collegiate hoops embracing multi-sport stars to build program
Michigan Collegiate is the home of the three-sport athlete.
This is an age of specialization in sports. Many middle school athletes are already urged to concentrate on the sport they excel at. By the time an athlete reaches high school, many have turned their focus on a single sport.
The coaches and administrators at Michigan Collegiate aren’t having any of that.
“You can’t play any sports at our school if you don’t play three sports,” said Kaleb Moore, who quarterbacked the Cougars’ football team to a Division 6 district final last year and is being counted on to be one of the leaders on the basketball team.
“We’ve built that legacy for all of our players. I have to thank all of my coaches for encouraging that and helping us get better every year.”
Moore sees advantages in playing multiple sports.
“You move from one sport to another and you’re going to be warmed up,” he said. “You don’t get burned out but you stay athletic all year.”
Since so many of the basketball players also play football, basketball coach Jenorris Jackson has to accommodate the summer schedules of both teams. The Cougars participated in the recent Horatio Williams basketball camp at Detroit Mercy, but don’t have a lot of other camps on their schedule.
“At Michigan Collegiate we preach three-sport athletes,” Jackson said. “All of our teams have guys who play three sports. We have a lot of football athletes playing basketball, so that’s why we’re not doing so much this summer.
“We know what they’re chasing. We know what the goals are at Michigan Collegiate. We’ve got a football team that should do good things as well.”
Last season the football team was ranked first in the state in Division 6 for several weeks but lost 40-38 on a muddy field to eventual state finalist Almont in the district final.
The basketball team got off to a slow start in Jackson’s first season as head coach but the Cougars won six of their last eight games to finish 11-12.
“I got the job in late summer so trying to get the guys to understand how I like to play took some time,” he said. “We did things a lot different. We had to change a few things up and it took about four or five games to know that I’m a guy who wants to go get it. I like to play fast, tough physical basketball.”
Collegiate lost 57-50 to Center Line in the district final last year.
“We missed some shots down the stretch,” Jackson said of the loss to the Panthers. “We’re definitely coming back with a vengeance this year. We’ve got a good core group coming back. We graduated three from last year’s team and we have six seniors on this year’s team. Those guys are ready to take the next step so we should be pretty good this year.”
Brothers Kaleb and Jacob Moore and Demarion Johnson are three key members of the football team, who are being counted on heavily when they move to basketball. Jackson is also excited about junior Tayden Redding, who won the state Division 3 high jump competition when he cleared 6-feet-8.
“They can play the brand of ball we want to play,” Jackson said. “The six guys we’re going to graduate are going to play a lot and they’ll have to play a lot to get us where we want to go.”
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