Maple Valley News

11/01/2025

Maple Valley freshman Melanie Jones closed out her first cross country season ever with a 135th-place finish at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Cross Country Finals Saturday at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.

Jones hit the finish line in 22 minutes 30.40 seconds.

She was one of 238 finishers in the D4 girls’ race Saturday morning, the first of eight championship races (four divisions of girls and four divisions of boys) throughout the day at MIS.

Whitmore Lake junior Kaylie Livingston won the race in 18:30.70 and led her team to the state championship. The Whitmore Lake girls finished the meet with 140 points ahead of runner-up Hillsdale Academy with 158. Gobles junior Libby Smith was the individual runner-up in 18:36.10.

Buckley was third in the team standings with 168 points ahead of Hackett Catholic Prep 174 and Grand Traverse Academy 193 in the top five. The Big 8 Conference girls’ champions from Concord were eighth as a team with a pair of girls finishing among the 30 state medalists.

10/29/2025

State qualifiers were at the front of the pack at the Barry County Championships at Lakewood High School Monday.

Hastings junior Caroline Randall won the county championship in the girls’ race and Delton Kellogg junior Landen Madden took the boys’ meet title. Both are set to run at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn Saturday at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals.

Randall is already a two-time state medalist. This is Madden’s second straight season qualifying for the finals.

Madden was one of three Delton Kellogg guys to finish in the top four and the Panthers took a rare victory in the boys’ championship - which has been dominated by Hastings and Thornapple Kellogg over the past decade or more.

Lakewood junior Kaden Rohrbacher was the runner-up and Delton Kellogg senior Nick Muday and sophomore Joseph McCoy placed third and fourth respectively.

A third Barry County state qualifier, Maple Valley freshman Melanie Jones, managed to place third in the girls’ race behind Randall and Thornapple Kellogg junior Carmen Reynolds who was the runner-up.

Nobody was close to stopping the TK ladies’ dominance of the county meet though as TK had six of the first nine girls across the finish line. Reynolds became the fifth different runner to lead the Trojans in a varsity girls’ race this fall …

Read a lot more in the Oct. 30 edition of the Hastings Banner or wait for the weekend’s Maple Valley News …

10/18/2025

They Lions were behind. They were ahead. They were tied. For an instant they were sure they were headed to overtime. And then the Orioles were celebrating.

Quincy’s varsity football team got a 22-yard field goal from junior Noah Rufenacht with three seconds to go and closed out the Big 8 Conference season with a 17-14 win at Maple Valley High School Friday.

Maple Valley took a 14-6 lead in the second half thanks to a 24-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Darren Carpenter to wide receiver Kelvin Davis and a 16-yard touchdown run by back Tyrese Robinson El.

But all of a sudden, the Lion defense couldn’t slow down running back Noah Kelley and the Oriole rushing attack in the fourth quarter. The Orioles followed up Robinson El’s touchdown, which came with 3:23 to play, by driving 50 yards on five Kelley rushes for a touchdown. He carried the ball into the end zone from five yards out with 2:18 to go, and a two-point conversion pass tied the game at 14-14.

A dropped pass and a couple of short runs had the Lions punting with a minute and a half to go, and six more runs from Kelley moved the ball from the Quincy 47-yard-line to the Lion six where the Orioles faced a third-and-goal with 14.1 seconds left on the clock.

The Orioles finally altered the script with no timeouts left. Quarterback JJ Wright, instead of putting the ball in Kelley’s belly, dropped back to pass and right away the rush was on him. Lion senior linebacker Jackson Burpee hauled him down in the backfield as the clock ticked down, and Wright heaved the ball forward in desperation. A sack would have kept the clock running and likely resulted in overtime tied 14-14, but some how, some way officials ruled that they could see a sliver of air between Wright’s knees and the blades of grass near the south end zone when he let go of the pass.

There were still 6.3 seconds left for a fourth down field goal to break the Lions’ hearts.

Maple Valley closes out Big 8 Conference play with a 1-6 league mark and is now 2-6 overall on the season. Quincy improves to 5-3 overall and 3-3 in the Big 8 …

Read more in the Oct. 25 issue of the Maple Valley News …

09/13/2025

How big was the gap between the Lions and Reading on homecoming night at Maple Valley High School Friday? Just a couple of inches at the end of the first half would have made a big difference in what turned into a 28-7 win for the visiting Rangers in Big 8 Conference play.

Pushing to cut into a 12-7 Reading lead in the closing moments of the first half, the Lions quickly drove from their own 46-yard-line deep into Ranger territory. The Reading defense managed to haul down Lion senior quarterback Eli Wright just short of the goal-line as the final couple seconds ticked off the clock. The Lions had to burn a couple timeouts mostly due to substitution issues in the first half, and it burned them at that moment.

A couple Maple Valley football players were crowned the homecoming king and prince during halftime ceremonies, but after the half most of the highlights belonged to the Rangers.

Reading quarterback Carter Bassage hurt the Lions on both sides of the ball. He intercepted a pass from his safety spot and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown to end the Lions’ first drive of the second half. Senior running back Brayden Wright took a reverse 70 yards for a touchdown. The Rangers added a couple two-point conversions as well to make the final margin.

The Lions had a lead for a bit in the first half. Gray took a pitch 54 yards around the left side for a touchdown three and a half minutes into the game. Wright made plays on both sides of the ball like his QB counterpart. He recovered a Ranger fumble late in the first quarter and a few plays later connected with senior Jackson Burpee for a 23-yard touchdown pass.

Sophomore kicker Kelvin Davis booted the extra-point kick to put the Lions ahead 7-6 with 14.3 seconds to go in the opening quarter.

Reading followed with a 16-play drive that covered 80 yards over the first eight minutes of the second quarter. The drive concluded with a nine-yard Gray TD run as the Rangers moved in front 12-7

The Lions are now 0-3 on the season. Reading moved its record to 1-2 …

Read more in the Sept. 20 edition of the Maple Valley News …

09/13/2025

Seniors Tyrese Robinson-El and Addison Shank are crowned the 2025 Maple Valley High School homecoming king and queen during halftime of the Lions’ varsity football contest against Reading Friday. Juniors Teegen McDonald and Kaylee Williams were also honored as the homecoming prince and princess. This year’s champion of the homecoming week festivities is the freshman class.

09/09/2025

The Maple Valley varsity boys’ and girls’ cross country teams had five total medalists competing in the Kellogg Division races at Monday’s Coach B Invitational hosted by Thornapple Kellogg at Gun Lake.

08/11/2025

Sign up is rolling on for the best bargain in basketball - the annual Hastings Summerfest Jim Jensen Memorial 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament returns to Tyden Park Saturday, Aug. 23. The cost is just $25 for teams of three or four players.

The 2025 Jim Jensen Memorial 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament will be held Saturday, August 23, at Tyden Park in downtown Hastings as part of the annual Hastings Summerfest. The cost to participate is $25 per team, for teams of three or four participants. T-shirts will be passed out to the first 100 at....

06/04/2025

It’s a math problem for the freshmen to learn, and a good review for everybody else. Easier than Algebra II, but tougher than regular addition.

On the baseball field, mistakes multiply if you add them together. Don’t do it.

The Maple Valley varsity baseball team is on to the MHSAA Division 4 Regional Final Saturday, June 7, at Spring Arbor University after an early afternoon 4-2 victory over Big 8 Conference foe Concord in the regional semifinal at Addison High School Wednesday. The Lions manage to keep adding postseason wins together.

Senior Jakeb McDonald got the win allowing two runs, one earned, on five hits and one walk in four innings on the mound. He struck out four. Sophomore Teegen McDonald came on to start the fifth and shut out the Yellow Jackets over the final three innings. He walked one and struck out four.

The two walks by the McDonald brothers, the two aces who helped power the Lions to the state semifinals a year ago, were both to Concord’s number nine hitter, Landon Lynn. They each had just the one walk though. They didn’t multiply their problems.

The Lions led 4-1 through three innings. Jakeb’s walks of Lynn came sandwiched between a pair of Concord doubles that helped the Yellow Jackets to a run in the bottom of the fourth to get within 4-2.

Coach Bryan Carpenter swapped the McDonald brothers between shortstop and the pitching mound to start the fifth inning, and the first batter Teegen faced hit a ground ball bounding right at Jakeb who fired high to first for an error. The runner didn’t last long though. The next batter popped a little liner to the left side that Jakeb lept up and grabbed and then fired to first to pick off the runner who had strayed too far from the bag for a double play.

With the slate clean again, Teegen got a strikeout that could have been the end of the inning, but the pitch was so far wide that catcher Nolan Hoefler couldn’t get to it and the Concord runner raced to first. Hoefler didn’t try and force a throw. Before Teegen even threw a pitch to the next batter, he spun and rocketed a pick-off throw to first baseman Darren Carpenter who dropped down a tag for the out.

The bottom of the sixth was a clean inning for the Lion defense, and the bottom of the seventh started with Teegen allowing a lead-off walk to Lynn. This time it was second baseman James Coblentz making the play for the Lions, snagging a line drive and firing to first to catch another Yellow Jacket too far off the bag for a double play. Teegen struck out the next guy and that was the ball game.

Jakeb said this team is able not to compound their errors because the confidence they gained in last year’s postseason run and throughout this season. He said things really started coming together in the couple weeks leading up to the start of the postseason for this young team.

Those three freshmen at the bottom of the Lion line-up really came up big Wednesday, and they needed to. Kaiden Meyers scored a run. Carpenter was 1-for-4 with two RBIs. Coblentz was 1-for-2 with a double, and he walked twice out of the number nine spot for the Lions too. Hoefler, a fourth freshman regularly in the starting line-up, bats lead-off for this Lion team.

Sophomore Bobby Bryson was 1-for-2 with a walk and a run scored for Maple Valley.

Maple Valley had just three hits against Concord pitchers Lynn, Nate Fritz and Jordan Medellion. The Lions’ top four hitters, Hoefler, Musser, Teegen McDonald and Jake McDonald were a combined 0-for-16 with three walks.

Lynn started and allowed three runs, two earned, on one hit, seven walks and two strike outs. He took the loos. Fritz got Concord through the next three innings allowing just one unearned run. Medellion came on for 1.2 scoreless innings of relief to finish the ballgame.

Concord had five hits, the doubles by Medellion and 12, and singles from Fritz, Dustin Hamilton and Lane Blossom …

Read more in this weekend’s edition of the Maple Valley News …

06/04/2025

A cold, wet coach for the bus ride home is a good sign. Maple Valley defeats Concord 4-2 in the MHSAA Division 4 Regional Semifinal at Addison High School Wednesday, with an early start to avoid any rainfall. Next up a regional final (and possible state quarterfinal) at Spring Arbor University Saturday.

05/31/2025

Maple Valley freshman Kelvin Nevins-Davis runs one of his fastest 110-meter high hurdles races yet (16.65 seconds) to finish 23rd in the semifinal heats at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Track and Field Finals Saturday.

He’s got the 300-meter hurdles ahead this afternoon at the Finals.

(Photo by Chris Robotham - Thanks Chris!)

05/30/2025

They smiled. They shouted. They shook hands with the Athens guys. They huddled right there on the infield next to their discarded gloves, and then the Lions promptly lined up along the first baseline.

It’s almost like they’d done this before (well, a few of them anyway.)

The Maple Valley varsity baseball team, a year after the program rolled all the way to the state semifinals, opened the 2025 postseason by shutting out Bellevue and Athens to win a MHSAA Division 4 District Championship for the second year in a row.

Senior Jakeb McDolanld pitched a complete game shut out in the Lions’ 7-0 district final win over Athens at Bellevue High School Friday.

Pitchers Teegen McDonald and James Coblentz each threw two perfect innings in a district semifinal win over Bellevue.

The Lions scored in five of the six innings that they stepped to the plate in the final with Athens. Noah Musser led the way offensively going 3-for-4 with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored. Six other Lions recorded one hit apiece.

Jakeb McDonald struck out 13 Indians and gave up just one hit, a first inning single. He lost a little control late, but got out of a two-on, one-out jam in the top of the sixth with Coblentz starting a nifty 4-6-3 double play. The Lion second baseman shot the ball over to the shortstop Teegen at second who fired a laser over to Darren Carpenter at first.

The Lions go to Addison for their MHSAA Division 4 Regional Semifinal Wednesday, June 4 …

Read more in the June 7 edition of the Maple Valley News …

05/30/2025

Pitchers Teegen McDonald and James Coblentz each threw two perfect innings and the Maple Valleylley varsityty baseball team combined six hits with a number of walks, hit batters and a handful of errors by the young Bellevue team to open the MHSAA Division 4 District tournament at Bellevue High School with a 15-0 win Friday afternoon.

Athens beat Tekonsha 10-4 in the day’s first district semifinal match-up, and the Lions and Indians now square off for the district championship.