Wayne State running back Josh Renel (Rochester Adams) was one of 12 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference athletes (six male, six female) to receive the Commissioner's Award for the fall season.

The award honors those who excel both in the classroom, and on the field of play.

A junior running back for Wayne State, Renel holds a 3.69 GPA with a double major of business administration and marketing, earning CoSIDA Academic All-District honors and a spot on the GLIAC All-Academic team for football, both for the second year in a row.

On the field, he was the only player in NCAA Division II football to break the 2,000 all-purpose yard plateau for the regular season, earning All-GLIAC honors as a runner and return specialist, and all-region honors from Hansen's Football Gazette.

Academic All-MAC teams announced

Oakland County was also well represented when the Mid-American Conference recently announced its all-academic teams.

Central Michigan University placed four players on the all-academic team, including Milford's Mike Petrucci and Rochester Adams' Cody Wilson, while Novi Detroit Catholic Central grad Scott Kovanda was one of Ball State's three representatives.

A junior linebacker, Petrucci carries a 3.70 GPA in mathematics, while Wilson, a sophomore wide receiver, has a 3.91 GPA. Kovanda, a junior punter, carries a 3.95 GPA in business.

Miami (Ohio) defensive end Jason Semmes (Orchard Lake St. Mary's) and Bowling Green center Ben Bojicic (Farmington Hills Harrison) earned honorable mention.

When a spike glanced off the leg of Central Michigan libero Lisa Johnson in a recent match, right at the feet of freshman defensive specialist Jenna Coates, the Clarkston grad's reflexes took over, and she did what any recreational player would: She punted the ball over the net.

The play, from CMU's match over Bowling Green on Oct. 15, is a nominee for the American Volleyball Coaches' Association play of the week. To watch it, and vote, go here.

Central Michigan junior middle hitter Kaitlyn Schultz was named the Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Week this week.

The Milford grad — two seasons removed from being the second Chippewa ever to earn conference Freshman of the Year honors — recorded a 22-kill, six-block weekend as the Chippewas swept a pair of MAC matches against Bowling Green and Miami (Ohio).

Schultz ranks second in kills (180) and first in blocks (62) for CMU (9-11, 3-5 MAC), ranking among the conference leaders in both hitting and blocking.

The Central Michigan University Chippewas, coming off a 13-10 overtime road loss to MAC East preseason favorite Temple, got back on the winning track with an easy 52-14 win over winless Eastern Michigan. The Eagles (0-3) are on a 15-game losing skid, but had a chance to win each of their first two contests, and had given CMU fits in the last few years.

Where would Central Michigan be without Cody Wilson this season?

Well, probably still 1-1 after two Thursday contests — but still, it's clear that just two games into the Dan Enos era, the Chippewa offense — in serious flux after the departure of the record-setting trio of Dan LeFevour, Antonio Brown and Bryan Anderson — is dependent on the contributions of the 5-foot-10 sophomore from Rochester Adams.

Wilson's big play — an 81-yard kick return — set up CMU's first score in Week One's 33-0 shutout of Hampton, and the diminutive wideout made a similar game-altering play — a 70-yard reception — to set up the Chippewas' only TD in a 13-10 overtime loss to MAC East Division favorite Temple.

What's more, Wilson — who accounted for a full half (188 yards) of CMU's total offensive output Thursday — played a bit of quarterback in the Wildcat formation, running it well enough to help set up kicker David Harman's 31-yard, game-tying field goal to send the contest to overtime.
In all, Wilson has 344 all-purpose yards so far this season, on just 21 touches, averaging out to 16.4 yards per play.

The only flaw? Finishing.

Both of Wilson's big plays saw him get caught on the doorstep of the end zone, something that teammates teased him about after the opener. Both plays set up a short TD dive by a running back, though, so I can't imagine the teasing was too harsh.

For full disclosure, Wilson did have a fumble after a reception in the first half, one that — coming as it did on CMU's half of the field — could have cost the Chippewas, but teammate Matt Berning took him off the hook by forcing a fumble from Temple quarterback Chester Stewart a few plays later.

Journeyman NFL center Eric Ghiaciuc, the Oxford native, signed a contract with the New England Patriots today, according to several published reports, providing depth along the offensive line as a backup to starter Dan Koppen.

The 29-year-old Ghiaciuc has bounced around after his rookie contract ran out with the Bengals. He'd started 42 of 48 games with the team that drafted him, including all 16 games in 2008. Ghiaciuc was a fourth-round pick in the 2005 draft, out of Central Michigan University.

Ghiaciuc signed with Kansas City as an unrestricted free agent, but didn't make it out of training camp. He hooked on with San Diego near the end of last season, after the Chargers' starting center, Scott Mruczkowski went down with an injury. The Browns had Ghiaciuc on their roster earlier this calendar year.

The minute Michigan State linebacker Greg Jones decided to stay in school for his senior season, it became obvious how slim the pickings were for draftable players from the state. Before Michigan DE Brandon Graham's stellar postseason pushed him into the middle of the first round, it was eminently possible that the entire state could be shut out of the first day of the NFL's new three-day draft format.

While the Big Ten had the second-most players (34) selected of any conference, only four of those were from Michigan or Michigan State. It's a pretty good argument for the people who insist that John L. Smith was recruiting MAC-level talent in his years at MSU, and those that insist that Lloyd Carr left the cupboard bare at U-M.

Even with Graham's selection at No. 13 by the Eagles, it was still nearly 36 hours before another player from one of the major universities in the state would come off the board. Small-school workout warrior Jared Veldheer of Hillsdale was picked in the third round by Oakland on Friday, but punter Zoltan Mesko was the next player with ties to the state drafted, midway through the fifth round, shortly before noon on Saturday.

Central Michigan's record-setting duo of QB Dan LeFevour and WR Antonio Brown  were the next two to go off the board, 14 picks apart in the sixth round, then the Raiders nabbed a pair of defensive backs — Michigan State's Jeremy Ware and Michigan's Stevie Brown — with seventh-round picks.

Michigan cornerback Donovan Warren, who entered the draft early, was not selected, and signed a free-agent contract with the DB-rich New York Jets. He's not alone in that ignominy: Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Sneed, once considered a sure-fire first-round pick, went undrafted and was signed by Tampa Bay, while LaGarrette Blount, the troubled tailback from Oregon, signed with the Titans.

Another local product, Michigan State's Blair White, knows all about beating long odds after going from walk-on to the Spartans' leading receiver last season.
UPDATE: Trevor Anderson joined former MSU teammates White and kicker Brett Swenson as an undrafted free agent signed by the Colts. Western Michigan QB Tim Hiller is also in the Colts' rookie camp this week.


DRAFTED PLAYERS
Round 1, pick 13 — Michigan DE Brandon Graham, drafted by Philadelphia
Round 3, pick 5   — Hillsdale OT Jared Veldheer, drafted by Oakland
Round 5, pick 19 — Michigan P Zoltan Mesko, drafted by New England
Round 6, pick 12 — Central Michigan QB Dan LeFevour, drafted by Chicago
Round 6, pick 26 — Central Michigan WR Antonio Brown, drafted by Pittsburgh
Round 7, pick 8   — Michigan St. CB Jeremy Ware, drafted by Oakland
Round 7, pick 44 — Michigan S Stevie Brown, drafted by Oakland

UNDRAFTED PLAYERS

Michigan

RB Carlos Brown — New Orleans

WR Greg Mathews — Chicago

RB Brandon Minor — Chicago

OG David Moosman — Arizona

OT Mark Ortmann — Carolina

CB Donovan Warren — New York Jets

Michigan State

PK Brett Swenson — Indianapolis

CB Ross Weaver (Southfield) — Miami

WR Blair White — Indianapolis

Central Michigan

WR Bryan Anderson— New England

CB Josh Gordy — Jacksonville

DE Frank Zombo — Green Bay

Others

Cincinnati FS Aaron Webster (Birmingham Groves) — Houston

Grand Valley State OT Nick McDonald — Green Bay

Saginaw Valley State DT Rob Callaway — Detroit

Wayne State RB Joique Bell — Buffalo

Western Michigan QB Tim Hiller — Indianapolis

Margo Jonker's program has always been predicated on the production of her top players in her 31 years at the helm of Central Michigan University's softball team, so it was no surprise that she needed — and got — a little help from two of her top hitters in what turned out to be a historic day on Thursday.

Down a run to visiting Michigan State, and hitless through three innings, CMU got record-setting home runs from both Christina Novak and Pontiac Notre Dame Prep grad Molly Coldren to earn a 5-1 win for Jonker, the coach's 1,000th career victory.

Jonker became the 11th coach in Division I softball history to pass the milestone.

“It’s darn tough to beat. It’s a perfect day for softball,” Jonker told Jim Lahde of the Mount Pleasant Morning Sun (read his full coverage here and here). “I feel very fortunate for all the players that chose to come to Central Michigan University over the (last) 31 years to allow this to happen. It just says a lot about the program so I’m very proud.”

Novak's solo shot in the fourth was the 17th in her four-year career, setting CMU's all-time record. Coldren's solo homer in the sixth, which provided insurance, was her ninth, giving her sole possession of the school's single-season record.

The Michigan coaching staff appears to be hitting Oakland County heavy this spring, having already gotten a verbal commitment from Birmingham Seaholm wideout Shawn Conway, and recently extending a scholarship offer to Madison Heights Madison's blazing-fast Valdez Showers.

Showers, who has a listed 40-yard dash time of 4.27 seconds according to Rivals.com, already has scholarship offers from three other Big Ten schools — Michigan State, Wisconsin and Northwestern — as well as Cincinnati — which has had kept a pipeline open to southeast Michigan under Brian Kelly and now Butch Jones — and a pair of MAC schools in Toledo and Central Michigan.

In addition to Conway and corners Greg Brown — from Charles Woodson's alma mater, Fremont (Ohio) Ross —  and Cass Tech's Delonte Hollowell, the Wolverines recently got a commitment from four-star Plymouth Canton DE Brennan Beyer.

When Trey Zeigler first arrived in Michigan, he was arriving from Los Angeles, where he'd already separated himself as an up-and-coming basketball star. And he was going to Mount Pleasant, population 25,000, where his father Ernie had just become the new men's basketball coach at Central Michigan University.

It wasn't just his big feet that marked the eighth-grader as a potential big fish in a little pond.

Shoot, the two high school basketball coaching staffs in town even got into a minor squabble in the audience at his father's introductory press conference, arguing over who was going to get Trey, once he entered high school.

Highly-sought after doesn't even begin to explain it.

Flash forward four years, and every college coach in America was after the 6-foot-5 shooting guard, ranked among the nation's best players by all the recruiting services. His father's old boss, UCLA coach Ben Howland, wanted Zeigler to come back to La-La Land. Before directing the Blue Devils to another national title, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski first got directions to one of Zeigler's games. MSU's Tom Izzo figured Zeigler could be the next in a line of great Saginaw Valley League players to don the big green Spartan 'S,' while Michigan coach John Beilein thought Zeigler would be the perfect fit in Maize and Blue to replace the recently-departed Manny Harris.

One guy didn't really sell his program hard to Zeigler: His own dad.

"My dad was hands-off the whole time, just being a dad. He went on most of the visits with me, and he just looked at it from a dad's standpoint, where he thought I'd fit best," said the younger Zeigler, shortly after making the announcement of his college choice on live TV from a lawyer's office in Southfield, "and when it came down to it, the last month is really when he started telling me how much he wanted me to be here. So that helped a lot, letting him let me figure things out on my own."

What he figured out — eventually — was something that would have come as a complete shock to the 15-year-old that first came to Mount Pleasant: Staying put was a pretty good option.
"I'll be honest with you — I never really thought this was an option," said Zeigler with a laugh.

Until now.

Zeigler's announced choice of CMU, unveiled when he pulled a maroon cap on his head on ESPNU, will be confirmed this morning, when he signs his National Letter of Intent at a second ceremony at his high school.

It took a lot for Zeigler to turn down the offers from all the big schools, especially some of the in-state powers he'd come to admire in his time in Michigan.

"Michigan is a great program, and I love coach Beilein and coach (Mike) Jackson, and they did a great job with recruiting me — and if my dad wasn't a coach anywhere, that's probably where I'd be," Zeigler admitted.

His story is eerily similar to that of his close friend, Ray McCallum, the star point guard from Birmingham Detroit Country Day. McCallum turned down offers from bigger programs to play for his own father at University of Detroit Mercy, filming his own ESPNU segment in the same TV studio just minutes before Zeigler.

For the full story of how the two families — fathers and sons — made their way through the awkward recruiting process together, stay tuned to the college section of TheOaklandPress.com.

Listen to Zeigler's comments from Wednesday's event below.

Just hours before the NCAA's late signing period for men's basketball opens, and it looks like both of the state's sought-after unsigned guards — Birmingham Detroit Country Day's Ray McCallum Jr. and Mount Pleasant's Trey Zeigler — are going to stay home.

Literally.

Both of the players are in the unique situation of being the sons of Division I basketball coaches: University of Detroit Mercy employs Ray McCallum Sr. as its head coach, while Zeigler's dad, Ernie, is the head coach at Central Michigan University.

And as of Tuesday night, it looks like both players are going to join their father's program, rather than take offers from bigger (and some would say better) programs.

The Mount Pleasant Morning Sun reported that Zeigler will make his decision official on television Wednesday afternoon, then sign at the high school on Thursday, while McCallum will sign his paperwork — cementing a poorly-kept secret of his intentions — at a law firm in Southfield Wednesday. Both signings will be televised on ESPNU on Wednesday: McCallum at 4:10 p.m. and Zeigler at 4:40.

The two players, who are friends and teammates on the camp circuit, have parallel stories. Both moved to a new state in high school — Zeigler from California and McCallum from Indiana — and both have had the unique experience of being not only a sought-after top recruit, but also being recruited by their own fathers.

McCallum, ranked as the 25th-best recruit by Scout.com and the 60th best by Rivals.com, was deciding between offers from Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, UCLA, Miami (Fla.), Minnesota and Notre Dame, while Zeigler (No. 35 Scout/No. 26 Rivals) was contemplating Michigan, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Duke, LSU and Miami (Fla).

Skeptics have tied each of the sons to their fathers' career coattails, hinting that the fathers might benefit most from having their sons stay at home. Rumors have linked McCallum Sr. with other coaching jobs — where he could take his son without a transfer penalty — while critics have insinuated that the elder Zeigler's contract extension with CMU, agreed-upon last week but finalized on Tuesday, was linked to his son's commitment. If anything, the extension may have been the deciding factor for Trey, rather than vice-versa.

There might be some disappointment from fans of bigger schools in the state — both U-M and MSU were hoping Zeigler would fall in their laps late — but this seems to be a win-win situation for both families. Both programs get a boost of publicity — as well as a top-notch player — and neither kid has to look his father in the eye and say, "Your program isn't good enough, Dad."

A share of back-to-back Mid-American Conference West Division titles has earned Central Michigan University men's basketball coach Ernie Zeigler a payday.

Zeigler and CMU AD Dave Heeke have reached a verbal agreement on an incentive-laden, four-year contract extension, worth $200,000 next season a source close to the situation told Journal Register Company's CMU beat writer Drew Ellis of the Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun. Read his blog entry here.

While the Chippewas' season ended with a MAC tournament loss to rival Western Michigan there's been little of the drama associated with the tenure of Zeigler's predecessor, Jay Smith. Smith's time at CMU was highlighted by a run to the second round of the NCAA tournament, led by eventual NBA lottery pick Chris Kaman, but there was also a tremendous yo-yo effect. In a four-year span, the Chippewas went worst-to-first-to-worst-to-first.

Not exactly the definition of consistency.

The biggest drama this spring has been whether or not Zeigler would be able to talk his own son, coveted swingman recruit Trey Zeigler, to play for him at CMU. The younger Zeigler is ranked the No. 4 shooting guard in the 2010 class by Rivals.com.

Even if Trey doesn't choose to stick around Mt. Pleasant another four years (heck, he grew up in LA, when his father was an assistant at UCLA), the Chippewa program seems to be in good hands with his father. Trey Zeigler is uncommitted heading into the regular signing period next week, but CMU already has commitments from four players — Detroit Loyola C Jevon Harden, Grand Haven C Nate VanArendonk, East Grand Rapids PF Colin Voss and Cleveland Benedictine SG Derek Jackson.

Fresh off its thrilling GMAC Bowl win over Troy, Central Michigan University isn't done making news in the college football world.

The Chippewas, who finished 12-2 and with their first-ever AP Top 25 final ranking (No. 23), will fire up their coaching search this week. Athletic director Dave Heeke, who hired Butch Jones to replace Brian Kelly as one of his first big moves on campus, will get down to the business of replacing Jones, who succeeded Kelly at Cincinnati.

The Oakland Press' sister paper in Mount Pleasant, The Morning Sun, is on top of the story, and we'll bring you their updates — courtesy of beat writer Drew Ellis — as they come along.

Ellis reported Friday that the search is down to five candidates, all but one of them with significant ties to in-state programs. Here is his blog post.