Features | Upbeat Sports

Boys Basketball

Just Hannahville: A team’s battle for success and recognition

2/26/2021 | Boys Basketball | By Eden Laase

Just” is a strange word. There are seven different definitions for it, but the most commonly used iteration is this: “Simply; only, no more than.” And while that seems straightforward, it’s not. The word is coded with negativity, used to diminish, discount and degrade whatever comes next. For Hannahville coach Josh Eagle, “just,” might as well be categorized with the...

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Boys Basketball

Stevens ready to take over successful Dollar Bay program

1/31/2021 | Boys Basketball | By Eden Laase |

Dollar Bay basketball and Jesse Kentala have become synonymous over the last decade. That’s what happens when you take a program from obscurity and build it into a powerhouse.

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Football

Lack of spectators adds strange twist to regional final

1/10/2021 | Football | By Eden Laase |

On a regular day, 8,000 people can fit into the Superior Dome. But regular days don’t exist this season, so when Iron Mountain and Johannesburg-Lewiston took the field on Saturday, that number was more like 150. Players, coaches, managers, water boys, officials and around 30 media personnel were the only people permitted to enter the facility. The lack of spectators...

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Football

Negaunee, Iron Mountain ready for regional games

1/9/2021 | Football | By Eden Laase |

A few days after Christmas, Paul Jacobson drove past the Negaunee football field. It has been an inconsistent home to the Miners this year, as have fields across the UP to their respective teams. It all started on Aug. 10, with news that the football season would go forward. Then it stopped. Then it started. Then it stopped again. Games...

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Football

The 2020 11-Player All-UP Football Teams

12/17/2020 | Football | By Staff

The 2020 All-UP teams come after a tumultuous season (that is technically still on pause), thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Voting was carried out electronically this year, meaning cases weren’t able to be made for individuals based on anything other than stats. In addition, the UPSSA decided to go with one team, rather than small school and large school teams....

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Boys Basketball

Jesse Kentala resigns as Dollar Bay head coach

11/24/2020 | Boys Basketball | By Bryce Derouin |

Similar to every other coach in the state of Michigan, Jesse Kentala was preparing to navigate whatever high school basketball season there is during the current pandemic. The Blue Bolts are coming off two trips to the state semifinals and are projected to be one of the top teams in the UP once again. A three-peat trip to Michigan State...

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