TWO YEARS AGO, the Munising Mustangs boys’ basketball team won a state championship. Last year, the Ishpeming Hematite girls’ team did the same. And this year? The Gwinn Modeltowners are state champs… of High School Bowl! And now they’re headed to the Small School National Championship Tournament this weekend in Chicago.
Who knew there even was such a thing? Sure, most of us are familiar with WNMU-TV’s High School Bowl. It’s always fun to check in when your local kids are competing, and to see if you’re smarter than a high school kid. (Spoiler alert… you’re I’m not.) But state and national championships? This is March Madness, brains instead of baskets division.
This year’s Gwinn delegation blew past their U.P. competition, with an undefeated record, and then got payback against the team that sent them home last year… the overachievers from the Hillsdale Academy, owned and operated by Hillsdale College. In other words… no slouches.
Gwinn history teacher and team coach Dan Turecky is understandably proud of his veteran bowlers. “This year has been a Dream Season, they are a Dream Team.” Team members, seen above, left to right, are… Kendall Bash, Donald Jourden (Capt), Landyn Spade, Thomas Jenkins, Charles Lininger, Hana Rahmlow, and Coach Turecky in front. (For more information about the team and how you can donate to help cover expenses, visit their FB page here.)
Practice Made Perfect
I don’t know how you “practice” being smart, but apparently you can. “We’ve had over 100 practices this year, typically during high school lunch hour every school day,” says Coach Turecky. During lunch? That’s dedication, homes.
According to high school principal Brad Pfluger, this team has been on a mission. “The group started using the phrase ‘The Quest to be Best’ for this season’s motivation. The individuals on this team are some of the most dedicated students we have worked with.”
High School Bowl host Jim Koski has seen first-hand the development of the Gwinn program. “Gwinn’s had a very interesting history on the show. For their first ten years (the late 70s through the 80s) they lost every single time they played -10 years in a row. When they finally won a match, it was cause for celebration.”
And now? “Gwinn really has fun doing what they do. You can see it not only in the way they approach the competition, but how they get along with each other, and how they answer questions during the show’s interview segments.”
Now they’re going to have fun at nationals, and hopefully come home with a championship. It just might happen. After all, you can’t spell Gwinn without WIN!
No Room at the Inn
The Marquette City Commission recently considered an amendment to a city ordinance regarding “overnight occupation of public property.” The ordinance, #25-02, tackles the issue of people using public property for uses of which it was not intended, like… living there.
Though it would address things like tourists parking their RVs at Picnic Rocks, it can reasonably be assumed it is primarily targeted at our homeless population. At least that’s what a number of speakers assumed at the April 14th meeting, when the ordinance was presented to the city commission.
Advocates for the homeless were largely in opposition to the ordinance, suggesting it was poorly constructed and too broad to be effective, as well as fair.
Chelsie Wilkinson, Executive Director of Room at the Inn, was first to address the commission during public comment. “This ordinance, as written, is vague and punitive, and will disproportionately harm people who have no other safe place to go.”
And therein lies the problem. Well-meaning sympathizers of the homeless don’t want them arrested for bedding down on public property, particularly when there aren’t many other options. At the same time, a silent, less tolerant segment of our tax-paying residents, aren’t in favor of Mattson Park, or any public land, becoming a tent city for a transient population.
No Decision… No Solution
After listening patiently to a stream of speakers opposing the ordinance, the commission decided to table the issue, giving city staff time to revisit the ordinance for wording, intent, and outcomes.
It was just two weeks ago when Word on the Street looked at RATI’s Warming Center and the concerns residents have about that. Now we’re faced with another aspect of our homeless issue… when there’s no room at the inn, if not there, where?
If I had an answer to that question, I sure as heck wouldn’t be small-timing it with a local internet blog. I’d be on a nationwide tour, sharing my homeless solutions with every other city in America facing the same problem.
The prevailing sentiment around town appears to be… we feel for the homeless, but we don’t want them hunkering down on Presque Isle. And how much public property would tax-payers be willing to allocate to residents who don’t pay property taxes?
I hate to be a Dougie Downer, but I don’t see any solution that will make everyone happy, with or without a rewritten ordinance.
On the other hand, if our city leaders somehow come up with a way to accommodate the homeless, and appease the homeowners… Gwinn wouldn’t be the only model town in the area.