Antwan Reed is back in Muskegon.
The 6-foot-7, 285-pound junior tackle left Muskegon this summer and transferred to IMG Academy in Florida. But he returned last week and is eligible to play immediately.
Muskegon coach Shane Fairfield was surprised as anyone that the youngster is back and playing.
“I have no idea what happened,” Fairfield said. “I know he told me he really didn’t want to go. All I know is one day the kid said he was coming back. I haven’t really talked to him about it.”
The surprising thing is that, according to Michigan High School Athletic Association rules, Reed does not have to sit out a semester after the transfer.
“If a teen is living without a parent, they get one move back,” explained Fairfield. “He was living in a dorm. You have to move back in the residence where you were living before and you have to attend school in the district you were attending.”
Also transferring to IMG, a national sports academy, was KJ Hamler of Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, but he tore his ACL and is out for the season.
Muskegon is 5-1 and ranked No. 1 in Division 3. The Big Reds only loss was 38-35 to Lincolnshire Stevensville (Ill.), a school with 4,179 students, 3,100 more than Muskegon.
Fairfield said he has not pressed Reed on his time at IMG. Right now, Reed is coming off the bench for the Big Reds.
“I know he was very humbled,” Fairfield said. “He is very shy. It does make us better, but we’re trying to be very sensitive. The O-line had just started clicking and is playing very good. The last thing I want to do is just throw him in. We’re gradually working him in. As of right now he’s got to fight his butt off and earn his job.”
From tackle to QB?
Anthony Bradford, 6-5, 320, is the starting right tackle at Muskegon – but he is making a move on the backup quarterback spot.
“In practice he was throwing it 60-65 yards, effortlessly,” said Fairfield. “He was having a competition in pregame before the Reeths-Puffer game. He was standing on the (far) 40 and threw it into the end zone. He just chucked it.”
That earned Bradford one play in at quarterback in last week’s 69-0 win over Grand Rapids Union. He took the snap in shotgun formation and with a flick of the wrist passed to Mark Dowell.
“He said his first inkling was to run it,” Fairfield said. “He took a two-step drop and launched it 45 yards. It was a spiral. He just dropped it in.”
Fletcher picks Georgia Tech
Kierra Fletcher, who led Warren Cousino to the Class A state championship last season, has committed to Georgia Tech.
“I took my official visit there this past weekend and it was almost instantaneous,” she said. “Once I stepped foot on campus and saw everything, I got this gut feeling I wanted to be there.”
Fletcher, 5-11, also visited Michigan and Clemson before settling on Georgia Tech.
“It was honestly the total package,” she said. “The academics are great, the players are great players and they’re even better, new friends I should say, because they treated me as if I were already on the team.”
Last season, Fletcher averaged 24.9 points, 9.6 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 4.2 steals a game. She carried Cousino to the state title by averaging 27 points in the state tournament. In the semifinals and finals, she hit 23 of 33 shots and totaled 64 points.
Cousino returns 11 of 12 players and is favored to repeat as champ.
“I’m very excited just to see how much this team has progressed and what we can do this season,” Fletcher said. “I want to see how we can still get better over the course of the season.”
Coach of the Week
Warren Mott’s Tom Milanov is this week’s Detroit Lions/Farm Bureau Insurance Michigan High School Coach of the Week. Last week Mott defeated Fraser, 40-6, to improve to 6-0 and No. 5 in Division 1. This is Milanov’s 20th year in coaching and his 17th as Mott’s head coach.
Warren Cousino’s Kierra Fletcher drives the ball on a fast break against Detroit Martin Luther King during the MHSAA girls basketball Class A finals at the Breslin Center in East Lansing on Saturday, March 19, 2016.
