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Thanks to the Roosevelt hockey team, the city of Wyandotte was forced to add another event to its parade calendar last year.
In addition to its annual Fourth of July and Thanksgiving marches through the streets, the city by the river also had a parade in mid March to celebrate Roosevelt High School?s first-ever team state championship.
The hockey Bears went 26-4 and won league and regional championship in addition to the 2011 Division 2 state crown and to honor them, city residents lined the downtown streets to cheer for them.
It was a storybook end to a storybook season.
Among the storybook?s chapters was a playoff win over ancient rival Trenton, all-state honors for Gerald Mayhew, Nick Kovalchik, Kyle King, Tyler Groat and Chase Schmittou and a share of the Mr. Hockey trophy for Mayhew.
The 2010-11 season started well for Coach Mike Quint?s team and just kept getting better.
The team won its first 11 games, before suffering a one-goal, overtime loss to Trenton.
It would turn out to be one of just four blemishes on the team?s record.
Roosevelt then ripped off five more wins in a row and finished the season by winning nine of its final 12 games.
The great regular season and the playoff run that followed could have been thwarted before it even began when the Bears drew Trenton in their first playoff game of the state tournament. Continued...
Roosevelt lost to Trenton 3-2 in overtime in the first meeting of the year, but in the first-round pre-district game it was the Bears turning the tables and winning 3-2 in overtime to kick-start their playoff run.
Mayhew, whose great season propelled his team all year, scored 41 seconds into overtime to give the Bears the win.
Mayhew had two of his team?s three goals in the game and King had the other.
The Wyandotte victory ended Trenton?s 18-game playoff winning streak. The Trojans were Division 2 state champs in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
After beating the Trojans, Roosevelt got on a playoff roll, knocking off Anderson 4-1 and Farmington 5-3 to win the regional.
Roosevelt then dominated Pinckney 5-2 in the quarterfinal to earn its first-ever berth in the Michigan High School Athletic Association ?Final Four.?
There, the Bears faced a playoff-tested Midland team and it was no contest as the Bears swarmed the Chemics and won 6-0.
It was a bit of revenge for the Bears as Midland dealt them a one-goal loss during the Michigan Interscholastic High School League Showcase earlier in the season.
In the semifinals, it was all Wyandotte.
Mayhew had a natural hat trick, Groat had two goals and Kovalchik had the other as the Bears generated 33 shots on goal. Continued...
Midland had 22 shots and Schmittou, who was brilliant throughout the playoff run, stopped them all.
That win brought the Bears to the state championship game, the ?Promised Land? that all high school teams dream about when the season begins.
But for the Bears it was no dream and only Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice, a four-time state finalist, stood between them and ultimate glory.
Rice proved to be a fine foe, but the Bears never trailed in the game and went on to post a 4-1 victory and hoist the state championship trophy.
Roosevelt got off to a quick start when Kovalchik scored a power-play goal. He them scored again and the Bears led 2-0 at the first intermission.
The Brother Rice team seemed to get its legs under it after that and came out blazing in the second period. Just nine second into the period Rice star Mac MacEachern scored to halve the Roosevelt lead.
But backed by the steady Schmittou, the Bears evened out the play and Mayhew scored halfway through the first to restore his team two-goal lead.
Brother Rice cranked up the pressure even higher in the third period and dominated throughout, but Schmittou proved the value of a good goaltender as he stopped 17 blistering shots and did not allow a goal.
For the game, Schmittou stopped 47 of 48 Brother Rice shots.
King capped the scoring late in the game on his team?s only shot of the period. Continued...
Of Roosevelt?s four goals, three came on the power-play, a crucial factor, according to assistant Coach Steve Kovalchik.
?In today?s game the power plays are really important,? he said. ?We focused a lot on the power play and the five guys we put on the ice are. I believe, one of the top five units in the state.
?When you?ve got the five guys we put out there, you?re confident that they are going to find the back of the net.?
Roosevelt had a large following at Plymouth?s Compuware Arena for the championship game and happy throng enjoyed counting down the final seconds to the state title.
?We had more (support) than we expected,? said Nick Kovalchik. ?The whole city was behind us; all of Downriver was. Everyone was pulling for us.?
Quint said putting the finishing touches on a great season, a historic season, a championship season was satisfying.
?Five months ago we set out on a journey and these guys made sure we finished it,? he said.
Source: http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2012/01/06/sports/doc4f073965b50ef773447863.txt
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