Traverse City represented at GAM Boys Championship
YPSILANTI — Traverse City West’s Winslow Robinson and Duncan Robinson along with Traverse City St. Francis’ Josh Slocum will take part in the Golf Association of Michigan’s first Boys Championship, set for Tuesday and Wednesday at Washtenaw Golf Club.
The new championship replaces the GAM Junior Kickoff tournament, which for five years hosted a competition for boys and girls to start the GAM tournament season. The first GAM Girls’ Championship was played in April, also at Washtenaw.
The format is 36 holes of stroke play over two days, and champions will be crowned in 15-and-under and the overall categories.
Washtenaw opened in 1899 and has evolved over the years into a 6,512-yard classic parkland style golf course featuring tree-lined fairways, strategically placed bunkers, and quick, undulating greens.
The course has a rich tournament history, including hosting the 1927 Michigan Amateur Championship, and many major events since for both the Golf Association of Michigan and the Michigan PGA. The 1955 Michigan Open at Washtenaw included Michigan Golf Hall of Fame members Walter Burkemo (the champion), Horton Smith, Chick Harbert, Chuck Kocsis and John Barnum.
Pistons Academy youth summer camp at TC Central Aug. 20-22
TRAVERSE CITY — The Detroit Pistons will close out its Pistons Academy youth basketball camp summer tour supported by Priority Health and the Children’s Foundation at Traverse City Central High School from Aug. 20-22.
The Pistons Academy camp tour visited 14 metro Detroit and greater Michigan locations and will conclude at TC Central with a visit from Pistons mascot Hooper on Tuesday starting at 8:45 a.m. and a special performance by the Detroit Pistons Extreme Team on Wednesday between 2-3 p.m.
Pistons Academy youth basketball campers receive NBA-level instruction and individual skill development in an atmosphere that creates passion and love for the game of basketball. Each day consists of professional discussion and skill development followed by full-court games and contests.
For more information on Pistons Academy camps, please visit pistonsacademy.com. The camp is for pre-registered participants only.
Connor Stalions gets job at Detroit high school
DETROIT — Connor Stalions, the former low-level recruiting staffer at Michigan who was at the center of a sign-stealing scandal, is running the defense at a Detroit high school.
“I got the most hated man in college football right now, Connor Stalions. He’s my defensive coordinator,” Mumford coach William McMichael told The Detroit News.
Stalions is accused of running an advance-scouting scheme for more than two years at Michigan. He sent people to games involving the Wolverines’ future opponents to digitally record signals that could be used to steal signs. In-person scouting and recording of signs are against NCAA rules.
Michigan is expected to receive a notice of allegations from the NCAA soon, though it will likely take months to resolve the matter. Jim Harbaugh, who coached the Wolverines and won a national title last season before jumping to the NFL, has denied having any knowledge of what Stalions was doing.
Stalions hasn’t made any public remarks since leaving Michigan last November. He didn’t speak to the newspaper about his job at Mumford, a public school in northwestern Detroit that has a 2-16 record since 2022.
“What happened with the NCAA doesn’t concern us here at Mumford,” McMichael said. “He comes here every day and gives 120 percent, and the kids all love him and we’re all learning from him.”
McMichael said he met Stalions when Michigan was recruiting his son.
“He can help prepare the kids for college,” the coach said. “They are learning the lingo, how they practice college and how they break down film, so it gives the kids an advantage.”
USWNT reclaims top spot in rankings after 12-month absence
ZURICH — The U.S. women’s soccer team returned to the top of the FIFA world rankings Friday after winning gold last weekend at the Paris Olympics.
Mallory Swanson’s goal helped secure the team its fifth Olympic gold medal — and the first since the 2012 London Games — by beating Brazil 1-0 in the final Saturday.
That lifted the Americans up from fifth and ended a 12-month absence from the top of the standings.
England moved up to second, ahead of Spain, Germany, Sweden and Canada.
Brazil climbed one spot to eighth.
The worst slide belonged to France, which dropped from second to 10th. The host nation had a poor performance in the group stage and was then eliminated by Brazil in the quarterfinals. It is the team’s lowest position in nearly five years.