SPORTS COLUMNIST Peter Jakey: RC Boosters club will continue on

It?s a good thing I didn?t write the final story on the Huron Sports Boosters ahead of time, because just as the last nail was lined up, and the hammer pulled back, the athletic boosters of Rogers City received the lift they?ve needed for several years. Monday?s meeting could have been the last for the local group. Another sparsely-attended session and it would have been over.

But as the old saying goes: ?It?s not over until it?s over.? The meeting this week at Rogers City High School was attended by 15 people, and that included eight or so who hadn?t been at a boosters meeting before. AS LATE AS last week, one booster told me they didn?t know what was going to happen at the meeting or who would show up. There had been phone calls from people who had heard the boosters were going to shut down, and didn?t want to see it happen, but would they actually come to a meeting? The answer was a resounding yes.

?Obviously, we?ve got plenty of support, so we?re going to continue,? said president Mike Stempky. That?s right, he?s still president. I said he was going to step down in a previous article, but that?s what he told me, and actually he has been saying he would step down for a couple of years. But the truth is, he hadn?t found someone to take his volunteer post, and the big man with an even bigger heart for the Rogers City sports programs, was elected to the post one last time to train incoming vice president Ed Mierzwinski.

?HE SAID he would take it as long I stayed president and showed him how to do things, and I had agreed to do that,? said Stempky. ?Ed?s son will be a freshman in the fall, and he had made the statement that he always gets involved in activities that involved his son.? Stempky and treasurer Cheryl Kranzo both agreed to continue so they can show their successors the ropes. Ann Belusar agreed to eventually take over for Kranzo. Annette Vogelheim will continue as secretary. ?I?m pleased to see it continue because it does help out our sports program and our athletes,? said Stempky. ?When you get a good number of people coming out and are willing to help out, that?s all we can ask for.? Stempky needs assurances that people will help and that the boosters won?t fall back into a rut again, with a small group running the program and coming to monthly meetings. ?I think we have some people who are genuinely concerned about the sports boosters and I think they are going to continue,? said Stempky.

SALLY CERCONE will head up a committee to do concessions for varsity football games, relinquishing Nancy Hurst of the outstanding job she has done over the years. Concessions will likely be handled sport-by-sport, with committees heading up each sport: J.V. football, girls? basketball, etc. Hurst had overseen all the concessions. It?ll take some pressure off athletic director Pat Lamb as well.

?I won?t have to find people to do 50-50s and we can pretty much continue as status quo as far as the concession stands,? said Lamb, ?and it doesn?t all fall on my shoulders, so it does make it easier for me.? Stempky commended outgoing vice president Ed LaLonde, who has put a lot of time into the banner project in the high school gym. Each varsity sport has a banner and the years of the their tournament success. Some still are to be made up, as coaches turn in the information.

Stempky said LaLonde has been instrumental in overseeing the project. ?That?s a big job,? he said.

The next meeting for the boosters isn?t until August 19, before the beginning of the school year, and hopefully the interest will continue to grow. ?I?m hoping that things go well,? said Stempky.

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My father and brother have been in a huge sports funk, mainly because they could care less about Major League Baseball and the Tigers, and are already counting down the days to the beginning of the ?Mooch? era in Detroit. Summer vacation will soon be over f

or the Lions, who will begin their first training camp in Allen Park under Steve Mariucci, an established NFL coach. He was fired as the 49ers coach after San Francisco was bounced from the playoffs.

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Even though the Tigers are having a dismal season, I still look for the highlights on Sportscenter and ESPN News. They sure were taking a pounding at Boston earlier this week. One of the games they lost was to Derek Lowe, a fellow alumnus of mine, from Dearborn Edsel Ford. I graduated years before him, but Lowe was a member of my younger brother?s graduating class.

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From the interesting stat department: The Cincinnati Reds have won an amazing 18 games this season with their last at bat of the 37 games they?ve won.