GROSSE POINTE WOODS — There’s a different type of connection when a high school coach has walked the same school hallways as a student.

BIRMINGHAM — There’s a reason the Birmingham ski team is consistently a part of the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 1 State Finals each year.

BLOOMFIELD HILLS — Everyone wants to be a part of a successful team. The environment is electric, the team atmosphere is exciting, and everyone has their sights set on the same thing – winning.

MACOMB TOWNSHIP — Macomb L’Anse Creuse High School-North boys swimming has been on a tour of the Macomb Area Conference the past three years.

WARREN — It’s been a story of progression this season for Warren Woods Tower boys wrestling, but the journey is far from over.

STERLING HEIGHTS — Earning a league championship can create a sense of pride for a team, especially in Henry Ford II boys swim and dive’s case, where last year’s Macomb Area Conference White title was the school’s first since 1996.

WEST BLOOMFIELD — With an historic win for longtime head coach Greg Alessi, back-to-back district championships, and West Bloomfield’s first Oakland Activity Association league title since 2014, it’s looking like the right time to hop aboard the Lakers wrestling program.

ST. CLAIR SHORES — For the past two seasons, St. Clair Shores Lakeview has quietly constructed a program ready to prove they’re one of the top teams in the Macomb Area Conference.

WARREN — Who knew a picture of seven freshmen from a team banquet would last a lifetime in the history of Warren Mott wrestling?

FARMINGTON — Farmington boys wrestling may have lost themselves in the shuffle of a brutal Oakland Activities Association White league, but they quietly put together a season that should have them on everyone’s radar next year.

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — Clinton Township Chippewa Valley football will have a new man leading the sidelines this season, and they didn’t have to travel too far to find him.

SOUTHFIELD — Only a month in as head coach for Lawrence Technological University football, Scott Merchant turned in an impressive recruiting class to kickstart the 2024 campaign as National Signing Day concluded on Feb. 7.

GROSSE POINTE FARMS — Like it or not, the game of basketball has, and continues to, trend in the direction of elite-level guard play as opposed to dominant big men on the inside.

GROSSE POINTE FARMS — Thirty minutes separated the University of Michigan football from becoming national champions, and only seven points separated the University of Washington from being right back in the driver’s seat.

ROYAL OAK — It was just a matter of time before their wings could fly. For the past two seasons, Royal Oak High School girls basketball has been through the trials and tribulations of varsity sports that plague any school — graduating players and hitting rough patches.

ROYAL OAK — By the luck of the draw, metro Detroit baseball fans hit the jackpot as the Royal Oak Leprechauns are going to be putting on a show like you’ve never seen from them before heading into the 2024 season.

BEVERLY HILLS — Before the start of the 2023-2024 campaign, Detroit Country Day girls basketball held a certain type of practice for the first time under second-year coach Amber Deane.

SHELBY TOWNSHIP — Returning for her fifth soccer season at Ave Maria University in Florida, Shelby Township native and Warren Regina graduate Haley Iacona gave the team everything she had both on and off the field.

SHELBY TOWNSHIP — They’re the loudest and most energetic team in the bowling alley, and they have every right to be with the way they’ve been playing.

ROSEVILLE — No matter what coach, player or teacher you speak with on the grounds of Roseville High School, there’s one word that continuously makes its way into conversation when describing the school — “family.”