The Hastings Banner — Thursday, February 15, 2024 — Page 13Panther cheer honors founding coach, wins title
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Delaphiano family was always going
to be a big part of the Delton Kellogg varsity
competitive cheer team this winter with
senior base Alexis Delaphiano in the program
and Alexi’s grandfather Jim Delaphiano the
team’s regular bus driver.
The family gathered with the cheer pro-
gram to honor the memory of Jim’s wife,
Alexi’s grandmother, Teresa Delaphiano Sat-
urday as the team hosted its first Teresa
Delaphiano Invite.
Teresa, who lost a battle with heart disease
in September, established the Delton Kellogg
High School competitive cheer program 20years ago. She coached, and then coached
alongside, current Delton Kellogg varsity
head coach Zoe Reynolds.
Even after Teresa was no longer officially
a coach in the program, she continued to help
guide the Panther student-athletes.
“She was someone who was outside of
things. She loved the program, but she was
removed from the immediate program. It was
nice to have that mentor over my shoulders in
the wings,” Reynolds said. “We stayed really
close. We talked quite often, and then this last
year when she passed we felt like we needed
to do something to honor her. She was the one
that started our program.
“We will just continue this on and see
where it goes.”
Delaphiano family members were on hand
and a group of her former cheerleaders gath-
ered together too.
Alexis Delaphiano was one of 11 Delton
Kellogg seniors honored following the com-
petition, joined by teammates Sarabeth
Beeke, Alli Brandli, Kyleigh Hamlin, Maren
Knebel, Sam Makowski, Taiyah Mapes, Cova
Martin-Ruiz,
Alexis got to accept the first Teresa
Delaphiano Invite Division championship
plaque and medals for her team as the Panthers
won the five-team competition Saturday.
The Delton Kellogg girls put up an overall
score of 633.26 points to win. Fennville was
a distant second with 561.10 points ahead of
Bronson 552.60, Comstock 542.20 and Union
City 503.60.
There were also four Division 2/3 teams
competing Saturday. Allegan took that cham-
pionship with an overall score of 702.62.
It wasn’t the best day of the season for the
Delton Kellogg girls, but it wasn’t their low-
est scores either. The Panthers had the top
score in each of the first two rounds in the
D4 contest. They had a score of 206.40 in
round one, 191.46 in round two and 235.
in round three.
Bronson had the top round three score at
236.30.
“We were pretty good today,” coach Reyn-
olds said. “We still have some cleaning up to
do. We’re too fast. We need to slow down and
pace ourselves a little more. That is our prob-lem in all of our rounds honestly.”
She said her girls might need to just work
on taking an extra breath between words.
“They just get anxious and they want to be
done. Sometimes we do things with our eyes
closed, not thinking about where we are, just
a few things like that,” Reynolds said.
The DK coach was really pleased with
round one and thought her team had a great
start to round three. Things got a little wob-
bly as round three wound down. Coach
Reynolds said there might be a little more
conditioning work to do as her team pushestowards districts.
The Panthers will be a part of the MHSAA
Division 4 District Tournament hosted by
Schoolcraft Saturday morning, Feb. 17.
The Panthers had one last competition
before districts on Monday. They won the
three-team D4 competition at the Gull Lake
Open with an overall score of 639.44.They
put up totals of 205.9 points in round one,
185.84 in round two and 255.7 in round three.
White Pigeon was second in the standings
with 633.1 points and Schoolcraft third at
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Gobles and Parchment take it to DK girls
Parchment took it to the Delton Kellogg
girls Tuesday night at Delton Kellogg High
School, outscoring thee host Panthers 52-
in a non-conference ballgame.
That loss came on the heels of a tough
49-20 loss at Gobles in Southwestern Athlet-
ic Conference Central Division action last
Friday.
“Both games saw us starting very slow and
then just having to dig out of a very serious
hole with leads just too much to overcome,”
Delton Kellogg head coach Mike Mohn said.
“Both games were almost identical in our fall-
ing behind and then deciding to play hard and
get after it after we were down 20 plus points.
“We just have to find a better way to get
started earlier. We have played a lot of games
in a short period of time and our energy level
is just struggling to be maintained for any
duration of time.”
Things aren’t slowing down any. The DK
girls were slated to host Battle Creek Acade-my Wednesday night and will be home again
Friday to take on Saugatuck. The Panthers get
another shot at Gobles, in Delton, Tuesday.
Josie Williams had a team-high eight
points in the loss to Gobles last week and led
DK with 12 in the loss to Parchment Tuesday.
“Summer Ritchie just continues to provide
energy throughout the games which is great
to see. She ended up with five [points] versus
Parchment and really had a pretty good game
despite the overall score,” Mohn said.DK boys rally in fourth for SAC win at Gobles
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Delton Kellogg wiped out an eight-point
deficit with a 16-6 run in the fourth quarter to
snag a 45-43 Southwestern Athletic Confer-
ence Central Division win at Gobles Friday
night.
Freshman Grady Matteson, getting his first
full-time varsity action, scored the go-ahead
lay-up with 24 seconds to play off a fine
assist from teammate Keegan Hill.
“I am so, so, so proud of my guys,” Delton
Kellogg head coach Jim Hogoboom said.
“What a great team win that came on the
defensive side.”
A switch to man-to-man defense in the
fourth quarter helped DK chip away at its
deficit. The Panthers had a 6-5 lead after one
quarter and pushed their lead to seven points
with a little less than two and a half minutes
to go in the half.
Gobles scored the final ten points of the
half though, including a buzzer-beating
three, to go into the locker rooms with a
26-23 advantage.The Tigers pushed their
lead to 37-29 going into the fourth quarter –
a 21-7 run.
The Panthers got a big three from Hugo
Martino and a bucket from Chad Stopher off
a nice dish from Matteson in the fourth quar-
ter to get the comeback started on that end.
Matteson closed the game with ten points,
including seven down the stretch. He had a
late three as well as his final go-ahead lay-up- which was set-up initially by a steal from
teammate Tyler Howland.
Howland made some strong ball-handling
plays late to help the Panthers burn the final
seconds off the block.
Howland, Stopher and Martino all finished
with 11 points for Delton Kellogg. Howland
hit three threes on the night.
DK heads into the weekend 3-4 in the SAC
Central, a game up on the 2-5 Gobles Tigers
who they will host Tuesday. The Panthers
will be home against Saugatuck this Friday,
Feb. 16.
Kalamazoo Christian scored a 59-30 win
over the host Panthers Tuesday night in a
non-conference ballgame.
The Comets had a 29-11 lead at the half,
and coach Hogoboom thought his boys
played better than that. They missed five free
throws, gave up three run-out lay-ups and a
wide open three on an out of bounds play
while also missing six buckets from point-
blank range according to Hogoboom.
The Comets grew their gap throughout the
second half though.
The DK coach thought the Comets’ size
advantage caused his guys to rush some
shots.
Carter Manion led the Comets with 13
points and Nathan Fetterley had 11.
Delton got six points each from Victor
Gonzalez and Chad Stopher.Saxons win first of two
with Mounties this week
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Night one of a back-to-back went better than
night two for the Saxons this week.
Hastings scored its seventh victory of the
season topping visiting Jackson Northwest
59-53 Monday evening. Back in action at
Parma Western Tuesday, the Saxons fell 53-
at Parma Western.
The Saxons are now 7-11 overall this season
and 3-6 in the Interstate-8 Athletic Conference.
They’ll see the Mounties again at Northwest
High School in Jackson this Friday, Feb. 16.
Harper Creek also took a 63-43 win over the
visiting Saxons in conference play last Friday
in Battle Creek.
The Saxons shot out to a 10-4 lead against
Northwest Tuesday afternoon and had a 23-
lead at the half. The Mounties went on a run in
the middle of the third quarter to pull in front
by two, but the Saxons quickly righted the ship
and eventually pulled away over the final half
of the fourth quarter.
Owen Carroll had 20 points to lead the
Saxon attack. Jett Barnum finished with 14
points and 13 rebounds. David Jiles added 13
points and four assists. Landon Steward addedfive points, six rebounds and three assists.
Saxon struggles at the free throw line con-
tinued a bit as they were just 7-of-13 at the
line.
Duncan Moffitt led Northwest with 24
points. Drew Maples had 12 points and Josh
Jordan had 11.
Parma Western outscored the Saxons 33-
over the second half of the third quarter and the
fourth to pull away for the win Tuesday night.
The Saxons led the ballgame 26-20 midway
through the third quarter, but finished with just
15 points in the second half.
Maverick Hammond led the Panthers with
17 points. Sutton Johnston added ten points.
Hasting tot 13 points from Carroll, nine
from Barnum, and six apiece form Jiles and
Steward.
Harper Creek went on a 20-13 run in the
second quarter to lead 32-25 at the half last
Friday in Battle Creek and then led throughout
the second half.
Carroll had 12 points, Barnum 11 and Jiles
nine in the loss. Eli Randall chipped in eight
points.
Harper Creek was led by 21 points from
Braxton Liss and 13 from Brayden Bess.Hastings guard Charlie Nickels looks to pass into the paint as Beaver Nate Jackson
defends during the second half of the the Friday night matchup at Harper Creek High
School. (Photo by Perry Hardin)The Saxons' Daniel Jensen elevates in
the paint over Harper Creek’s Joe
Cummins late in the fourth quarter Friday
in Battle Creek. (Photo by Perry Hardin)
The Delton Kellogg varsity competitive cheer team gathers with its plaque and med-
als after winning the D4 competition at its first annual Teresa Delaphiano Invite
Saturday at Delton Kellogg High School. (Photo by Brett Bremer)The Delton Kellogg stunt groups comet together during their round three routine at
the Teresa Delaphiano Invite Saturday at Delton Kellogg High School. (Photo by Brett
Bremer)