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David Case ownerNotice to Assyria
Township Electors:
A regular meeting of the Assyria Township Board has
been scheduled for Saturday, March 30, 2024, at 1:
pm., at the Assyria Township Hall, 8094 Tasker Rd.
Bellevue, MI, 49021. During the meeting, there will
be a Public Hearing discussing the Fiscal Year 2024
Budget.Immediately following, Assyria Township will con-
vene the 2024 Assyria Township Annual meeting of
the electors.Assyria Township Board 212772SEASONAL HELP 2024
-TEMPORARY SEASONAL GENERAL LABORER-
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Driver’s License, and be able to pass a drug test. Hours Monday-Thursday
6 AM- 4 PM and some Fridays. Starting hourly pay is $16.43 per hour,
overtime, no benefits. Application and job description can be picked up
at the Barry County Road Commission office located at 1725 West M-
Highway, Hastings between 6 AM – 3:45 PM, or on our website at http://www.
barrycrc.org.The Barry County Road Commission is an Equal Opportunity Employer.212156TK second to Red Hawks at D2 regional
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
A step, a clap, a shout, a blink, a twitch.
A moment that small is the difference
between a regional championship trophy
going home with the Cedar Springs Red
Hawks instead of the Thornapple Kellogg
Trojans.
The OK Gold Conference co-champions
finished 1-2 at the MHSAA Division 2 Com-
petitive Cheer Regional hosted by Kenowa
Hills High School Saturday with the Cedar
Springs girls 26 hundredths of a point better
than the Trojans on the scoresheet in the end.
Both teams did earn the chance to cheer
again next Saturday at the MHSAA Division
2 Competitive Cheer Finals at Central Mich-
igan University‘s McGuirk Arena in Mt.
Pleasant along with the Plainwell and
Reeths-Puffer teams that placed third and
fourth at the 12-team regional.
Cedar Springs won the regional with a
score of 759.78 points. TK finished at 759.52.
The Red Hawks were half a point ahead of
TK after round one and then outscored TK by
2.26 points in round two.
TK made up 2.5 points of the difference in
round three with a score of 312.4, which was
the best of the day in the round.
The Trojans had tallies of 227 in round one
and 220.12 in round two.
Plainwell, the team that bested Thornapple
Kellogg for a district title the previous Friday
in Richland, placed third at Kenowa Hills with
an overall score of 755.32. The TK girls passed
those Trojans on the scoreboard in round three.
Reeths-Puffer earned the fourth and final state
finals spot with a score of 729.18.
Zeeland West was a little ways back in fifth
place with a score of 722.14 ahead of North-
view 719.44, Mason 714.56, Forest Hills
Northern 712.14, DeWitt 708.76, St. Johns
706.90, Sturgis 704.72 and Mattawan 688.0.
The Trojan team had its best ever state
finals finish a year ago, placing fourth at the
Division 2 Finals. This season’s D2 competi-
tion is slated to begin at 4 p.m.Thornapple Kellogg senior Mali Holland is front and center, a row in front of teammates Kenady Smith and Payton Gater as they
perform a jump in round one of their MHSAA Division 2 Competitive Cheer Regional at Kenowa Hills High School Saturday. (Photo
by Brett Bremer)Thornapple Kellogg teammates Claira Kovich (front) and Kella LeClaire shout out to
the crowd during their team's round one performance at the MHSAA Division 2
Competitive Cheer Regional hosted by Kenowa Hills High School Saturday. The
Trojans finished as the regional runners-up to qualify for this Saturday's MHSAA
Division 2 Competitive Cheer Finals at Central Michigan University. (Photo by Brett
Bremer)Successful LHS team finally wins first regional
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
There was an extra beat or two at the end
of the Lakewood Vikings’ last stunt in round
three Saturday at Jenison High School.
It was as if they wanted the crowd and the
judges to take one last moment to think,
“wow. They hit that.”
With their top competitors already having
their round three routines wrapped up, it was
a beat long enough that the Vikings could
have just accepted the trophy in that moment.
“They knew they had to go out there and
do a job. They knew they had to go out and
perform. They knew that everything was
close and that Paw Paw was ahead of us,”
Lakewood head coach Kim Martin said.
“One thing about these girls is that they step
up when they need to. Today they did.”
“We’re kind of a little more, I would say,
varsity dominant. We’re juniors and seniors.
There are a few underclassmen, but we’re
mostly juniors and seniors. When you have
that kind of leadership and that kind of expe-
rience, that helps. But, my underclassmen did
a phenomenal job today too.”
The Lakewood varsity competitive cheer
team won its first ever regional championship
Saturday, passing Paw Paw and pulling away
from Portland in round three. The Lakewood
Vikings put up a final point total of 753.
points.
The top four teams at the regional qualified
for next Saturday’s, March 2, MHSAA Divi-
sion 3 Competitive Cheer Finals at Central
Michigan University’s McGuirk Arena in Mt.
Pleasant. The D3 competition at the finals is
set to start at 11 a.m.
Sights were set higher than just qualifying
for the state finals for the Lakewood Vikings
though. They wanted that regional trophy that
had eluded their program for most of the past
three decades.
“The girls before this. These 28 teams
before this, they paved this path, and they are
just as much the reason for this as this team
is,” coach Martin said.
The 2023-24 co-champs from the Capital
Area Activities Conference White Division,
the Portland Raiders, were second at the
regional with a score of 747.66 and Paw Paw
slipped from the lead to fourth place with a
bit of a rough round three that left the Red
Wolves with a final score of 740.30. Howard
City Tri-County jumped up into that third
place spot with an overall score of 743.48.
Lakewood trailed only Paw Paw after
rounds one and two. Paw Paw outscored the
Vikings 228.8 to 226.0 in round one and 224
to 220.6 in round two to take a 6.2-point lead
into round three. Lakewood outscored the
Paw Paw girls 306.8 to 287.5 in that final
round. Portland had the second-best round
three score of the day at 301.9.
“There were no mistakes in round two,
which was good,” Martin said. “We still have
to clean up a little bit of our timing I think,
but other than that it was a really good round
two for us and that was probably our best
round three. We had a little mishap at the end,but it wasn’t bad enough that it cost us. It was
because they couldn’t hear. The crowd was so
loud they just couldn’t hear the timing of the
dismount. It was pretty clean for us.”
Lakewood senior Kylie Walkington said
the coaching staff started calling this the
Dream Team earlier this season, and the
dream came true with an overwhelmingly
experienced group of seniors and juniors on
the roster boosted by some ?ber talented
underclassmen.
“From the beginning of the year, our round
one was super dominant. Our round two, it
needed some work, but we could tell it would
get there. Round three also still needed some
work,” Walkington said. “But it was like,
we’ve come this far. Now winning districts
and winning regionals, this is really the dream.
“This is the dream.”
Walkington said she came up out of her
back extension roll in round two and whippedher head around to see the Viking coaching
staff going crazy behind the announcers
table. It was at that moment she was sure her
team was going to get the job done.
Having three returning flyers in seniors
Lilly Burgess, Naveah Newton and Nadia
Martin certainly helps make for a “Dream
Team.” Having it be Nadia’s senior season
makes the regional title just a little extra spe-
cial for coach Martin.
“It is not easy coaching your own kid. You
are tougher on your own kid than you are on
anybody else. And Marty was the same way
with Nic,” coach Martin said. Her husband
Marty Martin coached their son Nic Martin in
the Maple Valley High School football pro-
gram the past four seasons.
“Nadia is a competitor. I don’t know if it
is an orphanage thing, because she spent her
first two years in a Russian orphanage, but
she has had a pretty flawless round three allseason long, her and her stunt group, so
proud of her. But it’s not easy. She takes the
brunt of it.”
Nadia said it is good to have Kim as a
coach.
“She pushes me to work hard.”
Nadia agreed that Kim might push her a
little harder than the other girls. With a smile
she said her mom/coach told her, “if I fall
down I’ll get taken off the mat.”
She’s still on the mat, and will be again one
last time Saturday in Mt. Pleasant.
Hart placed fifth at the regional in Jenison
with an overall score of 729.94, about ten and
a half points behind the Paw Paw team that
earned the last state qualifying spot from the
regional. West Catholic was fifth with 709.
points ahead of Comstock Park 699.28,
Parchment 697.02, Allegan 693.18, Mason
County Central 691.52, Hopkins 687.98 and
Escanaba 672.20.The four Lakewood stunt groups get ready to lift their flyers during their round three performance at the MHSAA Division 3
Competitive Cheer Regional hosted by Jenison High School Saturday. The Vikings won their first ever regional championship to
qualify for Saturday's MHSAA Division 3 Competitive Cheer Finals at Central Michigan University's McGuirk Arena in Mt. Pleasant.
(Photo by Brett Bremer)Lakewood varsity competitive cheer coach Kim Martin shares a moment with her
daughter, senior flyer Nadia Martin, as their team celebrates its first ever regional
championship Saturday at Jenison High School. The Vikings won their MHSAA
Division 3 Regional to qualify for Saturday's State Finals at Central Michigan
University. (Photo by Brett Bremer)