Thomas Pregano

Business/Advertising Manager

“They led by example, by word, and through their ability to bring everybody into the Skipper family,” men’s head basketball coach, Dale Vos, said about sophomores Ben Abraham, Kieon Arkwright, Devon Kling, Marquis Lee, Eric Mack Jr., and Jake Stark.

Vos said, “We will miss these six players; however I believe they have done a good job with the last job of a leader and that is to train the next leaders.”

All six of the players have their own agendas; including 19 year old Ben Abraham from Memphis plans to be a mechanical engineer. Abraham will most likely attend Oakland University. He hopes to work for Chrysler after he graduates.

According to Abraham he has had offers from schools to play football and basketball but doesn’t plan to play anywhere.

Abraham said, “Playing basketball at SC4 was one of the best experiences of my life and it couldn’t have gone much better than it did.”

Kieon Arkwright is 20 years old from Flint, and played at Saginaw Valley last year. Arkwright is majoring in sports medicine. He hopes to continue playing for a division one or two school.

Arkwright said, “It meant a lot for me to be here and help the program out.” He made it to the All-Region and All-Conference team.

“This season was different for me in so many ways. It was the first time that I felt like, in the huddle, the guy to the right and left of me would do anything for me,” 19 year old Devin Kling said.

Kling is majoring in accounting and plans on transferring to Walsh College and will continue to play basketball in a men’s league with his family.

Marquis Lee is the oldest of the group at 22. Lee is from Frasier and nicknamed “Show Time” by teammates and fans. He hopes to play for a division one or division two university. Lee is undecided in his major but is confident he will find one when he gets where he is going.

Lee said, “This season meant the best for everybody.” He made the All-Defensive team in the MCCAA.

Eric Mack Jr., 19 of Detroit, is undecided on his major and plans to continue playing basketball. According to Mack, “Wherever I fit in, whether it be division one or division two, this season has meant a lot to me. These are the best teammates I’ve ever had in my life.”

Mack made the second team All-Conference.

The 20 year old Jake Stark, from Richmond, plans on majoring in teaching or sports management at Concordia or Tiffin University, in which he will also continue his basketball career.

Stark also made the All-Conference honorable mention team as the Skippers finished eighth in the national tournament. This year was the first time the Skippers made it to the National Tournament in SC4’s history.

Thomas Pregano

Business/Advertising Manager

The men’s and Lady Skippers’ basketball teams both beat the Alpena Lumberjacks, Wed. night on Feb. 10. The Lady Skippers won 69-45 and the men’s team won 94-80.

The Lady Skippers started out their game on an 11-0 run and looked like they were going to run away with the game. The Lady Skippers took full advantage of the long bus ride the Lumberjacks took.

With a good first half by sophomore guard Jessica Stevenson, from Chesterfield, scoring 7 points and great rebounding efforts by sophomore guards Megan Johnson and Alysia Cole, they did just that ending the first half 31-14.

“We got our chemistry back, there were a couple of games we just weren’t playing as a team and we noticed it,” said Johnson. “We worked really hard the week before in practice and I think we accomplished our goal.”

In the second half the Lumberjacks woke up scoring 31 points and making a game of it, but the Skippers proved to be too much.

“Every year I love coming up here to play against the Skippers. They are a class act and they never run up the score,” Head Coach Bobby Allen said.

The Skipper men’s team came out with the same amount of intensity on a 20-9 run. Kieon Arkwright, sophomore guard from Flint, led with 11 points in the half and sophomore forward Jake Stark, Richmond, right with him with 11 as well.

Stark said, “The first half we played defense. We got offensive and defensive rebounds.”

The second half was all Alpena scoring 53 points with the help of good shooting and rebounding. “If we would have played like that in the first half, this would have been a heck of a ball game,” said Frank McCourt, head coach of the Lumberjacks.

Both teams are back in action at home Sat. Feb. 20 at 1p.m. and 3 p.m. versus Mott Community College.

The St. Clair County Community College baseball team along with parents, coaches, friends and area high school honor society students teamed up to raise $44,991.89 running a food court with 13 booths at the Michigan Renaissance Festival during the fall semester.
The food court ran seven weekends from August through October and was the largest amount ever raised by an SC4 athletic fundraiser.
The money will cover all of the team’s overnight and spring training travel costs. As SC4 was forced to make cuts because of the economy, the baseball team and other athletic teams are picking up the slack in fundraising efforts for their respective programs.
The Renaissance Festival was made possible by Assistant Head Coach Ken Vernier who had the contact with the festival according to Skipper’s head coach Denny Dwyer.
Dwyer said, “This was only made possible by a tremendous effort by all the players, coaches, and even their friends and families.” Dwyer said, “It wasn’t easy, but the team pulled together and earned every penny of this.”
Shawn M. Starky, Executive Director of Public Relations, Marketing and Legislative Affairs said, “The college is proud of our baseball team’s efforts.” Starkey said “The fact that parents, friends and others also worked on this fundraiser speaks volumes about the support the baseball team has in our community.”
Starkey said, “We congratulate coaches Denny Dwyer and Ken Vernier on leading the team to the most successful athletic fundraiser in SC4 history.”
Good news travels fast. All the way to the Director of Athletics, men’s basketball and golf coach at SC4 Dale R. Vos. Vos said, “I am tremendously impressed by the leadership of the coaches and the diligence of the student athletes.”
Vos said, “These folks put in approximately 30 hours per weekend for 7 weekends all to help better their, and our, team.”
The Skipper’s are not done fundraising. They are putting on the Battle of the Bands contest and raffling off a trip to Hawaii to name a few in the upcoming weeks.