Local Sports Journal

The Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame will add a legendary football coach, back-to-back state championship basketball teams and a trailblazing female track star to its ranks at the 29th annual induction ceremony in 2015.

Muskegon Catholic Central longtime football coach Mike Holmes, the Muskegon Heights basketball state championship teams of 1978 and 1979 and former Mona Shores track star Cathy (Fitzpatrick) Nowak will be inducted to the local sports hall on Saturday, June 6, at a banquet at Muskegon Country Club.

Holmes, a Kalamazoo native, ranks second behind 2009 MASHF inductee  (and longtime Oakridge football coach) Jack Schugars with 212 career wins.  Holmes compiled a 212-75-1 record at MCC and his teams won six football state championships in his 25 seasons as head coach. He spent 37 years coaching and teaching at the school and retired following the 2011-12 school year.

The Muskegon Heights teams, coached by 2011 MASHF inductee Lee Gilbert, posted identical 26-2 records in both 1978 and 1979, en route to Class B state championships. Among the top players on those Muskegon Heights teams were Cedric Scott, Robert Kitchen, Clayton Cochran, Doug Burse and Donnell Plummer.

Cathy (Fitzpatrick) Nowak, a 1982 graduate of Mona Shores, won the Class A state title in the 100-yard dash in 1981 and placed second in two events and third in another in her senior year. She went on to become an All-American in track and field at the University of Virginia. Nowak is a physical education teacher and lives in Manassas, Va.

The MASHF will announce its Distinguished Service Award winner in January and the male and female student-athletes of the year in May.