From left, Kendall Bash, Donny Jourden (captain), Landyn Spade, Thomas Jenkins with state championship cup, Charles Lininger and Hana Rahmlow from the Gwinn High School Bowl team pose in front of the Spartan statue on Michigan State University's campus. (Courtesy photo)

GWINN — A group of young people from Gwinn High School recently used a great deal of intelligence and much hard work to propel the school’s High School Bowl team to previously unknown heights.

Coached by history and current events teacher Dan Turecky, the squad triumphed at multiple levels against schools from across the country.

“We have some super smart kids,” Turecky observed. “They were great.”

A quick review of how the team did confirms Turecky’s assessment. According to the coach, the High School Bowl Small School Nationals Tournament took place in Chicago on April 26-27. Gwinn went into the nationals as an undefeated 32-0 team, winning all four tournaments in a row to become the state of Michigan Class C/D state champions in early April

Prior to that, the team won locally in competition shown on WNMU, TV13.

After winning at the state level, Gwinn was invited to participate in the NAQT Small School National Tournament in Chicago.

There, the Modeltowners went 9-4 and ended with an overall win-loss record of 41-4 to end the season.

The only losses suffered by Gwinn came in the Big Nationals Tournament. The final tournament results were that Gwinn placed thirteenth in the Small Schools Division Tournament and fourth in the Small-Small Division of the tournament, he said.

The top scoring player, senior Thomas Jenkins, garnered individual accolades, scoring fourth in the Small Schools Division.

“It was pure excitement. We never dreamed we’d do so well,” Jenkins said. “It was crazy.”

As far as his individual honors are concerned, Jenkins simply said, “It was four years of very hard work.”

Bud Sargent can be reached at 906-228-2500. His email address is bsargent@miningjournal.net