While the Sentinels were a landslide winner in the Divisions 1-2 balloting for boys’ Team of the Year, head coach Rich Ledy missed by a single vote of winning the Divisions 1-3 Coach of the Year.

The UPSSA has an unusual method of dividing teams into three groups for Team of the Year but only two groups for Coach of the Year, harkening back to the days when the awards were sponsored and included a specially designed trophy.

MSHS won a 15-2 landslide vote over Kingsford in the race for Team of the Year, while Ledy gained six votes as top coach. The Flivvers’ Dan Olkkonen won the title with seven votes, while Menominee’s Sam Larson also gained five votes in the same balloting.

In voting in other divisions, St. Ignace beat out Munising 17-1 for the Division 4 Team of the Year, while Menominee was a unanimous 18-0 winner over Iron Mountain for that honor in Division 3.

Marquette's Ford Richardson, right, goes up for a shot while challenged by Negaunee's Jordan Guenette during their high school boys basketball game played at the Barb Crill Gymnasium in Marquette on Feb. 15. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

And the Coach of the Year race in Division 4 really wasn’t one as Doug Ingalls of St. Ignace won by acclimation as no other candidate was entered.

The Sentinels compiled a 20-4 overall record that included a perfect 8-0 mark in the Great Northern Conference. Those eight wins included the only two losses suffered by Kingsford on its GNC schedule, making the vote between them seemingly obvious.

As the only MHSAA Division 1 team in the U.P., Marquette has probably the toughest row to hoe in postseason tournaments, facing the biggest teams in the state for their chance to reach Michigan State University and the right to vie for a state championship.

The Sentinels finished as the No. 2 team in Divisions 1-3 in the final weekly poll conducted by the UPSSA during the regular season. IM was No. 1, but its case as the top Division 3 team was harpooned by Menominee beating the Mountaineers in their district tournament title game.

Marquette compiled a 3-1 record against non-U.P. teams during the regular season, beating downstate Alpena and losing to Hartland in overtime early on, then downing Gaylord and Minocqua Lakeland, Wisconsin, in the second half of the season.

Marquette Senior High School head coach Rich Ledy shouts out instructions to his team early in the fourth quarter of a high school boys basketball game played against Ishpeming in the Barb Crill Gymnasium at Marquette Senior High School on Jan. 10. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

The Sentinels put up another win over Gaylord to open the Division 1 district tourney on Feb. 29, 62-56, before falling to Traverse City West 58-45 in its district title game on March 1. The Titans, who lost in their regional opener to 23-3 Cadillac the following week, finished at 19-6.

Ledy guided this MSHS team to one of its best campaigns in just his second season at the helm after he took over for Brad Nelson in June 2022. Nelson, who had decided to retire from the coaching at that time, got back into the fray when the boys varsity head coaching position in his residence of Negaunee opened up.

Ledy had been with the Marquette girls basketball program for two decades up until 2022, most of that time as JV head coach.

He’s a 1986 graduate of DeTour High School and played basketball at Northern Michigan University from 1986-91.

“I’ve always been a freshman and JV coach, so taking over a program and moving some of my ideas into actually running my own program, it was appealing to me,” Ledy was quoted as saying in the summer of 2022. “I just think it was the perfect time to step out and jump over and do something new.”

Olkkonen was credited with guiding a Flivvers’ team that was expected to have to rebuild this season, instead guiding them to a 21-5 overall record and a run to the Division 2 tournament quarterfinals before suffering an 81-77 loss to Flint Powers Catholic with their trip to MSU on the line.

Before that, Kingsford chalked up tourney wins over Gladstone and Escanaba in the districts and Sault Ste. Marie and Ludington in the regionals.

Menominee’s Larson earned his nomination as top coach for guiding the Maroons to a 20-7 campaign. While Menominee only went 4-4 in the GNC — each loss to either Marquette or Kingsford — the Maroons also handed Iron Mountain its only two losses in a 22-2 year.

The first win over IM was 60-58 in overtime on Feb. 5 and stopped the Mountaineers’ 15-0 start to the season. The second was probably even more painful for IM, a 51-49 setback that suddenly ended in the district finals an expected long run in the MHSAA tournament.

St. Ignace put together a 21-7 season, the Division 4 Saints challenging Division 2 Sault Ste. Marie for the Straits Area Conference title as the Blue Devils finished 7-1 and St. Ignace 6-2.

But the topper for the Saints and the Ingalls family — dad Doug was head coach and son Jonny was Associated Press state Player of the Year — was their run in the postseason.

St. Ignace made it all the way to the D-4 semifinals at the Breslin Center, beating Alanson and Harbor Springs Harbor Light Christian in the districts, Onaway and Munising in the regionals, and Forest Park in the quarterfinals.

The Saints were only stopped by eventual state champion Wyoming Tri-unity Christian 60-53 in the semis, a game much closer than the Defenders’ 79-59 wipeout of Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart for the state championship.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 552. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.