Traveling by bus, ferry, airplane, snowmobile and horse taxi, basketball teams from four Great Lakes island schools met on Mackinac Island for their second annual tournament.
The girls and boys teams from Beaver, Mackinac, South Bass and Washington islands — representing three lakes and three states — spent two days playing hard-fought games.
“It’s really awesome because we’re playing against other teams who are just like us,” says Max Johnson, a guard on the Washington Island boys team, which usually plays bigger schools with deeper benches. “Here I feel like we’re at more of an equal level. We have an even amount of team members.“
They had spectators and cheering sections. Beaver Island school board president Susan Myers attended and cheered especially loudly for her granddaughter.
“Sports on Beaver Island is a very big deal. Sports is more than sports,” she says. “Our
kids can’t go to another school and meet people or that kind of thing. … It’s good for them because they also get to meet other kids their age.”
Watch the Great Lakes Now segment to learn more about life on the islands — and to see which teams won the tournament.