Creative Technologies Academy had two teams win conference championships this past week. Both the CTA women’s varsity basketball team and the CTA boys varsity basketball team earned the Great Lakes 6 League Conference Championship title.

The girls finished 7-1 in the league and hope to bring home the district title next week. The team swept the series 2-0 versus West Michigan Lutheran, Libertas Christian, and West Michigan Academy of Environmental Science. The girls split the series with Algoma Christian giving them their only loss. “The Lady Chargers have developed into a strong team led by returning captains, seniors Faith Watson and Hannah Hofstra,” shared Coach Lisa Perry. “Both girls have been leaders both on and off the court and will be missed next season.”

The boys finished 8-2 in league play and look forward to their district tournament. The boys are being led by senior caption Luke Hubbard who averaged 25.7 points per game and sophomore Ivan Winters who averaged 21.1 points per game. The conference came down to the last game where the Chargers defeated Barry County Christian by a score of 59-56. The Chargers swept the series 2-0 versus Algoma Christian, West Michigan Lutheran, and Hudsonville Libertas Christian. The boys split the series with West Michigan Academy of Environmental Sciences and Barry County Christian. Good luck to the Chargers as they look to bring home a district title next week.

On Friday, February 21, your Cedar Spring Red Hawks took on the Lowell Red Arrows. After losing a close game in their last matchup, the Red Hawks were looking for an opportunity in a road win in their rematch.  

Cedar opened up the first quarter of the game with a slow start, only scoring 10 points to Lowell’s 12. going into the 2nd quarter. In the second quarter, Cedar suffered with three starters—Trenton Cooper, Aiden Brunin and Nate Webb—in foul trouble. The Lowell Red Arrows continued with their lead going into halftime hitting 7 of 10 free throws leading 27-19. Starting the 3rd quarter, the Red Hawks started feeding the ball to their leading scorer, junior Bryce Marvel. 

“The second half we really leaned on Bryce in our comeback and to build our lead. Bryce is a difficult match-up for any team. He’s that tweener player who can post you up on the block, take you one on one from the outside and can shoot with the best of them,” Coach Telman said. 

With strong scoring from Marvel, the Red Hawks outscored the Lowell Red Arrows by 14 points finishing the game 47-41. Trenton Cooper and Joseph Metiva both had 4, DeMontae Barnett had 2, Miles Cartwright and Aiden Brunin ended with 5, Nate Webb finished with 1 and Bryce Marvel led all scorers with 26.

On Monday, March 9, Cedar Springs will host districts.

On Friday February 14, your Cedar Springs Red Hawks boys basketball team took on Wyoming Potter’s House Christian for the second time this season. 

The Red Hawks opened up the first half with a 15-point lead, led by some strong shooting beyond the arc and inside the paint. The past two games the Red Hawks have had some pretty balanced scoring, averaging about 15 points a quarter with several players scoring double digits.  We asked Coach Telman about his team’s progress this season.  

“We have really come a long way. The guys are getting better and putting up a battle no matter who we face. Though having a record of 6-10 may not seem like it, we have had a great season battling a lot of great teams. Many of our games we have had multiple opportunities where the game could have really gone either way, but when you average 50 percent from the free throw line as a team, it becomes a little difficult to win those close games.”  

After the second half, Potters House came out swinging with high tempo defense. The game’s change of pace slowed down the Red Hawks for a quarter where they only scored 6 points. In the fourth quarter, and after several adjustments, the Red Hawks finished the game by scoring 17 points in the fourth and defeating Potters House 56-44.  

Leading the way was Nate Webb with 2 points, Miles Cartwright had 4, Trenton Cooper added 8, Aiden Brunin scored 20 and Bryce Marvel led all scorers with 22 points.

The CTA Lady Chargers headed into the 2016-17 season looking to improve on last year’s 4-11 record.

Lady chargers have 9 returning players, including senior captain Holly Fahling. “We are looking to Holly’s leadership to continue to help our younger players grow,” head coach Steve Washington commented. Along with Fahling, the Lady Chargers returning starters are sophomore Brin Calkins, and freshmen Hannah Hofstra and Faith Watson. The Ladies are rising to the challenge so far, and have started off with 3 wins and 5 losses so far this season.

The boys basketball team is developing an offensive system (with only a single court practice with new head coach Todd Bowmar), they have a strong defensive presence and the boys have bought into the idea of team success. Coach Bowmar shared that when he joined CTA, there was a lot of talk of the CTA Way, which he understood the concept of. “Today was a demonstration of that philosophy – Chargers don’t quit. Chargers play the game the right way. Chargers hold themselves to the highest expectations,” shared Bowmar as he referenced a recent game against an incredibly talented team. “I am proud to be a part of the CTA Way.”

Bowmar, who is also CTA’s high school english teacher, is looking forward to the opportunity to work with the students outside of the classroom, “ I would like to thank the players and parents of CTA for such a wonderful opportunity to work for these young men. As a team, we are growing so rapidly. I have high hopes for the rest of the season.”

The Creative Technologies Academy boys’ basketball team came into Friday night’s game against West Michigan Aviation with something to prove, as they had lost to Aviation’s JV team last year. This time, they played the varsity, and the Chargers were focused and came to play their best.

At the half, CTA was tied with Aviation, in a tight, back-and-forth affair. “I felt like we did a great job against the full court press in the first half,” said Coach Scott Bultman.

The Aviators built a ten-point lead going into the fourth quarter. The Chargers held their own throughout the fourth quarter, but couldn’t make up the gap from the third quarter. The final score was 50-39. Sophomores Dawson Armstrong and James Hofstra led the Chargers in scoring with 17 and 12 points, respectively.

CTA is off for the rest of the week, with their next games coming against West Michigan Academy of Environmental Science on Tuesday, the 19th.

Cameron Link looking to take a shot against Wyoming Park. Photo by K. Alvesteffer.

By Kendra Coons

On Monday, February 3, the Cedar Springs varsity boys basketball team took on the Wolves of Wyoming Park. It was a tough battle between the Red Hawks and the Wolves, but in the end Wyoming Park took home the win 72-60.

At the end of the first quarter, the Red Hawks were leading 23-21. The Wolves came back after the first quarter and scored 14 more points, but that wasn’t enough to take the lead away from the Red Hawks. Cedar Springs went into halftime leading 38-35. Wyoming fought back and came out after halftime and scored 15 more points to take the lead. Cedar Springs tried to come back after the third quarter and scored 13 points in the fourth, but it wasn’t enough. Wyoming scored 22, giving them the win 72-60.

“Wyoming is a good team, with a lot of athleticism. It was a good for us to play a team that plays a little different style,” commented head Coach Jeff Patin.

Senior Cameron Link and junior Brad Brechting led Cedar Springs in points. Link had a total of 30 points with a shooting percentage of 47.6. Brechting was right behind him coming in at 20 and went 9 for 12 on all of his shots. Wyoming’s Nick Staten led the Wolves in points coming in at 23 and went 7 for 14 on his shots. Coming in second for Wyoming was Jacob Traylor with 17 and a shooting percentage of 35.7.

“I thought we played well for most of the game. It was an up tempo game and we were playing our 3rd game in 4 days, and with about 2 minutes to go, we just couldn’t get the big stop or a basket,” stated Coach Patin.

The boys varsity basketball team also played Forest Hills Eastern this week on Friday, February 7. This was the second meeting of Cedar Springs and FHE. The first time the Red Hawks played the Hawks Cedar Springs defeated FHE 61-57.

In this matchup, it was very close at the beginning. At the end of the first quarter, Cedar Springs was in the lead 20-14 over FHE. After the first quarter, FHE came back fighting hard and scored 11 more points to make the score 30-25 still in favor of the Red Hawks. After halftime, Cedar Springs was still in the grove and added 19 more points to their score to stay in the lead. At the end of the third quarter the score was 49-40. FHE tried fighting back during the fourth, but it wasn’t enough. The final score was 70-55 with Cedar Springs defeating FHE.

“It was a good win for us. This time of year it’s good to win even if you haven’t played your best,” said Coach Patin.

Junior Brad Brechting led the team in points for Cedar Springs coming in at a total of 20. Senior Austin Hilyer was not far behind with 13 and Cameron Link came in third at 10.

“We were able to string some good defense possessions together to extend the lead,” exclaimed Coach Patin.

The boys varsity next game is Friday, February 14 at West Catholic. The team will be looking for their 11th win. So come on out and cheer on your Red Hawks!

Tuesday’s win over West Michigan Academy of Environmental Science (WMAES) evened the Chargers record on the season to 2-2.
The boy’s varsity team from Creative Technologies Academy executed a near-perfect defensive game as they held a competitive WMEAS team scoreless in the first, third, and fourth quarters. After jumping out to a 16-0 lead after the first quarter, the Chargers were challenged by WMAES as they played even with the Chargers, matching score for score to end the first half with a 27-10 Charger lead. Unfortunately for WMEAS, their scoring run would end there, as CTA charged on to a 52-10 victory.
A big reason for the successful night was the 33 combined offensive and defensive rebounds, as well as getting a team total of 18 steals.  Junior, Austin Armstrong lead statistically for the Chargers with 6 steals, 6 rebounds, and 13 points.  It was a great performance from the junior, but the Chargers victory was a team effort. Twelve of the fourteen Chargers scored at least two points to lead to balanced scoring.
The CTA boys hope to improve their record as they head to Fremont to face the Fremont Home School Mustangs for one last game before taking a break for the holidays. For a complete CTA Charger’s schedule, please visit the athletics page at www.ctaschool.com.