POWERS---For the third straight March, the North Central High School basketball team won a state championship at Michigan State University on Saturday.

The Jets beat Buckley, 78-69, in the Class D state championship game.

The boys then returned home to a hero’s welcome, with a parade led by emergency vehicles through Mackinac, Schoolcraft, Delta, and Menominee Counties. Finally, the team bus pulled into the North Central High School parking lot at about 7:30 Saturday night, and hundreds of people in red and white turned out for a rally inside the gym.

Some recent North Central alums were a part of the celebration, including Rob Granquist, who was part of the 2015 state championship team and is currently playing college football at Concorida University in Chicago.
 

"I'm excited for them guys to get a three-peat now," Granquist said. "I'm just proud of all them guys. They kept working throughout, from when they were sophomores to now, and it paid off for them."
 

North Central graduate Travis Vincent was a part of the 2014 Jets team that won 25 games before losing in the state quarterfinal.

"Oh, it's awesome," Vincent said. "To be a part of this whole community, it's just something else. I'm happy for them. I'm happy that we started it, and they continued it. They finished it."

And even though they weren't on the court Saturday, both Granquist and Vincent said that they still felt like they were a part of that big victory.

"Not just me, but the whole community us a part of it," Vincent said. "If they didn't have the community on their side, it'd been hard on them. It's an awesome feeling."

"It makes me think back to when I was playing," Granquist said. "It actually made me really emotional, seeing as I have a cousin in Jason Whitens on the team. So, I was kind of living through him there. I got emotioinal."

And to a man, the Jets players thanked the legions of Jets fans who packed the gym all season long. They all said the community support was one reason for their success.

The Jets finished this season with a 27-0 record, and over the last three seasons, they were 83-0. Counting a 25-1 season in 2014, the boys are 108-1 over the last four years.

And the cupboard isn't dry for 2017-18, even though this group of Super Seniors have graduated. The NCA Junior Varsity team went undefeated this winter.

Photos courtesy of Wendy Buck.