‘THE SCHOOL’S HUMMIN’’
Adams’ title continues run of fall success for Highlander athletics
COMSTOCK PARK >> It only took a few key-strokes, but Brian Hassler made the edit before he even fully left the field at Comstock Park.
Change a ‘5’ to a ‘6,’ and the Rochester Adams athletic director had amended his department’s Twitter account bio to read ‘16 team state champs’ rather than 15, updated to include the boys soccer team’s championship win just minutes earlier.
Adams beat Rockford, 2-0, to earn its first soccer title since 1999.
The curious thing is not that he did it — but rather than it’s not even the first time he’s done it this fall: The girls golf team won its first state title in dominating fashion in the middle of last month.
And it might not be the last time Hassler edits the account, either.
Yeah, it’s been a pretty good fall along Tienken Road in Rochester Hills.
“It’s been great, and our football team’s hummin’,” soccer coach Josh Hickey said. “The school’s hummin’. And once we got thorough Troy, it was really hummin’, because we knew that was a big game — all the other ones were, too. But that was a big one. Once we got through there, you could just feel the school support. And they knew we could do it.”
The Highlanders beat the top-ranked Colts, the OAA Red champions, 4-3 in a shootout in the regional semifinals on Oct. 25 — avenging their only loss of the season — then edged New Baltimore Anchor Bay, 3-2, in the next game to claim their first regional title since 2015. A 2-0 win over Salem in the semis put Adams back in the finals for the first time since 2014, when they lost 1-0 to Canton.
The Highlander faithful in brown and gold may have been outnumbered by Rockford’s orange-and-brown clad fans, who only had to make a 15-minute drive to the finals venue, as opposed to the nearly three-hour drive for the Adams caravan. But they were there, and loud.
“We knew people were going to come you know — this doesn’t happen all the time,” Hickey said. “So, you know, they came to support it, for sure.”
It wasn’t a trip they could get much of a head-start on, since the Adams football team played Friday night, hosting cross-town rival Rochester for the district championship. The Highlanders took home a wooden mitten from that game, too, winning 28-14 to claim a second straight district title. The gridiron Highlanders are 10-1 — the seventh time they’ve made it to double-digit wins in program history, and the seventh time they’ve come home with a district title trophy — and face Clarkston this coming Friday for the regional crown, taking on the only team to beat them to date. This year’s run is on the heels of last year’s 13-1 campaign that saw the Highlanders reach the finals for the first time since 2003.
While the football program has brought the school its share of glory over the years, it’s not alone this fall.
The girls golf team won its first-ever Division 1 county title, with senior Grace Wang earning medalist honors, then the Highlanders posted four birdies on No. 18 to rally from behind to win the OAA Red tournament, as well. Ranked third in the state going into the state finals, the Highlanders blitzed the field, placing three golfers (Wang, Katie Fodale and Laura Liu) in the top six, and winning the title — the program’s first — by 40 strokes.
The girls swimming and diving team won its firstever Oakland County meet title earlier in the season, and more recently finished second at the OAA Red meet. The Highlanders were slotted at No. 3 in Division 2 in the most recent MISCA rankings in mid-October.
The boys tennis team finished ninth at the Division 1 finals in Holland, in a field that had seven Oakland County teams in the top 10. Kevin Cong and Owen Dong made the Highlanders’ deepest runs, making it to the semifinals in No. 3 and No. 4 singles, respectively.
Senior Amanda Soldan was an individual qualifier for the Division 1 cross country finals, and posted a top-100 finish.
And the Adams volleyball team played for a district title, as well, falling in a five-set marathon to crosstown rival Stoney Creek in the district championship match.
Some of that is playing in a county where a lot of those sports — girls golf, boys tennis, football, boys soccer — all have a number of contenders. And part of it, too, comes from playing in the powerhouse OAA Red in most sports, which hones teams for playoff runs.
“It’s a ride,” Hickey said of the Highlanders’ grueling schedule his sport. “I mean, we lost one game and it was against Troy a really good team, right? And then in our league, we finished fifth. But we lost one game — it’s crazy. It just shows the OAA Red is so good. And it does battle test you.”