quick hits

Groves Football
Star Makes Waves
Both On and Off
the Field
It was quite a fall for Birmingham
Groves High School football star
Avery Gach.
The 6-foot-5, 275-pound soph-
omore lineman was offered schol-
arships by eight major college
football programs (more offers
are on the way), he attended six
college football games (includ-
ing Michigan vs. Ohio State) as
a guest of the home team, and
he played a big role in the resur-
gence of the Groves football
team.
Five of Gach’s eight schol-
arship offers are from Big Ten
Conference schools. They are
Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio

State, Penn State and Maryland.
The other offers are from Central
Michigan, Toledo and Boston
College.
While all that recruiting was
going on, Gach’s main focus was
on becoming a better football
player and helping Groves win
games.
“I feel I improved tremendously
as a player this season and the
game slowed down for me,” said
Gach, who was a stalwart at right
tackle on the Falcons’ offensive
line. He also got some time at
defensive end.
Groves had a great post-season
after winning its final two regu-
lar-season games to get into the
playoffs.
The Falcons won three playoff
games including a 26-12 victory
over arch-rival Birmingham
Seaholm and a stunning 32-25

upset of Livonia Franklin in district
and regional championship games
before running into eventual
Division 2 state champion Warren
De La Salle in the state semifinals.

De La Salle beat Groves 43-15
on a cold, windy November
afternoon at Troy Athens.
Groves finished 9-4. That was
quite a turnaround from 2021,
when the Falcons went 2-7 and
failed to make the playoffs for the
first time in nine years. Groves
also advanced to the state
semifinals in 2016 and 2018.
“Our goal this season was to
make a deep run in the playoffs
and we did it, although we wish
we would have played better
against De La Salle,” Gach said.
Workouts and recruiting are
on Gach’s calendar for the next
couple months before he turns his
attention to baseball.
The first baseman hopes to be
promoted to the Groves varsity
team this coming spring after
playing on the JV team as a
freshman.

BY STEVE STEIN

MURRAY GOLDENBERG/CLASSIC PHOTOGRAPHY

Avery
Gach

B’nai B’rith Bowling Season Nears
the Halfway Point
The Brotherhood-Eddie Jacobson B’nai B’rith Bowling League
season is rolling along as it heads into the holiday break.
Heading into league matches Dec. 2 — week No. 10 of the
29-week schedule — the
leading teams were Bowl
Me in the Pete Weber
Division, FlashDancers in
the Mark Roth Division,
Mark IT Zero in the Earl
Anthony Division and
600 Club in the Walter
Ray Williams Division.
FlashDancers had the most
wins (143).
Here were the high
games and series in each
division prior to Dec. 2:
• Pete Weber: Jason Cox
267, Sam Mauch 699.
• Mark Roth: Dave
Shanbaum 290, Aaron
Radner 802 (third career
800 series).
• Earl Anthony: Mitch
Cohen 285, Mike Rosen
797.
• Walter Ray Williams:
Steve Moss 298, Mitch
Lefton 745.
Aaron Zimberg rolled his lifetime high game (275) and series
(677) on Nov. 14 while recording his first 600 series. He was
149 pins over average for the night.
The 13-week first half of the league season will end Jan.
2. There will be no bowling Dec. 26. The league bowls on
Monday nights at Country Lanes in Farmington Hills.

The FlashDancers aren’t waltzing
through the Brotherhood-Eddie
Jacobson B’nai B’rith Bowling
League season. From left are
Matt Rappaport, Gary Klinger,
Ben Shapiro and Aubrey Topper.

BROTHERHOOD-EDDIE JACOBSON B’NAI B’RITH BOWLING LEAGUE

Orthodox Boxing
Promoter Takes His
Show on the Road
Former professional boxer turned box-
ing promoter Dmitriy Salita is a busy
man these days.
Two Michigan boxers promoted
by Salita, an Orthodox Jew, through
his Detroit-based Salita Promotions
fought recently in front of big crowds in
London, England against British oppo-
nents and made news around the world.
Flint’s Claressa Shields, a two-time
Olympic gold medalist, beat bitter rival
Savannah Marshall by a unanimous
decision and became the undisputed
world middleweight champion in the
main event of the first all-female boxing
card in Britain.
There were 11 matches on the Oct.
15 card, “which was the highest-rated
women’s sports event ever on (Sky UK,
the UK’s largest pay-TV broadcaster),
and the second-highest-rated boxing
show on the network, men or women,
since 2014,” Salita said.
The Shields-Marshall fight was sup-
posed to take place Sept. 10, but it was
postponed because of the death of
Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 8.
Marshall is the only boxer who has
beaten Shields in her amateur and pro-
fessional careers. That win came in the
2012 world championships in China.
Shields, 27, who survived poverty
and sexual assault in her childhood,
won Marshall’s WBO title to add to the

IBF, WBA and WBC titles she already
possesses.
Jermaine Franklin lost a controversial
12-round decision to former heavy-
weight champion Dillian Whyte on Nov.
26. It was the first defeat in 22 fights
(21-1, 14 knockouts) for the 29-year-old
Franklin, who is from Saginaw.
Two other Salita boxers -- super
middleweight Vladimir Shishkin and
bantomweight Nikolai Potapov -- will
compete in IBF elimination matches
Dec. 17 in Las Vegas. The bouts are part
of a tripleheader that will be telecast on
Showtime.
Shishkin (13-0, eight knockouts) and
Potapov (23-2-1, 11 KO’s) are from Russia
but were trained in Detroit by SugarHill
Steward, nephew of famed trainer
Emanuel Steward.
Born in Ukraine, Salita, 40, grew up in
New York City after his family left their
native country because of antisemitism.

SALITA PROMOTION

Dmitriy Salita (left) celebrates
Claressa Shields’ victory in
London, England.

32 | DECEMBER 15 • 2022