BATTLE CREEK – Speaking in front of hundreds of high school coaches, Pat Fitzgerald asked for audience participation.

Anyone who heard recently from the new Michigan State coach recently about one of their former players was told to raise their hand. Nobody did.

That’s because Fitzgerald and his staff have been dealing with agents while looking for transfers to fill out the roster. Although the portal was established prior to the three season he was out of college coaching, Fitzgerald’s return meant needing to dive in quickly.

“We had a very strategic plan,” Fitzgerald said Thursday night after speaking at the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association’s annual clinic in Battle Creek. “We felt strongly where we needed to really put our focus in quickly and I think we’ve been able to accomplish that. What do we have left to fill? Very little.”

Fitzgerald, who spent 17 seasons at Northwestern, took over the program last month after Jonathan Smith was fired following a 9-15 record in two years. The planned portal departures started before he was hired and continued with the total topping 40. They’re up to 26 known transfer additions spread across all three phases of the game.

“We will build a winning program based on bringing the right guys into the program, so it starts with our evaluation,” Fitzgerald said. “I don’t care where they’re coming from, I don’t care what level they played, I want to see production. Do not show me a young man that we want to think about having come transfer that has not produced. I want to see on-field college production.

“Projection, for me, is in high school, I’ll project high school kids. Or maybe, a chosen freshman or two that in the portal down the road, that will probably be guys that we recruited out of high school that maybe went somewhere else.

“This year is a little different, I hope we never have to do again, but with that, we were able to bring guys that we believe fit what we’re trying to do and have already had production on the collegiate field.”

Michigan State’s departures were heaviest at defensive back (10) and offensive line (11) and those are among the two areas they’ve addressed the most. The Spartans have added four veteran offensive linemen in tackles Ben Murawski (UConn, 6-foot-6, 344 pounds) and Robert Wright (Georgia Southern, 6-4, 295), center Trent Fraley (North Dakota State, 6-1, 303) and guard Nick Sharpe (South Carolina, 6-2, 335).

“We obviously retooled the offensive line,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s pretty obvious what my focus was – we got big and we’re going to continue to recruit big but not sacrificing hopefully athleticism.”

How Michigan State spends its money building a roster will be different than the previous staff based on priorities. Receiver Nick Marsh, who signed with Indiana, is arguably the team’s top transfer loss.

“We could take all the money and go get an A receiver and then 2, 3, 4 and 5 aren’t where we need them to be and I took a different approach, you can see that,” Fitzgerald said. “Same thing on the D line. We could have gone and got one pass rusher, I’ve got three so now I’ve got a wave of pass rushers and maybe there’ll be one more, I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe there’ll be another receiver.”

Fitzgerald said the Spartans will ultimately add about 30 transfers in the offseason and is comfortable with Alessio Milivojevic moving forward as the presumptive starting quarterback. They added well-traveled veteran Cam Fancher from the portal while Milivojevic and linebacker/team captain Jordan Hall helped retain teammates and recruit portal players.

“We really like the group we brought in,” Fitzgerald said. “We really like the people, we really like the families and we have added competitive depth in areas where last year I thought there were holes after watching the tape. That’s how teams get better.”

LANSING, MI – Michigan’s top school board is backing state legislation that would limit immigration enforcement in areas affecting students days after a 37-year-old mother of three was shot by a federal officer in Minnesota.

The State Board of Education adopted a resolution this week supporting “student safety, human dignity and humane immigration enforcement practices,” though not without some pushback from the board’s Republican members.

The resolution comes in response to the Jan. 7 death of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot while inside her SUV amid a confrontation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in Minneapolis. The incident spurred protests around the country, including in Detroit, against the ongoing ICE crackdowns under President Donald Trump.

During a meeting Tuesday, Jan. 13, several state school board members emphasized the impact the intensifying operations has had on local communities and in Michigan ― a nod to the resolution’s circumstantial mention of children who may fear suddenly losing their parents or caregivers to ICE detainment and deportation while at school.

State Board President Pamela Pugh introduced the resolution and talked about Good.

“She shouldn’t have been called (an expletive) after she was shot and likely killed,” she said, referencing the exact profanity as seen in videos of the incident on social media.

The case has not been fully investigated, but members of the Trump administration have claimed Good disobeyed orders to exit her vehicle before weaponizing it. Opponents and protesters around the country have said they believe she was murdered.

Trustee Nikki Snyder, who unsuccessfully proposed changes to the resolution on behalf of absent member Tom McMillin, said the state school board was propping up the “latest interpretation” of events surrounding Good’s death.

And while she and McMillin, both Republicans, agreed with backing “humane action” in ICE activities, Snyder said they should wait until the FBI has completed an investigation, adding, “I think there is a serious lack of transparency in all of this.”

“This is not OK. There’s a lot of mixing of what we’re talking about,” Pugh replied.

“And we have legislators, senators who have proposed bills because they see the harm,” she added. “Our community should not be facing the fear that they’re facing. Our resources, human resources should not be going toward (ICE operations). … That’s not public safety. We’re talking about two different things to begin with.”

Three bills were introduced by Michigan Senate Democrats last August addressing ICE concerns.

Senate Bill 508 would prohibit immigration enforcement action in sensitive locations like educational institutions, while SB 509 would ban providing an individual’s identifying information without a court order.

As ICE agents have been widely seen wearing face coverings while on the job, law enforcement officers would additionally be prohibited from wearing a mask or personal disguise while interacting with the public on duty under SB 510.

All three were sent to committee in Lansing, where they remain.

Pugh’s resolution states that the bills “seek to increase transparency” and “clarify the role of state and local agencies” in ICE operations.

It also cites Good’s death as an example of “the real and irreversible harm caused by aggressive militarized enforcement practices” from federal authorities.

“The Michigan State Board of Education encourages a fundamental re-examination of the existence, placement, function, and deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” the resolution states. “Including whether its enforcement responsibility should be dismantled or re-assigned with the federal government to guarantee real humane solutions that center child safety.”

Snyder also questioned how Pugh’s resolution recounted the history of immigration policy in the U.S., excluding the expansion of detention and deportation under Bill Clinton and other efforts, including family detention programs, under Barack Obama.

“When an American breaks the law, they can be separated from their children because they broke the law,” she said. “… Our country actually tends to be on the side of less punitive and more humane (than others).”

ICE protests have reached Michigan in the wake of Good’s death.

Detroit advocates called for the city to stymie ICE operations in the city hours before Trump appeared to speak before the Detroit Economic Club this week. While in town, ICE was also a popular target for hundreds of anti-Trump protesters nearby.

On Tuesday, Tiffany Tilley, co-president for the state school board, said she understood that “immigration enforcement needs to happen” at large, but that she believes “people are being terrorized” by the manner of enforcement with “cities in the U.S. under siege.”

State Trustee Mitchell Robinson agreed, emphasizing it wasn’t “an abstract issue,” citing instances where ICE is spotted nearby schools in Detroit or around Michigan.

“It’s not happening somewhere else only.”

With the 2025-26 Michigan high school girls basketball season well underway, we’re featuring some of the best players in the state.

Earlier this week we featured the best forwards in Division 2.

Now we’re turning to readers to decide which forward will be the best of the best in Michigan Division 2 girls basketball in 2025-26.

Check out the write-ups on the top forwards in Division 2 and vote in the poll below the list of candidates.

The voting will conclude Friday, Jan. 30, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

We contacted basketball coaches across the state and asked them to fill out a survey requesting information about their team. These lists were compiled primarily based on the information provided by the coaches who chose to respond.

If you are a Michigan high school girls basketball coach who did not receive the survey, email mswanson@advancelocal.com. We will continue to add to these lists throughout the season.

THE CANDIDATES

Alexis Asekomeh, Grand Rapids West Catholic, Junior

Brynna Barnhart, Fremont, Senior

Tessa Bordogna, Notre Dame Prep, Junior

Jaya Chandler, Grand Rapids Catholic Central, Senior

Paris Davis, Detroit Southeastern, Senior

Christina Dixon, Haslett, Senior

Sadie Dykstra, Yale, Senior

Nuray Fricke, Big Rapids, Sophomore

Samantha Fuhs, Dearborn Divine Child, Junior

Peyton Hein, Spring Lake, Junior

Maddie Heverly, Brandon, Sophomore

Emma Highfield, Lake Fenton, Senior

Ruby Hughes, Newaygo, Junior

Kaitlyn Johnson, Haslett, Senior

Lillie Johnson, Gladstone, Senior

Maddy Lockard, Northpointe Christian, Senior

Elle Lorente, Eaton Rapids, Junior

Lillian Masters, Bay City John Glenn, Sophomore

Addison McDonald, Gaylord, Senior

Clare O’Donnell, Negaunee, Senior

Abby Prins, Grand Rapids South Christian, Sophomore

Peyton Rhoades, Pennfield, Senior

Aleigha Roberson, Portland, Junior

Emilee Robinson, Kingsley, Senior

Lauren Seeley, Alma, Senior

MaKayla Sykes, Detroit Country Day, Freshman

Caroline Torre, Warren Regina, Senior

Clare Westerlund, Whitehall, Junior

Amarah Zamora-Ledesma, Godfrey Lee, Senior