One of the greatest leaders in State High history is moving on. Michael Powell was born to be a team captain, and he followed through from his first middle school basketball open gym to his final game as a State High baseball player.
Powell first met his middle school basketball coach, Allen McGriff, at an open gym in 2019. From that first meeting, McGriff recalled Powell’s firm handshake, eye contact and smile.
“I knew he was gonna be special the moment I saw him put the ball down on the floor,” McGriff said. “His respect, he was just so well-mannered, so firm, and just disciplined and poised in everything he did.”
Powell’s journey as a State College athlete began as McGriff’s first seventh grader to ever play on the eighth-grade team. After that season, he never spent another year as a non-captain.
Throughout his career, Powell made an impact on countless athletes and community members alike, especially basketball team manager Natee Zalno.
“Michael was the person that you want to be, like he’s a good role model, good inspiration,” Zalno said. “He makes us want to be the best version of ourselves.”
“Michael is just that consistent, dependable, good leader in every facet,” Athletic Director Loren Crispell said. “I have a seventh grade son, and if he grows up to make decisions like Michael and lead like Michael, then we’ll be really happy as his parents because he’s a great role model.”
One specific moment that put a spotlight on Powell’s leadership came on Feb. 5, when the basketball team was getting demolished by the eventual state champions, Central Dauphin. During a week in which the team spent over 16 hours on a bus, the Rams’ raucous environment and incredible athleticism proved too much for the Little Lions, and they fell behind by more than 30 points to a team they took to overtime just a few weeks earlier.
As Central Dauphin called timeout to celebrate a huge play, Powell brought the entire team together on the floor and delivered a message that stuck with his teammates through the rest of the season.
“I think the reminder was just like, you can’t let one bad day in sports get a hold of you like that,” Powell said. “It was like, ‘these last three minutes aren’t about this game, it’s about preparing for tomorrow’s practice and the next game.’…You can always prepare yourself and make yourself better for the next day, and that’s the beauty of sports.”
One of the teammates Powell impacted in that moment and all season was his brother, junior JJ Powell. The brothers were each other’s first teammates, played together on youth teams like BARF, and then reunited at the varsity level.
“It was a cool experience because I hadn’t played with him since middle school, like one game,” JJ Powell said. “You just don’t get to do it all that often.”
“It was really cool to be able to share that experience and competition with my brother,” Michael Powell said. “It’s something I’ll remember forever, and I’m sure 20 years down the road, I’ll be looking back at all those photos my parents were taking and smiling, remembering the opportunity I had.”
The brothers also played baseball together growing up, and while JJ decided to focus on basketball, Michael took his baseball career all the way to Susquehanna University, where he’ll play baseball and study finance next year.
Powell was a rare junior captain last season as he earned first team All-Mid-Penn Commonwealth honors, then led the team through a tumultuous coaching change this winter, and then carried his captain title into 2026 under a new head coach.
Outside of sports, Powell is a co-leader of the State High Media Team and pioneered State College’s now-booming photography scene. He masterfully balanced athletics and academics with his photography and graphic design pursuits to produce a resume worthy of the National Honor Society.
As Michael Powell transitions from a Little Lion to a Riverhawk, he leaves behind a legacy of leadership that won’t be replicated any time soon.
“Coaches don’t typically say they have favorite players, but Michael is definitely on my Mount Rushmore of players that I’ve coached that I can see myself using as the example of what I need players to be like,” McGriff said. “So thank you, Michael, for making my coaching journey an incredible one. You played a very pivotal part in me continuing to be a coach for our State College district, so thank you.”
“I think the legacy I want to leave is that me and other people I was with…can look back and see that we bettered the cultures of the teams we were playing on,” Powell said. “Being able to leave a legacy that we did our part, we made the group better, and then people were able to transition into our roles and make it even better, and just continue to elevate is what I want people to see when I look back at me and my teammates.”
