Former Bo Asst. Elliott Uzelac Has Benton Harbor 9-0 Entering Playoffs
This story got a lot of national play last year, and it just keeps getting better. Two years ago, former Bo assistant Elliott Uzelac (also the former head coach at Navy and Western Michigan) came out of retirement to coach the high school team at Benton Harbor, which was coming off back-to-back 0-9 seasons. Uzelac got them to 5-4 and they qualified for the playoffs.
This year, they're 9-0 and ranked No. 3 in Division 4 entering the playoffs tonight. Uzelac is 75, and he's apparently coaching with an Enthusiasm Unknown to Mankind. I shall be rooting for them. See the story here. Benton Harbor is one of the poorest cities in the state, and the football team has given the community new life. I still say this is a TV movie.
The other former U-M assistant now coaching a Michigan high school team wasn't as fortunate. Fred Jackson's Ypsilanti team is 2-6 and did not make the playoffs. I did find it interesting, though, the number of former Michigan players he has on staff. Former players Thomas Guynes, Jeremy Jackson (Fred's son) and John McColgan are all position coaches. And former QB Jason Carr - Lloyd's son, Chad's dad - is Ypsi's quarterbacks coach. Here's hoping for a Harbaugh-like turnaround next year.
October 28th, 2016 at 9:44 AM ^
Who's gonna win tonight? TIGERS! TIGERS!
October 28th, 2016 at 9:50 AM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 10:02 AM ^
9-0!?! I was wondering how they were doing this year. Thanks for the update. The old coach is doing a heck of a job. Happy for those kids and the community.
October 28th, 2016 at 10:54 AM ^
He's doing an aweome job from someone who grew up in the area. I watched some of their film and you could see his zone blocking scheme executed a high level. I played football against BH in the past and the linemen went in about 30 different different directions; so much so as a LB we sometimes didn't read the linemen like usual.
They switched conferences/are independent so they no longer play the neighboring schools, but I saw they beat Traverse City West and Pontiac ND I think... Pretty nice.
October 28th, 2016 at 10:23 AM ^
about this.... someone Call Eric Champnella.
October 28th, 2016 at 10:25 AM ^
First, congrats to Benton Harbor! Glad to see they're doing well...
And what's going on with Fred's team? Seems like he's got a lot of knowledge on the sidelines with him. Does anyone know if it's a player-talent issue, or if the sideline football smarts and experience just isn't coming across as coaches? Because someone played the game at a high level doesn't mean that they can coach the game - ie, translate that knowledge to inexperienced kids. I hope they can turn it around...
October 28th, 2016 at 11:45 AM ^
I've seen firsthand that high-level coaches often come into a high school team and they have way too high of expectations. They expect kids to spend too much time or watch too much film or understand too much about football. They also sometimes want to compete with such high intensity that it turns off some high schoolers who aren't THAT into football.
It's great that Uzelac could find some success at Benton Harbor, but he's had experience with high school coaching previously. Some coaches just struggle to find that balance.
October 28th, 2016 at 1:29 PM ^
when they played Dexter - and they won! (Of course Dexter has been, and continues to be inexcusably pathetic. Poor leadership from the school board on down.)
October 28th, 2016 at 3:21 PM ^
as a dexter alum, our excuse is that we don't particularily care about the football team. the leadership isn't poor, it's just not promoting football.
October 28th, 2016 at 10:27 AM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 28th, 2016 at 10:47 AM ^
Sailors.
Sorry, OP!
October 28th, 2016 at 10:53 AM ^
Great to see good stuff in Benton Harbor. They were in our league in HS and when we played there the drive in felt like the walking dead. There was literally a car that was on fire and completely burnt out. Trash everywhere. Boarded up buildings. Good to see good things there.
October 28th, 2016 at 10:54 AM ^
Northville! Beat those damn Canton whatever they are. (Chiefs maybe?)
October 28th, 2016 at 12:02 PM ^
Looking at their brackets, they actually have a fairly easy path to the semi-finals. I don't want to say it's unbelievable, but it truly is remarkable that this is actually happening.
October 28th, 2016 at 12:21 PM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 1:10 PM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 1:40 PM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 4:32 PM ^
Just looked up their schedule out of curiosity, to see how they did. And it looks like they no longer play in the SMAC. Did they kicked out, now that they are Class B and everyone else in the SMAC is Class A?
I guess the Wolverine B would be a logical new conference for Benton Harbor. Except that league is currently full at 10.
Anyway, wins over Marshall, Traverse City West, Pontiac Notre Dame and GRR South Christian - there are some pretty good wins there for a Division 4 team.
October 28th, 2016 at 5:41 PM ^
Their enrollment is down ~40% over the past 4 years or so. It happened really fast, but other area schools are taking more schools-of-choice kids and there were some new charters that opened. One of the charters is closing, so it'll be interesting to see where those kids go. I personally think the BCS and SAC should merge (apparently there have been talks). You could make a nice division of BH, Berrien Springs, Parchment, Comstock, Buchanan, and Coloma, but I don't know that the smaller schools would want BH.
October 28th, 2016 at 6:43 PM ^
Really fell off a cliff in the early part of this decade, but seem to be steadying out a bit. Hopefully they do find a steady point.
Conference realignment --- both at the NCAA level and high school level --- interests me in a weird way. BH ideally would find a conference with mostly Class B schools. I do like your conference idea. Only 3 Class B schools in the BCS, they're all in one division but they're having to play a bunch of Class Cs and even Ds for crossovers. Them hooking up with BH + Coloma would help a lot in that regard.