OT: Detroit News Michigan High School Football Top10
1. West Bloomfield (Cornell Wheeler, Makari Page, former Michigan player Ronald Bellamy is the HC)
2. Detroit King
3. Oak Park
4. Belleville
5. Clarkston (2021 recruits Spindler and Dellinger)
6. Muskegon (QB recruit Martinez)
7. Warren De La Salle
8. Southfield A&T
9. Cass Tech
10. Chippewa Valley
What a time to be alive, West Bloomfield having the #1 team in the state.
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:06 AM ^
Not much going on west of US23...
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:08 AM ^
I said that previously and got negged pretty hard.
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:34 AM ^
Thats too bad. Really just an observation. I don’t follow HSFB. One out of ten teams is from west of US23. Simple fact, no shade intended.
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:56 AM ^
I don't mean it as disrespect, but it's logical that the better teams would be down by Detroit. Muskegon is the only one who has been consistent on this side.
August 22nd, 2019 at 9:19 AM ^
West Catholic had won 5 straight state titles up until last season, but I realize that's Division 5. You're correct, though, in terms of the top 3 divisions haven't had a consistent power outside of Muskegon, especially with Lowell's fall-off in recent years.
August 22nd, 2019 at 9:40 AM ^
Yeah it was pretty fun being in the same conference as them back in high school when they just took it to all the public schools.
Edit: Lowell plummeted off a cliff. Not sure how accurate my google search was, but 1-8 last year lol
August 22nd, 2019 at 10:33 AM ^
Are you referring to the old Grand Rapids City League? I miss that conference
August 22nd, 2019 at 11:04 AM ^
OK Blue i believe? This was back in 2008. We played Greenville, Hastings, Coopersville, West Catholic, Forest Hills Northern, Sparta, GR Central, and Cedar Springs.
August 22nd, 2019 at 11:28 AM ^
Oh that makes sense. West Catholic used to be awful through the whole 1990s and for the most part not that good in the early 2000s. Then they got pretty good in the mids 2000s, really really good towards the late 2000s, and then of course in the 2010s had their state title run.
August 23rd, 2019 at 1:14 AM ^
I do, too, but it had to eventually go and become part of the OK Conference---the GR public schools just weren't competitive most years. The three parochial schools dominated in most sports but especially football as the enrollment dropped and shifted. South High School (Jerry Ford's Alma mater) was closed in 1968, Central eventually more or less ceased to exist as a traditional high school some 20-30 years ago, and then Creston closed its doors about a half dozen years ago.
August 22nd, 2019 at 11:41 AM ^
Lowell was a very legitimate state power for many years. It just dropped off beginning in 2017. Muskegon Mona Shores has been showing signs of being a consistent state power.
August 22nd, 2019 at 3:49 PM ^
Poor Lowell. Their coach Noel Dean, retired after the last of his 4 athletically-gifted sons graduated from Lowell in 2016. He still teaches in the Lowell schools, and was persuaded to return as the Lowell coach for the 2019 season.
August 22nd, 2019 at 7:50 PM ^
He retired from teaching a couple of years before he stepped down from coaching and to my knowledge, is not back to coaching this year.
August 22nd, 2019 at 12:57 PM ^
With the help of some awful officiating
August 22nd, 2019 at 7:12 PM ^
Can you explain further? I'm assuming you're referring to something involving a call/calls in favor of GRWC?
August 22nd, 2019 at 12:58 PM ^
With the help of some awful officiating
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:14 AM ^
West Michigan represent!
I'm excited to see Rockford vs GR Christian next week. Should be interesting for the first quarter.
August 22nd, 2019 at 9:16 AM ^
Fun game indeed . Two different style of offenses going at it. GR Christian should be pretty stacked this season, and will be in a different division than Muskegon this year in the playoffs which will be huge for them.
August 22nd, 2019 at 9:30 AM ^
Im a little out of the loop now that i live in Boston- I saw that Ralph Munger had some health issues. Is he not coaching at all this year?
August 22nd, 2019 at 10:37 AM ^
Rockford resident here. Ralph had a quadruple bypass surgery a few weeks ago. Hes out indefinitely at this point until he gets cleared by his doctor
August 22nd, 2019 at 11:12 AM ^
Oh wow thanks for the info. Hoping he has a speedy recovery, it definitely has to be weird to not see him on the sidelines this year. My HS only scrimmaged them in 7on7s (we were a D5 school) he always seemed like genuinely good guy/coach. Definitely fiery, but good.
August 22nd, 2019 at 1:18 PM ^
Hope he had that done at Spectrum by Dr. Willekes (yes, THAT Willekes)
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:17 AM ^
Zeeland has fielded some strong teams recently. certianly not West Bloomfield good but can compete with Muskegon. Actually going need to now being in the same conference i believe this year or next.
August 22nd, 2019 at 9:21 AM ^
The conference realignment that got passed, then got overturned, so they won’t be in the same conference
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:17 AM ^
A lot has changed since I was growing up. Where are Detroit CC and East Grand Rapids?
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:20 AM ^
EGR ran out of Gradys
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:22 AM ^
And Glendenings.
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:47 AM ^
And one very important Stuursma
August 22nd, 2019 at 9:32 AM ^
Bingo. EGR hasn’t been the same since Stuursma left. And it looks like he’s doing a decent job at Hope.
August 22nd, 2019 at 12:49 PM ^
Eh I mean, they haven't won a state title since he left you're correct, but I think his last season at EGR was 2015, correct? And so they didn't win any state titles his last 4 seasons there, which I am not saying that means they "fell off" but their new coach has had the program at about the same level when Pete left after 2015.
That being said, Pete is a hell of coach
August 22nd, 2019 at 9:26 AM ^
and the Vosses
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:23 AM ^
Prison system has a few of them with some eligibility
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:29 AM ^
Some say Kevin is still passed out in his car in Grandville to this day
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:29 AM ^
DCC #17, EGR not ranked in their top 25
August 22nd, 2019 at 9:21 AM ^
East Grand Rapids has still been a very solid program in recent years since their state title runs ended in 2010, as they've put together some real impressive regular season records , but they've just fell short in some of their playoff runs. They've had to face Muskegon a few times I believe.
August 22nd, 2019 at 11:44 AM ^
You're right on the Muskegon issue for East Grand Rapids. They have had some pretty good teams that ran into Muskegon early in the playoffs.
August 22nd, 2019 at 12:40 PM ^
CC had off recruiting cycle.
August 22nd, 2019 at 12:50 PM ^
As someone who went there, they DO NOT recruit for football. If they did, then they are picking the wrong kids. Not one kid I knew there looked like he had any business getting recruited. They just get all these kids in the weight room and put 40 pounds on them and they just beat up all the other private schools. But once they play cass tech, they literally have no athletes to keep up, just a bunch of stocky white kids who go really hard.
They definitely, without a doubt, recruit for hockey. They don’t let kids go there for free but they guarantee spots on varsity to freshman and what not. They also recruit for wrestling. But that’s about it.
August 22nd, 2019 at 1:00 PM ^
As someone who went to a school on the west side and has a connection to a coaching staff for a school that gets accused of that all the time, the whole "but they recruit" thing is so overblown and so many false rumors it's crazy. But it's the trendy thing to say I guess and has been for years.
August 22nd, 2019 at 9:09 PM ^
I most likely went there many years before you. Back in the olden days we had many gridders and cagers who were encouraged (recruited) to come. We even had baseball players picked to play there. Most came from the local catholic feeder schools but some from other areas. Hockey seems like an odd HS sport to recruit since the best players generally don't play high school hockey at all.
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:26 AM ^
Looking at the top ranked kids in Michigan in 2020 this makes a lot of sense.
In related news from that State of Michigan 2020 class, Michigan has 3 top 20 kids from the class, UK has three top 20 kids from that class, NU has 2 top 20 kids from that class, PSU has two, OSU has 2, Purdue is about to have 2 if they land Carr.
MSU has 1, the #17 kid in the state, an OG from East Kentwood, matching West Virigina and Washington State. He's also their second highest recruit #Disrespkt Either Mork is giving up or they are really taking it on the chin because reasons.
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:34 AM ^
Saline comes in at #18.
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:55 AM ^
Wasn't Mona Shores awful at football for a long time? Is this because Muskegon Heights no longer exists and some of that Muskegon talent worked its way over there?
August 22nd, 2019 at 9:54 AM ^
" Wasn't Mona Shores awful at football for a long time? "
As a Shores grad... awful is probably being overly nice.
" Is this because Muskegon Heights no longer exists and some of that Muskegon talent worked its way over there? "
Somewhat.
It seems to be a combination of school of choice, increasing diversity in Norton Shores, and football becoming good and thus drawing in a lot of the schools top athletes that didn't used to play football.
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:56 AM ^
This should be a regular feature.
August 22nd, 2019 at 8:57 AM ^
De La Salle sucks
August 22nd, 2019 at 9:59 AM ^
If back to back state championships suck, we will take that as a compliment. Also Tru Wilson and Mike Dana might disagree with you as will Jack Wangler, Jared Wangler, and Shane Morris.
August 22nd, 2019 at 11:12 AM ^
Beat Muskegon - 8 days away! That should be a very good game and I'll try to watch it online from 1200 miles away.
In retrospect, the 2006 season and the title game loss against Muskegon was what gave the program the longer-term momentum that's carried on for the last 13 years. DLS football was good before that but certainly not great.
August 22nd, 2019 at 11:50 AM ^
Going Way way back they did have some great teams, but in those days only 4 teams went to the state playoffs in only 4 divisions so 1 loss and you were out... Those teams had to play very good CC and BR teams with only 1 moving on. Was tough.
The '85 team was ranked most of the year in the national polls. Had a backfield of Alan Jefferson (UM) and Eric Ford (UW) and lost in a crazy 6 or 7 fumble affair to CC by 2 points.(memory a little hazy now) That team outside of whatever you call that game was great. And if AJ did not have his injury issues, he would have been a star for UM.
August 22nd, 2019 at 1:08 PM ^
True - I shouldn't discount that 1985 team. It was a few years before I was there, so I tend to forget. You are correct about Allen Jefferson. Too bad on the injuries.
When I was there - I didn't play, but as I recall we lost 20-0 to DCC 3 years out of 4. 1 year we did score a touchdown. That loss was 24-7. :-)
DLS teams have never been "bad" - as much as BBR and DCC were very elite and huge obstacles.