OT: Is your high school’s football program any good?
Mine is not and never really has been. Utica ‘14.
One good season every 10 years. I was on freshmen in 2010 when Utica won their last conference title but I stopped playing soon after.
The Utica Chieftains have the dubious distinction of being the only high school in their school district to not produce a single Michigan Wolverine Football player.
Curious to hear others experiences.
Depends on what you mean by “good”. B.C. Harper Creek 01’ alum. Until recently, losing seasons were few and far between. Generally always made the playoffs with a few playoff runs to the semifinals where we would lose to St Mary’s every time. A few years ago we ran into Muskegon in the semis and that wasn’t fair either. I’d say winning districts is usually what separates the good and the great Harper Creek teams. After that we always seem to get a Detroit private school. I don’t know who the coach is now but the dude has two or three losing seasons in a row and that’s unheard of dating back to the late 80’s.
My school used to play Harper Creek in football a couple years ago. I think we shared a conference at some point.
When I played we were in the Twin Valley. In 2002 they moved to the SMAC. Now they are in the Interstate 8.
RIP Twin Valley.
That conference disbanding still makes me and my friends sad. So many great memories traveling to all of those schools as both a fan then an athlete in all sports over the years. Hastings was a haul but the rest were all pretty close drives for us.
lakeview had all of the all-conference pics for football and basketball every year I’d spend so much time as a kid studying those pics. Unfortunately I never made 1st team so never made that display.
my avatar tells my story...
I went to Parma Western. I believe it was my freshmen year when they left the Twin Valley along with Hillsdale and Albion to help form the now defunct Tri-River Athletic Conference.
Another former Twin Valley member here. Sturgis '02. The good ole days.
Add another Twin Valley alum to the tally.
Albion High School, '98. Our football team was terrible, I think we won 7 games combined my 4 years there. Basketball team made two trips to the Breslin Center though.
Now the school no longer exists, district was annexed into Marshall's about 6 years ago.
We lost to Albion in 1999, the first time in like 30 years. That loss, while super embarrassing, changed the course of our season. Ended up making it to the semifinals that year losing to St Mary’s. We played at Spartan stadium on the then AstroTurf.
Midland Dow High School Class of 84.
We seems to be consistently average, win 6 or 7 one year and then a surprise 9 or 10 win season. We won one State title in 1976 when we beat Farmington Harrison at the Silverdome.
Go Chargers!
Class of ‘15! I remember that was the standard when I was growing up but when I got to HS (didn’t play on the team) they pumped out 9-10 win seasons each year with a moderately deep playoff run mixed in every now and then.
Class of ‘15! I remember that was the standard when I was growing up but when I got to HS (didn’t play on the team) they pumped out 9-10 win seasons each year with a moderately deep playoff run mixed in every now and then.
Warren Woods-Tower High School (a school which is the result of the merger of Warren Woods High School and Warren Tower High School)
My high school went on a good run when I played back in the early-mid 2000’s. Made the playoffs 7 straight years and won a district title in 2006. We went toe to toe with Harrison in the Regionals. A team that had Mark Dell (who should have performed better than he did at MSU). I was a captain of the following years team.
We went through some tough years in the following years. I joined the coaching staff in 2017 and we made the district finals in ‘17 and ‘18 (won the MAC Gold in 2018) and lost to eventual state champions Harrison and King in both those games.
Last year we started 2-0 out scoring opponents 98-0. We then had a plethora of injuries and really collapsed and finished 2-7.
Overall the program has been pretty good, making the playoffs half of the seasons. Won the state championship in 1978 and until Dakota won in 2006, we were the only Macomb County school to win a state championship.
Bay City Central.
Great stadium. Shit program.
How does Morley Fraser keep his job? Has to be the worst high school coach - ever. All that talent that goes through there and consistently crap programs. No Elmer Engel walking through that door.
By the way, my Uncle was the last great football player to come out of BCC. Dennis Wirgowski. Before him there was another stud named Jim Kanicki.
“Nuts” is your uncle wow! I loved that man, god rest his soul!
Yes, tragic :(
He retired a few years ago, after some public drama within his personal life. I think the new coach came from Troy (?) or Utica Eisenhower (?) and this is his 3rd year, but first two years weren't so good.
Did not realize that. Hopefully the new guy turns that program around.
He won't ! Came to BC from Sterling Heights Stevenson, after a successful run at Whittemore- Prescott. The MAC RED (top 3 best conferences in the state) ate him alive. He stands a little better chance at BCC, but not much.
I got to play in that stadium my senior year. It was the only high school stadium I played in that I couldn’t hear my qb because of crowd noise. On a side note, my mom couldn’t stop talking about the Bob Seger concert that she and some friends saw in that stadium for weeks after we played there.
Our Junior year we played in front of an estimated 14k people against BCW. Very, very loud.Having the locker room underneath the stadium is pretty awesome too, albeit slightly unsanitary.
Played there for 3 years a long time ago. Did the concerts for 3 years in order to fund the athletic program. 2 Seger and 1 Ted Nugent. First was the best. Seger, Van Halen (had just released VH2) and Cheap Trick. Best HS stadium in mid Michigan.
Living in MA we have a tremendous tradition of HS football games at 10 AM on Thanksgiving. Feel cheated that we didn't have those in MI. BCC would've have been PERFECT for that setting. 2 bars on Columbus Ave, Bell Bar and Green Hut, are a stone throw away. I'm sure the lines to get in at 7AM for pre-game would've have been long.
That would be an amazing idea. There's a photo on the internet of Bob S. and Ted Nugent at the stadium with 30K in the stands and the field. The bars wouldn't be able to hold the locals with that idea. St. James and Grandpa Tony's would have to start serving as well.
Hey we beat them in the 95 playoffs. Fun memory.
Mostly good, not great. Not as good as when I was in school.
Unfortunately, they went downhill due to some poor coaching decisions, and I'm talking about a professionalism/personality standpoint, not X's and O's. Their newest coach is better, but he hasn't had the positive momentum that had been there for a while.
I'd say my alma mater is doing fairly well. St. Joe's Prep (PA) c/o '90. We've won like 4 of the last 7 state championships here in Pennsylvania, and have even sent a couple ballplayers to the good guys (from Victor Hobson, to Jon Runyan Jr). This past NFL draft, (3) former teammates were drafted: Runyan, D'Andre Swift, and John Reid...
Livonia Churchill-I have no idea, but when i was there they were awful. I don't think they won a game in all 4 years I was there.
Churchill is solid! Franklin has really taken off the last few years but not to the level of Belleville.
I'm Wayne Memorial from the mid to late 2000s. They have been very bad the last decade plus, but I was on.the last two teams to beat John Glenn (the hatred in that rivalry runs deep). We never had a prayer against Canton and luckily Belleville wasn't in the league at that time.
There’s a way to check. They actually aren’t too bad, D2 Regionals recently.
Oh man, mine is even worse than I thought when I looked at that site... A lot of talent used to come through my school too back in the day.
Ha, I'm also Churchill -- and based on your username, I'm a year younger than you. We were HORRID. I think we won 2 games my senior year, but yeah maybe one the other 3 seasons.
A former Churchill Charger here as well but probably a lot older than you. Up through my senior year we were decent, we had a 7-2 record and one of those loses was a close one to eventual State Champs Livonia Franklin. Since that time though, not so much.
The 1990's were an absolute joke. The first 7 years they one one game. Not one game per year, they won 1 game in 7 years. Six seasons at 0-9 and one season at 1-8. They finished the end of the decade with three 2-7 seasons for a 1990's record of 7-83.
Came up through the Muskegon system but graduated from Mona Shores.
I was always a starter but there was never a chance I would be a college player.
No. And I went to a very large high school in the chicago western suburbs. I had about 900 people in my graduating class and I hear it has grown since then. But for some reason we can’t piece together a good team on a consistent basis. We’ve had few (if any) that have gone to play D-1 on scholarship. All the while, the small Catholic high school town the street (Naz Academy) is sending 2 kids to Michigan alone (JJ McCarthy and AJ Henning).
Lyons Township? We went 2-0 against Naz in the playoffs. Once when I was there and once in the state finals a couple years after I left. Also Henning is LWE.
Yep. I went to LT. Class of '96. We have some very famous actors who went there (i.e. David Hasselhoff), but beyond Jeff Horncek, I'm surprised we can't produce more sports excellence.
And I stand corrected, AJ Henning is at Lincoln-Way East (for some reason I thought Naz).
He's really tight with McCarthy and they work out together a ton, so it's a really easy mistake to make.
You went to LT?
Not until after I graduated in 2009.
Go Clarkston Wolves.
So you wore a winged helmet?
Yes. From 7-9th grade at CMS and CJHS. Never wore the varsity winged helmet, alas.
I'm from the west side of the state (Portage Central - alum '85), but currently live in Lake Orion. There was that period that Clarkston just toyed with LO until finally last year we broke through.
For LO, we were very solid for several decades (80's and 90's) and peaked in the 00' with 2 state title appearances and 1 title (2010).
Then the corruption set in and the program declined drastically from 2010 - 2017 (unfortunately got a front row seat as my my oldest played from '15-'17. The program got too socially political, it was more of who you knew compared to what you could do. Coaching change in 2018 and some changes were done in the developmental teams (4th grade - 8th grade) appears to be turning things back upwards. And the future looks bright, my younger son played 7th grade team and went undefeated (smoking Clarkston's two teams by a combined score of 70 - 14)...
No D-1 players though, its kinda of a mantra. We will win only as a team, we do not have WB talent or Southfield, so we have to win by better execution and team play...
As for Portage Central, historically a very solid program winning 7-8 games annually and making the playoffs. We made it once to the state title game in '77 (Side note the starting QB for us was Pete Metzelaars who went on to play TE in the NFL for 16 years. Having a 6'8" QB meant that we ALWAYS went for it on 4th down. He literally would take the snaps and fall forward for 2-3 yards)
1984 - Portage Central v St. Joesph for the conference title, back and forth, went into overtime. St Joe won on a 46 yard FG by their QB. Who was their QB...... Mike Gillette. Never fully forgave him for that.....
I always joke with my Clarkston friend who played football at Alma briefly that he could have been Jeff Heath. Alas.
Lake Orion Alum ‘12. We had a great run from 08-2012, finally bringing home that elusive state championship in 2010. The program went down for a little bit after that but seems to be picking up steam again. Been a while since we’ve sent any recruits to Big Ten country though.
Class of 2015 here, seems like we're declining again but those few years I was in high school were always fun.
I'm jealous. The peak athletic achievement for my time there was basketball's semis run in 2009. Although, the 2008 team that took Draymond Green and Saginaw to double OT before losing in the quarterfinals was better. I still can't believe we blew a 5 point lead in the final minute of OT. Awful.
If you graduated in 2015 and played McGrath, Chiefs, and/or Clarkston middle/junior high school football and basketball, you definitely grew up with my brother. He would have been Clarkston class of 2015 too, but him and my family moved to the Philadelphia-area before he made it to high school.
I think I remember watching the 2008 run in my middle school class, then we had some bs loss to West Bloomfield a few years later in football.
Never really had much opportunity to play in any of those, unfortunately. Always wanted to but scheduling, always tied me up especially on weekends. So the only thing I was able to do by the time high school came around was marching band. However, I might have an idea of who your brother was, at least if he was another OSU fan.
May as well doxx him, Jordan Shasteen.
Yeah, that's who I thought it was. I had math with him back in 7th grade if I remember correctly.