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.
Walled Lake Western. Consistently good since the 90s but ironically had some down years when I was there
Dude, my buddies and I still haven’t recovered from the 99 game. Yes, we had our two rbs out and tackles, but hats off to you guys for beating us.
My HS team, Fostoria, OH was good in the late 80s and 90s. Went 2-2 in the State Final. I played in one, a 21-14 loss my junior year. Sr. year we got beat in the semis by the eventual champion. Following year was our first win. We were pretty consistent getting in the playoffs back then. Now, losing record about every year. Ohio has school of choice and we have a bunch of smaller schools around my hometown. And a ton of kids are now going to those surrounding schools. They're dropped down division sizes because of it. Back in my day we were the DII. Now they are DIV. We've had 7 NFL players. Currently ex-Hawkeye, ex-Packer and current Bills player DB Micah Hyde is the only one in the league. Prior to him it was DB Damon Moore, the ex-Buckeye, ex-Eagle, and ex-Bear. Richard Newsome played one year for the Saints. He was a DB for the Spartans.
Damon Moore...oh the nightmares. I coached at Bedford when the GLL was still good. That year we had Charles Woodson at Fremont, Moore at Fostoria, along came Ben Roethlisberger, Orlando Pace, and a handful of other kids who went on to play D1 from various programs. I'll never forget at Fostoria. I had two DE who were 230 ish each, pretty solid kids...first play I said whatever it takes put Moore on his back, let him know you are on him all night...
They did what I asked, he took a deep drop, stiff-armed one to the ground like a five-year-old brother, and after he heaved a long bomb...one arm body slammed the other...They came off the field with eyes wide open, and we changed the plan to...when you see him drop back, just drop into the flat and pray he tosses a hot shot to the back coming out to your area...he ran punts back, he ran kicks back, he ran over the line, he picked off passes he destroyed wideouts...that kid was a different kind of nasty football player...he was amazing to watch. That Woodson kid wasn't bad either.
In those days, Bedford was not great, played some serious talent, and once they moved to the SEC in Michigan, and hired a new coach...who excused himself on a twitter rant unfortunately... they have been playoff-caliber a lot. We had some really talented players as many have said. Just horrible early coaching. Our senior year, five of us went on to play at various division one programs but couldn't win more than three games in a season.
Ah, the good old days and the Great Lakes League. Bedford actually beat us my Sr year by a couple points. Toledo Whitmer was always king of the castle back then, although we did beat them a few years. Thank you for Chris Wormley Whitmer. Much bigger school than the rest of us. Although Oregon Clay was big, just not good in football. I wrestled and Bedford ruled the roost and still kicks ass today. Think at GLL we got beat like 70-2. I tied my guy, 2-2. only scorer.
Damon Moore was extremely good. I never knew him well. He was 4 years younger than me but his brother, whom was a LB for the Toledo Rockets, coached varsity so I knew him better.
Fun fact about Woodson’s Fremont Ross teams. They never beat Fostoria. We were very good back then.
Yeah, it's crazy. As good at Woodson was, Fostoria was just gritty blue-collar tough as nails. They hit so hard, and just punished you. Our boys were respectable against most of the GLL...just not those teams of that era. Whitmer...they are KILLING it now. So much money, complete revamp of their stadium and weight facility. They had Roethlisberger's nephew at QB and he's a heck of an athlete. Stud QB, throws shot and discus, runs sprints...he's a beast.
Clay always played us tough, they were about the same size as us. Whitmer at one point had close to 900 kids in a class on a regular basis and at one point I believe was the largest high school in the state of Ohio. Now they draw from the City of Toledo...it's one of the reasons their coach bailed and pulls the same BS at Saline "recruiting" like crazy.
I want to say the year Bedford somehow beat you...Our starting QB went on to play WR for Michigan in the 97 season. We had some good talent that year. It was just tough facing Clay, Whitmer, Fostoria, Sandusky, Napoleon, etc...it was a rough league. Add Findlay and take away Sylvania Northview... there was no week off.
Catholic Central, late 90's. It's a great day to be a Shamrock!
Great day to wear the blue and white. Class of ‘01.
Indeed! Those were fun times, and a really great time for CC athletics.
#beatrice
Dominance of the 90s! Miss the Boys Bowl played against Rice at Wisner. Need to make that happen again
Graduated in '02, so I got to see the state Champs my freshman and senior years.
My school is pretty good. We're located right in the southwest corner of the state so we don't usually play tough teams. We had one player commit to Michigan in Corey Malone-Hatcher, also sent a player to Western back in one of Fleck's early recruiting classes there (2015 would be it). We had a baseball player attend Michigan before he got drafted by the pros.
Our football team is alright though the last championship we won was back in my senior year, the 2015 season, where we won district.
So your a St. Joesph Bear..... There is more history to your program than what you are noting. See my previous post. St. Joe provided Michigan Mike Gillette, PK '85-'88. Was an All State QB, PK, and Punter for your team.....
Went to Lakeshore until my freshman year, they were pretty good when Coach Dock was there, consistently going to the playoffs in the 2000-2010s and beat St Joseph 18 years in a row (haven’t really followed them since). They have great athletic complexes especially for football and baseball and soccer.
then moved to Florida for my sophomore year and went to Martin County high, they send baseball, basketball and football players to some D-1 programs and to the pros (Justin Simmons plays for Denver Broncos and went to BC while Don Brown was there.) But their football program wasn’t good. Although it was a much bigger school then Lakeshore, their “home” football stands are smaller then Lakeshore’s “away” section. Always baffled me. Their basketball stadium was really big and nice though.
Yup.
Jackson Lumen Christi. 11 state titles, including 8 in the past 20 years.
Show off.
I assure you, I had NOTHING to do with it.
I went to one of their semi-final games. They were playing our rival and my cousin was Jackson's running back. I was amazing how they somehow had 59 guys my exact size (6'2 220).
I went to Parma-Western and we hated you guys. Of course, I couldn't care less nowadays! I like to track players from Lumen and see how they perform in college.
Just had our first player drafted last year! Sure, a Spartan, but I forgive him.
I dated someone from Western when I was in college. She would have fit right in at Lumen. Yes, she was an arrogant b***h.
Parma Western Panther here as well! Always got our teeth kicked in against Lumen.
Infamous Titan nation, you guys were the DarthVader of football when I was in High School. I have to admit they had some good teams, I used to go Withington for Saturday games after our Friday night games and watch Christi play whoever. They brought in schools from all over the state and it was good football. The uni's look too much like ND for my taste, I never could get behind a private school that looked like that. Good football program without any doubt.
For some reason our AD decided to have us open every season by getting our asses kicked by Lumen Christi. I think our varsity went like 0-20 against them.
I had no idea that Lumen Christi has been that dominant. Really impressive! Makes my Maroons' win over you guys for the '07 title more impressive...
Go Maroons! We took you guys down in the Superior Dome on our way to handing Lumen Christi their first state championship loss in '05. (Muskegon Oakridge alum)
It's tradition that Muskegon people support the other area schools against outsiders. Especially in the playoffs.
It helps that the Muskegon area is a football hotbed, especially now that Mona Shores is really good.
Ravenna is coming back too. They were elite for a long time but fell off for a while.
Oakridge beating JLC that year was one of the biggest in playoff history. Maybe actually the biggest. If I remember correctly the state high school reporters were saying JLC was the 5th or 6th best team in the state regardless of class. Then Oakridge didn't just squeak by, they were clearly the better team.
Got to watch that game on the sidelines suited up as a sophomore.
My high school alma mater had a dream run and made the state championship game only to get walked on by you guys about 20 years ago. Before my time though
State champs 11 times by MHSAA standards, with 2 "mythical" state championships before the playoffs.
Teach: East Grand Rapids or Mendon?
Good job narrowing them down. Seems like you know Michigan High School Football. Let's see if you can guess of this clue: The coach I played for at went 10-0 in state title games.
Go Hornets! (Mendon)
Good football school with a number of State titles, but very low division... TC St. Francis
I enjoy telling people that I was on two state championship teams while at SF and do my best to avoid mentioning the division we played in haha. Though, we did beat the eventual Div. 6 champion (Kingsley) in the regular season in 2005 and our lone loss was to the eventual Div. 5 champion (Saginaw Nouvel) .
Go Glads!
Yes, won 3 State Titles in the last 5 seasons and last year beat the favorite in our class 41-0 to win the state title. We'll be favored to win the next couple too.
I think they've gotten better since I was in HS back from '04-'08, but they're not the type that competes to win state titles. I think they won one back in the late 60s and were runner-up once in the 90s, but that's it. Looks like they've won regionals the past few years but don't fare well much after that. They do usually beat their rival every year, and I think the streak has been going on for 20 years. Its essentially UM-OSU in that regard.
But they were (and I believe still are?) far from being a powerhouse. My year, we had one guy go to Ga Tech on scholarship, another go to Fordham, and I think that's it. Maybe someone else got a D-II offer but I don't recall. Our biggest football alum is Jay Feely, who ironically also went to Michigan. So we do have a claim to fame, but no other big names of note.
I grew up in Tampa, so even if my HS has gotten better, they are surrounded by IMG, Armwood, Plant, and a few other local powerhouses that are churning out top-tier caliber talent every year. I looked it up, and my HS sends a few guys every few years to places like Stanford, Duke or the service academies. Saw one guy got to UF and another to Iowa, but not names I recognize as being serious players on the field now.
I'm not sure they've sent anyone to places like Clemson, OSU, Alabama, Georgia, or any of your traditional powerhouses of the last 10 years. I'd tell you they haven't. But you go down the road 15-20 minutes in any direction and you'll find a school that has.
My high school (in the suburbs of Omaha, NE) only opened in 2003. They were absolute shit for the first decade of their existence with a couple of decent seasons in between. They were a lot like Michigan in that we could seemingly never compete with our biggest rival, and we often lost to them very badly.
But my senior year, in the fall of 2013, we finally turned a corner. We beat our arch-rival for the first time in like 5 years (it was a huge deal, everyone stormed the field and everything!) and have only lost to them once since. Nowadays, they're pretty decent. They've never won a state title or anything but they pretty much always make the playoffs. I like to check in with them every fall just to see how they're doing.
Saginaw Swan Valley. Graduated a few years ago. We always have good teams but just can’t seem to get the job done.
Sounds like we went to the same high school.
We won the State Championship last year. So, yeah We're alright...
Davison Class of 95!
LET'S GO CARDS!
Yes. Megatron went to mine.
I originally was going to go to a school in Wausau, Wisconsin with all of my lifelong friends, but my family moved to PA about a month before high school started for me. I was pretty good, and was almost always the fastest/quickest on the field. As a corner, I had dreams of being the next Jason Seahorn!
Anyway, my first high school was Manheim Township in Lancaster, PA. We had a 5 star QB (Class of 2007) leading us who was right behind Clausen and Mallett and ahead of Cam Newton and Tyrod Taylor in the rankings back when rivals/scout was a thing.
Overall, my one season there was great, and we went really far in the playoffs. However, the coach really made a toxic environment. He was one of those Saban-type personalities and really sucked the fun out of playing. Worse yet, he turned football - glorified exercise - into a full-time job.
After my first year there, we moved about 2 miles away, but the districts got rezoned and I ended up at another school district. This school - Ephrata, was always the laughing stock of everyone, including their own students. The athletics sucked and the school was known as Methrata for a reason. However, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there on the team because, even though we knew we would probably lose, I was actually having fun. Unfortunately, an ACL injury caused me to miss the end of the year, and I never played.
Ephrata ended up losing every game in my senior season, and I believe that they only won 4-5 games total from 2008 until this past season...actually, just looked it up, they were really bad indeed:
2008- 0-10 - senior season
2009- 2-8
2010- 2-8
2011- 1-9
2012- 2-8
2013- 0-10
2014- 0-10
2015- 0-10
2016- 0-11
2017- 0-11-1
2018- 5-5
2019 - 6-4
According to Rich Rod, 2020 will be The Year! lol
I originally was going to go to a school in Wausau, Wisconsin with all of my lifelong friends, but my family moved to PA about a month before high school started for me. I was pretty good, and was almost always the fastest/quickest on the field back in Middle School football in WIsconsin. As a corner, I had dreams of being the next Jason Seahorn!
Anyway, my first high school was Manheim Township in Lancaster, PA. We had a 5 star QB (Class of 2007) leading us who was right behind Clausen and Mallett and ahead of Cam Newton and Tyrod Taylor in the rankings back when rivals/scout was a thing.
Overall, my one season there was great, and we went really far in the playoffs. However, the coach really made a toxic environment. He was one of those Saban-type personalities and really sucked the fun out of playing. Worse yet, he turned football - glorified exercise - into a full-time job.
Like Saban and others like him, the coach was a mercenary for hire, and used the QB to get hired at some traditional powerhouse in Pitt/Western-PA.
After my first year there, we moved about 2 miles away, but the districts got rezoned and I ended up at another school district. This school - Ephrata, was always the laughing stock of everyone, including their own students. The athletics sucked and the school was known as Methrata for a reason. However, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there on the team because, even though we knew we would probably lose, I was actually having fun. Unfortunately, an ACL injury caused me to miss the end of the year, and I never played.
Ephrata ended up losing every game in my senior season, and I believe that they only won 4-5 games total from 2008 until this past season...actually, just looked it up, they were really bad indeed:
2008- 0-10 - senior season
2009- 2-8
2010- 2-8
2011- 1-9
2012- 2-8
2013- 0-10
2014- 0-10
2015- 0-10
2016- 0-11
2017- 0-11-1
2018- 5-5
2019 - 6-4
Now for the "fun" part of the story
...that 5 star QB was named Pat Bostik. He ended up being Dave Wannstedt's prized recruit for the class of 2007. Bostik ended up playing in his freshman year, and capped it off by beating an undefeated Rich Rodriguez coached and Pat White/Steve Slaton led West Virginia that was favored by 28 points.
This win prevented West Virginia from securing its guaranteed spot in the BCS championship game and gave Rich Rodriguez the opportunity to court offers, including one from a school that just saw its longtime coach retire.
Had my high school QB not have started that game, or not have scored the go-ahead TD of that game, Michigan may be in a very different spot than it is today.
Growing up, I went to a small school that's claim to fame was beating Detroit Country Day when Monte Clark's son played for them (who is Monte Clark? showing my age). We did manage to send a player to Mich BB, Austin Davis is also from Onsted. Onsted has been all over the map from great (lost in State Championship game) to awful (2 years without a win in late 70's). I was in HS in the Mid 80' and in that time we began to win on a consistent basis, I finished 8-1 as a junior and 6-3 as a Senior. Of course, we never sniffed playoffs because, well, I'm old.
Currently, I'm living in Paw Paw and of course Carson Barnhardt recently enrolled to play for UM football. The team seems to be consitently good, they do take a yearly beating from Edwardsburg. Outside of that they've been pretty good for the last 15 years.
London High School (20 miles west of Columbus) when I played In 2010 we went 5-5 senior year of 2011 we went 4-6. Playoff drought from 1999-2016. Ever since they hired a young couch from a prep school in Columbus they went to the playoffs 3 straight years and won an average of 11 game. Must be nice.