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.
I graduated from coopersville high School on the west side of Michigan in 2007. Our team went to the state finals and lost to orchard lake saint Mary's. Coach retired a few years later and the program is not good anymore.
I remember in the late 90s and early 2000's that Coopersville was one of the best programs in the West Michigan area.
They will be back to solid again. Maybe not quite Coach Meerman "solid", but he was a legend. I have a lot of respect for the HC at Coopersville now. Good guy and very good coach.
I had not looked in some time but wow, Adrian really went to shit. They used to be at least OK. The last three years they wend 3-6, 0-9, 0-9 including getting outscored 96 to 439 last year. Last win was a 15 to 12 defeat of (not very good Ypsi) on 9/15/17. So I am going to have to say not any good.
I played for Belleville class of 97'. We were decent, but the class of 96' was great. Former UM linebacker Ian Gold was a running back and linebacker. Used to have to practice with him daily. Guy was a beast. Also, played with former NFL'er Chris Jenkins who went to Belleville as well as his younger brother Cullen.
Belleville over the last few years has been great. They just can't get over the hump and get to the State Championship game. It's been fun attending games and going back to my school to see them doing well. They are considered to be the "Cass Tech of the West" minus any state titles. (Former CT coach is coach at Belleville)
Belleville should be good to have another title run hopefully if football resumes someday.
Penn Hills (Western PA) - One Wolverine (Cullen Christian) with notables including Aaron Donald, Bill Fralic, and handful of guys in between. 4 Straight State titles 1976-1979* (*79 forfeited due to ineligible player), 1995, 2018. Pretty solid program. While I was there, played against Brandon Short and LaVar Arrington (PSU) and a handful of other quality guys.
Lakewood (OH) St Edward
Yes, one of the best in the state annually. Not very good when I was there (late '90s). Traditional hockey, wrestling, and basketball powerhouse.
Orchard Lake St. Mary's Prep '13. Got to play with the likes of James Ross, Daelin Hayes (ND), Allen Robinson (PSU), Jalen Watts-Jackson (ugh, but great guy), Van Jefferson (Ole Miss, UF), and many other greats (Speedy Eaglet and Josh Ross were Frosh the year after I graduated) the and it was pretty surreal how great it was to ride those guys' coat tails to many Ford Field visits and a great overall athletic experience that I took for granted during those four years.
Ah yes. 25 consecutive playoff appearences with 3 state titles and 2 runner-up. Legendary coach retired last year and new coach is a young man who played football for Meeeechigan. Hopefully the streak will continue.?
Lakeland high school 2002-05, the seniors my freshmen year didn’t win a game and my class won around 4 in four years, so we were pretty awful. Our cross-town “rival” was Milford who routinely stomped us with Jim Presley, UM 4* recruit who couldn’t make it in class. He was a monster though.
Jackson Lumen Christi High School with 11 state championships. We lost a Hall of Fame coach (murdered) shortly after his 2nd state championship (1977,1979). It was a long dry spell until his successor got his rhythm. Coach Brogan now has 9 state titles (1996, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2016, 2017, 2018).
I went here to get the number of championships:
https://www.mhsaa.com/sports/football/record-book/championship-game-records
...and found some interesting facts:
- LCHS: 22 straight playoff appearances
- LCHS Coach Brogan is 2 wins away from 3rd place all time (State of Michigan)
Championship Game Records:
- LCHS: Fastest score (opening TD return)
- LCHS: Quickest score by pass play (1st play from scrimmage)
- LCHS: Most points in quarter (35)
- LCHS: Most rushing TDs (7)
- LCHS: Fewest Passing Attempts (1)
- LCHS: fewest Punts (0)
I did a Find on the Championship Game page and "Lumen" got 33 hits including 5 players with over 200 rushing yards!
Note: This is what you get as a response when someone is unemployed and confined to his home. (Written while listening to Springsteen's Glory Days...)
Pretty good. Had a hall of fame type coach with 300 wins, he ran the Wing T. Won the state (PA) championship the year after I graduated. First (only?) team from central PA to win the state title, usu. dominated by Philly or Pittsburgh teams as you might expect.
That team's star player committed to Michigan actually: fullback who ran for like 30 TDs and 2000 yards. Transferred to Stanford. Drafted and started for Chucky's Raiders, same team as Nosdoom, Snow Bowl, etc. Randomly ran into him during SF Jazz Fest, both our minds blown
John Ritchie? CVHS? I had a CVHS teacher (Mr. Sanderson) when I was at Governors School in the summer of 93. Good guy, Sanderson - said Ritchie was a solid dude.
Yep! Yeah, he's indeed a solid guy, had a lot of interests outside of sports, but still carved out a nice career for himself in the league. Madden really liked him and gave him some shine during broadcasts - he had some unresolved scar tissue on his forehead slamming into LBs for years and always bled all over his face during games.
Ended up with the McNabb era Eagles close to home. Did some broadcasting work for regional sports and last I heard tried getting into politics
Go WO! and not great. During my 4 years our football team went 3-33 in mid to late 90s. The band had a hard time finding times to play the cheers and fight song.
Some nice Wolverines from the WO, along with a Super Bowl champ(closer to my time)
I think it’s hard to build good consistent football in such a beach community. Some real nice athletes from various sports from WO but never seemed to have a football mentality in the community.
Arthur Hill. They were good in the 70’s I hear and then good again in the early 90’s. I graduated in 97 and they were not very good when I was there and I don’t think they have been very good since. I do remember Sam Sword playing when I was there my freshman year.
Wasn't the 1973 team unbeaten and unscored on? One of the greatest teams in Michigan HS football history.
Yes. It was the greatest team in Michigan history. I work with 3 that played on that team.
That’s a fucking incredible stat. What did the outscore opponents by- 287-0? Unreal
Grosse Pointe South Blue Devils. Trending from good to mediocre to awful during my years there from '68 to '71, with no real period of sustained excellence since, either. Some good years mixed in with a lot of mediocre-to-bad years.
However, 2018 and 2019 were pretty damn good, including back-to-back shutout asskickings of Grosse Pointe North.
Well...the school I attended, not so much. We won two state titles in AZ when I was there (in the band at least!) but we've fallen off the map. But, I'll claim the school I currently teach at: Chandler High School...we've won the last four state titles in the largest classification and have put players like Cam Jordan (brilliant, brilliant kid) Brett Hundley, Paul Perkins, Adam Archuletta and a few others in the NFL. We had the 3rd overall pick a few years ago (Dion Jordan) but he didn't amount to too much. We can claim Terrell Suggs for his sophomore and junior years, but he transferred to our rival for is senior year (long story)..so yeah...the school I went to for four years, meh. the school I've taught at for 26...that's the one I want!
My high school, MICDS, formerly known as St. Louis Country Day, has had a lot of football success. Was in the medium sized Missouri divisions, now in the second highest. In the last 50 years has been in 14 football championships, winning 7. Produced a good amount of D1 talent, including Mike Mayweather, the all time leading rusher at Army, which is pretty impressive considering who has gone through there. Has also sent kids to play at Mizzou, Northwestern, BC, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Duke, and Harvard. When I was there in the early to mid 80s, they were in the championship 3 of the 4 years. I was on the swim team, and we placed 3rd, 1st, 2nd and 3rd in state, beating up on the big schools. The school definitely has overachieved for its size (only 53 in my graduating class).
Our biggest rivals produced Zeke Elliott, Jehu Chesson, and Steve Atwater (8 time Pro Bowler). Atwater was singlehandedly a beast, an incredible athlete.
Assumption Crusaders. Yep still called that.
Its' a Canadian school so I mean how good we/they were is relative as hell. Kicked a lot of rouges though
My senior year, 99 season, our team was ranked #3 in the nation by USA today.
My high school's team tends not to be very good, but it is sending a high four-star DE to Michigan this fall.
We've won 3 state titles in 8 years, had a runner up to a top 20 team nationally, a semi finals appearance, a quarterfinal appearance, and a 81-21 record in that time frame. 3rd largest classification in Illinois.
Tiny Catholic school in downstate Illinois, middling success throughout my tenure, then my senior year we get a new young coach who lights a fire. My freshman and sophomore years in college, we win the small school state championship and lose one game total. Young coach says buh-bye, starts his way up the ladder (ends up as a coordinator at Purdue for a few years), and school enrollment starts its inexorable decline into "not big enough for a football program" numbers. Very recently though, it's turned into a girls hoops powerhouse, cranking out a couple of D1 players every season.
Three Rivers High School - Go Cats! Class of 2004, 2003 state champs (my senior year). TR was pretty good from 2000-2010 winning conference titles every year, and playoff runs most years. I only really know 2000-2008. We just had a huge run of talent through the school during those years. We were so loaded in 2003 that we had kids come in during 3/4Q for mop-up duty and still rush for 100+ yards. We had even more kids that just didn't even play football that more than likely would have been starters for other schools in our conference. Just random loads of athletic talent through a public school. Also we were huge. Our entire OL, our smallest player was 215 lbs and 6' - we then ranged 6'3''+ 260-300 pounds with most all of us being All Conference or better. We just were loaded with size speed and talent.
2002 we lost in regional finals against Jackson Lumen Christy in a tough game, that game still makes me sad. We actually went to food poison them after the game with some bad provided Subway food we gave them for the ride home. They lost the next game because a bunch of their players were out of with food poisoning for the week - sorry JLC...
2003 we won state, after starting 0-2 on the season losing to Byron Center, and Grand Rapids Catholic Central (who had an ineligibile player on the PAT team, and had to forfeit so record book says we won, but we all know the truth). We wrecked DeWitt in the finals at the Silverdome. Hamilton was our only real tough playoff game that year, took a game winning FG with seconds left to get by. Although we had 5 turnovers that game, or it would have never been close.
TRHS went back to the finals I think in 2008? But didn't win. The conference then merged a couple teams and ever since the program has been mediocre, making the playoffs, but not winning the conference. The talent levels dropped off.
No. Not since the 60s.
Played at Riverview High School in the Huron league (class of 90). We always had good teams. Won the league many years. Usually go to the playoffs and then lost to Farmington Hills Harrision back then. They have made a few runs to the state championship. Alma Mater of Lloyd Carr and Bill McCartney.
Ha - we may have played each other - Riverview Gabriel Richard ‘89. We typically hovered a bit under .500 in the catholic league when I was there . You guys typically kicked our butts. Haven’t followed much since I left MI , but I think GR had a few decent years in the 2000s - more notably, though, I believe they put in a *burgundy* (gag -school colors) artificial Turf field behind the school. We always had to play at Wyandotte Roosevelt’s field
I'm sure we did. We always played GR first game of the year at our place, because they didn't have their own field, we would alternate home/away jerseys each year. There is actually a trophy for that game, that I believe GR has never seen because they never won a game. Some of us fellas would go over to GR that week and paint the bell out front maroon and gold, do donuts on the practice field, etc, usual high school high jinks. We all new a bunch of kids on that team since many lived in Riverview. I don't believed they have played in years now.
Farmington Hills Harrison. Class of '85.
Just looked it up...
-11-1 my freshman year
-12-0 my sophomore year
-8-1 my junior year
-10-1 my senior year
Yes.
Livonia Stevenson '96. We did give Michigan a starting quarterback in David Hall (not the Rock Financial one) back in the 1980s and we did make a Division 1 State title game in 2007, but usually good enough to make the playoffs, but then losing to one of the traditional powers in the opening round. (I think we lost to Detroit Catholic Central in five consecutive playoff openers at one point.)
We did okay when I was in HS, although we were then and still are better known as a basketball school. I was a wee tyke and didn't play, but still got into the games for free 'cause I was in the band! Our head coach (and my track coach) was Pete Schmidt, who followed me to Albion, won a national championship there, and then went to Indiana to eventually become their OC. Was on his way to becoming a P5 HC but cancer got him unfortunately. Back in HS, I got to march at the Silverdome my freshman year when we lost to EGR in the Class B finals the first year they were played at the 'Dome. Since then we've been up and down, made it to the finals another year, playoffs often but not all the time. I don't follow them as closely as I used to, since it has been more than 40 years...
Now at the school where I teach we are in the playoffs every year, and we won a title a few years back before I got here, then lost in the finals a year ago.
Saw this post and decided to finally create an account after browsing this site for Michigan sports opinions ever since I decided to go to school here a couple of years ago.....
Edwardsburg 18' here, we have been a Division 3 and 4 power here in Michigan for the past decade. Until 2010, we were not very good, only having made the playoffs 4 times in school history. We switched to the Power T offense (commonly known as the Wing T) in 2008, and since 2010, we have dominated both the Lakeland and Wolverine Conferences, winning the past 7 Wolverine Conference championships. In that timespan, we have won 6 district and 5 regional championships, finally making it to Ford Field my senior year (2017), losing to a GRCC team led by our own Jalen Mayfield. The next year, we made it back to the championship, winning our first state championship in 2018 over Chelsea.
We have encountered success despite a lack of college talent as compared to other schools, as only two players from my town have played Division I football. One was Isaiah Miller, a running back who had to transfer to school in Florida to get noticed but eventually ended up at Mizzou before transferring recently. The other is Josh Priebe, an offensive lineman who was offered by UM but will be a freshman at Northwestern and enrolled early. We have also had PWO's at MSU and ND, but other than that mainly D2 and D3 guys.
But yeah, Edwardsburg just doesn't have much competition until the playoffs now. For reference, since the 2014 season (my freshman year) we have lost 2 conference games. I'm thinking that they will get pushed out of the Wolverine soon and into the SMAC where we could play teams more at our level like St. Joe, Lakeshore and the Portage schools.
Great game last fall between the 2 best power T teams in the state. The Eddies beat the Zeeland West Dux in a matchup of Jedi vs. his student.
My high school won one game in 4 years.
UPVOTE because that’s a good post and your pic checks out
I played for Romulus High near metro airport in the 70's. The Eagles are always bad. I did go on and play at Saginaw Valley for Muddy Waters after my time at Romulus.
Orchard Lake St. Mary's We sent between 7 - 10 football players and maybe 5 - 7 baseball players to Michigan. 7 - 8 State Championships football 3 - 4 in baseball.
Sturgis High School
Present day, not good, not good at all
20ish years ago when I was in school, intermittent success. In 1998 we had an undefeated regular season only to lose to Freddie Russel in the playoffs. Technically we lost to the entire Romulus team but Freddie Russel did all the damage himself.
Freddie Russell and the moving company. They had a big OL. I think a lot of the guys were carrying bad weight. That might have been the last good Romulus team.
You're right, though 14 year old me did not have an eye for O-line play. All I remember seeing 20 times that game was little Freddie disappear into the line, we appeared to have him stopped for minimal gain, then he would squirt out the other side and run for 30 yards.
Our starting QB and safety, Brian Keim, would go on to have a good career for CMU and then coached at Stevensville Lakeshore for several years before stepping down after the 2019 season.
Graduated Traverse City Central 89’. Won Class A titles in 1978, 1985, 1988. Sent 3 guys from my class to UofM in 88/89’. Josh Wuerful, Mike Nadlicki, Mark Burkholder.
Currently Executive Chef at Traverse City St. Francis Division 7 titles 1992, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009) Fed Joe Kerridge(UofM), all 3 Bullough boys(MSU), Matt Zakrzewski(Indiana Hoosiers).
I did not play, but I went to probably the best football school in the state of Michigan, Farmington Hills Harrison. Unfortunately, the school closed after the 18-19 school year. They were state champs every year that I attended, though.
Go Hawks! Class of ‘85 here.
Historically River Rouge was always a basketball school. But this year won our first Football state title, Division 3!