Bellaire's 'Captain' Robinson Making Senior-Year Impact Sure to Last
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
February 18, 2022
Oh, the glory days.
When Paul Koepke took over Bellaire basketball, he stepped into some mighty big coaching shoes.
He’s got the Eagles on the right track as they work to return to being a powerhouse program. The culture almost fits the visions he’s had since taking over for legendary and hall of fame coach Stan Sexton. They’re 8-7 overall and 6-5 in Ski Valley League play.
But today he’s preparing to lose his only senior starter, Cole Robinson, perhaps better known as The Captain. Robinson may not be as famous as the professional athletes whose careers led to being known as The Captain — baseball’s Derek Jeter and hockey’s Steve Yzerman —but he is to the locals.
“I have a bunch of freshmen,” noted Koepke, who’s been around the Eagles since the early 2000s as a middle school and varsity assistant coach. “I couldn’t ask for a better set up than having him as my captain.”
Robinson, a three-sport star for the Eagles, joined Bellaire’s 22-2 varsity team his freshman year as the postseason run ended with a 50-41 upset loss to Suttons Bay in the Regional. That loss ended a string of deep postseason runs covering decades. It was Koepke’s first year at the helm.
Today the Eagles are preparing to host Fife Lake Forest Area with their captain possibly on the sideline. He suffered an ankle injury in this week’s 44-32 win over Pellston. Koepke helped the senior guard off the floor after his first career injury.
He saw a glimpse of how things could be next year without The Captain, but he loved how his Eagles responded and how Robinson handled it.
The Eagles immediately went into a “win it for Cole” mode. Bellaire hopes tonight’s game will be the only game the 6-foot, 205-pounder needs to sit for a full recovery.
“Cole was on the bench cheering like a mad man after the injury,” Koepke said. “The kids were high-fiving him, and he was coaching kids up.
“We probably had better effort after that,” he continued. “We competed at a higher level, and I think we won that one for Cole.”
The injury didn’t hamper his leadership skills a bit. The Eagles beat Pellston with the same freshmen and sophomores Robinson’s had under his wings for some time.
Robinson has high hopes the young players will help win a District championship like the Eagles regularly did during their glory days. He has yet to win a District title – in any sport – during his years at Bellaire. He’s got this basketball season and his senior baseball season to experience it.
He did experience a first earlier this basketball season. Bellaire beat Gaylord St. Mary 69-62 on Feb. 8, the first win Cole and his senior teammates had experienced over the Snowbirds in any sport.
Robinson, who admits football is his favorite sport followed by baseball, likes helping his young teammates on the court. And he can’t wait to see them on the baseball field.
The Eagles have racked up more basketball wins this season than the previous two combined.
“For us, this is a big improvement,” Robinson said. “We’re a really young team.
“I think we’re going to surprise a few teams in the Districts,” he continued. “It’s going to be a tough one.”
Ellsworth, last year’s champion, will likely get the top seed in the 2022 tournament, hosted by Central Lake. Boyne Falls and Gaylord St. Mary also will vie for the title. The Eagles lost to Ellsworth 70-52 in the season opener. The freshmen were coming off just a two-game middle school season due to COVID-19 cancellations.
“Our record is starting to show we’re not just a bunch of freshmen just being freshmen,” Koepke said. “We’re starting to get pretty good.”
Bellaire starts three freshmen, a sophomore and The Captain.
“This man is selfless,” Koepke said about Robinson. “He’s the first one to come to me when I get there (to practice or games) to give me a fist bump and ask me how my day is going.
“Captain means a lot of things. He’s the last one to go off the bus. He cleans the bus. He’s the last one to leave the locker room.”
Robinson is averaging nearly six points and three assists per game. He also hauls in eight rebounds per contest. He’s coming from an outstanding football season as the Eagles’ tight end, tackle and defensive end. He had two touchdown receptions in the fall.
Jayden Hansen, a freshman, leads the team in scoring at more than 15 per game. Another freshman, Drake Koepke, averages 12 points. Hanson is among Northern Michigan’s leading rebounders. Koepke, the coach’s son, is among the area’s leaders in steals.
“We’re always looking for the third scorer,” Koepke said.
But the starting lineup is set.
“We finally kind of found out these are our guys, our lineup,” Koepke said. “We’re growing now.
“We understand who we are, and now we have to fix some things we struggle with,” he continued. “Right now we have a great attitude, and we are peaking.”
Robinson goes back a long way in Bellaire. He was a water boy for the varsity team when his father, Brock, was the Eagles’ head football coach. Brock died suddenly in 2020, and had served as The Captain’s youth football and baseball coach and high school football coach his freshmen and sophomore seasons.
The younger Robinson also lost his 2020 baseball season due to COVID. But he has persevered. Today he’s a regular on the court coaching youth basketball and his youthful teammates.
“You can say it’s been a little tough —I obviously miss him of course,” The Captain said. “He loved sports just as much as I do.
“I think about him usually before most sporting events – especially football games I’d think about him beforehand.”
Coach Koepke, who also assisted Coach Robinson in football, is amazed by his captain’s career and his contribution to the Eagles’ success.
“He is always a positive person,” Koepke said. “There are so many things he does.”
If the Eagles don’t make the great run this season as they have in the past, the veterans they’ll have next season along with others impacted by Robinson should help them return to the glory days.
“You are going to be a better person because you met Cole,” Koepke said. “That’s basically what Cole is.
“We’re all going to miss Cole. He’s made me a better person for sure.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Bellaire’s Cole Robinson looks for an open teammate during a game against Johannesburg-Lewiston. (Middle) Robinson works to bring down a Bear Lake ball carrier. (Below) Robinson works with players in Bellaire’s youth program on their shooting form. (Top and middle photos courtesy of the Antrim Review; below photo courtesy of the Bellaire athletic department.)
Cisco Recalled for Jefferson Greatness, Care for Kids & Staff Over Half-Century as Coach
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
October 1, 2026
Marc Cisco was a gruff old football coach who was intimidating and set in his ways.
Not really.
In fact, to those who knew him, Cisco was more like a teddy bear who had passions for good football, watching student-athletes play the game right and spending time with his close circle of friends.
Cisco died Sept. 24 in Grand Rapids at the age of 90, leaving a legacy on high school football in southeast Michigan. He was best known for coaching the Monroe Jefferson varsity football team for a remarkable 47 years. His teams won 241 games, including the 1994 Class B championship in the Pontiac Silverdome.
“It appeared he was this mean old guy. He might yell at you, but he would be the first one to pat you on the back and tell you good job,” said one of his former players, Jeff Potter. “He really cared about his kids and nurtured his players. He was mostly a big teddy bear.”
Cisco made a career in education as a teacher and coach. In addition to coaching the Jefferson football team for 47 years, he coached track & field for almost as many seasons.
His son, Zeke, played for his father and was the Jefferson quarterback. Later, Zeke was a walk-on at the University of Nebraska. When Zeke was away at college and would come home for a visit each May, he would volunteer to work at the Jefferson Invitational track meet because that’s where he would find his dad.
“He was just a coach,” Zeke said. “My childhood was all about sports. If I wanted to see him in the fall, I had to go to practice. If I want to hang around with him in the winter, he kept score at basketball games, so I would go to the basketball games. He kept the scoreboard during wrestling meets. I usually would sit under his legs, underneath the scorers’ table. I would hit him in the legs a lot because he would get bored and forget to add the score on.
“He was nestled in the fabric of the high school in every way, shape or form.”
Niles Kruger, sports editor at The Monroe News, said when Zeke was at Nebraska, Marc Cisco was usually one of the first coaches every Friday to call in his stats and scores because he would be jumping in a car to drive to watch his son play.
“He was one of my favorite postgame interviews because he was always the same, win or lose,” Kruger said. “He was quite a character and pretty good at cussing. He would always say afterwards, ‘Clean that up for me.’”
Cisco had a tremendous relationship with his assistant coaches. Several members of the Jefferson coaching staff were there for at least 40 of Cisco’s 47 years.
“His vacations, his fun things to do, were always with other coaches, their wives and their families,” Zeke Cisco said. “They would get together for card nights. They would go to Toledo Raceway (harness racing) Park. Pretty much every coach’s driveway, roof and deck were all built by the other coaches on the staff. They took care of each other.”
Cisco’s legacy includes an extended coaching tree filled with former players. Zeke has built a very successful program at Byron Center. Jason Gendron is the Gibraltar Carlson coach and in the middle of a tremendous run with the Marauders. Potter has coached at Ida for a decade and made that program a playoff regular.
“He was a big part of why I became a coach,” Potter said. “He was like a second family. My dad coached with him for 40 years. He was my Godfather. Our offense now is pretty much the same offense we ran in high school.”
Cisco had spent time in Florida after retiring but made his home in Reading near the Michigan-Indiana border the last few years.
“He would drive up to our games on Fridays,” Zeke said. “He would be in the parking lot at 3 o’clock.”
Marc had health issues over the last year, suffering from a stroke and congestive heart failure. He took a turn for the worse a little more than a week ago. He and his wife Donna, also a former coach at Jefferson, were together for more than 56 years. She survives.
Marc Cisco was a legend long before he started blowing the coaching whistle. Growing up in Morenci, he earned 16 varsity letters – four each in football, basketball, baseball and track – before graduating in 1954. The Bulldogs football team won 44 straight games during his career, and he made The Associated Press all-state team three times.
Larry Tuttle, the winningest baseball coach in Michigan high school history, was a student at Morenci when Cisco was a player.
“I never missed one of his games because my mom and dad would go to all of them,” he said. “Later on, we became good friends. He was such a great football player.”
Cisco played football at Michigan State University under head coach Duffy Daugherty and later at the University of Toledo.
He got his teaching start at Britton Macon High School in Lenawee County, before moving closer to the banks of Lake Erie and Jefferson in 1961.
It was 1963 when Cisco first coached Jefferson, leading the varsity to a 4-3 season – the first of three straight winning campaigns. The tide turned in 1966 when Jefferson went 0-6. The team won seven games over the next three seasons before Cisco stepped down.
He regained the job in 1973 and stayed until 2012. He was the Bears’ varsity coach 41 years in all. From the time his 1983 team went 9-0 until the mid-2000s, Jefferson was a model of consistency, producing winner after winner. The 1993 team went 10-1, the 1994 team 12-1, and the 1999 team 11-2. It was the 1994 Bears that won the Class B title.
Zeke Cisco said when his father retired, it was rather unceremonious. There was no big announcement or celebration, although the school had much earlier renamed the football and track stadium after him.
“He just sort of stepped away,” he said. “He would come up here and watch his grandsons play.”
Marc Cisco never took himself or his wins too seriously.
“You know, I used to always give him hell,” Zeke said. “I'd call him and go, oh, ‘It's the winningest coach Monroe County.’ He goes, ‘I'm also the losingest coach in Monroe County.’”
Doug Donnelly has served as a news and sports reporter at the Adrian Daily Telegram and the Monroe News for 30 years, including 10 years as city editor in Monroe. He's written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. He is now publisher and editor of The Blissfield Advance, a weekly newspaper. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Marc Cisco coaches his Monroe Jefferson football team. (Middle) From left, John Castiglione, Cisco and Dave Potter monitor the action at the Silverdome during their team’s 1994 Class B Final. (Below) Cisco, while starring at Morenci. (Jefferson photos courtesy of the Monroe News. Morenci photo courtesy of Larry Tuttle.)