Future Has Arrived as Port Huron United Continues Impressive Climb
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
May 8, 2024
Brad McDougal knew when he returned to the Port Huron United lacrosse program in 2019 that in order to grow it to what he thought it could be, he’d have to build for the future.
His plan was simple and time-tested: Start a youth program that would get players within the school system playing together more frequently and against better competition, preparing them to one day be varsity players.
It didn’t take long to see that it could work, and perhaps better and faster than he had hoped.
“We’ve known for a while (this was the year),” McDougal said. “Basically, when I started with that youth team, my ambition was if I can get four or five kids that have been coached, then build around them for the varsity program, that would be great. It turned out to be 15 of them.”
Behind 15 seniors, the majority of whom were part of McDougal’s original youth team, Port Huron United is competing at a level it never has before. United is ranked No. 9 in the Division 1 MPR following a 10-3 start, and won the Macomb Area Conference Red title for the first time in program history.
It’s a history that McDougal is plenty familiar with, having been a high school junior when the program began in 2006. McDougals have been part of the program ever since, whether it was him as a coach fresh out of high school and now, his brother Ben as a player, or his father Brian as a coach at various levels throughout all of it.
“Being around it as long as I have, that has sunk in,” he said. “The amount of teams that are reaching out to us now that never would have before – teams reaching out for film, ‘How were you able to defend this?’ Teams reaching out for scheduling that I think would have just ignored the email a couple years back. It’s definitely not lost on me.”
It’s also not lost on the players, who have heard McDougal talk about the program’s beginnings and have also seen first-hand a quick ascent.
As freshmen, this current group of seniors were a major part of a varsity team that played in the MAC Blue – the MAC’s divisions are based on performance, with Red being the highest – dominating it and earning promotion to the MAC White the following season. Another unbeaten league season put United into the MAC Red in 2023, and while there were some growing pains in going 2-3 against higher-level competition, there were signs of better things to come.
“The second my class joined, we just dominated our leagues,” senior goalie Danny Moore said. “We went from Blue to White to Red in three years. Last year in the Red, we went 2-3, but it wasn’t without close games. I think (the rise) definitely stunned us a little bit. Not a week goes by that I don’t think about the giant leap we took. It’s like a world record long jump.”
Moore said the team started this season “like a cannonball out of the cannon with too much gun powder” as this group of seniors knew it was their last opportunity to play with one another.
United was dominant in its MAC Red season, going 5-0 and out-scoring opponents 61-12, not allowing more than three goals in any single game.
On the season, it has outscored opponents 136-50, led by senior goal-scoring threats Silas Klink, Jacob O’Hare, Nate DeLand, Matt Graham and Tim Monaghan. Moore is stopping more than 80 percent of the shots he’s faced, behind the defense of seniors Jack Bennett and Max Williams, and junior Parker Quinn, among others.
That’s despite a beefed-up nonconference schedule, which McDougal put together to better prepare his team for the upcoming postseason.
“We have a way harder schedule this year,” Klink said. “We haven’t ever made it to the Regional Final in all the program’s history, so that’s a big goal. I think scheduling all these teams, Coach McDougal knew what he was doing to get us battle-tested.”
Boys Lacrosse Regionals open May 16, and Lake Orion – which defeated Port Huron 11-4 in the season opener – is the host of United’s bracket.
Winning a Regional is the next goal for Port Huron, and McDougal repeatedly tells his team he wants a Michigan trophy. They’re ready to do all they can to make that happen, but also aren’t shying away from the possibility of blowing away his expectations once again.
“State champs,” said Bennett, who has committed to play lacrosse at Albion College along with Moore. “We want to go all the way. It would just be like – I don’t even know how to describe it. For the program, it would further push lacrosse at my high school and Port Huron. Twenty years ago, we didn’t even have a lacrosse team, so I think it would really push lacrosse in Port Huron.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Port Huron United’s Silas Klink (1) makes a run at the goal against Macomb Dakota. (Middle) Matt Graham (12) maintains possession against the Cougars. (Photos by Margaret Quinn.)
Bedford Boys Lacrosse Continues Spectacular Rise with 1st Regional Title
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
June 17, 2025
Steve Ullery isn’t the president of a company or chief executive officer of a corporation. He doesn’t sit on any boards of directors.
However, what Ullery has done during his decade with the Temperance Bedford boys lacrosse program would make any CEO or chairperson of a board envious.
The Kicking Mules season ended against eventual Division 2 runner-up Detroit Country Day. But reaching the Quarterfinals for the first time in school history capped a monumental journey for the Bedford lacrosse program, that only this season climbed out of “club” status and became an official varsity sport at the southeast Michigan school.
“It’s been a long journey,” Ullery said. “And its not one that’s over. It’s one we are going to continue to try and improve on.”
Four or five years ago, Bedford was happy to go into halftime tied with Southeastern Conference opponents like Saline or Ann Arbor Skyline. Now, the Kicking Mules have won back-to-back conference titles.
“Eventually, we got better,” Ullery said. “The deficits got less. Maybe we were tied in the first quarter or we were winning the second half.
“About three years ago, we beat Saline for the first time. I think it was then that we started to realize, these teams aren’t invincible. That was the turning point of our program and the mindset of the players. We just need to go out and grab it.”
With back-to-back Southeastern Conference Red championship banners in hand, the Mules reached for another goal this season – reaching the MHSAA Finals.
A 16-1 win over Grosse Ile in their Regional Semifinal earned them a trip to the Regional Finals. A goal with 40 seconds left by freshman Kyle Burger sent the Mules to the Quarterfinals with an 11-10 win over Byron Center.
Country Day beat Bedford 19-1 in that Quarterfinal, but this still marked the greatest season in school history.
Ullery is from a small town outside of Dayton, Ohio. He played soccer, ran track and played basketball in high school. He attended Bowling Green State University in northwest Ohio and settled just across the state line in the Bedford school district. He was introduced to lacrosse when his oldest son came home one day with a sign-up sheet and said he wanted to give it a try.
“I picked this up by accident,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about lacrosse. My son wanted to try lacrosse, and they needed a coach. I was sort of volunteered to coach, jumped in and never looked back. It became a family endeavor. I have two sons and a daughter who played Bedford lacrosse.”
Ullery and another parent started watching YouTube videos about lacrosse to learn the technical side of the game to teach to youngsters.
“We tried to learn everything we could about the sport,” Ullery said.
He eventually moved up as a middle school coach and, as his own son reached high school, threw his hat into the mix to be the varsity coach. He was hired by the district.
Bedford athletic director Mark German said the program has taken off.
“Our boys lacrosse program revived the junior high team about four years ago … and we are now seeing the results of that feeder system,” German said. “At the high school level Steve Ullery and his staff, along with the players, just made the decision that they were no longer going to finish last in the SEC. They went to work and willed themselves to be champions.”
Although the program began in 2007, this is the first year boys lacrosse was funded by the school district. Prior to that it was considered a club sport by the district, although the school did allow the team to use the stadium and players to earn varsity letters and compete in the MHSAA postseason.
“We were privately funded,” Ullery said. “They took us under their umbrella this year.”
Coaching grew on Ullery, who surrounded himself with a mix of former high school and college lacrosse players and parents who wanted to be involved.
“Once we got a little bit of knowledge under our belt, we started developing a little bit of a culture,” he said.
As a coach, he said, he reflected on his own days as an athlete as well as a parent.
“Quite honestly, when I took the coaching position, I looked back and thought what are some things that used to drive me nuts about coaches and how can I be better than that,” he said. “The last thing I wanted to be was one of those coaches that other parents were hollering at, ‘Why is he doing this? Why is he doing that?’ From the onset, I tried to get as many parents into the team as possible. The more hands, the better.”
Ullery said he and the other coaches also wanted to build a well-rounded team.
“Bedford was never short on talented players,” he said. “The problem is they were never a talented team.”
In 2022, the Mules started six freshmen.
“We were a very young club,” he said. “We knew the odds were not in our favor, but we kept pushing. We promoted the assists over the goal. We promoted ground balls and takeaways, good defensive skills instead of only looking at goals and wins and losses.”
As head coach, he divided responsibilities among coaches for offense and defense and created a culture everyone wanted to experience. His assistant coaches this season – Josh Vislay, Aaron Kaun, Justin Burger and Romeo Ybarra – all played key roles.
“It was a good mix,” Ullery said. “We worked well together.”
Bedford, which finished 13-5, had a well-balanced team, although three of those 2022 freshmen (Blake Dlugosielski, Brady Weirich and Brennan McIntire) all finished their careers with more than 100 goals.
“We would have games where we might have seven or eight different scorers,” Ullery said. “That makes it hard for the other team to try and figure out who are we going to shut down.”
Bedford will lose nine seniors from this year’s team, but Ullery says the success of the program will keep rising as long as the feeder programs remain strong and keep things fun.
“It was busy, but I had the support of my family,” he said. “I would change nothing. It’s been an absolute joy and one heck of a ride. I’m humbled about where the team is and the successes we’ve been able to do as a group.”
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) Bedford’s Noah Puccetti (15) brings the ball upfield during a Regional Semifinal win over Grosse Ile. (Middle) Kyle Burger considers his options with the ball in his possession. (Below) The Kicking Mules take a team photo with their Regional championship trophy at Ypsilanti Lincoln. (Photos courtesy of the Temperance Bedford boys lacrosse program.)