4-Year QB Leads with What He's Learned
October 2, 2020
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
BLISSFIELD – Gavin Ganun is like a seasoned veteran.
“I’m really confident now with everything I’m doing,” said the Blissfield quarterback. “I’ve seen a lot of things happen. There’s nothing that surprises me.”
Clinton’s football team might have something to say about that tonight when it travels to Blissfield for a colossal Lenawee County Athletic Association clash.
But there’s no denying that Ganun has seen just about everything by now. He’s making his 37th career start at quarterback for Blissfield and is having a sensational season.
“To me the game feels really slow now,” Ganun said while preparing to face the 2-0 Clinton squad this week. “I have plenty of time to see everything. I can calm myself down in the pocket. Even if there is pressure, I don’t feel it like I used to. I’m not worried about getting hit. I just stand back there, make the reads and find the open receiver.”
This year Ganun has had plenty of open receivers. He has great targets in wide receivers Zack Horky (6-foot-4) and Ty Wyman (6-6) and tight end Nick Ostas (6-2).
“One of them gets open every play,” Ganun said.
Over the first two weeks of the season, Ganun threw for a combined 611 yards and 10 touchdowns – five scores to Horky and three to Wyman – as Blissfield piled up wins over Dundee and reigning LCAA champion Hillsdale.
Ganun has looked great behind a Royals offensive line that has five new starters – tackles Blaine Pifer and Scott Jackson, guards Luke Nofzinger and Ricky Eisenmann and center Henry Smith.
“It all starts with the line,” Ganun said. “They have come so far. They worked really hard to get better. Their pass blocking has been amazing.”
Ganun has been the starting Blissfield quarterback since game one of his freshman year. He has led Blissfield into the playoffs three straight seasons. For his career, he enters tonight’s game against Clinton with 4,953 passing yards and 56 passing touchdowns.
Ganun was coached his first two seasons by Ryan Love, who is now coaching at Morenci. Ron Estes returned to the Royals’ sideline last year and inherited Ganun as his QB. He couldn’t be happier with his signal-caller.
“There’s no panic in him,” Estes said. “He knows the offense inside and out. He knows what to do when things break down. He knows what to do and when to do it.”
Ganun said Estes gives him a lot of freedom to change the play at the line of scrimmage if he sees something when looking over the defense.
“When I was a freshman, we weren’t doing that,” he said. “But, now, I’m fine to do that anytime. If the defense is running what we think they will run, I don’t have to, but if they change things up, I can change things up.”
Ganun’s audibles have resulted in a couple big plays this season. Horky has caught two touchdown passes in the first quarter of both games.
“We have a good connection,” he said. “We’ve played together so long that we know what each other is going to do before we do it. We’ll just look at each other or say something really quick when we leave the huddle.”
Clinton, which returned to the LCAA this season after just over a decade as a member of the Tri-County Conference, will be a stiff test for Blissfield. Clinton has been rolling during the first two weeks of the season, piling up more than 900 yards of offense – all on the ground.
Clinton coach Jeremy Fielder has watched a lot of film of Ganun lately and is impressed.
“He’s always been pretty good,” Fielder said. “You see it all with him. He’s an outstanding quarterback.”
Ganun plays three sports for the Royals and has been on varsity for all his entire career. He committed to play college baseball at Bowling Green State University, which announced in the spring that it was dropping baseball before re-examining that decision a month or so later. He’s happy he gets to play for the Falcons.
“I’m super excited,” he said. “I love that place. Everything about it is amazing.”
The Royals are trying to win their first LCAA championship since 2007, the same year Estes guided them to the Division 6 championship game before he stepped away – then returned – as head coach. Ganun knows Clinton stands in the way of that goal.
“It’s going to be very tough,” he said. “They are very physical. Both teams know what the other team wants to do.”
He also knows the Royals are playing at a high level right now.
“We have a great team bond,” he said. “We have been clicking on all cylinders.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Blissfield quarterback Gavin Ganun prepares to take on an Ottawa Lake Whiteford defender during the 2019 season. (Middle) Ganun winds up to pass, also last season. (Below) Ron Estes returned as Blissfield coach in 2019. (Photos by Mike Dickie.)
Stevenson's Travels Following Lake Orion Success Include Space Force, Penn, NYC
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
July 17, 2025
It certainly isn’t hard for Marques Stevenson to pause and turn back the clock, even if sometimes it’s in the middle of the night.
Once a star running back at Lake Orion High School, Stevenson was arguably the MVP of what still stands as the only Dragons team to win an MHSAA Finals football championship.
Even though it will be 15 years this fall since that magical run in 2010, the memories remain as fresh as if they happened yesterday.
“I get the nostalgia, and I’ll cut on some highlights of that year,” he said. “I’ll tell my girlfriend at 3 in the morning, ‘Hey watch this, we were so good in high school.’ At least twice a year I’ll find myself cutting on the old game film or watching ‘MHSAA Rewind’ and watch the championship game over again.”
Nobody could blame Stevenson, given he capped off a sensational senior year by rushing for 186 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries in Lake Orion’s 21-13 win over Plymouth in the Division 1 championship game.
Stevenson also rushed for 288 yards and four touchdowns in a District Final that year against Grand Blanc, and for 190 yards in a Semifinal win over Detroit Cass Tech.
Even more impressive is that late in that playoff run, opponents knew Lake Orion was going to ride its offensive line and Stevenson – and still couldn’t stop them.
Starting quarterback Sean Charette suffered a season-ending injury in their Regional Final, and while backup Cole Schaenzer definitely wasn’t a liability and did a good job filling in, it was no secret Lake Orion’s best route to scoring points was handing the ball to Stevenson.
“When (Charette) went down, it was a tough loss,” Stevenson said. “But we all felt like it was next man up and that we truly trusted each other.”
Stevenson finished the season with 1,966 rushing yards and 25 touchdowns, the former still a Lake Orion record.
"The season was special because going into that year, I don’t think any of us thought that was going to be the outcome,” said Stevenson, adding he vividly remembers the strong support given to the team by the Lake Orion community. “We all, day after day and week after week, started to believe in ourselves more. By the end, it came into fruition. It was a special run.”
After graduating from Lake Orion, Stevenson went on to the Air Force Academy, studying and also playing football there until deciding not to play his senior year.
Following graduation, he served six years in the Air Force, conducting satellite command and control for the U.S. Space Force while stationed in Denver and Los Angeles.
Once he finished his service, Stevenson obtained a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and he now works as a strategy consultant in New York City.
“I don’t think any of that would have been possible without Lake Orion and that football experience,” Stevenson said. “That got the ball rolling for the journey I’ve been on now. I’ve been able to see the world, moved around a lot and had different experiences. Most of those experiences are attributed to the opportunity I got at Lake Orion.”
Stevenson is listed a few more times in the Lake Orion football record book, ranking third all-time in career yards (3,122) and touchdowns in a season (25).
“His senior year, with his work, his speed, his vision and his knowledge of our offense, it almost looked easy for him,” said current Lake Orion head coach and athletic director Chris Bell, who also was the head coach of the 2010 championship team. “His work and preparation made him one of the best we ever had. He was a 4.0 student, a high-character young man and just a lot of fun to coach and be around.”
Stevenson said he’ll come back into town a couple times every year, but there might be a special reason to do so this fall – a 15-year celebration of the championship season.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there wasn’t a 10-year reunion in 2020.
“I would love to do a proper reunion of that team,” Stevenson said. “I should probably reach out to Coach Bell and Coach (John) Blackstock and those guys.”
If a reunion does happen, no doubt it will be more reason to get out the clips from that 2010 season again.
“That whole run and experience resonates with me,” Stevenson said. “And I don’t think that’s ever going to change.”
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PHOTOS (Top) At left, Marques Stevenson carries the ball for Lake Orion during his senior season in 2010. At right, Stevenson today. (Middle) Stevenson takes on a Troy defender in 2008. (Action photos courtesy of the Oakland Press; headshot provided by Marques Stevenson.)