After Lean Years, Ubly Returns to Regional
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 9, 2016
Aaron Klama sat in the stands in 2008 watching his brothers play for Ubly in the Division 7 championship game at Ford Field.
Klama was 10, and Ubly was at the peak of the strongest decade in program history. Even though his brothers and their teammates lost against Traverse City St. Francis, Klama remembers wanting to be like them. Wanting to have the same opportunity to play on that field.
There’s plenty of work for Klama and his Ubly teammates left to do, but after some rough years for the program, the Bearcats are 11-0 and two wins from getting back to the pinnacle of high school football in Michigan.
“I feel like it’s amazing just being able to possibly be in the same shoes as my brothers,” Klama, a senior offensive and defensive tackle for Ubly, said. “Hopefully I’ll be able to push my team further than they even went. But everything has just been amazing this year.”
Ubly is in the middle of its best season since 2010. It will play at 1 p.m. Saturday against New Lothrop at Chesaning High School in a Division 7 Regional Final. A win sends the Bearcats to the Semifinals for the first time since 2009 and the fifth time in school history. All four of the previous trips came between 2003 and 2009, during a 12-year playoff streak for Ubly that stretched through 2012.
That streak ended in 2013, when the current seniors were freshmen. Ubly was 3-6 during both the 2013 and 2014 seasons.
“We had a couple years where numbers were really down,” Ubly coach Dave Kaufman, who took over the program in 2011, said. “In (2013 and 2014), we were playing with 14 to 16 kids. We had some small senior classes.
“It was tough. We’re used to being in the 20s, and the first couple years our numbers were pretty good. We had some small senior classes, and the injury bug kicked our butt, too. When you’re down in numbers as it is, that’s when you’re starting to bring up freshmen and sophomores.”
That included running back Derek Brown, who started as a freshman for the Bearcats and has rushed for 1,000 yards in each of his four seasons. It included Klama, running back and defensive back Nate Keller and several others who were playing at the varsity level as sophomores.
As much as it may have hurt at the time, getting that experience is paying dividends now.
“I think (having players play as underclassmen) helped,” Kaufman said. “I think it also helps that we have a really good senior group. Some of these kids have been playing for three or four years, and that definitely helps.”
In 2015, Ubly was back in the postseason, finishing the year 7-3 and turning the program back in the right direction. What happened between the end of that season and the beginning of this one is what Ubly’s players credit for their current success.
“Everybody was in the weight room all winter, and everybody wants to win on the team,” Keller said. “We didn’t just have two guys in the weight room; it was 15 or 16 guys in there, busting their butts.
“We had guys that would be telling everybody to get into the weight room, because we want to win more than anybody. We had a few leaders that told everybody to get in there.”
After struggling as underclassmen, turning things around in 2015 and setting the tone with a strong offseason prior to this fall, Ubly had high hopes entering its Week 1 game against a tough Unionville-Sebewaing opponent.
Then the Bearcats fumbled on their first offensive play.
“It was kind of like, ‘We can only go up from here, I guess,’” Keller said. “I think that just fueled the fire. We were ready to play from there.”
Ubly responded, and won 28-18, showing its coach something in the process.
“That could have went the wrong way there,” Kaufman said. “That told me a lot about my team right there.”
His team showed him more in a 21-16 win against Cass City, a game in which the Bearcats trailed during the second half. A 54-34 win against Vassar had Ubly sitting at 3-0 after a stretch Kaufman said he would have been happy to finish 2-1.
Ubly rolled through the Greater Thumb Conference East, outscoring opponents by an average of 37.4 points per game. It has picked up playoff wins against Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port and Unionville-Sebewaing, setting itself up for the matchup with a tough New Lothrop team.
Ubly is back where it expects to be, and it has done it the same way it did during the 2000s, by wearing on its opponents with a strong run game out of the T-formation and a strong defense.
Ubly has rushed for 3,500 yards and 51 touchdowns this season, taking advantage of an offensive line (including tight ends) that features five seniors. Brown has led the way with 1,188 yards and 18 touchdowns on the ground, while senior Jonathon Brandel has 861 yards and 14 touchdowns -- adding four receiving scores plus two interception returns and one punt return for touchdowns. Keller and junior quarterback Matt Maikzrek have combined for nearly 1,000 yards and 14 more rushing touchdowns.
“We have no problem chugging away, eating up clock,” Kaufman said. “When teams haven’t faced (the T-formation) in a little bit, they struggle a little bit with the keys. We try to hide the football as well as we can, and we’re happy getting three, four or five yards a crack. There’s not a better defense than an offense that stays on the field.”
Ubly’s offense is a lot like its attitude through the rough times – just keep moving forward.
“As we walk through the locker room every day, we have a little billboard that says, ‘Those who stay will become champions,’” Klama said. “We slap it on the way out. The coaches even told us that if we stay and work hard, we weren’t going to regret it. They always taught us about loyalty and determination.”
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) Ubly's Casey Sweeney breaks through a pack against Unionville-Sebewaing this season. (Middle) Jonathan Brandel carries the ball for the Bearcats. (Photos courtesy of the Ubly yearbook staff.)
Brother Rice Finds Championship Burst
November 23, 2012
By Bill Khan
Special to Second Half
DETROIT — Jason Alessi appeared to be running out of gas.
The Birmingham Brother Rice junior was all over the football field, matching teammate John Plaskey with a game-high 12 tackles from his free safety position in the MHSAA Division 2 championship game against Muskegon on Friday at Ford Field.
Alessi ran down ball carriers on back-to-back big plays late in the third quarter to make touchdown-saving tackles, but got up slowly on the next play after missing a tackle in the backfield. For someone who spent the day chasing Muskegon's speedy backs, who could blame him if fatigue was setting in?
With a championship on the line, however, Alessi still had 91 yards and the dream of a lifetime within him.
On the kickoff following a game-tying touchdown, Alessi caught a cross-field lateral from sophomore Delano Madison and went 91 yards for the championship touchdown with 2:13 remaining in Brother Rice's 35-28 victory over Muskegon in an epic battle between two of Michigan's premier programs.
It was the eighth MHSAA championship for Brother Rice, which won consecutive titles for the first time.
"Our motto here is never give up," Alessi said. "We played our hearts out. We knew it was going to be a dogfight. We knew we had to give our whole heart into it. We left everything we could out on the field. It was amazing."
With the experience of 53 years of head coaching at his disposal, legendary Brother Rice coach Al Fracassa gave the green light to run a gadget play the Warriors (12-2) didn't install until the week of the championship game.
Fracassa admitted he was skeptical about even using practice time to work on a somewhat-risky lateral play, but deferred to coach David Sofran, who runs the special teams. Brother Rice considered running the play on its first kick return and also to open the second half, but didn't pull this one out of the bag of tricks until after Muskegon tied the game 28-28 on a 51-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Deshaun Thrower to Keondre Craig with 2:31 left in the game.
"We practiced it every day in practice for the last week," Alessi said. "A couple times it did not work. It would be a bad throw or I caught it and there would be guys in front of me. It was a huge risk. Once I heard the coach call that play, I was really excited. I knew it could be a really big play. I didn't know it would be a touchdown, but I knew it would be a huge play."
Madison caught the kickoff at the 4-yard line, took a few steps forward, then passed the ball back to Alessi. Alessi had a clear path down the left side, made some defenders miss at midfield, and was in the clear.
"It's almost unreal," Alessi said. "I dreamed about this moment. Who knew it would come true? It's an amazing feeling."
It was the second trick play Brother Rice used to take the lead in a frantic fourth quarter that will go down as one of the greatest in championship game history.
Two plays after Muskegon (12-2) tied the game 21-21 on an 11-yard run by Marcus Smith, Brother Rice recaptured the lead on a 77-yard flea-flicker pass from sophomore Alex Malzone to junior Corey Lacanaria with 3:29 left in the game.
The play began with a handoff to junior running back Brian Walker, who pitched the ball back to Malzone. Lacanaria, who opened the scoring with a 16-yard catch, was wide open behind the Muskegon defense when he caught the ball at the Big Reds' 41-yard line.
"We had the feeling right before they threw that flea-flicker that if we could get a stop right then, our offense was moving," Muskegon coach Shane Fairfield said. "They were a little tired. Their hands were on their hips. Our kids did a great job of conditioning in the pool room all week, but they made the call and the play and we didn't."
Muskegon hung in there, despite an ankle injury to senior standout quarterback Jalen Smith, who had a game-high 138 yards on 17 carries. Smith was injured with 2:38 left in the third quarter, but Thrower came in and tied the game 14-14 with a 1-yard touchdown run. Smith came back for three plays on the next drive, but didn't play during the final 9:43. Thrower, who attempted only seven passes all season, went 8-for-17 for 143 yards and a touchdown.
"Jalen got hurt," Thrower said. "He had the offense moving real good. I didn't want to slow the tempo down. I wanted to make plays. I didn't want the seniors' last game to be off a loss."
Brother Rice appeared to have the game wrapped up when Thrower threw an incompletion on fourth-and-12 with 57 seconds left in the game. But a fumbled snap while the Warriors were going to take a knee gave Muskegon the ball at its own 5-yard line with 55 seconds to go.
Thrower completed three passes for 46 yards, getting the ball to Brother Rice's 49-yard line before the game ended with an incompletion toward the end zone as time expired.
"We had a lot of players just making great plays out there," Brother Rice senior linebacker Jon Reschke said. "We stopped (Muskegon's ground game). We shut it down. We got them running other things that they didn't want to run, like throwing the ball. They're an 80-percent run team. Everyone knows they're a great rushing team. They had a great rushing game this game, but we got them out of that and got them to pass in the fourth quarter. That's what won us the ball game."
Brother Rice got out to a 14-0 lead on back-to-back scoring drives in the first half before Muskegon's defense settled in and kept the Warriors off the board on their next five possessions. Muskegon cut the margin to 14-7 on a 9-yard run by Javontae Langston with 6:28 left in the second quarter. After a lull in the action, the teams proceeded to score 42 points in the final 13:58 of the game.
"I thought the game was never going to end, really," Fracassa said. "I was suffering down there, 'C'mon, get this game going!' It's just a wonderful thing to happen to a team. They're going to remember it forever."
The burning question after the game was whether this would be the farewell appearance for Fracassa, the winningest coach in Michigan high school football history. He has a 416-117-7 record in eight years at Royal
Oak Shrine and 44 at Brother Rice. He recently turned 80.
Fracassa said he hasn't made a decision on his future.
"I have to go home and talk to my wife about this," Fracassa said. "I love the game. It's done so much for me. It gave me a scholarship to Michigan State. I played football, baseball and basketball in high school. Sports mean a lot to me. I'd like to give back. If I can coach in some capacity, if the good Lord is good to me and gives me good health, I'd like to help somebody out. I have to make the decision pretty soon. My birthday came fast a few weeks ago."
Shon Powell ran seven times for 97 yards and a touchdown for Brother Rice. Malzone was 8-for-10 for 167 yards and two touchdowns, while Cheyne Lacanaria was 4-for-6 for 44 yards and a touchdown as the Warriors' quarterback tandem.
Click for full statistics and to watch a replay of the game. See below for the full press conference.
PHOTOS: (Top) Birmingham Brother Rice and coach Al Fracassa pose with the Division 2 championship trophy Friday. (Middle) Brother Rice's Jason Alessi (4) runs toward the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown late in the title game. (Click for more from Terry McNamara Photography.)