Bedford Follows Mifsud's Hall-of-Fame Formula to 7-0 Start, SEC Red Title Game
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
October 15, 2026
The rumors of Dave Mifsud living across the street from Temperance Bedford High School or being able to see the school from his kitchen window are greatly exaggerated.
Mifsud, in his first year coaching the Kicking Mules, actually lives about five minutes from the stadium. And, no, he can’t see the glow from the Friday night stadium lights from his house.
All joking aside, Mifsud may have found the perfect spot to continue his hall of fame career. After stops at Dearborn, Parma Western, Monroe and Brownstown Woodhaven, Mifsud took over the Bedford program in January and has the Mules off to a remarkable 7-0 start heading into Friday night’s Southeastern Conference showdown with powerhouse Saline.
“I feel like I'm at home right now,” Mifsud said this week. “I feel working and coaching at Bedford, being around this community, I feel like I'm at home.”
The funny part is, he wasn’t looking for one.
Mifsud said he moved to Temperance about five years ago to be closer to his son and three grandchildren in Toledo. He became the head coach at Brownstown Woodhaven and thought he had found his last coaching stop.
“When I took the Woodhaven job, I said, ‘This is it – I’m not going to change jobs again.’ But I put a disclaimer on there – and that was unless the Bedford job opened up.”
This past offseason, it did.
Mifsud said the distance driving to and from Woodhaven was the difference.
“I was driving 39 miles each way to work and spending an awful lot of time in the car,” he said. “I didn’t get to enjoy as many community events as I wanted to be involved in, even just going to basketball games or baseball games and things like that. It was just too far from home. So, this job was definitely a big attraction to me.”
He was hired.
By no means was he taking over a bad program. Quite the opposite. Bedford has been a perennial playoff team – they’ve qualified 14 times since 2009 – and contended among the top half of the SEC Red most of those years.
When Mifsud arrived, however, he had a blank slate. He had to bring in an almost entirely new football staff, overhaul the offense, and create a new-look defense.
“I spent hours and hours and lots of late, late nights interviewing coaching candidates,” he said. “I didn’t really know any of them ahead of time. There was one coach, Sean Stephens, that I had met and talked to a couple of times, but really, I didn’t know any of them.
“The foundation was, the thing that I started off explaining to each and every one of them, was my philosophy and what my goals were and where I was coming from. I wanted them to know how we were going to treat the kids and treat the program.”
Football, he said, teaches great life skills and life lessons.
“Our No. 1 goal is for the kids to have the best memories and the most positive memories from their high school days as being part of the football program,” he said.
He hired coaches from Toledo and the Downriver area, a former Bedford player and one coach who was on a previous Bedford staff. He named a football operations coordinator to handle things like media requests and statistics.
The offense, he said, is a combination of all of the offenses he’s run over the years while building a solid resume at Dearborn and Parma Western.
“We adapted and evolved a little,” he said. “I think we’ve cleaned up some of the things we were doing at Woodhaven.
His defense was constructed with the help of Mike Parker, who had coached at Toledo Whitmer, one of the largest schools in northwest Ohio.
The formula has worked wonders. The 7-0 start is something even Mifsud didn’t see coming.
“Going into it, of course you have high hopes,” he said. “I feel like there was the hope or possibility of being 7-0, but there was also this reality that we could be 3-4 or 4-3. You just don’t know how games are going to play out and how kids are going to respond.”
The biggest win was probably the first, a 20-13 victory over Sterling Heights Stevenson.
“The kids played their hearts out that game, and a really great win,” he said.
What’s followed have been six more in much the same fashion.
“We’ve continued on with the thinking that we just need to go 1-0 each week,” he said. “We’ve had to battle and compete in each game.”
Not only did Mifsud have to create a new coaching staff, but few of last season’s ball carriers were back this fall. One who might have been expected to be a starting running back, for example, transferred to an Ohio school. Other players moved positions and into new roles.
Masyn Moran has emerged as the top ball carrier with 636 yards and 12 touchdowns over seven games. Luke Whetstone has thrown for 841 yards while completing 64 percent of his passes. He’s also rushed for more than 500 yards. Jaxson Lestock has 20 catches for more than 300 yards. The Mules offense has been balanced with 263 rushes and 100 passes.
Bedford’s 7-0 start is the first for the program since 2013 and just the third in school history. Mifsud said the same formula that got Bedford to this point is what he plans on using this week against the also-undefeated Hornets. The winner will own the SEC Red title outright.
“There are some really good kids at Bedford, and they have bought into and committed to the new coach and system,” he said. “The school community has been awesome.”
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) Temperance Bedford football coach Dave Mifsud instructs player Brady Boisselle during a game this season. (Middle) Mifsud monitors the action from the sideline. (Photos by Jaymee Beard/Temperance Bedford athletics.)
1st & Goal: 2021 Week 2 Preview
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 1, 2021
Last week's return to "normal" football was as good as anticipated, if not better. And the good news is we're just getting started.
As we cruise into Labor Day weekend, the great majority of Week 2 games will again be played Thursday. Additionally, more than 150 games will be viewable live on MHSAA.tv, with Bally Sports Detroit broadcasting Friday's Detroit Cass Tech at Muskegon game on its PLUS cable channel and State Champs! Sports Network streaming live Saturday's Grand Rapids Catholic Central game against Merrillville (Ind.) Andrean. See the full schedule from the MHSAA Score Center.
In addition to our weekly glance at some of the games to watch in every corner of our state, we're also introducing a new feature for this season -- an "Unforgettable 5ive" of highlights from MHSAA.tv and media partner broadcasts. See below for our Week 1 5ive, which includes the following:
► Marquette's Jordan Demay with the Pick 6 in Marquette's 49-14 win over Alpena.
► Clinton Township Chippewa Valley's Cephus Harris with the 60-yard TD run in a 45-20 win over Detroit Catholic Central.
► Dearborn Fordson's Alex Osman connecting with Antonio Gates Jr. for a 37-yard TD in Fordson's 38-23 win over Canton.
► DeWitt's Tyler Holtz throwing a 30-yard touchdown pass to Bryce Kurncz in DeWitt's 47-27 win over Traverse City Central.
► Grand Blanc's Elijah Jackson-Anderson sealing a 40-34 win over East Lansing with a 40-yard TD run.
Bay & Thumb
Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port Laker (1-0) at Ubly (1-0), Thursday
Both got off to solid starts last week, Laker downing Flint Beecher and Ubly upending Unionville-Sebewaing. By October, both could be contending for league championships as well. Ubly was third in the Greater Thumb Conference East last season, while Laker came in third in the GTC West.
Keep an eye on these: THURSDAY Saginaw Swan Valley (0-1) at Frankenmuth (1-0), Saginaw Nouvel (1-0) at Millington (1-0). FRIDAY North Branch (1-0) at Croswell-Lexington (0-1), Lapeer (0-1) at Midland (0-1).
Greater Detroit
Muskegon Mona Shores (1-0) at Detroit Martin Luther King (0-1), Friday
Mona Shores began its drive last week for a third-straight Division 2 championship with a 42-point win over Lowell, and they’ve lined up 2019 Finals foe King for a second-straight regular-season meeting. The Sailors have won both of those last two matchups, and the Crusaders also have plenty driving them from last week’s 42-40 loss to Indiana power Carmel – decided on a 35-yard touchdown catch on the game’s final play.
Keep an eye on these: FRIDAY Davison (0-1) at Detroit Catholic Central (0-1), West Bloomfield (0-1) at Oak Park (0-1), River Rouge (1-0) at Warren De La Salle Collegiate (1-0), Dearborn (1-0) at Belleville (1-0).
Mid-Michigan
Lansing Catholic (1-0) at Williamston (1-0), Thursday
Formerly league rivals until 2018, both again have league title aspirations after the Capital Area Activities Conference didn’t award championships last season due to the shortened schedule. Williamston, from the CAAC Red, set the tone coming off last year’s Division 4 Semifinal trip by doubling up Croswell-Lexington on the road last week. Lansing Catholic, in the CAAC White, made the Division 5 Semifinals last season and doubled up Lansing Waverly in its opener.
Keep an eye on these: THURSDAY Lansing Everett (1-0) at Lansing Eastern (1-0), DeWitt (1-0) at Portland (1-0), Pewamo-Westphalia (1-0) at Laingsburg (1-0), Jackson (1-0) at Grand Ledge (1-0).
Northern Lower Peninsula
Maple City Glen Lake (1-0) at Kingsley (1-0), Thursday
These are two more who could emerge as league champions over the next eight weeks. Kingsley – from the Northern Michigan Football Conference Legends division – has made the best of last year’s unfortunate circumstance, when the undefeated Stags were unable to take the field for their District Final. Kingsley opened with a 54-8 win over McBain, last season’s Highland Conference champion. Glen Lake was second in the NMFC Leaders last fall, ending a four-year league title streak, but opened last week with a 35-6 win over 2020 Highland co-runner-up Houghton Lake.
Keep an eye on these: THURSDAY Marquette (1-0) at Traverse City Central (0-1). FRIDAY Grand Haven (1-0) at Traverse City West (1-0), Escanaba (1-0) at Petoskey (1-0), Grayling (1-0) at Traverse City St. Francis (1-0).
Southeast & Border
Erie Mason (1-0) at Hudson (1-0), Thursday
The Eagles were one of the best stories of the 2020 season, breaking a string of 15 straight sub-.500 finishes to win the Tri-County Conference in their first season in the league. If this fall’s Week 1 is an indication, former Lenawee County Athletic Association foe Hudson could be a candidate for a similar 2021. The Tigers earned some statewide attention with a 59-14 opening win over annual power Ithaca.
Keep an eye on these: THURSDAY Jonesville (1-0) at Homer (0-1), Ida (1-0) at Ottawa Lake Whiteford (1-0), Michigan Center (1-0) at Hanover-Horton (1-0), Harper Woods (1-0) at Pinckney (1-0).
Southwest Corridor
Three Rivers (1-0) at Edwardsburg (1-0), Thursday
Even with reigning Division 6 champion Montague undergoing a bit of a fresh start, few results jumped off the page more last week than the Eddies’ 38-0 win in their opening matchup. A little more undercover but intriguing also was Three Rivers’ 36-34 overtime win over Paw Paw, the most frequent runner-up of late to Edwardsburg’s Wolverine Conference dominance. Three Rivers’ victory also gave it as many wins as it totaled all last season, and this week will be another opportunity to show what’s possible.
Keep an eye on these: THURSDAY Niles Brandywine (1-0) at Cassopolis (1-0), Schoolcraft (0-1) at Centreville (0-1), Battle Creek Pennfield (1-0) at Marshall (1-0), Kalamazoo Hackett Prep (0-1) at Stevensville Lakeshore (1-0).
Upper Peninsula
Ishpeming Westwood (1-0) at Iron Mountain (1-0), Thursday
The Mountaineers have a chance to stake a pretty serious claim as Western Peninsula Athletic Conference Copper favorites if they can add a win over Westwood to last week’s two-pointer over Negaunee. The Patriots similarly would enjoy a major boost with another Copper contender, Calumet, up next. Iron Mountain and Westwood have split their last four meetings on the field.
Keep an eye on these: THURSDAY Calumet (0-1) at Negaunee (1-0), Bark River-Harris (1-0) at West Iron County (0-0). FRIDAY Gladstone (1-0) at Kingsford (1-0), Marinette, Wis. (0-2) at Menominee (1-0).
West Michigan
Detroit Cass Tech at Muskegon, Friday
This was another anticipated matchup that couldn’t be played last fall because of the late start, but this would be a massive draw any season. Both are coming off big wins, and as in years past both feature plenty of future college players. The Technicians are riding a 10-game regular-season winning streak – but Muskegon has lost only twice at home over the last six seasons.
Keep an eye on these: THURSDAY Cedar Springs (1-0) at Rockford (1-0), Muskegon Oakridge (1-0) at Whitehall (1-0). FRIDAY Grand Blanc (1-0) at Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central (1-0), East Grand Rapids (0-1) at Grand Rapids South Christian (1-0).
8-Player
Hale (1-0) at Pellston (1-0), Friday
Pellston is a combined 15-3 over the last two seasons, and Hale is 12-6 over the same span of time – and Pellston won their league matchups in 2018 and 2019 before both moved into different conferences and didn’t play each other last season. This return of the series could feature strength on strength. Hale hasn’t given up more than 20 points in a game since last season’s opener, while Pellston’s 64 points last week followed the 45+ they scored six times a year ago.
Keep an eye on these: THURSDAY Marion (1-0) at Brethren (0-1), Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart (1-0) at Deckerville (0-0). FRIDAY Rapid River (0-1) at Lake Linden-Hubbell (1-0), Ironwood (1-0) at Ontonagon (1-0).
PHOTO: Capac and New Haven kicked off their season last week. Capac, returning after playing only one game a year ago, won 22-0. (Photo by Robert Batzloff.)