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.)
QB Follows Mentors in Leading Montague
October 4, 2017
By Tom Kendra
Special for Second Half
Sebastian Archer didn’t have to look far to find role models as Montague’s starting quarterback.
Pat Collins, Montague’s 14th-year head coach, was the quarterback who first brought the Wildcats to the promised land, culminating a dream season at the Pontiac Silverdome with a 12-7 loss to powerhouse Detroit dePorres in the 1992 Class CC championship game.
Cody Kater, now the Wildcats’ quarterbacks coach, took it a step further and led Montague to back-to-back Division 6 titles with wins over Leslie (41-20) in 2008 and Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central (24-21) in 2009.
“I’m pretty lucky that I get to learn from both of them every day,” said Archer, a 5-foot-9, 175-pound junior who is off to an impressive start, following in the footsteps of recent Montague quarterbacks Jacob Buchberger and Dylan Stever. “They push me pretty hard, but I know it’s only to make me better.”
Archer will try to glean all he can from Collins and Kater this week, as the 6-0 Wildcats (ranked No. 3 in Division 6 by The Associated Press) prepare to host 5-1 Muskegon Oakridge (ranked No. 6 in Division 5) in a key battle for the West Michigan Conference championship and playoff seeding.
Montague has bolted to its 6-0 start behind one of the highest-scoring offenses in the state, averaging 57 points per game. Collins said the key for his team to stay unbeaten with a grueling final three games against Oakridge, Ravenna and then Montague’s first-ever meeting against unbeaten and four-time reigning Division 8 champion Muskegon Catholic Central, is for Archer to continue his dynamic play while taking care of the ball. Archer has thrown for 945 yards, 12 touchdowns and just two interceptions.
“Sebastian distributes the ball well and makes good decisions,” Collins said. “We anticipated having a good team this year and hoped to be in the position where we are right now, but this is where things get really tough and we’ll see what we’re made of.”
While Archer is continuing the Montague tradition of strong quarterback play, he is a completely different style of QB than his two mentors.
Collins engineered the tightly-packed, wing-T offense during his playing days, which usually meant about one or two passes per game.
Kater was more of a prototypical pocket passer, standing 6-4 and throwing 79 touchdown passes over his career. Kater played college quarterback at University of Cincinnati, Grand Rapids Community College and finally Central Michigan. He worked his way up to the starting job for the Chippewas as a junior, but broke his collarbone in the first quarter of CMU’s 2013 season-opening game against Michigan in “The Big House.”
Archer, meanwhile, is described by Collins as more of a “point guard” on the football field.
“He is definitely a dual threat,” Collins said. “Like a good point guard, he is capable of taking it into his own hands if need be. But first and foremost, he’s looking to get our other guys involved.”
That supporting cast, many like Archer part of Montague’s loaded junior class, has been stellar through the first two-thirds of the season.
Bryce Stark is explosive out of the backfield, rushing for 625 yards and 13 touchdowns this fall. Kenyan Johnston is the team’s most prolific receiver, highlighted by his nine catches for 129 yards and two touchdowns in a thrilling 46-44 win at rival Whitehall on Sept. 22. The main downfield threat is burner Jake Jancek.
For the past 40 years, the road to the WMC title has gone through Oakridge, a perennial playoff team which has qualified for the postseason 21 of the past 22 years and won MHSAA championships in 1997, 2005 and 2008. The main rival for Oakridge for many years, particularly the 1990s, was Ravenna, but since the turn of the century the biggest challenges have come from the White Lake area duo of Whitehall and, especially, Montague.
Montague edged Oakridge 29-26 two years ago and led 28-14 last year at Oakridge before the Eagles rallied for a 31-28 win.
Archer expects another classic game.
“I can’t wait for Friday night,” said Archer, who, in addition to his quarterback duties, starts at safety and punter and hold on kicks. “It will probably be like the Whitehall game where the stands are full and people are sitting on the grass. Those are the games we love to play in.”
Part of the reason for the year-in, year-out success at Montague and Oakridge is coaching stability. Montague has had just two head coaches in the past 32 years, with Ken Diamond coaching from 1986-2003 and Collins from 2004 to present. Oakridge has had an even longer stretch with just two head coaches, led by Jack Schugars from 1979 to 2010 and now Harger from 2011 to present.
Montague has made the playoffs in 12 of 13 seasons under Collins, with the back-to-back championships in 2008 and 2009 capping an amazing stretch which saw the Wildcats make it at least to the Semifinals five straight years from 2005 to 2009.
Getting back to that elite level is what motivates Archer to come in to “Camp Kater” on Monday and Friday mornings before school. Kater emphasizes building up arm strength on Mondays, and switches the focus to pocket awareness on Fridays. Those sessions have transformed Archer from a running back playing quarterback to a well-rounded QB, Collins said.
Archer grew up idolizing Kater in small-town Montague, but he lists his favorite professional quarterbacks as Tom Brady and Doug Flutie, the 5-10 quarterback who was an inspiration to little guys everywhere. Flutie retired in 2005 when Archer was just 4 years old.
“The roster lists me as 5-9, but I’m 5-7; I’m not gonna lie to you,” said Archer, who also plays basketball and baseball for Montague. “I’ve watched old films of Flutie, and I love how he found a way to make things happen even though he was a little guy. That’s what I try to do.”
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Montague junior quarterback Sebastian Archer, a true dual-threat for the unbeaten Wildcats, looks for running room Sept. 22 during his team's 46-44 victory over rival Whitehall. (Middle) Archer tries to throw over 6-4 Whitehall defensive end Brandon Rake; Archer completed 14 of 20 passes for 217 yards, four TDs and no interceptions in the win. (Below) Montague coach Pat Collins played quarterback for the Wildcats in the early 1990s, leading them to the Class CC championship game in 1992. Collins, now in his 14th year, has a 121-38 record at Montague, highlighted by back-to-back MHSAA titles in 2008 and 2009. (Photos by Tim Reilly.)