Britton Deerfield Finding Fast Success After Move to 8-Player Football
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
September 28, 2021
BRITTON – Britton Deerfield’s football team is learning to win again.
The Patriots have transitioned from 11-player to 8-player football this season in a big way. Playing their first season under Michigan’s 8-player format, the Patriots are 5-0 through five weeks and already clinched the program’s first league championship since 2000.
“I think it’s been great for our program,” said senior quarterback Nicolas Johnson. “We’re having a lot of success. I think the team is really focused. All I care about is us winning.”
After struggling mainly due to low numbers at the varsity, junior varsity and middle school levels the last several years, BD is doing a lot of winning this year. In fact, the Patriots have been dominant. After accepting a forfeit in Week 1, BD has won by scores of 64-8, 38-12, 68-0 and 54-16. They are 3-0 in the new Tri-River 8 Conference with one league game remaining. Every other team has at least one loss, meaning they can do no worse than share the league title.
“The league championship is nice,” he said. “I think some of our guys kind of forgot what it felt like to be a contender.”
The last time BD won a league championship was during a run of three straight Tri-County Conference titles from 1998 to 2000.
Technically, this is the first conference championship in school history.
Britton and Deerfield are two small communities in Lenawee County. The Deerfield school building opened in 1874 and the Britton building in 1893. They were two distinct school districts for more than 100 years.
During the early 1990s, both schools were struggling with low participation in some varsity sports. In 1993-94, the varsity football and track teams formed co-ops and played as Britton-Deerfield. The Britton-Deerfield football program had some outstanding teams, winning multiple conference titles and sending several players into the college ranks. Two of those are head coaches at Division III Michigan colleges today – Dustin Breuer at Albion and Dan Musielewicz at Olivet College – and several others are head coaches at the high school level.
As more and more sports became co-op programs, the schools continued to operate separately until 2011 when the school boards of both communities voted to adopt a shared service plan. On July 1, 2011, just before Independence Day, voters in the two communities approved consolidation of the two schools into one – Britton Deerfield.
Erik Johnson took over the BD football program in 2017. The Patriots went 1-8 in back-to-back years but made the playoffs in 2019. Last year BD went 1-6. Soon after the season ended, school officials announced the team would be moving to 8-player football this year.
“I spent most of the winter watching YouTube videos and talking to 8-man coaches,” Johnson said. “I love information. I was curious about how some schools ran practices and what offenses they run and what the difference was on the 40-yard-wide field. I talked to coaches all over the place, asking questions.”
BD had played a couple of seasons of 8-player junior varsity football because of low numbers, but the varsity level was all new this year.
“We hit the ground running,” Johnson said. “It was great to have the summer workouts where we could build some camaraderie. We had some new guys that we needed to get up to speed. We had some six-on-sixes and seven-on-sevens too. That helped.”
BD committed to two years of 8-player football, and then will evaluate the program and where it is headed. Johnson said it all depends on numbers.
“If we get to a point where we are back to a 20-25 player roster, 11-player is what we’ll play,” he said. “But if we only have 12-13 kids in the entire middle school program, we won’t be playing 11-man. That’s not feasible.”
While trying to build a schedule from scratch, Johnson found other schools in the same boat. Five decided to form the Tri-River 8 Conference – Britton Deerfield, Concord, Vandercook Lake, Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian and Vermontville Maple Valley.
Playing nine new opponents added an extra dimension to preparation for the season.
“I watched a lot of film, but it was from previous years,” Johnson said. “I just tried to learn as much about the opponents as I could.”
The season got off to a slow start when BD’s first opponent – an Ohio school – canceled due to lack of available players. Since then, the Patriots have been unstoppable, rolling to four on-the-field wins. They have had several big moments, but last week’s performance by Nicolas Johnson was eye-popping.
The quarterback ran for 251 yards and four touchdowns and passed for 101 yards and another score. Over four games, he has 623 yards rushing and 375 passing. He’s accounted for 17 touchdowns.
Nicolas, known as “Nico,” is the son of Erik – who also serves as athletic director - and BD superintendent Stacy Johnson. Nico’s brother Carson is a sophomore on the Patriots JV team, and his grandfather John is an assistant coach. John and Erik have coached together for nearly 20 years.
Nico is a three-sport star at BD and a member of the MHSAA’s Student Advisory Council.
“It’s always fun to watch him,” Erik Johnson said. “I thought he would have a really good year. Once he gets in the open, he can make guys miss.”
Nico said the biggest difference between 11 and 8-player football is having room on the field to run.
“Once you beat the linebacker, there is usually no one else behind them,” he said. “I feel I have the ability to see the cutback lanes better. It’s a lot different.”
Johnson hopes to play college football.
“My passion is definitely football,” he said. “That one thing I have talked to (college) coaches about is whether or not playing 8-player affects my chances of playing in college, and they say no.”
Coach Johnson said when it comes down to it, football is football – no matter how many players are on the field.
“It’s still blocking and tackling,” he said. “It comes down to execution on offense and defense and being prepared in all three phases of the game.”
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) Britton Deerfield quarterback Nico Johnson launches a pass during a Week 4 win over Vandercook Lake. (Middle) Johnson and BD head coach Erik Johnson (also his father) discuss strategy. (Below) Nico Johnson follows his blockers against the Jayhawks. (Photos by Deloris Clark-Osborne.)
Beaudrie's Rebuild of Jefferson Football Gaining Speed with Fast Start
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
September 17, 2025
NEWPORT – Rob Beaudrie has found the secret formula to building a winning football team.
Take over as head coach. Tap his freshman son (even if unexpectedly) as the starting quarterback. Mix in a couple of years hitting the weights, consistent offseason workouts and getting the underclassmen to buy into the playbook and new culture.
Oh, and winning a few games doesn’t hurt.
“Kids like to win,” Beaudrie said. “They don’t want to go out and practice two or three hours every day and go 0-9. It’s not fun for them. These kids have bought in. They’ve been playing football together since they were in youth football. It’s a good experience for them.”
Beaudrie is the head football coach at Monroe Jefferson, a Division 6 school in Newport, along the shores of Lake Erie and home to the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant. The Bears were once a football power, winning the Class BB championship in 1994, but have struggled for the last 20 years or so.
Being from the area, Beaudrie knew all about Jefferson. He took the job three seasons ago. He stayed on the course and things slowly improved.
This year, everything has come together as the Bears are off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 2006. One more win and they’ll have more victories than in any one season since 2016, which was the last time Jefferson qualified for the playoffs.
“We’ve come a long way,” Beaudrie said. “We are doing a lot of things right. We are attacking the ball, pursuing. We’re blocking together. There are still some growing pains. We are young in some areas, but they’ve come along well. They are very talented.”
Beaudrie inserted his son Luke, then a freshman, into the starting quarterback role his first year as head coach. It was an unexpected move because Luke had been a slot receiver or running back while playing youth football and middle school football. When the player Beaudrie expected to be the starting quarterback quit the team, Beaudrie turned to his son.
“He’s not a true quarterback, but he’s learning,” Beaudrie said. “He’s learned to understand the offense and read the defense. He’s a leader.”
In Jefferson’s 52-21 win over Milan on Friday, Luke Beaudrie returned a kickoff 99 yards, had touchdown runs of 65, 2, 50 and 32 and returned an interception 89 yards for a touchdown – all in the first half.
“He’s a special athlete,” Rob Beaudrie said. “He was never tackled in middle school. He’s very fast and has great vision.”
Luke said he has adapted to being the quarterback.
“When I first started, I didn’t think it was for me,” he said. “But you have to have the mindset ‘whatever is best for the team.’ I started learning it, and now I’m more comfortable.”
Through three games, Beaudrie has 487 yards rushing, 243 yards passing and has scored 13 touchdowns.
The Beaudries have used this same game plan before, but at a different school. Rob was head coach at Erie Mason, a program that had struggled. His son Noah became the starting quarterback as a freshman, went through some growing pains, but developed into an all-stater his senior season as Mason won a league championship.
Noah went on to play college football at Mount Union University (Ohio) where he quarterbacked the Purple Raiders into the Division III national championship game last season. This year, Noah transferred to Adrian College where he is the starting quarterback and has the Bulldogs off to a 2-0 start.
Being close to home has allowed him to serve as an assistant coach for Jefferson.
“The schedules line up really well,” Rob Beaudrie said. “He can be at (our) practice just about every Sunday and Monday and can be at most of our games. He helps Luke out a lot. He’s brought a lot of college experiences with him to the playbook.”
Another former player Rob had at Mason, Tanner Herrera, is helping coach the Jefferson offense.
“I didn’t want to do it all,” Beaudrie said. “I offered him the OC (offensive coordinator) job, and he’s run with it.”
Beaudrie said he thought this could be the year Jefferson turned things around. The Bears still have a difficult Huron League schedule ahead of them. This week they take on Riverview, then have Flat Rock and Division 7 No. 1-ranked Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central.
“The good thing is, these kids don’t know what they don’t know,” Beaudrie said.
Roster numbers have gone up steadily since Beaudrie took over. His first season the Bears had 23 players in the entire program. Last year they had 36 players in all and no seniors. This year Jefferson counts 61 players – plenty enough for a JV and varsity program.
“That has been a huge help,” he said.
The first two years weren’t easy as he brought his system to Jefferson. He faced skepticism over the team’s passing attack. For years, even decades, Jefferson was known for its rushing offense; at one time, the Bears would go weeks without attempting a pass.
“This is all new at Jefferson. People would tell me, ‘They don’t know anything about passing the ball; you can’t do that,’” Beaudrie said. “I told them, ‘You’d be surprised what kids can learn.’ We came in and did our thing. We were out-manned a bit the first few years.
“Sometimes the first couple of years you get a new coach in, and some people don’t like what you are doing. It wasn’t going to ruffle my feathers. I have thick skin. There’s a plan, and you have to trust the process, trust the system.
“Now, the kids are excited, the parents are excited, everyone is excited. Everybody likes a winner. I’m excited to see what happens next year as well, but we are going to enjoy these wins right now.”
Jefferson athletic director Alyssa Eppler said the football success has brought excitement to the games and district.
"There’s an incredible buzz in our school and community right now, and it’s been building for a few years now,” she said. “It’s exciting to finally see it all come together. You can feel the energy in the hallways and see it in the stands on Friday nights. Or first home game truly had the atmosphere of a homecoming. We’re proud of the momentum and what it means for our kids."
Luke Beaudrie is happy with how things have worked out, even if he had to learn a new position.
“The first few years were a little rough,” he said. “Now, everyone is starting to buy in, and everyone expects some good things the next couple of years. It feels amazing. This hasn’t happened here in a while.”
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) Monroe Jefferson’s Luke Beaudrie sprints toward the end zone during a game last season. (Middle) Jefferson coach Rob Beaudrie holds a pad while Luke works on making a cut during practice. (Photos courtesy of the Monroe News.)