Cass City Chases History in Rematch
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 8, 2019
Sandyn Cuthrell and his Cass City teammates have a simple way to make sure they are properly prepared for each game – treat every week like it’s Laker week.
As they prepare for their District Final, the Red Hawks won’t have to pretend, as for the second time this season, it’s actually Laker week.
The Red Hawks will host archrival Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port Laker at 7 p.m. Friday for the Division 7 Region 4, District 1 championship. The winner will advance to the Regional Final against either Madison Heights Madison or Detroit Loyola.
The win-or-go-home nature of the postseason adds more to this rivalry game, but it’s also a chance at some program firsts for the Red Hawks. A win would give them their first ever District championship and first ever 10-win season.
“This one, it’s probably the biggest game in Cass City history,” said Cuthrell, a four-year starter at quarterback for the Red Hawks. “We’re not going to let it be ruined.”
Plenty is on the line, but what the Red Hawks have accomplished to this point already puts them among the best teams in school history.
Cass City won nine straight games after a season-opening 16-14 loss against Montrose – a team that is still alive in the Division 6 playoffs – and won the Greater Thumb Conference West for the second straight season.
It has also allowed 50 points. Total. All season.
“We’re not like huge; we’re all just super fast,” said Cuthrell, who also plays defensive back. “All these years building up to this year, we’ve been really heavy on the weight room every year. We’re all not huge guys, but we’re all really quick and fast. We can swarm to the ball, and there’s not a lot of big plays that can happen when the defensive backs are quicker than the receivers.”
Outside of the Montrose game, the Red Hawks haven’t allowed more than eight points in a game this season and had four shutouts. During six conference games, they allowed a total of 22 points. It’s the program’s best defensive performance since the 1950s.
“Coach does a really good job preparing us throughout the week,” junior running back and linebacker Alex Perry said. “We’ve been able to communicate with each other really well. The line gets a good push, so the linebackers can come in and clean it up. And the defensive backs shut down the pass.”
The offense has done its fair share, as well, averaging 40.1 points per game despite scoring just 14 in Week 1. So, while the defense’s numbers are eye-popping, most of the season has seen the Red Hawks be dominant in all phases.
“When you coach this long, hopefully you come across a team that gels really well, and that’s what happened this year,” Cass City coach Scott Cuthrell said. “We have a good group of kids, and they all get along really well on and off the field, and they all have a common goal. This is a group of kids that I’ve enjoyed going to coach every night.”
Players vouch for the camaraderie on and off the field and cited that as a main reason this year’s team has been special and capable of doing what no team at Cass City has ever done.
“We’re more than a team. We hang out all the time,” Perry said. “This year, we just flow and really mesh together.”
Perhaps at no time this season did the Red Hawks mesh together as well as they did the first time they lined up against Laker. A 51-0 win in Week 4 marked the second-straight year Cass City had defeated its rival, but prior to the 2018 win, Laker had won nine straight in the series.
“Last season’s win meant a lot to us,” senior halfback and cornerback Hadyn Horne said. “We’re 10 minutes apart, and it’s just a battle for our area. It’s always been a really big game around here, probably the biggest game in the Greater Thumb Conference. We know in the playoffs it’s pretty much like coming in with a 0-0 record. They’re going to be a lot better than what they were when we played them the first time. Obviously we beat them bad last time, but it’s all about who wants it more.”
The two teams have met twice in a District Final (2014 and 2017). Some of the current players were on the field for the 2017 loss, including Sandyn Cuthrell, who said it was “like getting stabbed in the heart.”
Not wanting to have that feeling again is quite the motivation, but so is making program history.
“That would mean a lot,” Horne said. “I think down the road, I’ll look back at that and know, ‘That was our team that did that.’”
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) Cass City defenders including Alex Perry (44) pursue the Laker quarterback during this season’s first game against their rival. (Middle) Sandyn Cuthrell (6) breaks through the line for the Red Hawks. (Photos courtesy of the Cass City athletic department.)
As Grayling Navigates Changes, Hunter Provides Reliable Impact in Return
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
September 12, 2025
Changing.
That may be the best description of the Grayling High School football team this year. Fairly big changes have already occurred, more are ahead, and at least one is already scheduled for next fall.
Grayling, off to a 1-1 start, has a new head coach – Michael Kososky, who served as an assistant for the Vikings the past 10 years, has taken over the helm. He started as a defensive backs assistant and became the defensive coordinator in his fourth year. Kososki replaced Eric Tunney, who stepped down after a 2-7 finish last year.
The latest change for the Vikings is losing junior running back Gregory Martin for the season with a neck injury. That happened during last week’s 36-6 win over Benzie Central. The game was stopped with 3:22 remaining after Martin was taken off the field by emergency medical staff. Kososky said he hopes Martin will return for track in the spring and next football season.
What didn’t change much this year is the Vikings’ schedule. They lost five games last year to playoff teams. One of those five is not on the schedule this year, but Maple City Glen Lake, another returning playoff qualifier, has been added. Grayling hopes to compete for the Northern Michigan Football League Legends title one more time, as the Vikings will be playing in the Northern Shores Conference beginning next season.
Perhaps the biggest change for the Vikings this year is senior Daniel Hunter lining up on both sides of the line of scrimmage. That was not the case last year as he battled a complication-riddled ankle injury suffered his during a basketball game as a sophomore center.
The injury, first diagnosed as an ankle sprain, kept him off the basketball court last winter as a junior.
“I ended up finishing that (2023-24) basketball season on it, and I got it checked out again because it was not getting better,” said Hunter, who plays wide receiver and defensive end. “They found out that there was a bone fracture, a talus bone.”
Even though it’s a very small bone, the talus plays a big role in one’s ability to stand and move. Injuries and damage to the talus can take longer to heal and have a higher risk of complications than those to other bones.
Doctors told Hunter he could either play on it and delay surgery or undergo an immediate procedure. Because he was advised he likely couldn’t damage it further, Hunter chose to play summer basketball and football last fall before scheduling surgery.
“I decided to play on it throughout the summer and then into my junior year of football so I wouldn't miss out,” Hunter said. “I got surgery on it after football season and sat out my junior year of basketball.”
That football season was wrought with pain for the Hunter. He played in all but one of the Vikings’ games though.
“I only ended up playing one way — I only played on offense for the season,” he said. “It was pretty tough. Game day adrenaline helped.”
Kososky vividly recalls Hunter overcoming pain to play every down he could.
“He took it as far as he could take it,” Kososky said. “He was a kid that never missed a practice. Even if he decided to sit out that day because his ankle was throbbing, he wasn't taking the day off.”
So far this season, Hunter has six receptions for 71 yards. Now moving from linebacker to defensive end, he also has one tackle for a loss, a forced fumble, two assists and one sack.
“Daniel is an impact player on both sides of the line of scrimmage,” Kososky said. “He put a little bit of size on over the spring and summer. So it suits him real well at defensive end.”
Kososky, who played football for Mio High School and Northern Michigan University, points to Hunter as a shining example of the culture he’s trying to instill in the Grayling football program.
“There are a couple staples that I brought here to Grayling, and I kind of just refocused them this being my first year,” Kososky said. “We have a mantra we talk about each and every day: DEAD. It's dedication, effort, attitude and discipline, and Daniel holds those standards.”
Kososky has significantly reduced the size of the Vikings’ playbook this season.
“The way we do one thing is the way we do everything,” he said. “Instead of running as many plays as possible, we’re focused on being really efficient and perfect at what we have in front of us.”
Grayling has a couple of significant league road games coming up, and both Kososky and Hunter are really looking forward to them. Tonight the, Vikings will take on Kingsley, and next week Traverse City St. Francis.
Kingsley is 1-1 this season, and St. Francis is 2-0. Hunter hasn’t experienced a win over either conference foe during his high school career.
“I think a win over Kingsley would feel really good because I have lost to them every time we played them,” Hunter said. “I did end up sitting out a game last year, and that was St. Francis, and I have to get that win before I graduate.”
Regardless of the outcomes against the Stags and Gladiators, Kososky will keep focused on teaching life skills.
“Wins will help put you on the map and everything like that, but what my kids learn from the program I think is more important,” said Kososky, who also teaches special education and math at Grayling. “I can go back to many seasons that that I've coached and we were 3-6 and 4-5, and I'm going to be honest, the kids out of those groups probably are more successful in life than some of the teams that have gone undefeated. It’s how successful we are after the game of football, not during the game of football.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Grayling’s Daniel Hunter wraps up a Benzie Central player during an incompletion in Week 2. (Middle) Hunter points to his team’s sideline after the play. (Photos by Mylie D’Amour.)