DCC, Rice Begin Following New Leaders
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
August 16, 2017
The Detroit Catholic League football coaching carousel took a few more turns during the offseason, with a pair of programs once led by two of the winningest coaches in state history welcoming new leaders for this fall.
Two former understudies to those longtime mentors now find themselves with the top jobs directing programs that have combined to earn 18 MHSAA Finals championships.
Adam Korzeniewski, 43, is the new coach at Birmingham Brother Rice, replacing Dave Sofran, who replaced legendary coach Al Fracassa after the Warriors won their third consecutive Division 2 title in 2013.
Dan Anderson, 48, is the new coach at Detroit Catholic Central, taking over for recently-retired Tom Mach, who directed the Shamrocks to a Division 1 runner-up finish nine months ago.
“It is daunting,” Anderson said. “You question yourself. Would Tom have done that? You want to keep the tradition alive. I’m not Tom Mach. I can learn from him and put my stamp on it.”
He and Korzeniewski will seek to do so while navigating what continues to be one of the most competitive leagues in the state. Detroit Catholic Central (10), Brother Rice (8) and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (7) have combined to amass 25 MHSAA football titles, while Warren DeLaSalle has added two more.
But when Mach announced his retirement from DCC in February, it continued a recent run of Catholic League Central programs passing the baton. Following the 2015 season Paul Verska – who led DeLaSalle to the 2014 Division 2 title – stepped down from the Pilots, and Mike Giannone left Macomb Dakota to fill Verska’s spot. Fracassa retired after the 2013 season with a record of 430-117-7 since starting at Royal Oak Shrine in 1960 and moving to Brother Rice in 1969; he holds Michigan’s record for most high school football coaching wins, while Mach is third with a record of 370-94 from 1976-2016.
St. Mary’s longtime leader George Porritt (256-71 since 1989) will enter this season as the league’s only coach with more than a year heading up the program at his school.
“I’m not a tight T (formation) guy. But I will run it right at you,” Anderson said in explaining a philosophical similarity to Mach. “And I do run some tight T plays. You can’t get rid of the wham. Tom’s philosophy was defense wins championships. That won’t change while I’m here.”
The wham is a basic run play into the middle of the line, a trademark of Mach’s offense. It’s simple but often effective. Anderson said he will install a multiple offense incorporating formations and plays from a variety of schemes as the Shamrocks look to add to last season's 13-1 run.
Anderson has been well-schooled, at Catholic Central and a number of high schools in Ohio where he grew up, played football and coached. He came to Catholic Central in 1999 as a freshmen coach. The next five seasons he was the head junior varsity coach. In 2005, he became a varsity assistant – and in 2007 he became the defensive coordinator.
Anderson played defensive end and offensive tackle at Archbishop Alter in Kettering, Ohio, located near Dayton. He earned a scholarship to University of Pittsburgh where he played guard and was a starter his junior and senior seasons.
Long before then, he knew he wanted to become a teacher and a coach. A junior high history teacher, who was also a coach, played a major role in Anderson becoming the person he is today.
“He coached me in CYO (Catholic Youth Organization),” Anderson said. “He made a big impression upon me. I was 12 or 13 years old, and I knew then I wanted to teach history and coach.
“I love the game (of football). As soon as I got out of college (1992), I started coaching as a volunteer assistant at Penn Hills (Pa.).”
And he hasn’t stopped coaching since. After leaving Penn Hills, Anderson went to Pomfret, Maryland, located just outside of Washington, D.C., and coached three sports (baseball, basketball and football) at McDonough High. After two years, he went back to his alma mater and spent five years there, the last three as the head football coach. His wife at the time was transferred to General Motors in the Detroit area and, again, Anderson sent out applications and was hired by Catholic Central as a history teacher and football coach.
Anderson said he feels fortunate to be in this position. Learning and having mentors within a parochial school system prepared him for this opportunity and challenge.
“Mach, to me, was a heck of a mentor,” he said. “My high school coach, Ed Domstiz, was one of my mentors, too. And he’s still coaching.
“Tom was laid back. He didn’t take things too seriously. With all of the extracurricular things that go on now, he wanted football to remain a game. That bothered him, the kids jumping from one school to another. To me, high school was a great time, all of the friends that you made. When you move around you miss that.
“For Tom, it was more of his relationships with people. He had the Xs and Os, but it was about building men. That was always an emphasis. You had to develop them into great people. What you saw with Tom is what you got. It was refreshing.”
Though Korzeniewski isn’t directly replacing a legend, Fracassa’s shadow still looms over Brother Rice football; history doesn’t leave us that quickly. Expectations remain high for a program that won three straight Division 2 titles from 2011-13. The Warriors finished 7-4 last fall.
There’s an added unknown for Korzeniewski. He’s never been a head coach before. He’s coached for 17 seasons, including six as Fracassa’s defensive coordinator. The last two seasons Korzeniewski was the defensive coordinator at Birmingham Seaholm, working under his good friend Jim DeWald. The two were teammates at Western Michigan during the mid-1990s.
Korzeniewski’s approach is to keep things simple. He doesn’t see his job as having more pressure than most head coaching positions. As a coach, you teach. For the players, they learn.
“To me, it’s my job,” he said. “I go about it as I would anything else. To other people it would be different. I do my job every day.
“I didn’t come here thinking other people did this or that. It’s the kids. It goes back to why I got into coaching. You see the progress. It’s important to them that they get better. Football is important to them.”
Just as Anderson learned from his predecessor, Korzeniewski has borrowed much from Fracassa.
“I learned the importance of a team,” Korzeniewski said. “Nothing is more important than the team. And there’s something else. He made every player feel a part of the team. He had a way to make kids compete. I wish I could do that.
“What’s important to me is that things get taught and understood. You have to be demanding and supportive. (It’s) the action and reaction.”
Rest assured, both coaches will be watched as if through a microscopic lens. They understand that. They also understand they are heading into once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, and they’re going to make the most of them.
“I’m excited,” Anderson said. “We have a great group of kids. We have a great group of coaches and we’re going to enjoy each other’s company.”
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Catholic Central's Dan Anderson (left), here coaching the defense during the 2016 Division 1 Final, and Brother Rice's Adam Korzeniewski, the Warriors' defensive coordinator during their 2012 Division 2 title run, are taking over top Detroit Catholic League programs this fall. (Middle) Former Brother Rice coach Al Fracassa (top) retired after the 2013 season, while DCC's Tom Mach stepped down in February.
Divine Child Delivers in Defining Moments to End 40-Year Championship Wait
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 28, 2025
DETROIT – Marcello Vitti knew his teammates had his back.
After fumbling near midfield with five minutes to play and his Dearborn Divine Child team clinging to a one-point lead, Vitti’s faith was rewarded as the Falcons forced a four-and-out from the Hudsonville Unity Christian offense.
Then he paid them back.
The senior running back rushed for 20 yards and a pair of first downs on the final drive, including the game clincher, as Divine Child picked up a 23-22 victory Friday in the Division 4 Football Final at Ford Field.
“I knew that I was going to have to make plays to win this game,” said Vitti, who rushed for 120 yards and a touchdown. “I fumbled at the end, and I knew that my team’s got my back. This team isn’t good because of me. We have a lot of guys that do their jobs and maybe a little bit extra. There’s so many good guys and good players, Division I, Division II players on our team that they make me that much better.”
The title is the third in program history for the Falcons, and first since 1985.
To win it, Divine Child (13-1) had to survive a back-and-forth battle with several plays that felt as if they could be game-defining in the moment.
Vitti’s fumble felt like it could have been that, as Unity Christian took over near midfield with an offense that had been rolling through the second half.
The Crusaders (12-2) had gained 205 yards on 35 plays on their first three second-half drives, scoring a pair of touchdowns and getting inside the 5 on the other.
But after the turnover, Divine Child’s defense stiffened up, holding Unity Christian to two yards and forcing a turnover on downs.
“I do want to say, congratulations to Unity Christian,” Divine Child coach Chris Laney said. “I think they replaced 18 starters going into this year, and (coach Craig Tibbe) does a tremendous job; that scheme gives you nightmares. But, I wasn’t the one that coined it, but defense wins championships, and we had a great defense this year. Great defensive staff. The kids bought in, they really checked their egos this year at the door and played within our scheme defensively.”
Divine Child had its lead thanks to a five-yard touchdown rush by Vitti and a 2-point conversion run on which he broke multiple tackles and pushed through several defenders at the goal line with the help of his teammates.
All of that was set up by a toe-tapping catch from sophomore Rayshawn Thomas on the sideline on a pass from fellow sophomore Drew Sheridan. Initially, it was called incomplete, but was overturned on replay.
“To be honest, I thought I had my foot down,” Thomas said. “Then I saw that I had my foot down (on the big screen) and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I caught it.’”
Unity Christian answered with a 10-play, 69-yard drive capped off with a two-yard touchdown run from Jared DeVries.
The Crusaders lined up to kick an extra point to tie the game, but faked it. The pass was intercepted by Divine Child’s Adam Garcia, preserving the one-point lead.
“Silly stuff, isn’t it?” Tibbe said. “I’d like a do-over, for sure. They defended it well. I look at myself, I’m kicking myself, asking, ‘Why did you get so cute?’ Just pound the ball. They hadn’t stopped these guys. These guys had just been tearing it up, then I go and do something like that. So, yeah, I would like a do-over there.”
Tibbe’s offense was strong throughout the game, gaining 332 yards on the ground and averaging five yards per carry. That was led by Lucas Elliott, who had 115 yards, and DeVries, who had 90 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including the game’s first score. Joshua Bremer added 60 yards, and had the fumble recovery in the fourth quarter.
Quarterback Justin Febus rushed for 48 yards and a touchdown, which, following a DeVries conversion run, gave his team a 16-15 lead early in the third quarter.
“I’m super proud of how we hung,” Tibbe said. “The fact that we were right there with this team says a lot about these guys. There’s probably a couple times in this game where it didn’t look great, but they didn’t quit. They kept chugging along.”
The offensive output was needed to keep up with Divine Child’s balanced attack, led by Vitti and Sheridan. The left-handed quarterback completed 13 of his first 15 passes in the game, and finished 19-of-25 for 241 yards and a pair of first-half touchdown throws to Antonio Solares-Vitti. He did it all with his non-throwing shoulder in a brace thanks to an injury suffered in the Regional Final against Harper Woods.
“My mindset, honestly, the past two weeks was do whatever it takes to win,” Sheridan said. “Harper Woods, we didn’t really throw the ball, I got injured. Last week, I made plays when they had to be made. Marcello made plays, Ray made plays, Giancarlo (Vitti), Antonio, they’ve all been making plays for me. So, for me, it’s been about rehabbing and getting better. Today, the mindset was, it was just a next-play mentality. If we don’t have a good play, we had to make up for it the next play. And the guys made plays for me today.”
Solares-Vitti had seven catches for 88 yards, including a big 13-yarder on the final drive. Thomas had four for 64.
Marcello Vitti led the defense with 14 tackles, while Andre Davis Jr. had 12 and Giancarlo Vitti had an interception.
Unity Christian’s defense was led by DeVries’ 10 tackles, while Febus and Jack Portenga each had eight.
PHOTOS (Top) Dearborn Divine Child’s Marcello Vitti (2) breaks through the line during Friday’s Division 4 Final. (Middle) Antonio Solares-Vitti stretches across the goal line for a score. (Below) Divine Child quarterback Drew Sheridan tosses a pass.