Drive for Detroit: Semifinals in Review
November 24, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The final stretch of this season's Drive for Detroit has begun.
And if Friday and Saturday's MHSAA Finals are like the Semifinals this past weekend, we should be in for an incredible season-ending series at Ford Field.
Six Semifinals were decided by seven points or fewer as the final 16 11-player teams earned their spots in championship games.
Below is just a little on all 16 Semifinals, with links to media coverage. Check back Wednesday for game-by-game previews of all eight Finals, and then full coverage of each throughout the weekend.
DIVISION 1
Clarkston 35, East Kentwood 13
The first quarter wasn’t over Saturday and reigning champion Clarkston (13-0) had already built a three-touchdown lead East Kentwood wouldn’t threaten. The Wolves earned the opportunity to repeat and extend their 26-game winning streak, while the Falcons (11-2) can still celebrate their best finish since 2003. Click for more from The Oakland Press.
Saline 30, Detroit Cass Tech 15
The Hornets (12-1) earned their first MHSAA Finals berth by holding a potent Cass Tech offense to its fewest points since last season’s Semifinal loss to Detroit Catholic Central. Saline allowed Technicians standout running back Mike Weber 135 yards on the ground, but kept an offense averaging 34 points per game out of the end zone for most of the afternoon. Cass Tech did finish 12-1 and is 59-8 over the last five seasons. Click for more from AnnArbor.com.
DIVISION 2
Muskegon Mona Shores 25, Farmington Hills Harrison 24
The good news: Mona Shores defeated 13-time Finals champion Harrison after a late two-point conversion. The bad news: Mona Shores (12-1) did so without star quarterback Tyree Jackson, who was sidelined with a knee injury. The other good news: That the Sailors still pulled off this historic win said plenty about the team’s strength as a whole, in addition to its most well-known player. Harrison (10-3) finished with at least 10 wins for the fourth season in five. Click for more from the Muskegon Chronicle.
Warren DeLaSalle 31, Southfield 7
With Detroit Catholic Central, Birmingham Brother Rice and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in the same Detroit Catholic League Central, DeLaSalle (10-3) can end up in the background of the football conversation at times. But the Pilots earned their third MHSAA Finals trip in nine seasons by holding a Southfield squad (9-4) filled with college prospects to its fewest points since Week 2 of 2012. Click for more from the Macomb Daily.
DIVISION 3
Muskegon 20, Zeeland West 0
The Big Reds (12-1) will return to the Finals for the third straight season, this time in Division 3 after solving reigning champion West’s offense like no opponent in that school's history. The Dux (12-1), in existence for 10 years, had never been shut out and hadn’t been held to single digits since Week 4 in 2010 – they entered Saturday averaging 50 points per game this season. Click for more from the Muskegon Chronicle.
Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 51, New Boston Huron 3
Huron (11-2) took a lot of steps as a program this fall, winning five more games than in any season in more than 60 years and six more than a year ago. But St. Mary’s (11-2) has played in 11 MHSAA championship games and surely has had extra motivation this fall after a rare playoff miss in 2013. Click for more from MLive Detroit.
DIVISION 4
Grand Rapids South Christian 50, Edwardsburg 48
The Sailors (11-2) are headed to Ford Field for the third straight season, but it was hardly that simple. Edwardsburg (11-2) came back from two touchdowns down in the second quarter and a 22-point deficit in the third as it fell one win shy of the Finals for the second time in five seasons. Click for more from the Grand Rapids Press.
Lansing Sexton 28, Detroit Country Day 14
The Big Reds (13-0) advanced to the MHSAA Finals for the first time after coming up just a touchdown shy in 2013. Sexton will be the first Lansing public school to play in a championship game, thanks in part to a group of seniors who scored all of the team’s touchdowns Saturday and helped it rise from 5-4 only two seasons ago. Country Day (8-5) finished with all of its losses to teams that advanced to at least Regional Finals. Click for more from the Lansing State Journal.
DIVISION 5
Grand Rapids West Catholic 42, Menominee 24
These two have seen each other in the playoffs every season beginning in 2010. This rematch of last season’s Division 5 Final went similarly, with West Catholic winning by 18 after doing so 27-14 in 2013. The Maroons (12-1) hadn’t been held to fewer than 28 points since West Catholic in that game at Ford Field – and hadn’t given up more than 25 since West Catholic (13-0) defeated them 55-34 in a 2011 Regional Final. Click for more from the Grand Rapids Press.
Lansing Catholic 21, Almont 14
High-powered Lansing Catholic will return to Ford Field for the second time in four seasons after escaping one of the toughest defenses it had seen this fall. Almont held the Cougars (13-0) to a season low points total. But Lansing Catholic’s unheralded defense did the same to the Raiders (12-1), who were averaging 50 per game entering Saturday and set a team record for wins this fall. Click for more from the Lansing State Journal.
DIVISION 6
Ithaca 20, Boyne City 16
The Yellowjackets (13-0) extended their winning streak to 69 – but for the second straight week, not without a dramatic fourth quarter. Boyne City (12-1) reached the 3-yard line with 13 seconds to play, but was stopped by an Ithaca defense that isn’t often noted but gives up only 8.4 points per game. Click for more from the Mount Pleasant Morning Sun.
Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central 28, Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian 0
The Falcons (12-1) earned their first Finals appearance since 2010 and a rematch with Ithaca after falling by 10 to the Yellowjackets in that previous championship matchup. St. Mary gained this weekend's opportunity with its fifth shutout of the season, against a NorthPointe Christian (11-2) team in its seventh of existence and first topping eight wins. Click for more from the Monroe Evening News.
DIVISION 7
Ishpeming 22, Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary 18
These are not the Hematites of the last two seasons; most of the standouts who carried the program to two straight MHSAA titles graduated. But this group has been similarly strong and is now a win from just as good after its closest win since Week 7 of 2013. Ishpeming (12-0) made it 33 straight victories by pulling away midway through the fourth quarter. Click for more from the Marquette Mining Journal.
Detroit Loyola 41, Pewamo-Westphalia 21
Pewamo-Westphalia (10-3) made it harder on Loyola than any playoff opponent aside from Ishpeming since 2010, but still couldn’t completely slow the Bulldogs’ running back duo of Marvin Campbell and Mideyin Wilson. The ran for four touchdowns together and nearly 270 yards to put Loyola (13-0) back in the championship game for the third straight season. Click for more from MLive Detroit.
DIVISION 8
Munising 10, Beal City 7
Munising’s best season since 1980 continued with perhaps its most stunning win of an incredible run as it edged the two-time reigning runner-up Aggies (10-3) on a 33-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. An interesting tie-in: Munising coach Jeff Seaberg was on that 1980 team that won the Class C title but hadn’t won more than seven games in a season since. The Mustangs are 12-1. Click for more from the Iron Mountain Daily News.
Muskegon Catholic Central 42, Harbor Beach 6
The Crusaders’ run continued to roll as impressively as expected – their playoff wins were 56-8 over Fulton, 42-0 over Fowler and 48-7 over Mendon before handing 2012 champion Harbor Beach its lone loss this fall. The Pirates (12-1) hadn’t been held to single-digit scoring since their 2011 Division 7 Regional loss to Saginaw Nouvel. MCC (13-0) has won 25 straight. Click for more from the Muskegon Chronicle.
PHOTO: Ithaca (white with yellow) edged Boyne City in their Division 6 Semfinal to extend its winning streak to 69. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Rodammer Stacks 44 Years, 451 Games Tracking Frankenmuth's Football Numbers
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
September 20, 2024
While Al Rodammer's abbreviated scouting career may have lasted all of one night, it didn't take him long to figure out how he'd spend Friday evenings for the next 44 years.
Rodammer remembers being asked by former Eagles football coach Ralph Munger to drive to Bullock Creek to scout an upcoming playoff opponent. But Rodammer and fellow scout Jeff Reinbold wound up getting lost en route and missed most of the first quarter.
The mix-up didn't sit well with Munger, who "reassigned" Rodammer to a different task: keeping stats for the program.
Instead of fretting about the switch, Rodammer, a former baseball and basketball player at Frankenmuth, embraced the move. Four and a half decades later, Rodammer has kept track of virtually every football stat you can imagine for 451 Eagles games. Starting in 1981, Rodammer has dragged, at first, his trusty pencil and paper, and now laptop to hundreds of cramped press boxes, unsteady roof tops, chilly sidelines or whatever dinky corner space may have been available.
Many people may believe that totaling rushing yards or deciphering passing percentages is a thankless task. The 70-year-old Rodammer, who had the Frankenmuth press box named after him in 2022, prefers to think of his work as a labor of love.
Acting as a bridge between past and present Eagles teams and staying in touch with a community which loves its Friday Night Lights is his way of honoring a highly-successful football program.
"It's a commitment, but it's also a labor of love," he said. "When they named the press box after me, I thought, "Gosh, I don't know if I deserve this.' I don't do it for the recognition. But when the alumni come back, and to see what the work means to them, that's what I get out of it."
Rodammer's connection with the program far exceeds keeping track of how many passes are attempted or how many yards the Eagles' defense surrenders. He's written two books about the program, including an 82-page history of the Frankenmuth-Millington rivalry. While his initial connection may have been as a failed scout, he's recognized as the program's official historian and leading goodwill ambassador as he's constantly stopped on the street and asked what the Eagles’ chances are for the upcoming season.
One of Rodammer's passions is organizing reunions of past teams, a couple of which included his two sons who played football at Frankenmuth.
When you consider all of Rodammer's contributions to the program, Frankenmuth coach Phil Martin said keeping stats is just a small part of his overall contribution to the program. The data turned in to coaches helps them plot offensive and defensive strategies. But Rodammer's work in writing game stories for community media, digging into archives for long-sought but pertinent information and communicating with past teams is his true value.
"But more than statistics, he's cared for the program for 40-plus years," Martin said. "He's helped tradition and the community in understanding what we have in 69 years of Frankenmuth football."
Rodammer, whose statistics career has covered a half-dozen athletic directors and five head coaches, takes particular pride in not just assembling the typical Friday night numbers, but in putting the long history of Eagles football into perspective. His boundless research of Frankenmuth football has taken him from local libraries to Detroit-area facilities which may contain older stories on the team. He uses that information to ensure the accuracy of his records.
"We've been successful in a lot of athletics like soccer or basketball, but Frankenmuth is a football town," said Rodammer, who added tabulating junior varsity statistics to his resume in 2002. "There's something about football that brings out the community. There are always a lot of older people in the stands who get into it.
"Athletics has a definite impact on the community, no doubt about it."
Rodammer has missed only four games over his 44 seasons, 28 of which he has been joined by spotter Frank Bender. Two were for weddings, there was one funeral and once the fastpitch softball team he played for was in Minot, N.D., for a tournament. Rodammer is a member of the American Softball Association Hall of Fame.
He admits to being a "numbers guy," who developed programs for the Vassar Building Center before retiring 13 years ago, and he also kept statistics for his softball team for 20 years. Rodammer has his own definition of what numbers mean to him.
"I was only an average student, but there is something about stats," he said. "Yeah, I'm probably a little geekish about numbers."
Making the job easier – if not more fun – has been the wild success of the Frankenmuth program. The Eagles have won 62 consecutive conference games, including 12 league titles. Frankenmuth has been to two MHSAA Finals at Ford Field over the last four seasons. The Eagles have had 14 consecutive winning seasons, been to the playoffs 13 straight years and 29 times since 1987. The team is off to a 3-0 start this season and last week became the 14th program in state history to reach 500 victories.
Such success has left Rodammer with more than a few memories. For instance, he lists the team's 1987 playoff upset of Cheboygan as his personal favorite moment. Cheboygan was unbeaten, but the unraked Eagles prevailed 28-21. He also mentions a 28-20 win over powerhouse Ithaca in 2016 that interrupted a stunning string of Yellowjackets successes during an 118-5 run that included four MHSAA Finals titles and two more runner-up finishes between 2009-17. Another memory is Frankenmuth playing in its first championship game at a near-empty Ford Field due to COVID restrictions in January 2021.
Rodammer is hard-pressed to answer what he'd do with his Friday nights if he wasn't toiling away in a press box at a Frankenmuth football game. Maybe he'd work closer with his church, travel to see other local teams play or check off a couple stops toward his ultimate goal – to visit every Big 10 school for a game.
For the moment, at least, skipping a Friday night perched on a rickety chair tucked into the corner of a cramped press box isn't in the plan.
"I have a passion, but I don't do it for recognition," he said of connecting with the Eagles program "I want to keep a commitment from past teams to the present. That's what motivates me.
"I love summers, but every year I can't wait for the fall."
PHOTOS (Top) Al Rodammer, left and Eagles coach Phil Martin take a photo on the night the facility was named for its longtime stat person during the 2022 season. (Middle) The Al "Chick" Rodammer Press Box stands tall before the start of a Frankenmuth game this season. (Below) Rodammer does his work in the corner of the press box. (Top two photos by Chip DeGrace; below photo courtesy of Al Rodammer.)