Flashback 100: Coleman's Legendary Heroics Carry Harrison Through Repeat
December 6, 2024
Jackson Lumen Christi's victory in last weekend's 11-Player Division 6 Football Final marked the school’s 14th championship, sending the Titans past Farmington Hills Harrison for the most football state titles in MHSAA history.
Harrison, which closed in 2019, won 13 over a 30-year period from 1981 to 2010, all under the guidance of legendary coach John Herrington.
The third and fourth championships came with Mill Coleman at quarterback. If not for his thrilling playmaking, the fourth title might not have been possible.
In 1989, one year after leading Harrison to the 1988 Class B championship, Coleman and his team found themselves trailing DeWitt by double digits in the second quarter of the Class B title game and by six with fewer than two minutes to play.
But Coleman’s heroics led Harrison to a 28-27 victory, as he scored two touchdown runs in the fourth quarter, the last coming with 1:34 remaining. He finished with 208 passing yards and 89 rushing yards in the win. In the 1988 title game, Coleman had thrown for 238 yards and three touchdowns in a dominant 44-9 victory over St. Joseph.
Over his three years as Harrison’s starting quarterback, Coleman amassed a 37-2 record, with both losses coming during his sophomore season in 1987. The last team to defeat Coleman was Grand Rapids Catholic Central in the 1987 Class B Final.
After his high school career, Coleman excelled at Michigan State, playing quarterback, running back, receiver, and returning kicks. He also spent two years with the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League, where he scored six touchdowns during his pro career.
Coleman’s son, Mill Coleman III, won a state title in 2023 with Grand Rapids Catholic Central – the school which last defeated the older Coleman. The younger Coleman contributed with five tackles and an interception as the Cougars defeated Corunna 21-7 to claim the Division 5 title.
Previous "Flashback 100" Features
Nov. 29: Harbaugh Brothers' Football Roots Planted in Part at Pioneer - Read
Nov. 22: 8-Player Football Finals Right at Home at Superior Dome - Read
Nov. 15: Leland Career Helps Set Stage for Glass' International Stardom - Read
Nov. 8: Future Baseball Pro Led Escanaba's Legendary Football Title Run - Read
Nov. 1: Michigan High School Baseball Trio Provide World Series Voices - Read
Oct. 25: Before Leading Free World, Ford Starred for Champion GR South - Read
Oct. 18: Mercy Links Legend Becomes World Golf Hall of Famer - Read
Oct. 11: Fisher Races to Finals Stardom on Way to U.S. Olympic First - Read
Oct. 4: Lalas Leaves High School Legacies on Ice & Pitch - Read
Sept. 27: Tamer's History-Making Run Starts in Dexter, Continues to Paris - Read
Sept. 20: Todd Martin’s Road to Greatness Starts at East Lansing - Read
Sept. 13: James Earl Jones, Dickson High Hoops to Hollywood Legend - Read
Sept. 6: Pioneers' Unstoppable Streak Stretches 9 Seasons - Read
Aug. 30: Detroit dePorres Rushes to 1995 Class CC Football Championship - Read
PHOTOS (Top) The Farmington Hills Harrison 1989 Class B championship football team. (Middle) Harrison's Mill Coleman (6) looks for an open receiver during the 1989 Class B Final against DeWitt. (MHSAA archives)
Historic Finish May be Only Start as Cabrini Adds 1st Regional Title to Building Effort
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
November 28, 2025
ALLEN PARK — The result in its Division 8 Semifinal wasn’t what Allen Park Cabrini had hoped.
But in the end, the 2025 season might turn out to be the year a small-school powerhouse was born.
Before this fall, Cabrini had never advanced past the Regional round of the MHSAA Playoffs and had won only four playoff games in school history.
That changed this year, with Cabrini amassing an 11-2 record and winning its first Regional title before falling the next week to No. 1-ranked Hudson.
It was all part of the vision head coach and Cabrini alum R.J. Chidester had when he took over the job three years ago after spending years as a college assistant coach, with Division I Lehigh his last stop before moving home.
“I believe God brought me back home to Cabrini to use the gifts he has given me to show these kids how to develop their spirit and become the best Catholic American young men they can be,” Chidester said. “They develop their spirit with their faith, attitude, love and effort. If they focus on that, God takes over and everything else falls into place. Three years later, they are making their own beds, tuck their shirts in, go to church on their own and continuously push their minds and bodies to the max. That is why we have gotten the results we have.”
Eddie Hughes, a senior for Cabrini, said it’s been amazing to see that plan fulfilled almost verbatim.
“I talked to a teacher about this,” Hughes said. “He told us what was going to happen, and he said, ‘You guys can believe me or not.’ The day he took over the coaching job, he said if we all buy in, this is what’s going to happen.
“In recent weeks, he’s asked us, ‘The day I got this job three years ago, I told you what was going to happen, and what has not come true?’ None of us could think of a single thing. Everything he told us was going to happen has happened.”
Initially, the hardest step for Chidester was making sure he kept kids in the program. The school historically has had good athletes, but once they got to high school, many would move on to other schools that had historically better football programs.
Knowing that, Chidester made sure to share a message when he took the job with Cabrini’s then-middle schoolers and their parents.
“You have been at Cabrini, and why are you jumping ship?” Chidester said he told players and parents. “I don’t want to say it was a recruiting thing. It was more explaining to them what it was like to be part of a community. From an Xs and Os standpoint, your kid is going to be in great shape. I know the game, and I know how to develop. I’ve coached multiple positions at the college level, and I know coaches who’ll help the kids get to the next level.”
Helping the cause was that Cabrini’s pastor, Father Tim Birney, did something out of the box for the school by hiring Chidester as both a coach and administrator to work in the building.
That has helped because he’s in the school halls and around students every day.
“I’m the first male coach that’s been an employee of the school and in the building” Chidester said. “Father Tim said it had never been done here. He rolled the dice on that.”
As historic as this season was for Cabrini, there’s plenty of reasons to believe it can annually make deep playoff runs.
There are a lot of quality non-seniors on the roster, including junior quarterback Evan Bergdoll, and now younger kids in the K-12 school have seen firsthand that the program can win.
“It’s a way of buying in,” Hughes said. “Some kids didn’t stay and didn’t want to buy in. I don’t want to come off rude, but we’re not really missing them. If they don’t want to buy into our program, then good.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTO Allen Park Cabrini football players and coaches surround Fr. Tim Birney for a photo following a 34-32 win over Madison Heights Madison in their Division 8 Regional Final, which clinched the school's first Regional title. (Photo provided by Allen Park Cabrini football program.)