As Football Launches Again, Reeths-Puffer Fueled for Fresh Start
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 9, 2021
MUSKEGON – A Reeths-Puffer running back tripped and plowed into the Kit Kat-shaped bags he was supposed to be hurdling Monday, and his teammates laughed. The offensive line coach wore a shirt, like line coaches always do, that read “No One Works Harder Than The Offensive Line.” The sun came out about halfway through, but the breeze kept the weather just right, and after a hands-in, all-together “R-P!” someone shouted, “I’ve missed that!”
The setting was as typical as could be for the first day of football practice at any high school across Michigan over the last many years … except for 2020.
Remember a year ago? When COVID-19 precautions meant little to no contact for the most contact-filled sport? When locker rooms were closed and footballs were wiped down after every snap? And the possibility of the season ending at any moment hung in the air?
“I was telling the team (last year) we could play our first game and the rest of the season could get canceled, so you don’t know,” Rockets senior lineman Marco Fields recalled. “The seniors only got to play half their season, and some got hurt.
“Now that we know we have a full senior season ahead of us, for us seniors, all we can do now is stay focused.”
Indeed, although there’s little debate that COVID-19 is still lingering, just about everything Monday at Reeths-Puffer felt differently from the first day of football practice a year ago. And although varsity head coach Matt Bird thought he might have an answer to what remained the same from 2020 … he really didn’t.
“The same is … (searching for his thought)
“… that you are … (pause)
“Kids … (trailed off)
“Actually, I don’t feel that anything is the same,” he admitted. “Other than we have a football, and we have some things involved from that standpoint.”
Monday marked a fresh start for high school football across Michigan, after last season included multiple COVID-related delays before finishing up in late January – which followed also an abbreviated regular season during which the conversation was forced at times into much more serious topics than the highlights on the field.
But every first day of practice means starting anew. And when it comes to fresh starts, Reeths-Puffer is a great place to begin Fall 2021.
Start with Bird, something of a master when it comes to building from a clean slate.
Way back in 2000, he was an offensive assistant when Grand Ledge won the Division 1 championship, the only Division 1 title that’s been won by a Lansing-area team. Six years later, he took over the Comets program and debuted with back-to-back 3-6 seasons (which predictably didn’t go over too well) before rattling off 10 winning seasons over the next 12 including a Semifinals trip in 2015. That eventually led to a rarely-seen career move after the 2018 season – leaving an established power for a new challenge, as Bird took the Reeths-Puffer job and took on a program that was coming off a second-straight 5-4 finish but accomplished with just under 30 players on the roster.
Bird led his first Rockets team to another 5-4 finish in 2019 … and then 2020 hit. Reeths-Puffer finished 2-5, but all things considered there were plenty of positives to take away.
When practice started, Bird was just finishing up recovery from COVID-19. And despite the unpredictability the season promised, the varsity still managed to grow to 53 players.
“As a coach you have to acknowledge it,” Bird said Monday, recalling 2020. “But the thing that is frustrating to me is you want to acknowledge it, but when you look at it everything was done so differently; it didn’t even feel like a season. At times you’d get started, then kicked back, then started and kicked back. We couldn’t do team dinners, we couldn’t do a lot of the bonding things we do as a group, and that hurt us.”
Monday was the beginning of another fresh start for the Rockets. Set aside that the great majority of COVID restrictions are off – the program is still emphasizing a number of hygiene and health-related concepts to help players avoid illness – and the football-related details provide plenty of excitement.
On one hand, Reeths-Puffer still plays in the Ottawa-Kent Conference Green – which includes the winningest program in MHSAA history in Muskegon High, back-to-back Division 2 champion Mona Shores and powerful neighbors Zeeland West and East. Grand Rapids Union, Holland and Wyoming all provide some intriguing possibilities as well heading into the new season.
But Bird’s varsity roster looks to push past 50 again, with 20 seniors including four returning senior starters on both sides of the ball. Fields is a Division I-caliber college line prospect, and the sophomore class is shaping up to be special with 6-foot-7 Travis Ambrose of particular note.
“I know every coach says their sport is the best team sport, but there’s something about football where you’ve got 11 guys out there and everybody can contribute,” Bird said. “The 6-5 kid to the 5-7 kid, and you can find a way to make that come together. I’ve always been a big fan, where it’s ‘Tell me that we can’t do something, and let me prove that (we can).’ … We compete using our strengths rather than focusing on some of the things that we don’t have.”
And there are lessons learned last season which, despite its wildness, should pay off. For example, last year teams were forced to focus more on technique with contact cut down substantially, and then rely on technology to cut down on face-to-face conversation. On Monday, Bird was recording his quarterbacks’ footwork with a tablet so he could share the video later over Google Meet, the new norm in communication but something Bird considers a valuable teaching tool brought on by the last 18 months.
The players, for their part, could allow themselves to feel a little lighter than a year ago. Fields and his teammates got to have more fun this time. And they were able talk about the expectations and aspirations that always make the first day a special one.
“I’ve heard people are expecting a normal Reeths-Puffer, and some say ‘Rocket failure again,’ which is just us going 2-5 or whatever they’re trying to say,” Fields said. “But I think we’re going to take this thing all the way.”
“This is normalcy, to an extent,” was Bird’s take on the day. “And it’s just really nice.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Reeths-Puffer running backs hurdle a series of bags during a busy first practice Monday. (Middle) Clockwise from top: Assistant coaches Jari Brown (left) and Jeff Uganski work with the linemen; senior Marco Fields (front, blue sleeveless shirt) is among those working on his form; varsity coach Matt Bird works with one of his quarterbacks and their receivers. (Below) Bird gathers with his team at the end of their first practice of the season. (Photos by Geoff Kimmerly.)
Lumen Christi Accomplishes Program First with 4th-Straight Finals Title
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 28, 2025
DETROIT – As Jackson Lumen Christi lined up to exchange postgame handshakes with Kingsley following its fourth-straight victory in a football Final, Foreigner’s “Feels Like the First Time” rang out through the Ford Field speakers.
The 28-14 victory in Friday’s Division 6 Final was actually the record 15th time for the Titans, and 14th for coach Herb Brogan.
But as far as he was concerned, only this one mattered in the moment. So, good call, Ford Field DJ.
“(Winning a fourth straight) is important, but what’s most important is the accomplishments of this team, this year,” Brogan said. “Every team is different. But, the fact that we had never won four (in a row), we had one opportunity and didn’t take advantage of it, that was certainly in our conversation all year long. Something we kind of stressed to the kids that we’ve done some great things, but nobody has ever done this. Our slogan was ‘Leave Your Mark,’ and their mark is they were able to do something no other team has been able to do before.”
Friday marked the second-straight Division 6 title for the Titans, who had won in Division 7 in 2022 and 2023. Lumen Christi previously had won three straight championships one other time, from 2016-18.
While it was a tight game that was in doubt into the fourth quarter, for Brogan it was won with actions taken just days after the 2024 title win.
“I think the formula is pretty simple, and that’s to work hard,” Brogan said. “At the conclusion of the game last week, I pulled out my phone and showed the kids two pictures of two kids on this year’s team leaning out the back doors of the weight room last year throwing up. What makes that special is not what they were doing, because that happens all over the state. What makes that special is that was taken on the Monday after our state championship game.”
A fourth-quarter surge from Lumen Christi was what won the game on the field, as the Titans offense awoke from a Kingsley-induced two-quarter slumber to find its footing.
It started with a blocked 34-yard field goal attempt by Jake Contat with the game tied at 14.
That was followed by an eight-play, 72-yard drive which took up 4 minutes, 38 seconds of game time and was finished with a 23-yard touchdown pass from Benny Gaston to Johnny Walters.
With Kingsley driving near midfield on the next possession, Walters came up big again, this time with an interception.
“There was just a lot of energy, we were real excited,” Walters said. “But we knew it wasn’t over yet, and we had to keep going.”
The Titans did keep going, putting the game away with a 34-yard touchdown run by Sean Walicki with 2:20 to play. A fumble recovery on Kingsley’s next offensive play made it official.
“I have great respect for Kingsley, the players and the coaching staff. I thought they were really well-prepared and played really hard,” Brogan said. “... In the fourth quarter, I thought our offensive line really took over and controlled the line of scrimmage and allowed us to move the football.”
The end of the game was much like the beginning for the Titans (11-3), who jumped out to a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter as Ayden Gatewood scored on a 25-yard run and Walicki broke off a 60-yard score.
But Kingsley (11-3) was unfazed, answering Walicki’s score with a 10-play, 62-yard drive that ended with a one-yard run by Andrew George.
It looked as though the Titans would take that 14-7 lead into the half, but Kingsley downed a punt on the one-yard line with 21 seconds left, and forced and recovered a fumble as the Titans attempted to run the clock out on the half.
Nolan Hodges came away with the ball at the 3, and while it was originally ruled that the Lumen Christi runner was down, review overturned the call.
One play later, Tucker Dreves found Gavin Lewis in the corner of the endzone for a touchdown, and the game entered the half tied at 14.
“I think the first thing that we always say about our kids is that we have fighters,” Kingsley co-coach Jason Morrow said. “We obviously didn’t play well in the first six minutes of that game, and you can’t take a team as talented and as well-coached as they are and spot them 14 points. But, incredibly proud of our kids. We go into the fourth quarter and it’s 14-14 and we had an opportunity because we have fighters.”
Those fighters really showed up on defense, as Kingsley held Lumen Christi to just 40 yards of offense between that second drive and the two game-changing fourth quarter drives.
Colton Goethals, Lewis and Hodges each had six tackles to lead that defensive effort. Lewis added 117 yards rushing to lead the Kingsley offense.
Walicki had a massive defensive effort to match his big day on offense, recording a game-high 17 tackles. On the other side of the ball, he rushed 11 times for 142 yards and the two touchdowns.
Gaston finished the day 8-of-13 passing for 111 yards and the touchdown to Walters. Antwon Baker and Brennan Brogan each added eight tackles for the Titans.
PHOTOS (Top) Lumen Christi’s Johnny Walters (8) and Nolan Huff (21) break up a pass intended for Kingsley’s Alex Figueroa (87) on Friday at Ford Field. (Middle) The Stags’ Tucker Dreves (9) closes in on a Titans ball carrier. (Below) Kingsley’s Andrew George (8) works to bring down Wes Learned.