Football’s Future
March 20, 2012
Many folks, including me, will too often focus on the destination more than the trip. More on results than process. The end more than the means.
This is epidemic in sports, on all levels. There’s so much focus on the postseason that it overshadows the regular season.
In contrast, in educational athletics, we are supposed to hold to the principle that opportunities for teaching and learning are as plentiful, maybe more so, in regular season as in tournaments, at subvarsity levels as at varsity, during practices as during games.
This disease affects football as much as any high school sport. There’s been too much focus on the end of the season – playoffs. Postseason tournaments have been the demise of many great Thanksgiving Day high school football classics across the country. Playoffs continue to ruin rivalries and collapse conferences nationwide.
And, disturbingly, the focus on the end of the season misses what is most wrong with football, and may be most threatening to its future. It’s practice. Specifically, what’s allowed during preseason practice and then at practice throughout the season.
We can predict that, in high school football’s future, two-a-day practices will be fewer, practice hours will be shorter and activities will be different. Among proposals we will be presented (and should seriously consider) will be:
If this all sounds silly or radical, remember that the NCAA and NFL are already making such changes. NFL players face contact in practice on only 14 days during a 17-week regular season. Meanwhile, many high school coaches have kids knocking heads and bruising bodies two to four days a week, all season long. Giving critics the impression that interscholastic football for teens is more brutal than the higher levels of football for grown men. Inviting interference from people who think they know better.
Actually, we know better; and we need to do better. Soon.
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. 22: Harbaugh Brothers' Football Roots Planted in Part at Pioneer - Read
Nov. 15: 8-Player Football Finals Right at Home at Superior Dome - 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)