Gaylord's Teams Pursue Return to Elite
September 23, 2015
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
GAYLORD – Gaylord High School is in the midst of a football revival.
Gaylord St. Mary is hoping it can say the same in a few years.
Gaylord High is 4-0 and, among various media polls, ranked as high as No. 4 in Division 3. The senior-laden Blue Devils will be put to the test Friday, facing another unbeaten, Traverse City Central, on the road.
St. Mary, challenged by numbers, is 0-4. With just five seniors on the 25-player roster – there’s no junior varsity team – the Snowbirds are building for the future behind a "solid" sophomore class.
"We realize we're behind the eight ball in terms of numbers," St. Mary coach Kevin O'Connell said. "But we're very encouraged about what's coming up.
"We start six to seven sophomores on each side of the ball, plus a freshman. We're very young. We're a JV team playing on Friday night. We're OK with that because over the next two or three years we anticipate being very competitive."
Gaylord coach Will Cleaver can relate to that. Two years ago, in his first season back after a five-year hiatus, the Blue Devils started 0-8 before closing the campaign with a win over Alpena.
"That was a grind, a tough season," Cleaver said. "Our kids really had to learn a lot of things. We just weren't competitive."
But those underclassmen in 2013 stepped up, leading the Blue Devils to a 5-4 mark and near-playoff berth last season.
"The thing I was most proud about in 2014 was that we were competitive in every game," Cleaver said. "There were no blowouts, like in 2013. We were making progress."
The progress has continued. With the senior class leading the way, Gaylord football is returning to where it was when Cleaver first ran the program from 2000 to 2007. The Blue Devils went 55-24 during those eight years.
"It's exciting to be in the situation we're in now," Cleaver said. "We're pleased with how our kids are progressing and responding. We've got some pretty good players. That makes it easier."
One of those players is senior running back/safety Shane Foster, who rushed for 148 yards and four touchdowns in last week's 52-8 win over Ogemaw Heights. Foster was on the varsity as a sophomore in 2013 – a time when success was elusive. Gaylord slipped to 7-38 in the five years after Cleaver left following the 2007 season.
"It's all about mindset really and that (2013) team didn't have a good mindset,” Foster said.
That's changing now.
"Last year we went 5-4," Foster said. "Obviously, we want to do better than that and make the playoffs. We realize we have to come together and work as a team to make that happen."
Gaylord’s athletic director Christian Wilson has watched his school’s progression – and it puts into perspective what St. Mary is going through. Those sophomores who had to play in 2013 have continued to work hard, especially in the weight room, he said, and now are reaping the benefits.
"Sometimes you have those years when you've got a lot of young kids playing," Wilson said. "But it's difficult to win games, especially in the Big North Conference, when your key players are sophomores or even juniors. You need to have senior leadership. We've been blessed with that this year."
"So goes your seniors, so goes your season, as a general rule," Cleaver added.
Seniors dominate the line on both sides of the ball for the Blue Devils. Foster is the leading ground gainer. Another senior, Jacob Freeman, is a threat, too. He returned a kick 60 yards for a score, hauled in a 37-yard touchdown pass from Nick Rowley and completed a 34-yard pass to Rowley on a trick play in the win over Ogemaw.
Rowley, a sophomore, gives the Blue Devils balance. He completed 12 of 15 passes for 170 yards in a Week 3 win over Escanaba.
"Our kids have caught on as to what it takes to win ... what it takes to play at a high level," Cleaver said. "It all has to come together. We have great kids, and I have a staff that does a great job with those kids. It's been very rewarding."
Foster credits the staff for turning the team's fortunes around. It all starts with Cleaver, who left in 2007 to work as a defensive line/quality control coach under Butch Jones at Central Michigan University. He spent the next season coaching inside linebackers at Liberty High School in Frisco, Texas, before returning to Gaylord and helping out in the youth football program.
Cleaver, a financial adviser, said he didn't expect to return to the sidelines at the high school given the commitment it would take to rebuild the program. But his two sons, who were playing in the system, "begged" him to consider it. So a family meeting was called.
"I told them that if I'm going to do this, it's going to take a lot of work and you need to be on board," Cleaver said. "If everyone is not all in, it's not going to be worth it. Everybody voted and said 'Let's do it.'"
Gaylord started 4-0 last season, but a loss to Traverse City Central spiraled into a 1-4 finish.
"After that (loss to Central), it didn't go the way we planned," Foster said.
That's why Friday's showdown is critical for the Blue Devils.
"We're trying to make our statement here for the Big North Conference (title)," Foster said.
At St. Mary, there is no league title to play for this season. The goal is long range – boost numbers in the program. With Manistee Catholic Central switching to 8-player this fall, St. Mary is now the smallest Catholic school playing 11-player football in the northern Lower Peninsula. In fact, the Snowbirds, who co-op with Alba, are the sixth smallest program in the state with 133 high school students – 91 at St. Mary, 42 at Alba.
With three Ski Valley Conference members – Bellaire, Pellston and Onaway – playing 8-player, there was talk in the community about making that switch, too. But that's all it was – talk. Since then the school's made a commitment to 11-player by joining the Northern Michigan Football League, with play starting next season.
"We feel there's a good future here," new athletic director Jeff Hunter said. "We obviously have to work at increasing our numbers. The economy really hurt us for several years. It hurt everybody. This is a choice for people to send their kids here. We've seen our numbers go from the mid-60s (three years ago) to back into the 90s. I would like to see us with 150 kids in this high school in the next five years. We're working really hard."
Five of the 25 players on the roster are from Alba. Hunter said he's looking at other "co-op opportunities" as well in order to strengthen the program, although he did not want to elaborate at this time.
"Everybody wants us to be competitive, most everybody wants us to stay 11-man," he said. "I have some things in the works I'm pushing hard to try and get."
St. Mary has a proud tradition. The Snowbirds went 85-22 over a stretch from 1999 to 2009. They won 10 or more games five years in a row. Twice, in 1999 and 2002, St. Mary finished 13-1, falling in the MHSAA Division 8 Final, first to Mendon (7-6) and then to Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes (13-10).
Cleaver was the coach of the 1999 squad.
Hunter is certain St. Mary has the right coach in O'Connell to bring the Snowbirds back.
"Our current football staff is out of this world, entirely committed," he said. "We're not far from being competitive – three or four athletes. We're in most of these games. There's a lot to come, and Kevin is the guy to lead us."
St. Mary suffered two eight-point losses to start the season – 35-27 to Oscoda and 22-14 to Central Lake. O'Connell would like to have those games back.
"You can't turn the ball over five times one week and four the next and expect to win," he said.
The Snowbirds then ran into two of the area’s powerhouse teams, unbeaten and state-ranked St. Ignace and Johannesburg-Lewiston.
"We're taking our lumps right now, but we're definitely headed in the right direction," O'Connell insisted.
"We have a solid group of athletes in our sophomore class. They're physically big enough to play. And we have a nice eighth grade class coming up."
O'Connell is putting added emphasis in a strength and conditioning program for all high school athletes, regardless of sport.
"We're making great headway and our kids, boys and girls, are getting on board with it," he said. "We want to be able to jump higher, run faster and be more explosive. Last I knew, those (concepts) applied to every sport."
With such a young roster, O'Connell admits he and his staff are spending more time teaching fundamentals than in the past when the school had a JV team. They're also trying to develop the mental aspects of the game, such as working with players in analyzing situations in order to slow the speed of the action down so it's not overwhelming.
O'Connell feels for the younger players who are not ready for varsity, but are thrust into competing with older players. He said they miss out "on those formative years" at the JV level where they can grow, learn the fundamentals, gain confidence and get game repetitions while playing opponents the same age.
Hunter hopes this is just a blip.
"Our intent next year is to have a JV team," he said.
With several smaller schools, especially in the northern Lower Peninsula, turning to 8-player to keep programs alive, O'Connell is concerned about the future for those who elect to stay in the 11-player game. As more Division 8 schools make the switch, more Division 7 schools drop down to create equal numbers for the playoffs – widening the enrollment gaps within the division.
But St. Mary is moving forward, ready to tackle the challenge. Hunter, a pilot for Southwest Airlines, thinks the program is ready to take off.
"Kevin believes we can be successful," he said. "A quality football program is one of the cornerstones to a growing school. A lot of people don't like (to hear) that, but I think it's true. A great athletic program is a draw.
"I'm hoping next year you're writing a different article, and that article will say here's the way to success."
Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Gaylord defenders stack up an Ogemaw Heights ball carrier during last week's win. (Middle top) Gaylord coach Will Cleaver addresses his team after a victory. (Middle below) St. Mary junior Josh Nowicki looks upfield for an opening. (Below) Older brother Adam Nowicki, a senior, turns the corner during the Snowbirds' game against Central Lake. (Gaylord photos by Rob DeForge/RD Sports photo; St. Mary photos by Bill Serveny/Gaylord Herald Times.)
Brogan Shepherds Lumen Christi Legacy
By
Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
November 17, 2017
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
JACKSON – It has been nearly 38 years since Herb Brogan became head football coach at Jackson Lumen Christi. It is hard to imagine anyone facing tougher circumstances in a promotion than he did early in 1980.
Lumen Christi was coming off its second Class B championship in three seasons, this one capping an undefeated season. Head coach Jim Crowley was named the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Class B Coach of the Year, and Brogan had been on the varsity staff since 1973 and had been part of the program since 1971.
It was a close coaching staff, but everything changed on the first Friday night of 1980. Crowley confronted a man in his driveway as he returned home from picking up his daughter. After sending his daughter inside, Crowley was shot and killed, leaving the Jackson community shocked and saddened.
At age 30, Brogan was chosen to succeed Crowley, his friend and mentor who had been the coach at rival St. John while Brogan played for St. Mary. The two schools merged in 1968, and Crowley was named head coach. Crowley and Brogan formed a strong friendship during their years together, and Brogan was the obvious choice to be the new head coach after Crowley’s sudden death.
“You’re in shock,” Brogan said of his recollections of that tragic night. “It played out slowly, and it was a long, long night. I remember that.”
Taking over the program under those circumstances was challenging for Brogan.
“It was hard just because I missed Jim,” he said. “I had the support of his family, and the coaching staff remained the same and constant, and the kids bonded together. We just worked our way through it.”
A year later, the MHSFCA created the Jim Crowley Award, and continues to hand it out each season.
Through the years, Brogan put his own stamp on the program, but the Crowley influence always has been evident to those who could recognize it.
“A lot of the plays are the same; that play-action pass is the way we ran it back then,” Brogan said. “He established the foundation, and a lot of the things are run the same way. Circumstances have changed, but the tradition has stayed the same.”
Maintaining tradition
Brogan’s first two teams both finished the regular season undefeated. In 1980, Lumen Christi lost to Farmington Hills Harrison 7-6 in the Class B Regional, and in 1981, the 9-0 Titans were denied a playoff spot despite outscoring their opponents by a combined score of 301-26.
From 1981-94, Lumen Christi made the playoffs just twice but still had 12 winning seasons out of 14 and never finished worse than 4-5. In 1995, Lumen Christi had an unbeaten regular season and won a playoff game before losing to Detroit Country Day.
The following season, Lumen Christi won its third MHSAA title – and the first with Brogan as head coach – and the most prolonged successful run in school history was underway.
Since 1992, Lumen Christi has not been worse than 6-3 in any season. It also has 263 wins – an average of more than 10 per season over 26 seasons. The Titans won seven MHSAA championships during that run, including two capping back-to-back 14-0 seasons in 2000-01.
Brogan said each title brought its own satisfaction.
“They are all different, and the kids are different,” he said. “Sometimes you expect it, like in 2000 and 2001 and in 1996. It would have been a disappointment if we didn’t win those.”
And sometimes the expectations are not as high. At the beginning of the 2016 season, Brogan saw promise in his young team but was unsure how things would turn out. It did not look real promising after the Titans started 1-2.
“The team did what we hoped it would do,” he said. “We knew we weren’t going to be very good early on, and we weren’t, but we were young and we had a chance to get a lot better and we did.”
Lumen Christi ran the table, winning its last 11 games with a few key victories along the way. One of those came in the sixth week against Coldwater.
“The Coldwater game that we won in overtime was a big confidence booster because we had already lost two games at that point,” senior fullback/linebacker Kyle Minder said. “It was a big game to win.”
Senior left guard Austin Maynard, then a junior, pointed to the victory over Schoolcraft in the Division 6 District Final as a key point in the season.
“We found out we can win it all because that team was probably the best we faced all year,” he said. “When we won that game, we looked at each other saying. ‘It’s possible that we could win it all.’ “
The 11-game run was capped with a 26-14 victory over Maple City Glen Lake at Ford Field in Detroit.
“It was what everyone dreams about; the feeling that happens when you win is indescribable,” Maynard said. “It feels like you are on top of the world and nothing can bring you down. You know all the hard work that you put in during the summer paid off.”
The players, however, wanted more.
“They have embraced the challenge of being the defending champions,” Brogan said. “We’ll see what happens, but it’s been on their minds ever since we walked off Ford Field last year.”
Driven to repeat
Brogan does not shy away from scheduling a tough foe or two in the non-conference, and this season the Titans opened against four-time reigning Division 5 champion Grand Rapids West Catholic for the second year in a row. They knocked off the Falcons 27-24 to get the season off to a rousing start.
“In the non-conference, there is nobody better to play than Grand Rapids West Catholic,” senior tight end/defensive end Cameron White said. “Just having them on our schedule is great, and to come out with a win was awesome.”
One of the neat aspects for this group of players is that it is the first to complete an entire season of playing its home games at the high school. In the past, Lumen Christi has always played its home games at Withington Community Stadium, which is located at Jackson High School. A few years ago, Lumen Christi opened its own field and eventually ended up playing all of its home games there.
“I was a little bit concerned about that because Withington is such a nice venue, and we wondered how the kids would accept it, but they love it,” Brogan said. “I think the kids in the school like it, and they have their own little section down there in the end zone and there is a lot of enthusiasm down there.
“It’s nice getting dressed here and walking out to play a ballgame.”
It certainly has been a hit with the players.
“It’s nice to be at our own school and not have to travel for home games,” senior receiver/defensive end Sam Mizner said. “It’s nice to have that LC in the middle of the field all of the time.”
Maynard said it’s a different feeling to be playing on the school grounds.
“When we played at Jackson High, they are one of our biggest rivals in football, so playing there you just didn’t feel at home,” he said. “Here we are playing in front of our home crowd at home.”
This year’s team is experienced with strong line play, and one improvement over last year – at least statistically – is on defense. The Titans have allowed an average of 12.8 points per game after giving up 17 a year ago.
“Offensively, we’re physical, and we have a great offensive line,” Brogan said. “I’d say that’s the strength of our team. We’ve been able to block everybody all year long. We have two good tailbacks who have rushed for 1,800 yards and a fullback who has rushed for 750. Our quarterback has thrown for about 1,200 yards and completed 68 percent. We haven’t thrown it a lot, but we have thrown it effectively off our play-action stuff. When we have been able to run it well, we’ve been able to hurt people.
“It’s an experienced group. Most of these kids had a role in the state championship last year. We returned a lot. It’s a mature group. They are fun to coach and fun to be around. They enjoy themselves and play hard and play with intensity, but they have a lot of fun doing it.”
Lumen Christi played an eight-game schedule this regular season and went 7-1 with a one-point loss to Battle Creek Harper Creek in the third week of the season.
“I think it was a very good point in the season when we ended up losing,” White said. “It was a wake-up call that everything wasn’t going to be easy and everything wasn’t going to be given to us.
“It showed that we need to work that much harder.”
Lumen Christi will take an eight-game winning streak into its Division 6 Semifinal on Saturday. The first eight Finals championships in school history were either in Class B or Division 5, but declining enrollment dropped the Titans to Division 6 in 2014. But that hasn’t necessarily meant an easier road to a title. This year, perennial powers Ithaca and Traverse City St. Francis are meeting in the other Semifinal game.
“Last year, I thought Division 5 was more difficult than Division 6, but overall this year, Division 6 is probably more difficult than Division 5,” Brogan said. “What I have found over the years is that there are really good teams in every division, just the further down you go there are less of them.
“We felt last week that seven of the eight teams who were left could win it, and now, any of the four could win it.”
Brogan – The Leader
With a lengthy resume as impressive as Brogan’s, there is no doubt who is in charge. And the players know of him long before they ever play for him.
“When you come into the program in seventh grade, you look at Coach and he’s a very intimidating guy,” Maynard said. “You know the hard work that he is going to put you through just from the stories you’ve heard, and true football players want that; they want coaches to come up to you and challenge you and put you through the most difficult workouts you’ve ever been through.”
And, when they mess up, they will hear about it.
“At first, you are scared of making a mistake, but you have to do everything 100 percent,” Mizner said. “You know you are going to get yelled at because you’re not perfect, but things will happen and you’ll get better during the season.”
Brogan will coach with an iron fist, but he isn’t one to run up the score. Often during his career a 28-0 halftime lead ended with something like a 35-0 victory.
He preaches clean play and will not tolerate any of his players doing something that might be deemed dirty. His players told of one such instance this season. One of the Titans pushed an opposing player after the play, and as White told it, that player felt the wrath of Brogan.
“Coach Brogan got in his face,” White said. “It solved the problem, and the player learned his lesson. And he learned his lesson at conditioning, too.”
And finally, there is a saying around football circles in Jackson. It goes something like this: “If Lumen Christi is close at halftime, the coaches will more often make the proper halftime adjustments to give the Titans the edge in the second half.”
In typical style of the low-key coach, Brogan directs that credit to his assistant coaches.
“I think we have a great coaching staff, and honestly, they do a lot more of that stuff than I do,” he said. “We have an offensive staff and an offensive coordinator and a defensive staff and a defensive coordinator, and my job is to sit here and talk to the media.”
Brogan is fifth all-time in coaching wins in the state of Michigan and second among active coaches. His career record is 341-83, and he is one of just 10 coaches to reach 300 career victories. He doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
“It’s still fun,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of classes anymore, and in the offseason I can kind of do what I want to do. I’m coaching with great guys and coaching great kids.
“I’ll be here as long as these guys want me around.”
Chip Mundy served as sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980-86, and then as a reporter and later copy editor at the Jackson Citizen-Patriot from 1986-2011. He also co-authored Michigan Sports Trivia. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Lumen Christi players stand arm-in-arm. (Middle top) Titans coach Herb Brogan talks things over with his players. (Middle below) Lumen Christi fullback Kyle Minder, left, leads the way for tailback Sebastian Toland. (Below) The Titans are succeeding again behind a powerful offensive line. (Photos courtesy of the Jackson Lumen Christi football program.)