Grass Lake Thriving But Driving for More
September 13, 2019
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
GRASS LAKE – Cameron Darrow remembers the play like it was yesterday.
“It was the third quarter and there was nine minutes left,” the Grass Lake middle linebacker said. “I had 14 tackles in the game already. I came up through the hole and it was raining, and I tackled the running back. As I was lifting him up, my foot got caught in the ground and twisted and popped.”
Darrow broke his ankle in two spots in that game against Addison, which was near the end of his sophomore season. It was a long road back, but the Warriors senior captain made a full recovery. He’s one of the reasons Grass Lake is off to a 2-0 start and has its sights set on a big season.
“We just take it game by game,” Darrow said. “We just want to keep winning. Our goal at the end of every week is to be 1-0.”
The reigning Cascades Conference champions earned a spot in The Associated Press’ Division 6 top 10 poll earlier this week. And going into tonight’s game against East Jackson, the Warriors are in midseason form. Grass Lake beat Stockbridge 58-12 in the season opener and handled Vandercook Lake 51-0 in the first game of league play.
“You can’t argue with how the kids have played,” said 20th-year Grass Lake head coach Randy Cole. “It’s very early in the season, though. We have a long way to go. We just have to keep getting better.”
Over the past six seasons, Cole has employed a high-powered, up-tempo offense. His son Anthony was an assistant coach at Albion College when Cole asked him his thoughts about implementing the offense at Grass Lake. It’s worked.
“It gives us a lot of versatility,” Cole said. “We spread the ball around. We get the ball out quick. It’s fun. The kids like it.”
Grass Lake is used to winning. The Warriors have made the playoffs 13 of the last 14 years and are 145-60, a winning percentage above .700, during Cole’s tenure.
This year’s offense is led by junior quarterback Carson Farley. He’s been dynamite through two weeks, completing 26 of his 30 passes for 440 yards and nine touchdowns. He hasn’t thrown an interception.
“He’s new,” Cole said. “He was our JV quarterback last year. He’s off to a great start. He makes good decisions. He has good knowledge of the offense. We run the same thing on the JV, and he ran it well last year. He knew coming in that he was going to be our quarterback, so he worked hard this summer.”
Farley has spread the ball around. Over just two games, six Warriors have at least one rushing attempt and eight receivers have caught passes. Six of those eight pass-catchers have a touchdown.
“We don’t really have a No. 1 receiver,” Cole said. “We spread it around. We take what the defense gives us.”
Trenton Holden leads the Warriors in rushing with more than 300 yards on nearly 12 yards per carry.
Grass Lake never huddles on offense.
“We don’t even use the word huddle,” Darrow said. “We call it a gathering. The only time we ‘gather’ is late in a game if we are trying to use up the clock.”
On defense, Darrow is the signal-caller from his middle linebacker spot. He’s been in on 24 tackles over two games – credited with 20 solo tackles and four assists. He has three tackles for loss and one sack.
“He’s the guts and glue of our defense,” said Cole.
Grass Lake’s No. 1 goal, as usual, is to win the Cascades Conference. After that, the Warriors are hoping to make a deeper run in the playoffs. Last season they started 8-0 before losing to eventual Division 8 champion Reading in the Week 9 Big 8 Conference crossover game 55-7 and then to Cascades foe Michigan Center 35-6 in the first round of the playoffs.
“We were humbled,” Darrow said. “We really wanted to be the third team in Grass Lake history to go 9-0 in the regular season, but we just fell short. We definitely have that in the back of our minds. We want revenge and want to make it further in the playoffs.”
During the winter and summer workouts, Darrow said, those two losses were motivation for the Warriors players.
“We had 30 to 40 kids there lifting all summer,” he said. “We talked about those losses. We want to be better this year.”
Darrow, who is one of three team captains along with Gage Lee and Shane Holcomb, said this year’s Warriors are a tight group.
“We play for each other,” he said. “We all have the same goals. We’ve been playing together since the third grade and we just love football. When I was coming back from my injury last year, everyone lifted me up and helped me get back. Not coming back wasn’t an option. I love football too much.
“Football is a brotherhood. We play for each other.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Cameron Darrow is back leading the Grass Lake defense this season. (Middle) Carson Farley looks downfield for a receiver (Photos courtesy of Amy Farley.)
'All Together' Onekama Seeks 1st Football Title
November 16, 2018
By Chris Dobrowolski
Special for Second Half
ONEKAMA — The Upper Peninsula is soon to be invaded by Portagers.
The village of Onekama, meanwhile, might resemble a ghost town.
A large and loyal following for the Onekama football team is geared up for a trip to the Superior Dome in Marquette, site of Saturday’s 8-Player Division 2 Football Final, where the Portagers (10-2) are taking on Rapid River (9-3) in their quest for the school’s first MHSAA football championship.
“It’s really energized the community,” said Onekama head coach John Neph. “I’m so happy that our local community has responded so well. It means so much to have this special event going on.”
Yard signs and window decorations have sprung up all over town. Residents have stepped forward to find out how they can aid the team during its journey to the championship game, while fans have shown up to games in droves as the team has advanced farther in the postseason, past the likes of Marion (22-6), Brethren (52-0) and Portland St. Patrick (28-14).
“Everyone’s supporting us. The community here is amazing, especially for the football program,” said running back/linebacker Ben Acton. “We had the most people we’ve ever had for our games in the playoffs this year. It’s awesome seeing everybody out there in the stands and after the games.”
The Portagers have given their fans plenty to cheer about. The program had four playoff wins all-time entering this season, and they have nearly doubled that total with this playoff run.
Getting to the championship game wasn’t at the forefront of Onekama’s goals this season, but it hasn’t come as a complete shock, either. The Portagers had five seniors and three top juniors returning to a squad that went 9-2 in 2017.
“We thought we could be pretty good,” said Neph. “Then we had a really good preseason camp, and we got better. We were very pleasantly surprised with the overall development of our players. Our guys have gotten better and better as the season has gone on.”
It’s a squad that has embraced the team aspect of the game. Sure, there are standouts — Acton and junior running back/linebacker Aaron Powers have been playmakers on both sides of the ball, senior Rylan Clarke has led from his tight end position, and senior Wyatt Lawson and junior Wade Sedlar anchor the offensive and defensive lines, respectively — but the Portagers relish functioning as one cohesive unit.
“This isn’t one person’s team. Or the coaches’ team. It’s our team,” said Neph. “It’s all of us together. That has made a huge difference with the morale, and the long run we’ve had. Sometimes at the end of a season you can get tired of going to practice, and I don’t think we’ve ever experienced that. It’s a group of guys that like coming out here, enjoy working with each other. We have some fun, and we’ve been winning, which helps.”
Onekama has proven it can score points, having topped the 50-point plateau four times. The Portagers like to be known as a stout defensive team, though. They’ve backed that up by shutting out four teams this year, not counting two forfeit victories.
“We really take pride in our defense,” said senior defensive back Ben Johnson, one of four defensive players to receive accolades on the all-Midwest Central Michigan Conference West teams. “We’re a defensive team but our offense — when it clicks, it clicks too.”
The Portagers finished third in the West after they had tough losses to league champion Wyoming Tri-unity Christian (28-26) and runner-up Suttons Bay (13-8). Neph felt like the loss to Suttons Bay, which came two weeks before the start of the postseason, ignited Onekama’s push through the playoffs.
“We lost it late in the game on a long pass,” said Neph. “It felt like we were about to win the game, and to have it taken away from us like that, that was tough. I’m extremely proud of our guys. That’s where the upperclassmen stepped forward and said, ‘We lost today, but we’re going to bounce back and keep going.’ I would say that was a significant turning point for us. We got back to work and moved forward from there.”
The Portagers have reeled off four straight wins and whipped the entire school and community into a frenzy.
“It’s great,” Clarke said of the atmosphere at school. “Our math teacher looked at us today and said, ‘I still can’t believe you guys are going to the Finals.’ Our student support is tremendous. For a small community like us, this is great.”
Advancing this deep into the postseason has created a lot of additional planning and extra responsibilities for Neph and his staff, including making arrangements for hotel accommodations, transportation and meals for the team. He wouldn’t want to have it any other way, with the opportunity to win a Finals championship.
“It would just be an unbelievable, historical moment for our school to win the state championship,” he said. “It would be the crowning event of a lot of people putting hours and hours and hours of work into the football program. For the players, it would be the ultimate experience for them. Something that will last the rest of their lives.”
Win or lose, this season and this playoff performance already has created a deep bond among the 18 players on this year’s Onekama squad.
“We’re brothers,” said Clarke. “We’ll probably be brothers for the rest of our lives. We’ll probably all be coaching our kids together when we’re 30 and 40.”
Chris Dobrowolski has covered northern Lower Peninsula sports since 1999 at the Ogemaw County Herald, Alpena News, Traverse City Record-Eagle and currently as sports editor at the Antrim Kalkaska Review since 2016. 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) Onekama’s Ben Acton (5) finds an opening among four Portland St. Patrick defenders during last week’s Semifinal win. (Middle) Luke Mauntler (7) drags along two Manistee Catholic Central defenders during a Week 6 victory. (Photos courtesy of the Onekama athletic department.)