Highlight Reel: Everett/Flushing
November 5, 2014
The Flushing football team defeated Lansing Everett on Saturday in a Division 2 District opener. Click the headings below for MHSAA.tv highlights and the final link to watch the game in full.
EVERETT TIES IT - Rhett Blackman ties the game up for Lansing Everett against Flushing in the second quarter on a 6-yard run. Blackman would score twice.
WOW FACTOR - Flushing's Jake Matus takes in a 59-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Garrett Oginsky on the last play of the first half to break that tie.
BIG PASS FOR VIKINGS - Everett tightens things up late in the third quarter on this 50-yard pass and run play from Rhett Butler to Brian Jones. It cut the Flushing lead to 29-21 at the time, and that score held up.
Watch the entire game and order DVDs by Clicking Here.
Balancing Football Playoffs
April 18, 2017
Every time the Michigan High School Athletic Association Football Playoffs have been expanded, two voices have been heard – one complaining that too many teams or divisions have watered down the tournament; the other advocating that every school should qualify for the tournament regardless of its regular-season performance.
The playoffs have expanded from 32 to 64 to 128 to 256 to 272 teams; and for 2017, with the addition of 16 more 8-player teams, to 288 of the 626 MHSAA member schools’ football teams in Michigan.
We have reached the point where 46 percent of the schools which sponsor football qualify for the Football Playoffs, and we are approaching closely the point of qualifying every team with winning records during the regular season.
Those stats sound about right for a collision sport conducted mostly outdoors in a cold climate for teenagers. A longer tournament is unwise; a larger tournament is unneeded.
What is needed and wise is more attention to the regular season, and especially to practices which occur at least five times more frequently than games. That’s where the teaching and learning of football skills and life lessons can be everyday occurrences for every team in Michigan.