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Howell Names Field for Longtime Leader

August 30, 2018

By Tim Robinson
Special for Second Half

If you got the impression that John Dukes has been around Howell football forever, you wouldn’t be far off.

His association with the program began before high school.

“When I was a kid, I used to live near Page Field (Howell’s former athletic complex), and I would go out and watch football practice,” Dukes said. “I was at practice all the time, and the coach said, ‘If you’re going to be here all the time, you may as well get some water for the boys while they’re practicing.’”

That was in 1963, when the Highlanders went 9-0.

A little more than 55 years later, Dukes will be honored tonight when the field at Howell’s Memorial Stadium will be named John Dukes Field.

Howell football coach Aaron Metz began the drive to name the field after Dukes when it was determined the old turf, installed in 2004, needed to be replaced.

“We have a commitment award named for John,” he said. “If you play football for four years, you get the John Dukes Commitment Award. We put a committee together with people who have been around Howell for a long time, and when you ask anybody, they say there’s not a person more deserving than John Dukes.

“So I ran it up the ladder to the athletic director and superintendent, and, to be honest, it was a pretty easy process because no one could find anything bad about John,” Metz added. “We’re excited to have the opportunity to do it.”

Dukes was a three-year varsity player at Howell and then played at Alma College, where his teams won three league championships.

With the exception of six years at Hartland coaching under his son, Marcus, John Dukes has been affiliated with Howell football for 46 years, including 25 as the head coach.

After graduating from Alma in 1972, Dukes got a teaching job at Howell and was an assistant freshman coach for a season and a varsity assistant for two before taking over as head coach at age 25.

“My philosophy at the time was I wanted to help the kids enjoy playing football and help them to be successful at it,” he recalled. “The previous three years our record wasn’t very good. That was one of my objectives, was to make it fun.”

He then talked about his first season with a little self-deprecation, a common thread in most conversations with Dukes.

“I remember my first game,” he said. “Because I played defense in college (Dukes was a linebacker), I thought we were going to be a really good defensive team. We played Fenton in my first game, and we lost 32-19, so my defensive prowess wasn’t good at the time.”

The Highlanders lost six of their first seven games that season, but won the last two and went 8-1 three seasons later.

In all, Howell had winning records in 15 of his 25 seasons, but one group of players stood out for an entirely different reason.

“We had a period of time (1989 and 1990) where we weren’t very good, and we lost 17 games in a row,” he said. “But those kids were wonderful kids to coach. They came to practice with energy all the time, and from a coaching standpoint, it was wonderful to coach them during the week. Now, Fridays were a different story, because we didn’t play very well on Fridays, ever.

“But the real thing that stands out with that group was the very last game of their senior year we beat (Waterford Kettering), and you’d have thought we’d won the Super Bowl,” Dukes continued. “Those kids who were seniors, that was their first football victory in high school. It was an amazing time. We had several teams with good players, and I really enjoyed coaching them, too, and I don’t want to leave them out. But that really stood out in my mind, in that they came out to work every day.

“Over a period of time of losing that many games, sometimes, it’s not fun and it’s not fun for them or the coaches. But we had a very enjoyable time over that two-year period, regardless of the fact we didn’t win any games.”

His perspective is consistent with the principles by which he ran his program.

“These weren’t original to me,” he says, “but the three things I always told our kids was your faith should be your number one priority, your family should be your number two priority. Football, when school hadn’t started, should be number three. And when school started, school became three and football became number four. We tried to base everything we did on these priorities in our lives. Sometimes those things cross over and mix and match. When they do, then you have to step back and say what is really important here?”

Dukes resigned after the 1999 season.

“There were a lot of things and I don’t know if anything in particular,” he said of his decision. “I had been doing it for 25 years, and we had a string of years where we were 6-3. So we were OK, but I felt it was time to be done with it.”

His self-imposed exile lasted one season. He had a couple of stints as an assistant coach when he finally decided to retire for good in 2006.

“No sooner had I done that, my son (Marcus) called me up and said he just got the Hartland job,” Dukes recalled. “He said, ‘Dad, you have to come here and help.’ So I went there for six years. Then he resigned, and I thought I was going to be done again.”

After another stint as a Howell assistant, John Dukes took the last two years off before agreeing to rejoin the program as a junior varsity assistant this season, as the offensive coordinator.

As it turns out, one grandson, Jackson Dukes, plays on the Howell JV, and John Dukes also is helping coach another grandson, Colin Lassey, on his junior football team.

“When Jackson gets home, I ask him, ‘Did you get yelled at by Grandpa today?” Josh Dukes says. “And when he says yes, I say, ‘Good. You should be getting yelled at.’ So nothing has changed in the 30 years since high school.”

Josh Dukes, the oldest of John Dukes’ three children, joined Marcus in playing football for their father.

“There was never an expectation that we had to be this or that,” Josh Dukes said of himself, his brother and sister, Carrie. “Now maybe he was a little harder on me, but that’s something we were thankful for. I’d rather him be harder on me than any kid on the field, because then the other kids left me alone. They knew it was the same for everyone across the board. He wasn’t going to take it easy on me, my brother or my sister.”

John Dukes coached his daughter, Carrie, when she played middle school basketball.

“The first time he coached me, he came home to my mom and said, ‘I don’t know how people do this,’” she recalled. “‘They’re all crying, half of them don’t think I like them. I don’t know how to do this with girls. It’s a totally different ballgame.’ But he was a great coach. I know some people don’t like their parents coaching them, but I loved having him coach.”

Like her brothers, Carrie Lassey stayed involved with sports. She is now the athletic director at St. Joseph Catholic School in Howell.

“He coached my freshman team a couple of years ago,” she said. “It was third and fourth-grade girls. It’s amazing. He can coach pretty much anybody.”

Indeed, Dukes also coached baseball and wrestling at the varsity level at Howell, and, for a couple of weeks, filled in as a competitive cheer coach when the Highlanders had a temporary vacancy.

“I was more a supervisor,” he said, but serving that role illustrated his commitment to the athletic program as a whole. He was needed, and he stepped in.

Having stopped and started his career so many times, Dukes, now 68, laughs when asked about what he will do when he retires in the distant future.

“I’m sure he’ll be coaching when he’s in his 90s. Maybe triple digits,” jokes Bill Murray, the former Brighton coach who matched up with Dukes’ teams during the second half of Dukes’ Howell tenure. “The guy loves the game, he’s out there and he has a lot to offer. His teams were always well-prepared, they played great defense, were fundamentally sound and when you went nose-to-nose, they were consistent as to what they were going to do. It was a matter of whether you could stop them or not.”

Dukes still keeps up with the Howell varsity, still offers advice when asked, and still enjoys the competition.

“For me, as a head coach, it’s great having a coach (on staff) who has been there and done it to talk to and mentor, even me,” Metz said. “What makes a successful coach, I don’t think, changes, whether it’s been 50 or 100 years ago to the current day. He steered the ship to have an outstanding record (130-95) and also have a huge impact on kids in our community.”

“When people talk to me about my dad, they say he was a dad to them, or like a second dad,” Josh Dukes added. “Or, ‘I wanted to be a teacher because of him.’ These are the things that for us,” referring to his siblings, “is the most impressive part. The kids of players he’s coached, or the grandkids.”

Dukes has the unusual distinction of having coached more congressmen (Mike Rogers and Mark Schauer, who started on the offensive line for Dukes in the late 1970s) than pro football players (Jon Mack, who played for the Michigan Panthers of the USFL in 1984).

John Dukes will give a short speech before tonight’s ceremony, which will take place before Howell’s home opener against Plymouth.

“They’ve given me five minutes, but it will probably be shorter because they want to get the game started on time,” he joked.

“It’s an incredible honor,” Josh Dukes said. “Everyone in our family feels the same way. I don’t think he ever went into this with any intentions of being singled out. It’s a great lesson for our community and our athletes, to see what hard work and effort and care for your community can do, you know?”

During the ceremony, the letters “John Dukes Field,” which were sewn into the artificial turf in Howell’s Vegas Gold, will be unveiled.

“Aaron showed it to me last week when they were putting it in,” John Dukes said, then joked, “I thought (the lettering) was going to be a little trademark sign (sized), and my goodness, it’s bigger than the numbers. It’s a little bit ostentatious for me, I think; wow, that’s quite a tribute. I’m very humbled by it and honored by it and very appreciative of what people have done to make this happen.”

A few days later, Dukes posed for a picture next to his name on the field and chatted with a reporter as they left the stadium.

Then, he turned a corner to the JV football office and kept walking.

Before he became a living legend, John Dukes was a football coach, and there’s a game coming up and his team to prepare.

PHOTOS: (Top) Howell coach John Dukes celebrates his team’s 38-0 playoff victory over Wayne Memorial in 1992. (Middle) Dukes, during the 1991 season. (Below) Dukes stands next to the lettering that will be unveiled Thursday when the school’s field is named in his honor. (Photos taken or collected by Tim Robinson.)

Grand Blanc defenders converge on a Muskegon Mona Shores ball carrier during the Sailors' 28-26 win.

1st & Goal: 2024 Week 1 Review

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

September 3, 2024

Football is the only high school sport for which teams prepare an entire week to play just one game, and at most are guaranteed nine games each season.

MI Student AidThat being the case, every week contributes significantly to a team’s overall story. And we're thrilled to tell as many as possible again, starting with what struck us most from season openers this past holiday weekend.

This time, headliners included a pair of victories over 2023 Finals champions, and two of the highest-scoring games in MHSAA history. And those are just a few of the notables from this first chapter, as we restart our weekly "1st & Goal" series to highlight several of the results that especially jumped off the page.

Bay & Thumb

HEADLINER Frankenmuth 22, Goodrich 0 After falling to the Martians on a last-minute score to start the 2023 season, Frankenmuth avenged by handing Goodrich its first regular-season shutout since 2018. Logan Diener led the Eagles’ defensive effort with 15 tackles and two sacks, and Kobbi Ke outran Goodrich as a team 117 yards to 54. Click for more from the Saginaw News.

Watch list Fenton 28, Midland Dow 14 The Tigers also opened last season with a win over Dow, by two points, on the way to a Flint Metro League title – and this victory was even more impressive with quarterback Noah Sheil starring.

On the move Harbor Beach 24, Cass City 22 (OT) These two finished a combined 17-5 last year, and Harbor Beach extended its winning streak against the Red Hawks to three this weekend with an overtime defensive stand. Saginaw Heritage 48, Mount Pleasant 24 Despite graduating one of the most accomplished receivers in MHSAA history, Heritage raced to a second-straight win over the Oilers, who won a league title a year ago. Armada 28, Marine City 27 This ending was unforgettable as well, as both teams scored during the final two minutes, Armada first and then Marine City on a kickoff return – but the Tigers stopped the ensuing two-point conversion try.

Greater Detroit

HEADLINER Belleville 35, Clarkston 28 Belleville quarterback Bryce Underwood started one of the nation’s most anticipated senior seasons running for 177 yards and two scores and throwing two touchdown passes. His 55-yard TD sprint with 18 seconds left was the game-winner at the Xenith Prep Kickoff Classic. Click for more from the Detroit Sports Commission.

Watch list Warren De La Salle Collegiate 21, Davison 3 In another premier Xenith matchup at Wayne State, the 2023 Division 2 runner-up Pilots avenged last season’s 31-26 loss to Davison by dealing the Cardinals their first single-digit scoring day since 2021.

On the move West Bloomfield 42, Clinton Township Chippewa Valley 0 The Lakers left no doubt in this rematch of annual powers, impressing even more after winning last season’s matchup with the Big Reds by just a point. Lake Orion 21, Northville 13 These were both 10-game winners a year ago, and Lake Orion is back on course after last season’s lone loss came by a point in its District Final. Riverview Gabriel Richard 15, Montrose 10 Gabriel Richard began building on last season’s trip to the Division 8 Semifinals by holding on against a Rams team that reached the Division 7 Regional Finals in 2023.

Mid-Michigan

HEADLINER Lansing Everett 28, Lansing Sexton 0 Everett ended a two-game losing streak against its rival in a big way, shutting out a Sexton offense that scored 30 points per game last season and putting up 28 on a Sexton defense that gave up that many only once a year ago. Click for more from the Lansing State Journal.

Watch list East Lansing 31, Portage Central 7 Much is expected of the Trojans this season, and they showed why immediately in this matchup of 2023 league champions. East Lansing shut down a Central offense that averaged nearly 32 points per game last year.

On the move DeWitt 69, Haslett 42 These rivals ran right into the MHSAA record book combining for more than 100 points during one of the most high-scoring games of opening night, as the Panthers’ Elliott Larner and Vikings’ Kory Amachree combined to run for seven touchdowns. Pewamo-Westphalia 8, North Muskegon 7 The Pirates avenged their only two losses of a year ago (on opening night and then in a Regional Final) with a fourth-quarter touchdown and two-point conversion. Fowler 20, Hudson 6 Fowler also made some big-time small-school noise with this win over a Hudson program that was a combined 31-5 over the last three seasons.

Northern Lower Peninsula

HEADLINER Ogemaw Heights 29, Ubly 13 Ogemaw is coming off its best season in over a decade, and it’s impossible to argue with this start against last season’s undefeated Division 8 champion. Ubly has some significant changes on offense as several standouts graduated, and is a much smaller school, but the Falcons still held the Bearcats to their lowest-scoring performance since 2021. Click for more from the Bay City Times.

Watch list Traverse City West 6, Gaylord 0 West avenged last season’s 13-7 loss to the Blue Devils, who are coming off a perfect regular season and league and District titles. The Titans are seeking their first winning season since 2021.

On the move Traverse City St. Francis 67, Charlevoix 22 After opening last season with a one-point win over the Rayders, St. Francis fell to them in their Division 7 District opener. This avenges that, but they could mean again. Elk Rapids 7, Benzie Central 2 This may seem more like a baseball score, and Elk Rapids will take it after losing this matchup 47-26 last season and missing the playoffs at 4-5 while Benzie qualified at 5-4. Petoskey 8, Greenville 6 Only a few points were scored in this one too, but Petoskey knows every one of them counts after making the playoffs at 5-4 as well last season.

Southeast & Border

HEADLINER Onsted 35, Napoleon 20 The Wildcats are seeking their first winning season since 2019 and finished 2-7 a year ago. But they’re halfway to equaling that total after a loud start, as Napoleon is coming off back-to-back league titles. Click for more from the Adrian Daily Telegram.

Watch list Ypsilanti Lincoln 10, Milan 7 The Railsplitters are seeking their first winning season since 2017 and won two games a year ago as well, but they are on the right path with this victory over a 2023 playoff qualifier.

On the move Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central 22, Clinton 14 The Falcons bounced back from losing to Clinton by the same score in last season’s Division 7 District Final. Jackson Lumen Christi 49, Michigan Center 21 This matchup featured two of the Jackson area’s traditional best for the second-straight season, with the reigning Division 7 champion Titans again prevailing. Ann Arbor Pioneer 27, Adrian 17 The Pioneers avenged last season’s 36-30 loss to the Maples as they look to build on their winningest season since 2015.

Southwest Corridor

HEADLINER Paw Paw 32, Big Rapids 14 Paw Paw won this opening matchup for the second season in a row and by an almost identical score as in 2023, when Big Rapids went on to win the Central State Activities Association Gold and the Red Wolves finished second in the Wolverine Conference. PJ DeYoung led the way this time with 203 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. Click for more from the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Watch list St. Joseph 30, Niles 7 St. Joseph rebounded significantly after losing last season’s opener to Niles 55-0. The Bears took strides on both sides of the ball; Niles never scored fewer than 14 points in a game last season, and St. Joseph reached 30 only three times in 2023.  

On the move Hartford 55, Niles Brandywine 24 Hartford has a varsity team for the first time since 2021 and now its first win since 2019. Dowagiac 21, South Haven 11 Dowagiac last year posted its first winning season since 2019 despite a one-point loss to South Haven in their opener, and ending a three-game losing streak against the Rams over the weekend was another solid step. Buchanan 32, Saugatuck 6 Buchanan was another season-opening avenger, having fallen to Saugatuck 25-14 a year ago in what turned into a playoff season for both.

Marquette's Drew Bradley (6) breaks a tackle and gains several yards.

Upper Peninsula

HEADLINER Marquette 55, Gladstone 0 Watch out for the Sentinels. Marquette had lost two in a row to Gladstone, including 36-7 a year ago, and hadn’t reached 50 points in a game since 2021. This also was Marquette’s first season-opening win in three years. Click for more from the Marquette Mining Journal.

Watch list Ishpeming Westwood 36, Bark River-Harris 12 Westwood is coming off a pair of sub-.500 finishes after a string of much better ones, but breaking a two-game losing streak against Bark River-Harris could be the start of a turnaround. The Broncos had won last season’s matchup 50-14.

On the move Gwinn 14, Bridgeport 6 The Modeltowners are 1-0 for the first time since 2018 – the last time the team posted a winning record for the season. Iron Mountain 26, Houghton 16 The Mountaineers ran their winning streak against Houghton to three, but the Gremlins made this the closest matchup since their most recent victory over Iron Mountain in 2021. Kingsford 21, Escanaba 0 These two renewed this rivalry after a year ago, with Kingsford claiming its third-straight victory in the longtime series.

West Michigan

HEADLINER Zeeland West 28, Muskegon 13 This jumps off the page as Muskegon is the reigning Division 2 champion and won 12 straight games – including 22-16 over West – to close last season. But looking back further, it's fair to say the Dux have been on the verge; the Big Reds had won four of the last five matchups, but all of them were decided by eight points or fewer. This one, however, was a nonleague game as they are in separate divisions of the Ottawa-Kent Conference this fall for the first time since 2019. Click for more from the Holland Sentinel.

Watch list Reed City 24, Kingsley 22 Not to be outdone, Reed City also defeated a reigning Finals champion, edging last year’s Division 6 title winner Kingsley with a touchdown and two-point conversion with one second to play. Kingsley had defeated Reed City 37-7 last fall to advance to Ford Field.

On the move Rockford 30, Detroit Cass Tech 23 These Division 1 powers met for the first time, and the next time could be with a championship on the line. Rockford held on with a late defensive stand. Hudsonville Unity Christian 43, Whitehall 21 Unity Christian is coming off its first sub-.500 season in a decade, which began with a loss to Whitehall – which went on to finish 10-1 last fall and is Unity’s only opponent from 2023 on this year’s schedule. Muskegon Mona Shores 28, Grand Blanc 26 Shores followed quarterback Jonathan Pittman across the state for an impressive win at the Vehicle City Gridiron Classic.

Otsego's Lane Blanchard breaks through an opening during his team's loss to Coopersville.

8-Player

HEADLINER Pickford 40, Powers North Central 12 Pickford dealt the Jets a season-opening defeat for the first time since 2018 as the two 8-player powers faced off for the first time since 2019. Both could again be in the championship mix in at the end of this fall; North Central made the Division 2 Regional Finals last season, and Pickford reached the Division 1 Semifinals. Click for more from the Escanaba Daily Press.

Watch list Britton Deerfield 68, Pittsford 58 This tied for the 20th highest-scoring game in MHSAA 8-player history, with Britton Deerfield rebounding nicely off last year’s 2-7 finish to defeat a Pittsford team coming off a 7-3 run.

On the move Brimley 26, St. Ignace 0 The Saints stormed into 8-player last season with a 9-2 finish, but Brimley coming off a 3-6 run pulled off one of the stunners of Week 1 as it pursues a first .500-or-better season since 2019. Gaylord St. Mary 8, Rudyard 0 This was nearly an opposite of last season’s meeting; St. Mary’s won this time after Rudyard claimed last year’s 58-32. Atlanta 40, Rogers City 36 Atlanta closed last season 2-2 over its final four games and might be on the verge of another step forward with this first win over Rogers City after two losses in their previous two 8-player matchups – including 34-24 a year ago.

MHSAA.com's weekly “1st & Goal” previews and reviews are powered by MI Student Aid, a division within the Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP). MI Student Aid encourages students to pursue postsecondary education by providing access to student financial resources and information. MI Student Aid administers the state’s scholarship and grant programs that help make college Accessible, Affordable and Attainable for you. Click to connect with MI Student Aid and find more information on Facebook and Twitter @mistudentaid.

PHOTOS (Top) Grand Blanc defenders converge on a Muskegon Mona Shores ball carrier during the Sailors' 28-26 win. (Middle) Marquette's Drew Bradley (6) breaks a tackle and gains several yards against Gladstone. (Below) Otsego's Lane Blanchard breaks through an opening during his team's 41-0 loss to Coopersville. (Top photo by Terry Lyons, middle photo by Cara Kamps and below photo by Gary Shook.)