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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.)

Ogemaw Heights senior quarterback Eion Jones runs for a first down during his team’s Division 5 District Final win over Kingsford on Saturday.

1st & Goal: 2025 Playoffs Week 2 Review

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

November 11, 2025

Kent City, Hanover-Horton, Springport, St. Clair Shores Lakeview and Allen Park Cabrini hoisted football District championship trophies for the first time.

MI Student AidBlanchard Montabella brought home its first Regional title and also was among a handful of teams that set school wins records during a highlight-filled second weekend of the MHSAA Football Playoffs.

We checked in with all eight 8-Player Regional Finals below and also glanced at 32 of our 11-Player District championship games as the field was reduced to 72 teams.  

11-Player Division 1

HEADLINER Clarkston 44, Grand Blanc 22 Three players scored multiple touchdowns and Clarkston (10-1) held Grand Blanc to well below half of its season average of 48 ppg in dealing the Bobcats (10-1) their only loss. The District title was the Wolves’ third in four years. Click for more from the Oakland Press.

District Digest East Kentwood 49, Howell 41 The Falcons claimed their first District championship since 2014 and ended Howell’s season a win shy of what would have been a second straight for the Highlanders (9-2). Hudsonville 42, Rockford 31 The Eagles (11-0) finished a season sweep of the Rams (8-3) for the first time to repeat as District champs. Rochester Adams 43, Rochester Hills Stoney Creek 18 These Highlanders (9-2) won their fourth District title over the last five seasons, pulling away after previously defeating Stoney Creek (7-4) by only six points in Week 6.

11-Player Division 2

HEADLINER Traverse City Central 16, Muskegon 14 The Trojans (7-4) have opened these playoffs with a pair of unforgettable two-point wins, this one to claim their first District title since 2021. The Big Reds closed a solid rebound season also at 7-4 after finishing 3-5 a year ago. Click for more from the Traverse City Record-Eagle.

District Digest Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 35, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice 14 The Eaglets (8-2) saw their three-year winning streak over Rice (6-5) end with a 43-31 loss in Week 8, but they reversed that result to win a third District title over four seasons. Dexter 41, South Lyon 27 The Dreadnaughts (10-1) claimed their second District title over the last four years and delivered South Lyon (10-1) its lone loss by overcoming a defense that had given up only 12 points per game. Portage Central 34, Byron Center 7 After allowing more than eight points in a game (19) last week for the first time all season, Central (11-0) was back to its single-digit success in ending this run for last season’s Division 2 runner-up Bulldogs (7-4).

11-Player Division 3

HEADLINER Zeeland West 48, St. Joseph 24 If reigning Division 3 champion Zeeland West is going to return to Ford Field, the Dux are going to pile up plenty of miles along the way. West (8-3) went on the road for not only the second time this playoffs, but fifth-straight week and defeated St. Joseph (6-5) in a District Final for the second-straight season. West heads to Lowell next. Click for more from the Holland Sentinel.

District Digest Mount Pleasant 42, Gaylord 0 The Oilers (11-0) put up perhaps their most impressive performance against one of their most notable opponents, claiming their third shutout this season in handing Gaylord (10-1) its lone defeat. Lowell 28, Middleville Thornapple Kellogg 21 The Red Arrows (9-2) jumped out to a 21-0 halftime lead and held on for a first District title since 2016, ending MTK’s run at 7-4. Fenton 35, Adrian 7 The Tigers (8-3) also earned their first District championship since 2016, ending Adrian’s winningest season since 2010 at 9-2.

11-Player Division 4

HEADLINER Goodrich 27, Chelsea 7 Make that 24 straight wins and four straight District championships for the reigning Division 4 champion Martians, who this week will pursue a fourth-straight Regional title as well. Goodrich (11-0) stopped a Chelsea offense that hadn’t scored fewer than 28 points in a game. The Bulldogs finished 9-2. Click for more from the Flint Journal.

District Digest Big Rapids 48, Escanaba 18 The Cardinals (10-1) made the trip north and came back with their second District title in three seasons, ending Escanaba’s best run this decade at 9-2. Williamston 42, Haslett 21 The Hornets (11-0) trailed 21-7 at halftime but scored 28 unanswered points during the third quarter to clinch a first District title since 2020 and end Haslett’s season at 8-3. Portland 28, Grand Rapids Christian 0 After surviving a first-round matchup with Grand Rapids South Christian 42-41, Portland locked  up its fourth shutout and ninth game giving up seven points or fewer to get past the Eagles (6-5), who were making their first playoff run since 2022.

11-Player Division 5

HEADLINER Grand Rapids West Catholic 21, Grand Rapids Catholic Central 20 (OT) West Catholic (10-1) defeated rival Catholic Central for the first time since 2016, stopping a 2-point conversion try to close it out. Catholic Central (10-1) had ended the Falcons’ last two seasons with playoff losses and won nine straight District titles entering this playoffs. Click for more from the Grand Rapids Press.

District Digest Michigan Center 35, Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard 18 This made nearly as big a wave as West Catholic’s win, as Michigan Center (10-1) won its first District title since 2021 by handing FGR (10-1) its only defeat. Ogemaw Heights 41, Kingsford 6 Ogemaw Heights (10-1) also came back from surviving a one-point playoff-opening win, claiming its first District title since 2012 in ending the Flivvers’ season at 7-4. Kalamazoo United 21, Berrien Springs 6 The Titans (9-2) won this matchup of league champions to repeat as a District title winner after these two met for last year’s as well. Berrien Springs finished 6-3 after making the playoffs this season for the 12th straight.

11-Player Division 6

HEADLINER Kingsley 57, Traverse City St. Francis 6 Kingsley (9-2) hasn’t lost since falling to St. Francis by a point in Week 5, and with this victory avenged that defeat to lock up its second District title in three seasons. The Stags earned another rematch and will face Reed City for the Regional title after defeating the Coyotes in their season opener. Click for more from the Traverse City Record-Eagle.

District Digest Kent City 24, Belding 16 The Eagles (11-0) claimed their first District title while playing their third-straight road game and set a program record for wins while ending Belding’s season at 9-2. Detroit Edison 48, Warren Michigan Collegiate 14 Edison (9-2) managed to still win its league this season despite losing to Michigan Collegiate (6-5) in Week 2 and added a second District title over three seasons by avenging that loss. Ida 28, Ecorse 6 The Bluestreaks (9-2) won their first District title since 2016 with their best defensive showing since September, ending Ecorse’s run at 8-3.

11-Player Division 7

HEADLINER Clinton 22, Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central 14 More than two months after falling to St. Mary 42-6 in its season opener, Clinton (9-2) also avenged last year’s District Final loss to the Falcons (8-3). The win gave the Redwolves their fifth District title over the last six seasons, and with St. Mary coming off finishing Division 7 runner-up last fall. Click for more from the Adrian Daily Telegram.

District Digest Hanover-Horton 20, Bronson 12 The Comets (9-2) have won eight straight and now their first District championship as part of that streak, ending Bronson’s best season since 2009 at 8-3. Ithaca 22, Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port Laker 21 The Yellowjackets (8-3) came back from multiple touchdowns down to win a third District title this decade and end Laker’s run at 8-3 as well. Menominee 49, McBain 6 Menominee’s third-straight District title clincher saw the Maroons (11-0) tie their season-low points allowed while handing McBain (8-3) its first defeat since mid-September.

11-Player Division 8

HEADLINER Bark River-Harris 41, Iron Mountain 20 After entering this season having never defeated Iron Mountain, Bark River-Harris (9-1) downed the Mountaineers for the third time this fall to win a first District title since 2003. Iron Mountain (7-4) had won five District titles over the last six seasons entering the weekend. Click for more from the Escanaba Daily Press.

District Digest Springport 35, New Lothrop 13 The Spartans (11-0) added a first District championship to what continues to be their most successful season all-time, doing so in part by holding New Lothrop (7-4) to its fewest points scored this fall. Madison Heights Madison 22, Clarkston Everest Collegiate 17 Madison’s first playoff run this decade has turned into its longest since 2018 as the Eagles (10-1) ended Everest’s season at 6-5. Allen Park Cabrini 52, Riverview Gabriel Richard 0 Cabrini (10-1) also claimed its first District title and scored its most points in a game this season while ending the run for RGR (5-6), last year’s Division 8 runner-up.

8-Player Division 1

HEADLINER Blanchard Montabella 26, Merrill 0 A Week 9 loss to Portland St. Patrick is proving to be just a detour for Montabella as the Mustangs (10-1) may have missed out on a perfect regular season but have now won their first Regional championship. Montabella had taken its Week 8 matchup with Merrill 36-26, but this time claimed its third shutout this season. Click for more from the Greenville Daily News.

Regional Roundup Norway 58, Pickford 12 The Knights have reached 11 wins for the first time since 1979, according to Michigan-Football.com, and will play in their first Semifinal since 2006 after ending this run for last year’s Division 1 runner-up Pickford at 8-2. Martin 36, Climax-Scotts 20 The Clippers (11-0) clinched their fifth Regional title over the last six seasons in part by holding Climax-Scotts (8-3) to a tie for its fewest points scored over the last two years. Kingston 32, Capac 8 After opening the playoffs by avenging a regular-season loss, Capac (8-3) fell short in doing so a second time as Kingston (10-1) added to its 42-0 win from Week 2 to claim a second Regional title over the last three seasons.

8-Player Division 2

HEADLINER Portland St. Patrick 51, Mendon 22 The Shamrocks won their first Regional championship since 2020 by holding Mendon to its fewest points in two years. Both teams were undefeated entering the weekend, and Mendon (10-1) scored first before Brady Leonard scored four of his five touchdowns to help St. Patrick (11-) build a 36-8 lead early in the third quarter. Click for more from the Sturgis Journal.

Regional Roundup Felch North Dickinson 32, Lake Linden-Hubbell 12 The Nordics (11-0) added to their 38-34 Week 1 win over the Lakes (8-3) to claim their first Regional title since 2001 – and, as started previously this season, just two years after not having a varsity team. Onekama 46, Gaylord St. Mary 6 The Portagers (11-0) have won two straight Regional titles and with this one also set a program record for wins while ending the Snowbirds’ season at 8-3. Deckerville 28, Britton Deerfield 8 The Eagles (10-1) are one more win from a return trip to Superior Dome and advanced this time by handing Britton Deerfield (9-2) its first loss since Week 2.

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PHOTO Ogemaw Heights senior quarterback Eion Jones runs for a first down during his team’s Division 5 District Final win over Kingsford on Saturday. (Photo by Kolleth Photo.)