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.)
2021 MHSAA Football Playoff Pairings Announced
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 24, 2021
Here are the pairings for the 2021 MHSAA Football Playoffs, which begin Oct. 29-30 with District Semifinals in the 11-Player Playoffs and Regional Semifinals in the 8-Player Playoffs.
For 11- and 8-player, teams were divided into divisions before the start of play this fall. The top 32 teams in each division in 11-player and top 16 per division in 8-player, based on playoff-point average, were selected to the field. For 11-player, qualifiers were then divided into four regions with eight teams apiece, and for 8-player qualifiers were divided into four regions with four teams in each.
Pairings for the first three weeks of the tournament are based on regular-season playoff point averages, with the highest-ranked team hosting, regardless of the distance between the two schools. For 11-Player District Semifinal and 8-Player Regional Semifinal play, the top-seeded team in each bracket will host the fourth-seeded team, and the second-seeded team will host the third-seeded team.
District Finals for 11-player and Regional Finals for 8-player will follow during the weekend of Nov. 5-6, and the weekend of Nov. 12-13 will have Regional Finals in the 11-Player Playoffs and Semifinals in the 8-Player Playoffs. The 8-Player Semifinals will pair the winners of Region 1 vs. Region 2 and the winners of Region 3 vs. Region 4, at the sites of the highest-ranked team.
Semifinal games in the 11-Player Playoffs will take place Nov. 19-20, pairing the winners of Region 1 vs. Region 2 and the winners of Region 3 vs. Region 4. The MHSAA will assign 11-Player Semifinals at neutral sites.
All playoff tickets except for Finals will be sold online only via GoFan at https://gofan.co/ to provide for a cashless and contactless purchasing process.
For 11-Player, tickets to District Semifinals and District Finals cost $7.30, tickets to Regional Finals are $9.40, and tickets to Semifinals cost $10.45. For 8-player, tickets for Regional Semifinals are $7.30, tickets for Regional Finals are $9.40, and tickets for Semifinals cost $10.45. Prices for all of those rounds include a convenience fee.
The 8-Player Finals will take place Nov. 20 at Northern Michigan University’s Superior Dome in Marquette, and the 11-Player Finals will be played Nov. 26-27 at Ford Field in Detroit. An all-day ticket for 8-Player Finals costs $10 and includes admission to both games, and an all-day ticket for the 11-Player Finals costs $20 and includes admission to that day’s four games.
Pairings for both the 11 and 8-Player brackets are as follows:
11-Player Pairings
DIVISION 1
REGION 1
DISTRICT 1
Grand Ledge (6-3) 57.222 at Rockford (9-0) 84.222
Traverse City West (6-3) 58.333 at Grandville (6-3) 64.111
DISTRICT 2
Holt (7-2) 68.444 at Grand Blanc (9-0) 81.111
Howell (7-2) 69.333 at Hartland (7-2) 70.778
REGION 2
DISTRICT 1
Lapeer (7-2) 64.556 at Rochester Adams (9-0) 79.389
Oxford (5-4) 66.000 at Clarkston (8-1) 73.000
DISTRICT 2
Novi (5-4) 54.667 at West Bloomfield (8-1) 76.889
Detroit Catholic Central (7-2) 75.333 at Bloomfield Hills (9-0) 76.444
REGION 3
DISTRICT 1
Utica (5-4) 55.000 at Romeo (8-1) 82.333
New Baltimore Anchor Bay (7-2) 65.556 at Macomb Dakota (6-3) 66.333
DISTRICT 2
Fraser (6-3) 53.667 at Sterling Heights Stevenson (7-2) 74.222
Clinton Township Chippewa Valley (6-3) 68.778 at Troy (8-1) 71.667
REGION 4
DISTRICT 1
Canton (6-3) 65.333 at Saline (9-0) 82.333
Ann Arbor Huron (8-1) 74.222 at Belleville (8-1) 77.444
DISTRICT 2
Detroit Cass Tech (6-3) 54.931 at Dearborn Fordson (7-2) 73.556
Dearborn (6-3) 65.444 at Brownstown Woodhaven (8-1) 70.417
DIVISION 2
REGION 1
DISTRICT 1
Saginaw Heritage (4-5) 50.222 at Traverse City Central (8-1) 71.222
Bay City Western (7-2) 56.556 at Midland Dow (6-3) 63.778
DISTRICT 2
Byron Center (7-2) 62.333 at Caledonia (8-1) 76.444
Muskegon Mona Shores (7-2) 62.639 at Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central (8-1) 69.556
REGION 2
DISTRICT 1
Jackson (5-4) 48.889 at Portage Central (7-2) 64.556
Dexter (5-4) 58.000 at Battle Creek Lakeview (6-3) 58.236
DISTRICT 2
Swartz Creek (5-4) 47.556 at South Lyon (9-0) 78.014
East Lansing (6-3) 65.000 at Milford (7-2) 65.444
REGION 3
DISTRICT 1
Waterford Mott (5-4) 54.222 at Berkley (7-2) 66.333
Walled Lake Western (6-3) 58.333 at White Lake Lakeland (6-3) 62.889
DISTRICT 2
Dearborn Heights Crestwood (6-3) 48.778 at Livonia Churchill (7-2) 69.444
Livonia Franklin (4-5) 53.333 at Temperance Bedford (7-2) 67.444
REGION 4
DISTRICT 1
Roseville (5-4) 50.583 at Harrison Township L'Anse Creuse (7-2) 64.333
Port Huron (6-3) 59.778 at Port Huron Northern (7-2) 63.028
DISTRICT 2
Detroit U-D Jesuit (4-5) 49.667 at Warren De La Salle Collegiate (8-0) 80.833
St. Clair Shores Lakeview (5-4) 51.667 at Grosse Pointe South (5-4) 55.944
DIVISION 3
REGION 1
DISTRICT 1
Ionia (5-4) 41.556 at DeWitt (8-1) 76.667
Marquette (7-2) 57.222 at Mount Pleasant (9-0) 70.444
DISTRICT 2
Lowell (4-5) 48.778 at Muskegon (8-1) 69.194
Coopersville (6-3) 49.222 at Cedar Springs (7-2) 58.556
REGION 2
DISTRICT 1
Zeeland East (5-4) 50.014 at Stevensville Lakeshore (6-3) 57.778
St. Joseph (5-4) 51.778 at Zeeland West (6-2) 57.264
DISTRICT 2
Richland Gull Lake (5-4) 42.222 at Battle Creek Harper Creek (6-3) 52.222
Mattawan (4-5) 45.270 at Parma Western (6-3) 48.000
REGION 3
DISTRICT 1
South Lyon East (3-6) 42.556 at Mason (7-2) 56.111
Pinckney (6-3) 52.556 at Haslett (7-2) 54.333
DISTRICT 2
Auburn Hills Avondale (4-5) 46.889 at Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice (6-3) 62.208
Orchard Lake St. Mary's (5-4) 51.417 at Flint Kearsley (6-3) 52.556
REGION 4
DISTRICT 1
Warren Fitzgerald (8-1) 53.222 at Detroit Martin Luther King (8-1) 76.722
River Rouge (6-2) 56.319 at Harper Woods (7-2) 61.597
DISTRICT 2
Trenton (5-4) 54.667 at Gibraltar Carlson (8-1) 72.111
Riverview (9-0) 62.889 at Allen Park (7-2) 64.667
DIVISION 4
REGION 1
DISTRICT 1
Fruitport (4-5) 43.667 at Cadillac (7-2) 57.111
Whitehall (7-2) 46.222 at Sparta (7-2) 49.792
DISTRICT 2
Ada Forest Hills Eastern (5-4) 45.778 at Hudsonville Unity Christian (9-0) 67.444
Spring Lake (6-3) 50.889 at Grand Rapids Christian (6-3) 59.111
REGION 2
DISTRICT 1
Charlotte (6-3) 47.333 at Hastings (8-1) 59.000
Grand Rapids South Christian (6-3) 51.000 at Plainwell (6-3) 51.667
DISTRICT 2
Paw Paw (5-4) 45.556 at Edwardsburg (9-0) 64.889
Three Rivers (5-4) 46.111 at Vicksburg (8-1) 61.667
REGION 3
DISTRICT 1
Ortonville Brandon (6-3) 48.472 at Lake Fenton (8-1) 61.556
Goodrich (7-2) 56.889 at Freeland (8-1) 57.889
DISTRICT 2
North Branch (7-2) 48.000 at St. Clair (7-2) 57.361
Pontiac Notre Dame Prep (7-2) 50.347 at Croswell-Lexington (8-1) 53.444
REGION 4
DISTRICT 1
Detroit Country Day (5-3) 46.889 at Redford Union (8-1) 59.444
Madison Heights Lamphere (7-2) 50.778 at Livonia Clarenceville (8-1) 55.556
DISTRICT 2
Romulus Summit Academy North (7-2) 45.222 at Chelsea (9-0) 70.556
New Boston Huron (5-4) 47.889 at Milan (7-2) 50.889
DIVISION 5
REGION 1
DISTRICT 1
Clare (6-3) 42.444 at Gladwin (9-0) 50.222
Kingsford (6-3) 46.778 at Kingsley (8-1) 48.667
DISTRICT 2
Carrollton (5-4) 35.889 at Frankenmuth (9-0) 62.111
Saginaw Swan Valley (5-4) 42.667 at Essexville Garber (5-4) 44.222
REGION 2
DISTRICT 1
Grant (4-5) 35.944 at Howard City Tri County (8-1) 48.111
Big Rapids (5-4) 39.778 at Muskegon Oakridge (7-2) 47.476
DISTRICT 2
Belding (5-4) 43.389 at Grand Rapids Catholic Central (9-0) 70.333
Comstock Park (9-0) 58.903 at Grand Rapids West Catholic (8-1) 62.667
REGION 3
DISTRICT 1
Parchment (6-3) 35.875 at Berrien Springs (9-0) 51.667
South Haven (6-3) 40.111 at Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep (6-3) 43.458
DISTRICT 2
Hopkins (5-4) 43.569 at Portland (7-2) 58.444
Olivet (7-2) 45.667 at Williamston (6-3) 55.222
REGION 4
DISTRICT 1
Richmond (4-5) 36.333 at Armada (6-3) 46.778
Corunna (5-4) 42.111 at Flint Powers Catholic (3-6) 43.111
DISTRICT 2
St. Clair Shores South Lake (5-4) 37.778 at Marine City (9-0) 62.889
Dundee (5-4) 39.889 at Macomb Lutheran North (6-3) 40.903
DIVISION 6
REGION 1
DISTRICT 1
Gladstone (4-5) 36.778 at Negaunee (7-2) 41.014
Calumet (7-2) 37.667 at Menominee (5-4) 39.583
DISTRICT 2
Maple City Glen Lake (4-5) 31.681 at Standish-Sterling (7-2) 44.111
Boyne City (8-1) 42.097 at Grayling (7-2) 42.375
REGION 2
DISTRICT 1
Manistee (5-4) 36.907 at Reed City (8-1) 55.444
Central Montcalm (5-4) 38.222 at Montague (6-3) 43.143
DISTRICT 2
Durand (6-3) 36.333 at Lansing Catholic (8-1) 59.556
Ovid-Elsie (6-3) 37.333 at Millington (9-0) 46.333
REGION 3
DISTRICT 1
Watervliet (5-4) 34.778 at Constantine (9-0) 51.653
Michigan Center (8-1) 38.444 at Jonesville (9-0) 42.778
DISTRICT 2
Erie Mason (5-4) 31.302 at Ida (7-2) 45.000
Clinton (7-2) 39.347 at Dearborn Heights Robichaud (5-4) 39.444
REGION 4
DISTRICT 1
Clinton Township Clintondale (5-4) 40.403 at Warren Michigan Collegiate (7-2) 49.944
Almont (5-4) 42.444 at Clawson (7-2) 44.000
DISTRICT 2
Detroit Pershing (5-4) 34.778 at Detroit Southeastern (6-3) 44.736
Detroit Edison (6-3) 36.125 at Ecorse (6-3) 39.736
DIVISION 7
REGION 1
DISTRICT 1
East Jordan (7-2) 29.940 at Ishpeming Westwood (8-1) 43.569
Mancelona (5-3) 30.694 at Charlevoix (7-1) 39.264
DISTRICT 2
Harrison (6-3) 32.667 at Traverse City St. Francis (9-0) 56.111
McBain (6-3) 34.042 at Evart (7-2) 36.264
REGION 2
DISTRICT 1
Ithaca (6-3) 38.333 at Pewamo-Westphalia (9-0) 49.444
New Lothrop (6-3) 40.000 at Montrose (7-2) 40.000
DISTRICT 2
Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port Laker (7-2) 34.889 at Reese (8-1) 38.333
Bad Axe (7-2) 36.556 at Hemlock (5-4) 36.556
REGION 3
DISTRICT 1
Delton Kellogg (5-3) 34.014 at Muskegon Catholic Central (8-1) 48.222
North Muskegon (4-5) 34.032 at Ravenna (6-3) 39.587
DISTRICT 2
Homer (5-4) 31.000 at Lawton (9-0) 44.125
Niles Brandywine (4-5) 32.333 at Union City (5-4) 32.556
REGION 4
DISTRICT 1
Detroit Leadership Academy (5-4) 32.000 at Jackson Lumen Christi (8-1) 59.778
Lutheran Westland (8-1) 37.222 at Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central (8-1) 59.000
DISTRICT 2
Detroit Community (6-3) 35.958 at Detroit Central (9-0) 50.722
Detroit Loyola (4-4) 39.847 at Madison Heights Bishop Foley (8-1) 44.792
DIVISION 8
REGION 1
DISTRICT 1
Bark River-Harris (6-3) 27.014 at Beal City (8-1) 42.000
Frankfort (6-3) 31.778 at Iron Mountain (6-3) 36.792
DISTRICT 2
White Cloud (4-5) 24.486 at Carson City-Crystal (8-1) 39.222
Holton (5-4) 25.931 at Muskegon Heights Academy (5-4) 30.778
REGION 2
DISTRICT 1
Vassar (4-5) 24.778 at Breckenridge (7-2) 34.111
Fowler (6-3) 31.500 at Flint Beecher (4-5) 32.917
DISTRICT 2
Harbor Beach (6-3) 30.597 at Ubly (9-0) 40.708
Cass City (5-4) 31.333 at Marlette (6-3) 32.597
REGION 3
DISTRICT 1
Decatur (4-5) 26.444 at White Pigeon (8-1) 35.667
Saugatuck (5-4) 29.625 at Cassopolis (5-4) 29.681
DISTRICT 2
Reading (6-3) 32.778 at Hudson (9-0) 51.222
Centreville (7-2) 35.569 at Addison (8-1) 42.667
REGION 4
DISTRICT 1
Petersburg Summerfield (6-3) 29.190 at Ottawa Lake Whiteford (8-1) 46.111
Whitmore Lake (6-3) 30.444 at Sand Creek (6-3) 34.667
DISTRICT 2
Mount Clemens (5-4) 26.778 at Clarkston Everest Collegiate (7-2) 36.333
Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest (5-4) 27.556 at Marine City Cardinal Mooney (7-2) 31.486
8-Player Pairings
DIVISION 1
REGION 1
Rudyard (7-2) 30.861 at Munising (7-2) 33.194
Newberry (7-2) 31.528 at Pickford (7-2) 31.861
REGION 2
Mesick (5-4) 29.079 at Suttons Bay (9-0) 39.250
Rogers City (8-1) 32.722 at Indian River Inland Lakes (9-0) 34.333
REGION 3
Tekonsha (7-2) 29.778 at Martin (9-0) 36.125
Lawrence (7-2) 30.569 at Mendon (7-2) 32.569
REGION 4
Vestaburg (6-3) 29.286 at Adrian Lenawee Christian (9-0) 41.375
Britton Deerfield (8-1) 33.431 at Deckerville (7-1) 33.458
DIVISION 2
REGION 1
Pellston (7-2) 30.444 at Powers North Central (9-0) 36.667
Crystal Falls Forest Park (7-2) 31.111 at Lake Linden-Hubbell (7-2) 31.111
REGION 2
Gaylord St. Mary (5-4) 25.972 at Marion (8-1) 36.079
Mio (6-3) 28.333 at Hillman (6-3) 29.000
REGION 3
Peck (6-3) 28.000 at Au Gres-Sims (9-0) 35.667
Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart (7-2) 32.028 at Kinde North Huron (9-0) 35.333
REGION 4
Climax-Scotts (6-3) 29.833 at Morrice (9-0) 36.875
Colon (8-1) 33.306 at Portland St. Patrick (9-0) 35.029
PHOTO Week 9 opponents Livonia Churchill and Novi both were selected to this season's playoff field. (Photo by Douglas Bargerstock.)