Hutchinson Makes Name at Divine Child
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
September 13, 2017
DEARBORN – Often, a child of a successful athlete has difficulty living up to that standard.
To this point, that’s not the case with Aidan Hutchinson.
He plays a similar position as did his father Chris, an All-America defensive lineman at University of Michigan in 1992. But there are differences as well between father and son – although like his dad, Aidan also will head to Ann Arbor after he graduates from Dearborn Divine Child.
All Falcons fourth-year coach John Filiatraut knows is that he hit the lottery when the Hutchinsons decided Aidan would attend Divine Child – not that he didn’t see it coming, given Aidan’s mother, Melissa Hutchinson, and his two older sisters, Mia and Aria, all attended the Catholic school.
“They’re great people,” said Filiatraut, a 1986 Divine Child graduate. “It’s a treat. Coaches can complain and whine with the best of them. But we’re lucky to have Aidan.
“And Chris is not very intrusive. I was worried about that at the beginning. With his background, it would be easy to step in. We as coaches are trying to do things right here. (Chris) is committed to Aidan and for him to do this on his own, and not cast a shadow on Aidan.”
Coming off its winningest season (10-3) since 1985 and a Division 3 Semifinals berth in 2016, Divine Child is off to a 3-0 start this fall.
As for those differences between father and son, size is one. The elder Hutchinson was 6-foot-2 and weighed 221 pounds when he graduated from high school. His playing weight at U-M was 250. His son is 6-6 and weighs 255 pounds, and is considered one of the top prospects in the class of 2018. Aidan plays defensive end and tight end. His father was a defensive tackle.
Chris Hutchinson grew up in Houston and played football at Cypress Creek High before going on to University of Michigan, where he played four seasons and was named first team All-America as a senior defensive lineman in 1992. Chris Hutchinson said private school education was all new to him, but he couldn’t be more pleased with the educational – and now with his son – athletic experiences his family has enjoyed.
Not surprisingly, Aidan has accepted a scholarship offer to attend U-M. He did make unofficial visits to Notre Dame and Wisconsin, in addition to his interest in attending Penn State, but eventually U-M won out.
And so far his senior season has unfolded as planned.
“We’re 3-0. It’s great,” he said. “Michigan is undefeated. We’re undefeated. It’s all great.”
Chris Hutchinson didn’t allow Aidan to play tackle football until he was in the seventh grade. Aidan did play flag football, and other sports like soccer, but his father held him out of the physical contact until he thought Aidan was ready.
“It was a big change for me,” Aidan said of playing tackle football. “I had to learn a lot because most of the other kids had been playing two or three years. It wasn’t too bad a transition. I just had to learn quickly.”
Despite his size, and his weight as an infant (11 pounds, one ounce), Aidan wasn’t a large child growing up. He weighed 135 pounds when he was in the eighth grade, then 160 as a freshman playing on the line on Divine Child’s junior varsity team. Over the next two years, he grew seven inches and added 70 pounds.
“I’ve been (growing) all through high school,” he said. “Am I done growing? I don’t think so, but I’m hoping I am.”
The answer is likely the former. Aidan just turned 17 last month (Aug. 9).
Though his size is a plus once he gets to college, there are times when it can work against him at the high school level.
“It’s different when you’re 6-6 going against a 6-foot kid,” Chris Hutchinson said. “You have to keep your head down, and stay low.”
Chris Hutchinson, who’s a doctor in the emergency room at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, understands it’s not his place to coach his son from the sideline, even though, as the team physician, it’s his job to be on the sideline. He keeps a safe distance and allows Filiatraut and his staff do their jobs.
At home, it’s a different story. The two view film constantly to determine where improvements can be made.
“Thank God for Hudl,” Chris said. “I only focus on technique. When Aidan tells me they’re using a double team, I ask what type? There are different ways you can use a double team.
“It’s important not to be that dad who coaches. There are way too many dads who do the coaching thing. The hardest thing for me is not to say something, and have him come to me. When they do ask, then you can go forward.”
Aidan is quick for his size, and he attributes much of that quickness and his ability to react quickly to the other sport he plays, lacrosse. He started playing lacrosse the same year he began playing tackle football, and to him they go hand in hand.
“It’s a ton of fun (playing lacrosse),” he said. “My whole group of friends play. All six of us started (on varsity) as freshmen, so we should be pretty good this year. There’s no question it helps me in football. One hundred percent. It helps with my hip movement, and in lacrosse it forces you to back pedal.”
Filiatraut said Hutchinson is a special part of a special team at Divine Child. Its quarterback, Theo Day, is one of the state’s best. Day led the Falcons to the Division 3 Semifinals last season and has committed to sing with Michigan State.
“Aidan gives great effort all of the time,” Filiatraut said. “Honestly, he’s on the shy side. He’s trying to figure it all out. He’s doing his best to be a vocal leader, but it’s not in his nature.
“He’s got a ton of want-to. He wants to be good, and to get better.”
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Deaborn Divine Child’s Aidan Hutchinson grabs a water break while dad and team physician Chris Hutchinson keeps an eye on the field. (Middle) Hutchinson blocks against Benton Harbor during his team’s Week 1 win. (Below) Aidan, Chris, mom Melissa and U-M coach Jim Harbaugh take a photo after Aidan commits to sign with the Wolverines. (Photos courtesy of the Hutchinson family.)
Farewell Silverdome; Our Memories Live On
By
Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian
November 28, 2017
Farewell Pontiac Silverdome.
In early December, more than 15 years after the Detroit Lions played their last game beneath its air-supported Teflon-paneled roof, the “Dome” will take a last breath and then depart.
Finally.
The last few years have been cruel to the stadium that was once a gem and the home of dreams.
The Lions arrived at the newly opened “Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium” (or “Ponmet” as it was called by enthusiasts of the new structure) in August 1975. It was renamed “Pontiac Stadium” later in the year by the city council, and in October of 1976 the Pontiac council again re-christened the building as the “Pontiac Silverdome.”
“We feel the new name better conveys the image of our facility,” said Charles McSwigan, Jr., stadium executive director, at the time. “It certainly lets everyone around the country know we have a modern year-round domed stadium.”
The move was primarily marketing motivated. “The other three giants, Super, Astro and King, get all the publicity,” added McSwigan, further explaining the change. “Promoters call them, but they don’t even come near us.”
Launched in 1975, the MHSAA football championship games were played outdoors at college stadiums that first year on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. While deemed a success, the games were played at two different sites. That had presented challenges.
Following that first year, consideration was given to the new structure in Pontiac.
“There are some problems,” remarked Al Bush, MHSAA executive director, explaining the logistics of a possible move to the NFL stadium. “For instance, it would be difficult to play four games on the same day. We would have to start early in the morning, and the last game would have to start late at night.”
Competition for attendance with various events, including deer hunting season, and college football – especially the televised University of Michigan-Ohio State game – were factors to be considered. The high school football playoffs were still a new product without a tradition. Finances also were an area of worry. It was estimated that a crowd of between 20,000 and 25,000 would be needed to make the jump economically feasible.
So, it was with great caution and trepidation that the move was made indoors to Pontiac. Initially, the contract was for a single year. The games would be played on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. By all measures, to the delight of all involved, the 1976 championships were a huge success.
“The four state championship games, which were played in the Silverdome in two sessions on Saturday, drew a paid attendance of 29,423 fans,” said Associated Press writer Harry Atkins in a follow-up piece following the games, “bringing smiles of relief and joy to MHSAA Executive Director Al Bush and his assistant, Vern Norris. The attendance figure was almost double the number of fans who turned out last year in ice box-like weather at two sites – Western Michigan University and Central Michigan University.”
With that, a new contract was signed, and for 29 years the city of Pontiac served as home to the MHSAA 11-player football championships. “Goin’ to the Dome” soon became the goal of every high school in Michigan that offered the sport.
Following a 15-10 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in early January 2002, the Lions departed the Silverdome for Ford Field, located in downtown Detroit. The high school Finals stayed put for three more years before moving to Ford Field.
Twelve seasons after following the Lions from Pontiac to Detroit, countless memories and several MHSAA championship game records still stand from those years under the Dome.
Four championship games were played at the Silverdome to close each season from 1976-90. In 1991, the playoffs were expanded to eight classifications and the Finals expanded to eight games over a two-day showcase.
For many across Michigan, those 176 high school state title games were their first live exposure to the building many had only seen on television. For football fans, the MHSAA Finals provided an affordable and unique chance to visit the stadium and watch the game between the 20-yard-lines at ground level. An NFL game, concert, or in later years a Pistons basketball game at the Silverdome was far from an intimate experience for most. Seating 80,311, it was the largest stadium in the NFL until 1997.
For thousands of athletes and coaches, the playing surface was their first exposure to artificial turf. It was an honor to set foot on the field. After all, who didn’t want to run on the same canvas on which Lions legend Barry Sanders painted?
Who can forget the Mill Colemen-led comeback drive to title glory in the final minutes as Farmington Hills Harrison downed DeWitt for the Class B title in 1989, or “The Catch” by Muskegon Reeths-Puffer’s Stacy Starr that broke the hearts of Walled Lake Western players and fans in the final seconds in Class A in 1992? Who remembers the wild 91 points (and 883 yards in total offense) posted in Belding’s 50-41 victory over Detroit Country Day in Class B in 1994, when Belding trailed by 19 points at the half? The combined final score remains the record for most points tallied in a title game by two teams.
Farmington Hills Harrison and coach John Herrington won five consecutive finals in Pontiac (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001), and 12 of their 13 MHSAA Finals titles at the Silverdome. A total of 12 of Detroit Catholic Central’s 17 trips to the Finals meant a bus ride to Pontiac.
One record performance set in the opening game of the 1976 championships still stands in the MHSAA championship record book. With the evolution of the game, it may never fall.
Despite the climate-controlled environment afforded by moving indoors, Crystal Falls Forest Park threw only three passes against Flint Holy Rosary in the Class D title game, completing one for a net -3 yards. By default, that total established a record for pass defense in a title game. It remains the zenith.
Forest Park had little need for the pass that day. The Trojans rolled up 234 rushing yards on 48 carries, including a 74-yard touchdown run off left tackle by all-state running back Marty Ball with 4:36 to play in the first quarter. Less than two minutes later, a fumble recovery by Forest Park’s Charlie Davis was returned 25 yards for a score, and the Trojans led, 14-0. Holy Rosary passed for 204 yards including an 18-yard pass from Ron Fray to Dan Lehoux in the second quarter, but couldn’t overcome that first quarter deficit, falling 14-6. A crowd of 14,879 attended the day’s first session, comprised of the Class D and Class A games.
Other long-standing record performances at the Dome still can be spotted in the record book.
Josh Wuerfel’s 46-yard field goal in the second quarter gave Traverse City a 10-0 halftime lead and aided the second-ranked Trojans’ 24-14 defeat of top-ranked Detroit Catholic Central in the 1988 Class A contest. The kick stood for 28 years as the title game record before finally being exceeded (twice!) at the 2016 championships played at Ford Field. Liam Putz of Grand Rapids West Catholic shattered the mark with a 47-yarder against Menominee in the Division 5 title game, before Ben Fee of Orchard Lake St. Mary’s topped the kick in the eighth game of the weekend. Fee’s 49-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter helped St. Mary’s down Muskegon 29-28 in the Division 3 thriller. The boot was his third field goal of the game. Combined with two extra points, he finished as the Eaglets’ top scorer.
Paul Gross of Jackson Lumen Christi established a new mark for extra points against Livonia Clarenceville in the 2001 Division 5 game, connecting accurately on all seven of his attempts. The record has been matched twice since the move to downtown Detroit.
Nick Williams’ 90-yard touchdown dash on Farmington Hills Harrison’s first play from scrimmage in the 1994 Class A game, a 17-13 victory over Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central, still tops the record book category for longest run play in a title game. An 89-yard TD run by Constantine’s Jim Schragg sits directly behind the Williams’ mark. Schragg rolled up 307 yards in a 34-13 win over Suttons Bay in the 2004 Division 6 game, during the final year at the Silverdome. His total established the pinnacle for rushing yards in a game.
Ravenna’s Benny Clark carried the ball 49 times (including 29 rushes in the second half) for 212 yards as the Bulldogs topped Morenci 30-14 in the 1996 Class C contest. The total, which exceeded the previous mark of 40 set by Dan Lato of Crystal Falls Forest Park in 1977, has yet to be matched or exceeded.
The fastest championship game passing touchdown came 15 seconds into the 2003 Division 5 Final, when Jackson Lumen Christi‘s Tyler Aldridge found wide-open Matt Russell on a reverse pass on the second play from scrimmage. The Titans defeated Muskegon Oakridge 23-0 for the title.
Quarterback Tony Koshar tossed a short pass to Jim Steinman, “who shed a tackler and managed to stay in bounds as he took off for the end zone on a 96-yard scoring play,” as Gobles grabbed a 31-22 upset victory over top-ranked Crystal Falls Forest Park in the 1984 Class D title game. The reception for the longest pass play lasted 24 years before it was finally topped in 2008.
Kirk Williams’ 15 pass receptions for DeWitt against East Grand Rapids in the 2002 Division 3 contest still stand the test of time, as does Brad Johnson’s 87-yard punt return for a touchdown for Schoolcraft against Frankfort in the 1988 Class D championship game.
The 1991 title games saw two defensive marks set, both on the same day. On Saturday, November 30, Rick Marcotte of Lake Linden-Hubbell scooped up a fumble and dashed 79 yards for a touchdown and a new Finals record versus Mendon in Class DD. Less than 16 hours earlier Nate Cierlak of Muskegon Catholic Central had set the mark with a 56-yard return for a TD against Harbor Beach. In that year’s Class CC Final against Negaunee, Jason Livengood of Battle Creek Pennfield set the one mark that statistically can never be topped when he returned a pick-six for 100 yards.
Eight punts by Muskegon’s Jason Crago in the Big Reds’ 16-13 victory over Detroit Martin Luther King in the 1989 Class A title game was unmatched until 2007, when Aaron Hudson of Blissfield equaled the total. On Saturday, Clarkston’s Jermaine Roemer also tied the record in the Division 1 Final.
Between 1976 and 2004, more than 1.5 million fans attended the games in Pontiac, with a peak of attendance of 71,156 in 1995.
Soon the site will be cleared, with plans for redevelopment. Not far down the road, The Palace of Auburn Hills, once home to the MHSAA Basketball Finals and longtime home to the MHSAA Individual Wrestling Finals, will be scrubbed from the earth. Along with them, the structural evidence of the home of countless accomplishments will disappear.
Change is constant, and time moves on. Still those achievements, and several others, live on in the pages of the MHSAA record book, in the memories of those who competed and the recollections of those who played witness.
Ron Pesch has taken an active role in researching the history of MHSAA events since 1985 and began writing for MHSAA Finals programs in 1986, adding additional features and "flashbacks" in 1992. He inherited the title of MHSAA historian from the late Dick Kishpaugh following the 1993-94 school year, and resides in Muskegon. Contact him at [email protected] with ideas for historical articles.
PHOTOS: (Top) Constantine and Suttons Bay played in the Division 6 Final at the Silverdome as part of the last weekend of MHSAA games in the building in 2004. (Top middle) The 1976 program welcomed Finals fans to the Dome for the first time. (Bottom middle) The author's children during a trip to the Silverdome before the Finals moved to Ford Field. (Below) The 1986 Finals ticket got fans into two games at the Silverdome for $4. (Photos courtesy of Ron Pesch and MHSAA files.)