King Eager to Begin Next Championship Pursuit Following Familiar Leader Patrick
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
August 22, 2024
DETROIT — To many around the state, it was a collective gasp and curiosity as to how the Detroit Martin Luther King football program would move forward.
To those within the King program itself, it was a collective shoulder shrug and “we’ll be fine.”
Days after a 26-20 loss to Mason in a Division 3 Semifinal last fall, King saw longtime head coach Tyrone Spencer leave to take the same job at East Kentwood.
It was no small loss, given Spencer had guided the Crusaders to one Division 2 and three Division 3 championships over eight seasons.
Not long after, longtime assistant Terel Patrick was named the new head coach for King. But even he was still processing what happened.
“A little bit of shock,” Patrick said of his initial reaction. “Every year, there were people trying to gauge whether he would or not leave. It wasn’t new that people were interested in him because he did that good of a job. But he always said no. With him saying yes, it kind of shocked me a little bit.”
But after the initial shock, it became business as usual for one of the top programs in the state.
Spencer certainly didn’t leave the cupboard bare in terms of the elite blue-chip talent the program usually enjoys, and there was about as much continuity in a coaching transition as one could hope.
All of King’s assistants stayed with the program, and Patrick said 14 are graduates of the school. Patrick has been on King’s staff since 2009 and called the continuity within the coaching staff a “unique situation.”
“Spence was always in charge of the defense, and I was always in charge of the offense,” Patrick said. “The biggest thing for me was that I had to relearn a different side of the football.”
To do that, Patrick spent the offseason at clinics and in phone conversations with defensive experts he knows. “Just to pick their brains and see what they think in certain situations,” he said.
Patrick shouldn’t be too concerned about picking up any new defensive acumen, given it helps to have supreme talent as always.
Senior defensive ends Xavier Newsom and Willie Fletcher, Jr., are highly-rated college prospects and considered among the best players in the state. Newsom said because the coaching staff remained mostly intact after Spencer left, there was no need to reassure the rest of the team and others that everything would be OK.
“We didn’t have to do that,” he said. “We still had Coach TP, so it’s not like we got a whole new coach. We told everybody that the program is still going to be the same. Nothing is going to fall off.”
King also should be loaded on offense, with sophomore quarterback Darryl Flemister coming off a terrific freshman year as the starter. He is already on the radar of prominent college programs.
Junior running back Michael Dukes rushed for 925 yards last year as a sophomore, while shifty senior slotback David Calmese is also back.
“The biggest thing is keeping the main goal the main goal,” Calmese said.
The coaching change certainly wasn’t enough to change the expectations of others within the Detroit Public School League. The Crusaders were picked to win the Blue division ahead of rival and fellow state power Detroit Cass Tech.
In addition to still being talented, King will be plenty motivated after not making it down the street to Ford Field last year thanks to the Semifinal loss to Mason.
“We’re not used to losing,” Newsom said. “Seeing us fall short, it definitely made us hungry.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Detroit Martin Luther King’s Xavier Newsom awaits the next play during last season’s Detroit Public School League Blue championship game at Ford Field. (Middle) First-year Crusaders head coach Terel Patrick speaks during PSL media day Aug. 1. (Top photo by Olivia B. Photography; middle photo by Keith Dunlap.)
After Team's 2024 Turnaround, Cranmore Eager to Add to Leslie's Return to Glory
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
August 19, 2025
Joel Cranmore is getting a head start on his budding college career, and it will probably make him an even better high school quarterback this fall.
As a first-year starting sophomore last season, Cranmore busted all expectations by throwing for 2,682 yards and 35 touchdowns. He not only completed 153 of his whopping 274 passes, but he also rushed 95 times for 472 yards and another 11 touchdowns in Leslie’s quarterback-friendly offense.
Leslie coach Tim McCann called Cranmore “the face of the program” at their school.
“We look forward to him building off of that going into his junior year,” McCann said.
It would be hard for any signal-caller to top those numbers, but Cranmore just might be the one to do it. Since the winter, he has spent two days a week attending Donovan Dooley’s Quarterback University – known by most as QBU – in Detroit. The work he put in, Cranmore said, will help him get to the next level.
It also will help him shred even more defenses in 2025.
“We do 45 minutes of field work, then we go into classroom and go over coverages, blitz concepts, the things you will need at the next level,” Cranmore said. “It really helps me learn what (offensive) concepts you will want against different coverages and how to see blitzes coming. We learn how to break down film.”
Cranmore is leaving nothing to chance. He said his film study sessions helped him earn even more trust from McCann – and that he’ll have more input on the play calling once he gets to the line of scrimmage.
“He trusts me and sees my growth,” Cranmore said.
Leslie had its best season in 16 last year, thanks to McCann’s high-powered offense and Cranmore winging the ball all over the place.
The Blackhawks went 10-2, won the Cascades Conference championship and won two playoff games before losing to eventual Division 7 runner-up Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central in the Regional Finals.
The Blackhawks put up monster numbers. They scored 62 against Vandercook Lake, 45 against previously-unbeaten Manchester, 54 against East Jackson and 49 against Burton Atherton in a playoff game. They squeaked by Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett to get to the Regional Finals.
It was the first time Leslie qualified for the playoffs since 2012 and its first season with double-digit wins since 2008.
Leslie was once a regular in the playoffs and regularly competed for conference championships. From 2000 to 2012, the Blackhawks were in the playoffs all but four times and had 11 winning seasons. Then hard times hit. Leslie went 0-9 in 2013, starting a string of 11 sub-.500 finishes.
McCann played football at Leslie during its successful era. And when the Blackhawks started last season 7-0, he knew the team was ahead of schedule.
“It goes back to my roots when I was in high school here,” he said. “We are playing Leslie High School football, doing things right on and off the field, building life skills, getting it done in the classroom. These kids really bought into that."
The climb back to respectability began in 2023 when Cranmore was a freshman. McCann summoned him to the varsity despite Leslie having athletic Jaydin Colby occupying the quarterback position. Cranmore got into a few late-season games. He earned the starting job in 2024, with Colby shifting to receiver where he had an all-state season.
"We knew he was going to blossom into something special," McCann said of Cranmore. "He spent a tremendous amount of time in the offseason being a student of the game. He spent a lot of time with the guys around him, building relationships.”
Colby and some of those other weapons have graduated, but Cranmore continued building relationships and getting comfortable with his new crew of receivers. That could spell trouble for opponents this season.
“When I was in middle school, I always told myself I wanted to change things and bring it back to when Leslie was making the playoffs every year and the state championship game,” he said. “I think we are just as good if not better than last year. Now we know what it’s like to win. Nothing is given to you. You have to work a lot harder than you did last year.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a news and sports reporter at the Adrian Daily Telegram and the Monroe News for 30 years, including 10 years as city editor in Monroe. He's written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. He is now publisher and editor of The Blissfield Advance, a weekly newspaper. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Leslie quarterback Joel Cranmore and his teammates celebrate a touchdown last season. (Middle) Cranmore looks back while running off the field. (Photos courtesy of Jeff Steers/JTV.)