Loyola Learns Championship Lessons
November 29, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
DETROIT – Saturday’s celebration began with respect, senior linebacker Paul Engram said, for an opponent that had become familiar and frustrating.
Detroit Loyola hasn’t lost a regular-season game since 2010. But the Bulldogs also hadn’t solved Ishpeming in their first two MHSAA Division 7 Final matchups, falling to the Hematites to end both of the last two seasons despite obvious size and arguable speed advantages.
“We know they could beat us, and they thought they could beat us, and we had to recognize that,” Engram said. “We knew what we can do. We had to believe in ourselves and play as a team.
“Football isn’t always about just playing a game. It’s about life. We really learned a lesson about how to stick together and trust, what love and trust are really all about. Because that’s what we were missing the last couple of years.”
Loyola had all of the above Saturday morning in defeating Ishpeming 29-8 to claim its first MHSAA title.
Just as in 2012 and 2013, Ishpeming scored first. But this time, the Bulldogs responded with 29 unanswered points dominating with the physicality that has helped it build a 65-10 record under coach John Callahan since he took over the program in 2009.
“Passion, motivation. Us losing two times in a row, we just really had a goal,” said senior running back Marvin Campbell, who like Engram had played prominent roles on all three Finals teams. “We just knew we had to get this done.”
Campbell finished with 215 yards on 21 carries with all four of Loyola’s scores – on runs of 47 and eight yards in the second quarter, 66 in the third and five yards in the fourth.
The first touchdown would’ve come earlier – a two-yard scoring run was called back because of a penalty – and Ishpeming junior Thomas Finegan intercepted a Loyola pass on the next play. With junior quarterback Ozzy Corp either running or completing passes on 10 plays, the Hematites responded with a 13-play, 90-yard drive capped by his 1-yard scoring run and two-point conversion pass with 1:03 to go in the first quarter.
But Loyola (14-0) made adjustments – taking opposite tacks for each side of the field.
Callahan had traveled to watch Ishpeming twice this season, including against eventual Division 8 semifinalist Beal City when those teams met in Week 6. Callahan noticed how the Aggies tried to defend Ishpeming’s powerful run – and came back to a defense he’d used coaching Pontiac Notre Dame to a league title before moving to Loyola. The “nitro” defense took all of his players off the line and gave a look of seven linebackers able to range side to side.
Loyola finished Saturday with six tackles for losses and three sacks, with junior lineman Anthony Fitzpatrick leading with 11 tackles.
“(Nitro) gives us better vision,” Callahan said. “With what they ran, they were going one way or the other. It gave our guys the opportunity to move as quick as they were and get to the spot.”
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs did just about the opposite offensively, as the game wore on getting back to the fundamentals of its base power running game that had served so well the last four seasons.
Loyola finished with 297 yards on the ground, with senior Mideyin Wilson picking up 75 on 16 carries.
“Those guys are seniors now, all those guys we played before,” Ishpeming coach Jeff Olson said. “They’re big. They’re strong. They were better than us. There are only so many things you can do, and we tried a lot of different things, a lot of different blocking schemes. They just dominated us at times.”
Corp turned in another courageous performance without senior teammate and top back Ozzy Hakkarinen to assist – the latter was injured in last week’s Semifinal. Corp ran for 198 yards in that game, and added 111 yards passing to the team’s lone score Saturday.
Senior Dominic Suardini had 14 tackles for the Hematites (12-1), which had won 33 straight games entering Saturday – good to tie for eighth-longest winning streak in MHSAA football history and fourth longest among streaks to take place entirely during the playoff era (beginning in 1975).
“People don’t understand how hard it is to get here. When you do it three times in a row and win two, people think it gets easy,” Olson said. “We had some tough teams we had to play along the way, and you’ve got to beat those teams. And those teams are giving you everything they have. You can’t just have talent; you’ve got to have great kids, got to have competitors. We had that.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Loyola celebrates its first MHSAA football championship at Ford Field. (Middle) Ishpeming quarterback Ozzy Corp prepares to throw with the Bulldogs pressuring. (Below) Loyola’s Marvin Campbell runs away from tacklers for some of his 215 rushing yards. (Click for action photos and team photos from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS:
ISHPEMING PICK - The Ishpeming defense stopped a long game-opening Detroit Loyola drive when Thomas Finegan intercepted a Nicholas Lee pass. The Hematites scored on the ensuing drive.
MARVELOUS MARVIN - Marvin Campbell rushed for 215 yards and four touchdowns for Detroit Loyola in its 29-8 Division 8 victory over Ishpeming. Here's the third score on a 66-yard run.
Watch the entire game and order DVDs by Clicking Here.
Cisco Recalled for Jefferson Greatness, Care for Kids & Staff Over Half-Century as Coach
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
October 1, 2026
Marc Cisco was a gruff old football coach who was intimidating and set in his ways.
Not really.
In fact, to those who knew him, Cisco was more like a teddy bear who had passions for good football, watching student-athletes play the game right and spending time with his close circle of friends.
Cisco died Sept. 24 in Grand Rapids at the age of 90, leaving a legacy on high school football in southeast Michigan. He was best known for coaching the Monroe Jefferson varsity football team for a remarkable 47 years. His teams won 241 games, including the 1994 Class B championship in the Pontiac Silverdome.
“It appeared he was this mean old guy. He might yell at you, but he would be the first one to pat you on the back and tell you good job,” said one of his former players, Jeff Potter. “He really cared about his kids and nurtured his players. He was mostly a big teddy bear.”
Cisco made a career in education as a teacher and coach. In addition to coaching the Jefferson football team for 47 years, he coached track & field for almost as many seasons.
His son, Zeke, played for his father and was the Jefferson quarterback. Later, Zeke was a walk-on at the University of Nebraska. When Zeke was away at college and would come home for a visit each May, he would volunteer to work at the Jefferson Invitational track meet because that’s where he would find his dad.
“He was just a coach,” Zeke said. “My childhood was all about sports. If I wanted to see him in the fall, I had to go to practice. If I want to hang around with him in the winter, he kept score at basketball games, so I would go to the basketball games. He kept the scoreboard during wrestling meets. I usually would sit under his legs, underneath the scorers’ table. I would hit him in the legs a lot because he would get bored and forget to add the score on.
“He was nestled in the fabric of the high school in every way, shape or form.”
Niles Kruger, sports editor at The Monroe News, said when Zeke was at Nebraska, Marc Cisco was usually one of the first coaches every Friday to call in his stats and scores because he would be jumping in a car to drive to watch his son play.
“He was one of my favorite postgame interviews because he was always the same, win or lose,” Kruger said. “He was quite a character and pretty good at cussing. He would always say afterwards, ‘Clean that up for me.’”
Cisco had a tremendous relationship with his assistant coaches. Several members of the Jefferson coaching staff were there for at least 40 of Cisco’s 47 years.
“His vacations, his fun things to do, were always with other coaches, their wives and their families,” Zeke Cisco said. “They would get together for card nights. They would go to Toledo Raceway (harness racing) Park. Pretty much every coach’s driveway, roof and deck were all built by the other coaches on the staff. They took care of each other.”
Cisco’s legacy includes an extended coaching tree filled with former players. Zeke has built a very successful program at Byron Center. Jason Gendron is the Gibraltar Carlson coach and in the middle of a tremendous run with the Marauders. Potter has coached at Ida for a decade and made that program a playoff regular.
“He was a big part of why I became a coach,” Potter said. “He was like a second family. My dad coached with him for 40 years. He was my Godfather. Our offense now is pretty much the same offense we ran in high school.”
Cisco had spent time in Florida after retiring but made his home in Reading near the Michigan-Indiana border the last few years.
“He would drive up to our games on Fridays,” Zeke said. “He would be in the parking lot at 3 o’clock.”
Marc had health issues over the last year, suffering from a stroke and congestive heart failure. He took a turn for the worse a little more than a week ago. He and his wife Donna, also a former coach at Jefferson, were together for more than 56 years. She survives.
Marc Cisco was a legend long before he started blowing the coaching whistle. Growing up in Morenci, he earned 16 varsity letters – four each in football, basketball, baseball and track – before graduating in 1954. The Bulldogs football team won 44 straight games during his career, and he made The Associated Press all-state team three times.
Larry Tuttle, the winningest baseball coach in Michigan high school history, was a student at Morenci when Cisco was a player.
“I never missed one of his games because my mom and dad would go to all of them,” he said. “Later on, we became good friends. He was such a great football player.”
Cisco played football at Michigan State University under head coach Duffy Daugherty and later at the University of Toledo.
He got his teaching start at Britton Macon High School in Lenawee County, before moving closer to the banks of Lake Erie and Jefferson in 1961.
It was 1963 when Cisco first coached Jefferson, leading the varsity to a 4-3 season – the first of three straight winning campaigns. The tide turned in 1966 when Jefferson went 0-6. The team won seven games over the next three seasons before Cisco stepped down.
He regained the job in 1973 and stayed until 2012. He was the Bears’ varsity coach 41 years in all. From the time his 1983 team went 9-0 until the mid-2000s, Jefferson was a model of consistency, producing winner after winner. The 1993 team went 10-1, the 1994 team 12-1, and the 1999 team 11-2. It was the 1994 Bears that won the Class B title.
Zeke Cisco said when his father retired, it was rather unceremonious. There was no big announcement or celebration, although the school had much earlier renamed the football and track stadium after him.
“He just sort of stepped away,” he said. “He would come up here and watch his grandsons play.”
Marc Cisco never took himself or his wins too seriously.
“You know, I used to always give him hell,” Zeke said. “I'd call him and go, oh, ‘It's the winningest coach Monroe County.’ He goes, ‘I'm also the losingest coach in Monroe County.’”
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) Marc Cisco coaches his Monroe Jefferson football team. (Middle) From left, John Castiglione, Cisco and Dave Potter monitor the action at the Silverdome during their team’s 1994 Class B Final. (Below) Cisco, while starring at Morenci. (Jefferson photos courtesy of the Monroe News. Morenci photo courtesy of Larry Tuttle.)