Many Champs Have Played Waiting Game
January 12, 2021
By Ron Pesch
Special for Second Half
A state football championship is a dream for many. Fans wait for the day that they can beam with pride as their favorite squad or school hoists the title trophy toward the sky. For coaches and kids, it’s a road to memories never to be forgotten.
Many schools still wait for that day. Others pray for a return to such glory.
Today, we look at return trips to the winner’s circle. It’s filled with fascinating facts.
Ten schools have won three or more consecutive gridiron championship since the arrival of the tournament in 1975 (when titles began being awarded annually in four classifications based on enrollment – A, B, C & D). Grand Rapids West Catholic, Farmington Hills Harrison and East Grand Rapids lead the pack with five successive titles. Muskegon Catholic Central, Detroit St. Martin dePorres and Ithaca each had streaks of four in a row, while Jackson Lumen Christi, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, Detroit Catholic Central and Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice each had three-peats. Michigan has seen 31 instances of back-to-back crowns in 11-player football, accomplished at least once by 28 schools. To date, Powers North Central is the only squad to repeat since the 8-player playoffs began in 2011.
But what about the span between titles?
Patience is a Virtue
Eighteen schools have seen gaps of 10 or more years between MHSAA football championships. It’s happened twice for both Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and Crystal Falls Forest Park.
St. Mary’s earned its first football title in 1977 under coach Art Paddy. Its second came 17 years later under current head coach George Porritt. The Eaglets have earned eight titles total and have appeared in 14 championship games. Seven of those titles have come under Porritt’s guidance. They went back-to-back in 1999-2000, but then had to wait 11 seasons before winning their fifth title in 2011. In between, they finished as runner-up on five occasions.
Forest Park has appeared in 13 MHSAA Football Finals over the years, including six of the first 10 Class D title games between 1975 and 1984. Led by Upper Peninsula coaching legend Richard Mettlach, the Trojans were winners of the first two Class D titles, when only 16 teams qualified for the postseason. A total of 31 seasons would pass before Forest Park would win its third football championship. In between, multiple alterations were made to the postseason.
In 1977, the playoffs expanded to a three-week format that included 32 participating teams. The tournament grew to 64 qualifiers in 1985, then moved from awarding titles in four classes to eight (AA, A, BB, B, CC, C, DD & D) involving 128 teams, played out over four weeks. In 1999, the postseason was again altered, to a five-week layout including 256 contenders within eight groupings of 32 teams (Division 1 through Division 8), established after the 256 qualifiers were determined.
Bill Santilli, captain and star running back of the Trojans’ 1975 championship squad, took over the program in 1996 and led the Red and Black on seven trips to the Division 8 championship game – the first in 2000, then to six straight appearances in the title game between 2004-2009. Leading 22-14, Santilli’s 2007 team ground the final 6:07 off the game clock to seal their victory over Fulton, ensuring celebration during the Trojans’ eight-hour, 500+ mile trip back to the Upper Peninsula.
Much changed over the following decade at Forest Park. Santilli retired following the 2013 season. He finished with and impressive 171-45 win-loss mark that included 17 straight years in the MHSAA Playoffs. He went out on a high note, posting a 12-1 mark in 2013.
In 2015, following a trend of continued declining enrollments at U.P. schools, the Crystal Falls Forest Park Board of Education chose to move to 8-player football beginning with the 2016 season.
In 2017, seeing a 20-percent increase in the number of schools that chose this option for their student-athletes, the MHSAA expanded the 8-player tournament to two divisions. That fall, under head coach David Graff, the Trojans returned home with the 8-player Division 2 crown, becoming the second team in Michigan to win titles in both forms of the game
So far, Lawrence, is the only other high school to win championships in both 11-player and 8-player ball. The Tigers won their first football title in 1997 in Class DD. In 2014, 17 years later, they trounced Cedarville, 56-12, to pick up their first championship in 8-player.
The Longest Interval of All
Ishpeming fans have enjoyed seven trips to the MHSAA Finals over the years. The Hematites, nicknamed after the reddish-black iron ore that was long mined in the area, waited 33 years between their 1979 title and their 2012 championship. That’s currently the longest span between football championships in Michigan history.
Boasting a strong ground attack, Ishpeming picked up its first state crown in 1975 in an impressive manner, defeating heavily-favored Hudson in a Class C showdown hosted at Central Michigan University. Coach Mike Mileski’s squad rambled to a 24-8 lead by the end of one quarter, then cruised to a 38-22 victory. Hudson hadn’t lost a contest since the 1968 season, and the Hematites’ triumph halted the Tigers’ national win streak at 72-games.
Mileski guided the Hematites to the 1978 Semifinal before departing for Marquette High School to continue his coaching and teaching career. John Croze, an assistant under Mileski, took the reins in 1979 and drove Ishpeming to its second MHSAA title – finishing with a 13-0 victory over Watervliet.
It took 31 years before Ishpeming earned another shot at a crown. The 2010 Division 7 title game was, once again, a showdown between the Hematites and Hudson. This time, Hudson – coached by Chris Luma, the Tigers’ quarterback back in 1975 – won a thriller, 28-26.
A mere two seasons later, Ishpeming was back, this time winning the first of back-to-back titles, both with victories over Detroit Loyola. Those also were the first of four straight visits to the Finals by coach Jeff Olson’s teams. In 2014, the two teams met again, this time with Loyola emerging as victor. Ishpeming won its third title in four seasons in 2015, downing Pewamo-Westphalia, 22-16.
On the coaching side, Rich Hulkow at Marshall waited 13 seasons (1996 & 2009) between championships. Schoolcraft’s Larry Ledlow (1989 & 2001) had a pause of 12 years between celebrations. The aforementioned Porritt at St. Mary’s saw a break of 11 years between title triumphs. Mike Giannone went 10 season between titles at Macomb Dakota (2007) and later Warren De La Salle Collegiate (2017). Even legends Al Fracassa at Brother Rice (1990 & 2000) and George Barcheski (1983 & 1993) at East Grand Rapids had 10-years spans of wonder during their long coaching careers. Pete Kutches won titles in 1980 and 1982 at Muskegon Catholic, then a decade passed before “The Catch” gave his Muskegon Reeths-Puffer squad the 1992 Class A championship.
Don’t Stop Believing
One school with a long streak of waiting remain in the chase during this extended 2020-21 postseason.
Traverse City High School last won a football title in 1988. Coach Jim Ooley’s Trojans finished Class A runner-up in 1975, then rattled off titles in 1978, 1985 and 1988. Named head coach in 1967, he retired following the 1991 season.
In the fall of 1997, the school split into two with the opening of Traverse City West.
Traverse City Central, as the original school is now known, is still chasing its next football championship 32 years later. The Trojans take on reigning Division 2 champion Muskegon Mona Shores in a Semifinal this Saturday.
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]:void(0);t with ideas for historical articles.
PHOTOS: (Top) Ryan Van Dyke scores one of his two touchdowns in Marshall’s 14-13 win over Kingsford in the 1996 Class BB Final. (Middle) The 1976 Crystal Falls Forest Park team. (Below) The 1979 Ishpeming team. (Photos from MHSAA files; Marshall photo by Gary Shook.)
Marckel Supplies Marketing Magic to Hunter's Heisman-Winning Campaign
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
July 29, 2025
When he was hired at the University of Toledo in 2016 as assistant director of creative services, Derek Marckel thought he had found his dream job only a few months after graduating from college.
Then he became Colorado University’s graphic designer for football in 2019 and thought he had finally landed the job he’s always wanted.
After stops at the Michigan State University to work with former football coach Mel Tucker, and University of Southern California to work with Lincoln Riley, Marckel, 32, is back in Colorado and certain he’s living the dream.
“This was the stuff I thought about doing when I was a kid,” said Marckel, who graduated from Ottawa Lake Whiteford High School in 2011. “I used to sit and draw pictures of all of my favorite University of Toledo football players, and then I’d take them and give them to the players or have them sign them. This is definitely what I’ve dreamed of doing someday.”
Last winter, Marckel was in New York City when his favorite subject – Colorado football player Travis Hunter – won the Heisman Trophy. It was a surreal moment for Marckel, who led a team of creative content makers who spent months last fall promoting Hunter for the biggest prize in all of college football.
“Going into the season, we knew he was going to have a pretty good chance,” Marckel said. “Once the games started playing out, we knew he had a legitimate shot.”
As senior art director at Colorado, Marckel led the Hunter-for-Heisman campaign. He was on the sidelines of every game, home and away, documenting Hunter and the rest of the Buffaloes. He designed billboards that were strategically placed around Denver and one in Times Square in New York City. Marckel’s team met weekly to plan a regular dose of social media posts and content promoting Hunter’s candidacy.
Heisman Trophy candidates emerge based on their on-field performances. But, behind the scenes, winning the trophy has long taken some pushing by colleges and universities.
“There’s a lot that goes into a campaign,” Marckel said. “You have to work with sponsors and donors who helped fund all of that. It’s a lengthy operation.”
As the season drew to a close, Colorado published a packet of information that Marckel designed and sent it to Heisman Trophy voters and the media. ESPN showcased his work.
“Almost everything we were doing was going viral,” Marckel said.
When it became clear Hunter was going to be a finalist for the award, Marckel was called upon to document the entire process. He and a member of his team went to New York City two days ahead of Hunter to be prepared when he landed in the city. Next were Heisman Trophy promotional appearances, photoshoots and the Heisman ceremony itself, and Marckel was there for all of it.
“It was Travis from sun-up to sun-down,” Marckel said. “We’d have little breaks during the day. I designed the billboard for him in Times Square. We had a photo shoot there.”
Helpfully, Hunter was a wonderful participant.
“We put a lot of work into it,” Marckel said. “Obviously it was his award, and he earned it, but it was very rewarding to us, too, to see our hard work pay off. I’ve been around thousands of athletes, and he’s probably my favorite one. He doesn’t necessarily love doing all of the media stuff, but he was comfortable around us.”
Marckel was born in Toledo but grew up in southeast Michigan. He was football team captain for the Bobcats as a senior and began his interest in design, art and photography during his time at Whiteford.
“I knew from a young age that I wanted to work professionally in sports,” Marckel said. “During my time at Whiteford, I spent a lot of my high school career around the football program. I was lucky to have my first two years of varsity with Coach (Jack) Luettke and my senior year with Coach (Matt) Garno, who had a background in graphic design. This ended up being a great foundation for me to combine my passion for football and graphic design as I was heading into the real world.”
Marckel graduated from Bowling Green State University in 2016 with a bachelor's degree in technology & visual communication technology. He landed an internship with the University of Toledo where he started designing team schedule posters, pocket schedules and souvenir tickets. That’s when social media started revolutionizing the industry, especially college football.
“Social media was kind of secondary to everything else when I started there,” he said. “It started to shift. I got in at the perfect time. Things were really starting to pick up. That’s when I knew sports was going to be what I wanted to do.”
After getting a full-time job at Toledo, his work caught the eye of someone at Colorado, and Marckel went west to become a graphic designer with the Buffaloes. When Tucker left Colorado for Michigan State, Marckel followed him to East Lansing.
At first, he missed Colorado.
“Even on the drive to East Lansing, I was thinking, ‘Why am I leaving Colorado?’” Marckel said.
He stayed two years, then landed the role as director of creative media at USC, working sun-up to sun-down in Los Angeles. When the opportunity came to return to Boulder, he jumped at it, becoming senior art director.
The Buffaloes went 1-11 his first season back at Colorado. The entire football coaching staff was let go.
That’s when Marckel’s world took another big turn.
“The rumors started flying about Coach Prime,” Marckel said, referring to Deion Sanders. “There are always these theoretical situations about who the coach is going to be. We found out about 8 p.m. that it was Coach Prime. We had to be on the tarmac at 1:30 a.m. I don’t get starstruck anymore just because of what I’ve been able to do and who I’ve been able to be around, but as soon as he stepped off the plane, I realized I was getting myself into something huge.”
Pro football hall of famers regularly makes stops at Colorado practices. Warren Sapp joined the Colorado staff. Terrell Owens stops by regularly. A steady wave of Sanders’ former teammates from the Dallas Cowboys attended practices as well.
Marckel documents it all, through his camera – a skill he’s honed along the way.
“When I started at Toledo, I would shoot all of those games, but I wasn’t a great photographer,” he said. “As time has gone on, it’s become such an emphasis. I’ve really had to refine everything I do to become the best at it.”
Initially he had to win the trust of Sanders, who brought some of his own content creators with him to Colorado.
“It took a little while to get us into a groove,” Marckel said. “Now we work side by side every day. It’s a smooth operation now. We bounce ideas off of each other.”
Day to day, Marckel works on social media, marketing, photoshoots of recruits and documents workouts and practices for Colorado social media channels.
He works with the football team exclusively, sometimes long hours during the season.
“You get kind of get burned out by end-of-season, but it's worth it,” Marckel said. “You are on the field every day with Heisman Trophy winners, hall of famers and first-round picks. It’s a cool job when you step back and look at it. This is most fun I’ve had working in college football in 10 years.”
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PHOTOS (Top) At left, Whiteford's Derek Marckel takes the field as a senior in 2010. At right, Marckel poses for a photo this year in front of the Times Square display he designed to promote Colorado's Travis Hunter. (Middle) Marckel stands for a photo with Hunter during the Heisman Trophy ceremony. (Photos courtesy of Derek Marckel.)