MCC Extends Streak, Hands Off Legacy
November 25, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
DETROIT – A trio of running backs who played major roles in Muskegon Catholic Central’s last three MHSAA championships closed their high school careers celebrating the school’s fourth straight title Friday.
Along the way, they also handed off the program’s future.
Seniors LaTommy Scott, Logan Helton and Walker Christofferson had become Ford Field fixtures the last few seasons, and each contributed to their combined four touchdowns in this Division 8 Final. But the fifth score of MCC’s 35-6 victory over Ottawa Lake Whiteford was scored by a freshman who will take over from here – and showed the promise that makes the Crusaders look good to continue these annual trips to Detroit.
Splitting time at quarterback with senior Trenton Bordeaux, freshman Cameron Martinez ran for a team-high 154 yards and a touchdown and threw for 61 yards and a score to help MCC pull into a tie for second all-time with its 12th MHSAA football title.
Although a freshman, the scene wasn’t entirely unfamiliar for Martinez; his brother Christian had quarterbacked the team to its 11th title last year as a senior.
“Every time we made it, I was watching from the crowd. I couldn’t wait to put on the gold helmet and bring this team back again,” Cameron Martinez said. “I love this group of seniors. I’m going to miss them, and that’s what I wanted to do – give them their fourth straight title.”
With four straight, the Crusaders (14-0) are now one shy of the MHSAA record of five consecutive titles shared by the Farmington Hills Harrison teams from 1997-2001 and East Grand Rapids’ teams from 2006-10. With 12 championships total, MCC is tied with now-closed Detroit St. Martin dePorres for second most in the sport, one behind Harrison’s record 13 football titles.
Martinez entered the Final third on the team with 614 rushing yards, tallying 12 touchdowns on the ground, and second to Bordeaux with 540 passing yards plus nine scoring passes. Also a starting linebacker, he didn’t play offense in MCC’s 35-0 Semifinal win over St. Ignace last week. But he was impacting the Crusaders’ offense by the end of Friday’s first quarter.
Martinez’ first carry came on the final play of that quarter, for three yards, and he opened the second with a 26-yard run. He also had a 19-yard run and 23-yard pass to set up Helton’s five-yard scoring run that put the first points on the board with 9:05 to go in the first half.
After coming up shy on another drive late in the half and then pushing the score to 14-6 on a 35-yard Helton run to cap its first possession of the second, MCC made it 21-6 with 3:08 to play in the third quarter with a drive that included 55 rush yards on five Martinez carries, including the final one for three yards into the end zone.
“Anytime you have a running quarterback, you have to defend 11 and not 10; it’s just simple math sometimes,” MCC coach Steve Czerwon said. “Having somebody in the backfield as dynamic as Cameron, with the ability to make plays … people are like, ‘He’s a freshman.’ Well, he’s a freshman, fine. But he doesn’t play like a freshman.”
MCC welcomed its captains from the last three seasons to Thursday’s practice, and after, Czerwon asked Christian Martinez if he was nervous for his brother. Christian’s response to Czerwon: “Nah, he’s made for these big moments.”
“After he said that – and he knows him a heck of a lot better than I do – I felt good about using him today,” Czerwon added. “And I thought he performed very well.”
So did those seniors. Helton ran seven times for 67 yards and those two scores, and Scott ran eight times for 69 yards and scored on the 25-yard touchdown “pass” which was more of a front pitch on a sweep around the left side. Christofferson, who ran for 200 yards and three touchdowns in the Semifinal win, added the day’s final score with 1:04 to play.
Helton, also a linebacker, had 10 tackles and Christofferson, a defensive back, had seven to follow up all-state senior linebacker Andrew Schulte's team-leading 13. The Crusaders never trailed this season, and the defense was a big reason why; including 13 points surrendered over five playoff games, MCC allowed only 77 points this fall (5.5 per game).
But Friday’s score didn’t tell well how close this matchup was for most of it. Whiteford had six turnovers on downs, falling short of first downs by only a yard four times. Twice, MCC sophomore defensive back Dawson Steigman made rally-ending stops. Three of the fourth-down misses came in Crusaders territory.
Whiteford junior quarterback Thomas Eitniear was especially impressive, completing 7 of 10 passes for 96 yards and running nine times for 111 yards including the team’s lone score, an 81-yard sprint around the left end that made it 7-6 with 2:37 to go in the first half.
“Coming into halftime, that was the exact kind of game we were looking to play – to chew clock, and we just didn’t articulate a couple of our possessions into scores,” Whiteford coach Jason Mensing said. “Second half, they found some things offensively against us and took advantage. And on top of that, we didn’t articulate our drives as well.
“Overall, I’m pleased with the effort and passion, and probably the thing I’m most proud of was I didn’t feel like the moment was too big for our kids, which oftentimes you get into this type of stage, the moment can be a little large. I thought our kids handled themselves with great composure, and that’s one of those attributes for life that really matters.”
Whiteford made its first appearance in an MHSAA Final, following up its second straight – and second ever – Semifinal appearance. The Bobcats finished 13-1.
“Me and a bunch of the senior guys, we dreamed about this since freshman year,” said senior running back Jesse Kiefer, who finished as the school’s career record holder in rushing yards, points and total offense. “Coming in and being able to play on this field, it’s just not real to me. Obviously, we wanted it to come out a different way than this, but it’s still an experience I’ll never forget.”
Kiefer had seven tackles at linebacker, following senior safety Herbie Bertz’ 13 and junior tackle Jared Atherton’s eight. Kiefer also broke up three passes.
With it being their last, MCC’s seniors asked to not come out of this game early as they have most of this season with the Crusaders beating all of their opponents by at least two touchdowns.
But as they left Ford Field once more, surrounded by 13 underclassmen, they were confident with who might lead MCC back next time.
“Handing it off the Cameron, our program is in good hands,” Helton said. “I don’t expect anything less than what we’ve been doing.”
The MHSAA Football Finals are sponsored by the Michigan National Guard.
PHOTOS: (Top) Muskegon Catholic Central’s Cameron Martinez stretches toward the goal line for a score late in the third quarter. (Middle) Martinez works to elude Whiteford’s Hunter Lake.
Ford Swaps Frustration for Focus
October 24, 2017
By Tim Robinson
Special for Second Half
Midway through the 2016 season, Marcus Ford was frustrated.
He was on the Pinckney football team, but not playing much.
A big part of that was due to his size — 6-foot-5 and over 400 pounds — but then-defensive coordinator Rod Beaton sensed there was more.
“We feel that we coach very hard,” said Beaton, now Pinckney’s head coach. “We’re very aggressive (on the varsity), and sometimes it’s an adjustment for juniors to understand that when they come out here, there’s expectations.
“There were a couple times where Marcus was questioning … whether football was for him.”
“I didn’t want to be there,” Ford said. “I thought, ‘This is stupid. Why am I here so late?’”
And then came a change.
“It came to a point where he went home and took a day off to re-gather himself,” Beaton said. “Marcus came back and he said to me, ‘Coach, I really want to be a part of things here.’”
And Ford did more than that.
He grew from a young man who bristled when his coaches pointed out mistakes to one who doesn’t react as if it were a personal attack, from an overweight kid who admits he was on his way to weighing 600 pounds to a big kid who is a key part of Livingston County’s most successful football team as a senior.
He rarely comes out of games, his coach says, and the quiet giant who rarely interacted with his teammates has transformed into a happy, smiling kid who dishes out and takes teasing from them.
It’s a story of transformation that only football could have done for Marcus Ford, who couldn’t play youth football because of his size and whose options for high school athletics seemed limited to football for the same reason.
“I may sound a little clichéd and corny,” Beaton said, “but I think this is why every single coach in America coaches football, to watch the development of a young man, from freshman to sophomore to junior and to see what football has done for him.”
How did Ford do it?
He turned his mental approach 180 degrees and made drastic changes to his diet and work ethic.
One clue came in looking at Pinckney’s roster from 2016 compared to 2017. Last year, Ford was listed at 380, which was about 40 pounds less than his actual weight.
This year, he’s listed at 405, which is a dozen pounds more than what he weighs now.
Last year, he played mostly in mop-up roles.
This year, he is a starter on defense, regularly occupying two blockers at a time, which in turn frees linebackers Cauy Hendee and Levi Collins to make tackles.
“I can play a lot longer,” he said. “I was tired when we were out there, but we don’t believe in the word ‘tired.’ We prefer ‘winded.’ We just need to catch our breath. So I get ‘winded’ a lot less.”
The first thing Marcus decided to change was his diet, and he got his cues by looking in the mirror.
“I didn’t like the muffin cap that was hanging down,” he said. “I didn’t like my stomach hanging over. ... I thought, ‘I don’t what to have a heart attack at age 25.’ I was doing ‘diets,’ per se, but eventually I thought, ‘This is stupid. Cut out pop and eat better,’ And I did.
“The only thing I would eat that was green was green beans, and they had to be made a certain way,” he said. “Now, I’m more like ‘this is somewhat appetizing. Let me try that.’ I don’t eat candy bars anymore. I don’t eat ice cream when my family does. I drink a lot less milk than I used to, and I drink more water.”
Pinckney offensive coordinator Cody Patton noticed.
“His mom came to me about getting a weight plan, and he stuck with it,” Patton said. “They can only do so much in the weight room. When they leave, there’s not much you can control what they put into their bodies.”
But Ford also changed his mindset about football and being coached.
“His first real commitment was ninth-grade high school football, and it was a big adjustment for him,” Beaton said. “We knew there would be days where he might be a little confrontational, there may be some days where he goes through the motions.”
But after that midseason meeting last year, Ford redoubled his efforts in practice and in the offseason.
The first hint that he was a different player came in June, when Ford earned the team’s first bone helmet sticker of the season for effort in a drill.
“It was our first pursuit drill,” Beaton said. “We go four downs, and those kids have to sprint. There’s no exception. Marcus stepped to his gap, made his reads, flew to the football and didn’t say a word, every single time. He did it four times in a row. It really set the stage. I could tell he was wanting do to things right this year.
“When you see a 6-5, 400-pound kid moving with effort and tenacity, you sit there and go, ‘That young man can help us.’”
And so he has.
As a result, Marcus Ford is part of a Pinckney defense that has lifted the Pirates to an 8-1 regular-season record and shared Southeastern Conference White championship. He has transformed from a player who had little stamina to one who can go from opening kickoff to final horn.
“He can play a whole football game,” Beaton said. “He can go through a whole practice. One of the challenges we were talking about in the offseason is he has to put his body and mind in a position to not come off the field.”
That moment came on a warm night early in the season.
“We were in a huddle at Chelsea, and it was late,” Beaton recalled. “He’s drenched in sweat, and I said, ‘Marcus, you need a breather?’ And he said, ‘No, coach. I’m ready.’ That’s pretty cool.”
Asked his ideal weight, Ford said, “I would like to be at 250 if I could,” then laughs. His bone structure is such that at his height, he would be almost gaunt at 250. “I would settle for 340. That’s the dream within a dream goal.”
Next year, he plans to attend college.
“I want to go into bartending or being a head chef, or get a business degree,” he said. “One other choice is going to a police academy. As long as I can run a mile within 15 minutes, I should be good.”
There’s no reason, now, to think he couldn’t accomplish that.
He got his first sack against Dexter.
‘I grabbed him and rolled him over on top of me,” Marcus said. “I would have liked to have landed on him, but I got him down in the backfield. It’s good.”
And football now is fun.
“A lot more fun,” he said.
“Marcus made a concerted effort to our strength and agility program,” Beaton said. “It wasn’t two days at a time, then not be there five or six days. Marcus was there. He would stay after everyone had left and get some extra lifts in or do some extra work to make sure he was putting himself in a (good) position.
“He said, ‘Coach, I want to be your starting nose (tackle).’ The first day of June camp, he ran out to the nose tackle, and we haven’t looked back.”
PHOTO: (Top) A pair of Pinckney blockers try to contain nose tackle Marcus Ford during a practice this season. (Middle) Ford breaks free to get an arm on a ball carrier. (Photos by Tim Robinson.)