MHSAA Vault: Shooks a Legend as Freshman Coach
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 4, 2026
The following originally appeared in the Lansing State Journal on Oct. 28, 2004, and was reprinted by the MHSAA that winter.
Wayne Shooks retired from coaching entirely in 2008 and died Tuesday at the age of 84.
Wayne Shooks tried the varsity football thing once. Some time during the late 1980s, longtime DeWitt coach Gail Thornton asked Shooks to be his offensive coordinator.
“I didn't sleep a night. My wife, after three weeks, said, ‘You're going back to freshmen,’” Shooks remembered.
And those three weeks were in the month of June.
But Shooks' wife must have been on to something. Because few, if any, freshman football coaches have accomplished what Shooks finished with one last win last fall.
He ended his 16th and final season as freshman coach with a 135-2-1 record.
Amazing.
“You can't lose a game for him, or you'll feel bad,” DeWitt senior Mat Brynick recalled from his days as a freshman. “Coach never says it, but it's what everyone expects.
“He taught us how to win.”
Guys like Shooks, 62, usually go unappreciated.
They get the kids fresh to high school, fresh to high school sports, and still learning things like not spiking the ball after a touchdown.
But few freshman football coaches are as legendary as Shooks is in DeWitt. They are so unappreciated that it's impossible to find out if anyone has accomplished what he's done.
Shook is not big on numbers. Never has been during his 41 years teaching in the district, or more than 20 coaching everything from football to basketball to wrestling to tennis. Oh, and track since 1980.
He also coached 8th-grade football for a few years, junior varsity for one season and was a varsity assistant. But he'll be remembered for what he did with the freshmen.
The losses came in 1993 to Mason during a terrible wind storm, and in 2002 to Greenville. That same year, the Panthers tied Haslett, meaning it was the only year during his tenure that DeWitt wasn't sure if it finished first in its league, since league titles aren't handed out at the freshmen level.
“The kids felt bad. They did their best,” Shooks remembered.
But the losses, however few, were more of a relief for Shooks than a letdown.
Don't take that to mean Shooks doesn't like to win.
Sure, he embraced the role of teacher as much as any freshman coach. But as DeWitt varsity coach Rob Zimmerman said, “If he was a 5th-grade coach, he'd be the most competitive 5th-grade coach you've ever seen.”
“I never pointed (our record) out, it was not our goal,” Shooks said. “Our goal was to win the next week. Although the kids knew it. They just assumed we were going to go 9-0, I guess.”
Guess so.
Shooks had more easily-attainable goals:
- Have fun
- Learn fundamentals
- Emphasize the logical stuff, like the importance of bringing equipment to school every day
“He does a really good job teaching expectations about being young men and being great students,” Zimmerman said. “It's gigantic.”
And it kept kids coming back to junior varsity and varsity. You could hear the fun coming out in Brynick's voice.
He was remembering his freshman football experience, remembering his time with perhaps Michigan's most successful coach at that level.
“I remember a few games, we'd find one play that works, and we ran it to death, pounding it and pounding it,” Brynick recalled. “He loves running the same play over and over. If you can do that, march 80 yards down the field, you're doing something right. No one could stop us.”
That was not all Brynick remembered, or didn't.
Shooks almost never yelled. If he did, it meant a kid messed something up over and over and over again.
He has a doctorate in zoology. Education is obviously a big deal. He loves to win, but he loves to teach. And he's hesitant to go looking for any attention for what he's done.
All made him a perfect freshmen football coach.
“Sometimes I don't think people understand about coaches. You think college level, they are coaches first, that's their job, but not at the high school level,” Shooks said.
“It's not what I've done, it's what they've done. I've always believed the focus should be on the kids. My job is a teacher. I coach because I love to coach.”
PHOTO DeWitt freshman coach Wayne Shooks, fourth from right, stands for a photo with this final football team in 2004. (Photos courtesy of the DeWitt football program.)
E-TC's Witt Bulldozing Path from Small Town to Football's Biggest Stage
By
Jason Juno
Special for MHSAA.com
June 28, 2024
Ewen-Trout Creek graduate Jake Witt is playing for a spot on the Indianapolis Colts’ 53-man roster. The memories of high school sports, and the impact they’ve had on his journey to the NFL, have stuck with him through his college days and even now as a professional.
The 300-plus receiving yards he went for in a game against the eventual 8-player state champion back in 2017.
The regular-season basketball game where 3,276 fans turned out to watch his Panthers play just a few months later.
The teamwork prep sports taught him. The family atmosphere he got to be a part of on the high school football team.
“Football was definitely the sport I felt the most family-type feeling with it,” Witt said earlier this week after fishing on Erickson Lake while back in the Upper Peninsula before training camp begins next month. “That’s what drew me back to wanting to play football in college, was my opportunity in high school to play and getting that feeling with the guys and that family-oriented feel.”
Witt played two years of high school football. He lined up exclusively at wide receiver for Ewen-Trout Creek as a junior and then was more of a blocking tight end when E-TC and Ontonagon joined forces as a co-op program when he was a senior.
He ultimately decided to play basketball first in college, at Michigan Tech. But two of his three finalists were football opportunities.
“Obviously playing basketball from second grade on, people would probably assume that I would want to play basketball in college,” Witt said. “I think that just goes to show that football in those two years had a big impact and obviously it led me to where I am when I played at Northern and where I am today.”
Witt played only one year of basketball at Tech. He transferred to Northern Michigan University to attend as a student only before being talked into playing football.
He was initially a tight end there before moving to tackle because of injuries during a game against Ferris State. He dominated, not allowing a sack or even a quarterback pressure against what was considered the best Division II defensive line in the country.
He stayed at tackle for what was left of that season and then all of his final year at Northern. Despite his limited time at the position, he had the attention of NFL scouts and entered the draft. The attention reached a fever pitch during his pro day at Central Michigan when he wowed with his athleticism. His 9.92 Relative Athletic Score, a way to measure players’ athletic testing while accounting for their size, was one of the best for an offensive tackle prospect since it began being used in 1987.
He was drafted with the 236th pick, in the seventh round, by the Colts in 2023.
His first training camp was cut short due to a hip injury, and he was then placed on season-ending injured reserve. But he’s back healthy and ready to go. He practiced at second-string left tackle during the offseason camp this spring and now hopes to earn a spot on the 53-man roster with training camp set to begin in a month.
“I want to go into training camp, play well and then play well enough to where they can’t release me off the 53,” Witt said. “The next goal is to play in a game. And I think that will start with special teams, that will start with field goal. And then from there, obviously, everybody is one week of great practice away from playing with the offense, one injury away from playing in a game with the offense.”
Those who watched him during his high school days in the U.P. likely wouldn’t be at all surprised to see that happen.
Witt is still the only receiver to go for 300 or more receiving yards in 8-player football in state history, according to the MHSAA record book. And he did it twice, a 325-yard game against Eben Junction Superior Central as a junior and the 305-yard performance against Crystal Falls Forest Park as a senior.
The Ontonagon co-op team had mostly stuck to running the ball that season, but looked for Witt through the air against the eventual state champion Trojans.
“I think it was 345 (yards), I think they sent in the wrong number,” Witt said. “That was one game where we switched things up with our offensive attack and threw the ball a lot more, and it ended up paying off for us very well. We were down big at halftime, and we pushed back and we were in a battle with them in the second half. It was a great game. We didn’t end up winning, but it was a lot of fun.”
He enjoyed both years of high school football – even while mostly blocking on the line as a senior despite having shown previously to be a more-than-capable receiver.
“A lot of the offense wasn’t focused on me anymore, which was great,” Witt said. “It made me a much more well-rounded football player. It made me a much better athlete, it gave me a better perception on things as a football player versus just being a receiver. I think both years were great for different reasons.”
Witt said every sport he played in high school was beneficial to him going forward. Basketball, for example, taught him teamwork and coordination.
“And just relationship building is huge; for me, it helped me move on to the professional football level,” he said.
No high school game was quite as memorable for him as that regular-season basketball game at Michigan Tech on a chilly Wednesday night in Houghton.
Ewen-Trout Creek and Dollar Bay were tied atop the U.P. small-school poll. With that type of matchup, and the chance for fans in the Copper Country to see the 6-7 Witt and his above-the-rim play that’s pretty unique in the U.P., the game was moved from Dollar Bay’s tiny gym to Michigan Tech. (He wasn’t quite 300 pounds like he is now, but he was close – and he came into that game averaging 27 points and 16 rebounds per game with no one able to match his size and strength.)
They expected a crowd; they got 3,276. The latest arriving fans had to sit on the floor on the baseline.
“You don’t see that very much in Division 4 basketball even in the playoffs,” Witt said. “Just having that atmosphere, and especially having it between two of the best U.P. teams at the time, and having the storyline that was behind the game was great – and one of the most memorable events to this day still for me.”
Witt is looking forward to the challenge of training camp and achieving his goals in Indianapolis. But he’s not rushing away a U.P. summer.
He helped out at last week’s U.P. Football All-Star game. He was happy to provide insight for any players headed off to play college ball, and they helped the Marquette County Habitat for Humanity with the finishing touches on one of their houses.
Over the next month, he’ll still be training, going over the playbook and doing position skill work. As happy as he was to help out last week, he’s happy to be on the lake again, too, fishing like a normal Yooper.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do, that and train,” Witt said. “Just trying to destress before I get back into it.”
PHOTOS (Top) At left, Jake Witt played for Ewen-Trout Creek during a 2018 basketball game at Michigan Tech, and at right Witt takes a photo with area youth baseball players last summer. (Middle) Witt, right, umpires a baseball game last summer. (Below) Witt warms up during the Indianapolis Colts’ rookie camp in May 2023. (Photos by Jason Juno.)