'Patriot Game' Unites Traverse City Rivals
September 9, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Twenty years ago this fall, Traverse City Central and Traverse City West faced each other in varsity football for the first time as new communities created by the split of the former Traverse City High School.
As was inevitable, the resulting rivalry has become one of the state’s most competitive, with West holding a 12-7 edge in varsity football after winning the first four games of the new series. But an idea five years ago to make the game about more has given an entirely new meaning to the annual neighborly get-together.
The “Patriot Game” was an idea first stoked by West football coach Tim Wooer, who suggested a military salute game in 2012 after the death of U.S. Marine Justin Hansen, who had been serving in Afghanistan and was one of Wooer’s players when the latter formerly coached at Kingsley.
Historic Thirlby Field was packed with 10,000 fans for that first Patriot Game, played Week 6 that fall. And it was just a start.
The Patriot Game has grown to also honor first responders, including police, fire and medical personnel, and for more reasons than football has become the game for the 3,000 students who attend either Central or West.
In their words, two of those students – Central senior Sarah Berry and West senior Dani Priest, the governors of their school’s respective student senates – explain why the Patriot Game has grown to mean so much, and also what it says about their communities.
Both Berry and Priest have attended all four Patriot Games, and of course will be on hand tonight after a full day of festivities at both schools. (Watch the game live with subscription on MHSAA.tv.) The game again is played at Thirlby, which is the shared home of Central and West as well as Traverse City St. Francis and has been hosting football games since 1896.
Priest: “My favorite memory of the Patriot Game was freshman year. Thirlby Field in itself is just a field where not many high school kids get to experience (that kind) of opportunity, because it an incredible thing that we share between the schools. The stands were completely filled, it was my first-ever high school football game, it was under the lights, it was 500+ kids from West, 500+ kids from Central. The whole community (went) back and forth, back and forth, the game was incredibly close and then West ended up winning (17-14). That was the only game since I’ve been in high school that we’ve won. The feeling after that was incredible especially because I was a freshman and it was new; there were no words. … Especially since our community is so intimate and small, that adds another component. No matter what, because we’re in the same conference, we’re going to play each other. But what is so important about the Patriot Game itself is the students are so involved in this game.”
As has become tradition, the student sections will wear patriotic colors – tonight, West will be a sea of Blue and Central of red. The schools hold various fundraisers, including selling T-shirts leading up to the game. Money raised this year will be donated to Veteran 2 Veteran, a local program that sets up mentors for veterans as they return to civilian life.
Berry: “Last year I helped to build a memorial at our field, so that was really special and really awesome to present that to the veterans who were at the game. This year, something that I think is going to be really special is we’re doing a thing called ‘Bucks for Vets.’ We’re going to bring all the student senators and run through the stands for two minutes and get all the donations from as many people as we can to go toward this organization. The organizations that we support every year are chosen through a council. I’ve been on the council for three years now and meeting with all of the organizations. They’re able to pitch to us why they need the money, where they’re going to use the money so it will affect veterans in the area, and we’re able to choose what organization – they all deserve money – but what organization needs the money. So all of the money from the game is going toward them and not just extra new special things.”
Classes began Tuesday, giving student officers at both schools limited time to drum up enthusiasm for today’s events – although there’s already ample buzz. Both schools will hold assemblies today. At Central, veterans and first responders will be welcomed in to tell some of their stories. At West, student leaders will hold more of a pep rally to make sure the entire student body, especially new classmates, know details for the night and why they should be there.
Berry: “We have an assembly every year right before the game where we honor all of our veterans and all of our first responders, and I think that really explains to (students) why it’s such a big deal. During that assembly, everyone is completely silent. They have so much respect. Our whole school still talks about how astounding that assembly was to thank all of them (last year), and I really think they know how much it means. It’s really hard not to be emotional about it during the assembly because we have families that come in and they lost a loved one in a war, and we have people who came back from combat a few years ago, so it’s really easy to understand how much it means to everyone. Normally, all of our other assemblies, people are rowdy, (but) this one assembly everyone has so much respect. It’s amazing. You always hear, ‘Oh yeah, the veterans are losing their lives in the war. They’re fighting for our country. They’re risking their lives.’ But to actually hear from someone who has experienced the death firsthand, it really opens your eyes.”
Both teams are 2-0, and this will be the first time they'll match up with perfect records. Both also are expected to contend in the Big North Conference; Central won the league title and West was third a year ago. But those teams make up only a part of what is, of course, an educational event.
Priest: “What we learn from the Patriot Game is there’s so much more than just high school. There’s so much more than just a Central/West rivalry. There are people out there fighting for our country, and we all stand together. Both of our schools are at one place realizing there’s more than just us. We have to be thankful that we have the opportunity to be at this game, cheering on our teams.”
Berry: “People definitely learn a lot about respect. You definitely notice how much respect everyone has during the game, toward other people; it’s amazing. Definitely in past years, I’ve learned how much veterans do for us. And not only veterans, but the responders, police, everyone. It’s astounding. I guess I just wasn’t aware previously how much they really risk and how much they really do. That’s the main thing I learned, and I think a lot of people in the school could say the same thing. And you really learn a lot about your community as well. (The game) is sold out every single year. The student sections are covered in a sea of blue and red, and you just learn how much support can be given to our community.”
Ticket sales at the stadium gate begins at 2 p.m. Veterans, reservists, active military and first responders will be admitted free of charge through special entrances, and later student senators from both schools will camp out at the entrances to make sure no special guests are waiting in line when festivities begin. A motorcade of American Legion Riders, local motorcycle police and North Flight emergency medical transport personnel will ride into the stadium, and colors will be presented by member of the U.S. Coast Guard Color Guard and first responder Honor Guard.
As the West marching band plays, student senators from both schools will form a tunnel for veterans and first responders to walk through as they enter the field and then line up at the 50-yard line, where they will be greeted by both football teams.
After the playing of taps and a memorial announcement of names, the junior varsity football teams from both schools together will take hold of a giant American flag stretching sideline to sideline as the band plays the national anthem. There will then be a flyover before the coin toss and opening kickoff.
Berry: “I think doing (the Patriot Game) with West makes it extremely special. Because not only do we have friends on the other side, but using the game in this way is extremely smart. We’re able to come together for a common cause, on common ground, in that we want to honor all these people and honor what they’ve done for us, and that really ties it all together. … I’ve been asked if I want more people to be in the student section from Central supporting the veterans or more people from West, but really, we want everyone there. We want everyone to do well. We want everyone to be able to thank everyone, and it’s just an extremely supportive thing. Of course we want to win, but win or lose, it’s a great experience.
Priest: “I think what makes it special with Central is honestly, we know these kids. We see them, we’re friends with them. The only thing that makes us different is we go to different schools. We live in the same town, we do the same things, in our free time we go to the same ski hills, we go to the same beaches, we go to the same restaurants, we see each other around town, we participate in the same social events. Seeing your friends and people that you care about as well, not only as your rival but you care about them, makes it so much better.”
An estimated 100-150 veterans and first responders attended the 2015 Patriot Game, and 150 or more are expected tonight with moderate temperatures and mostly clear skies expected. The schools are preparing for a crowd that could eclipse 8,000 fans total.
Priest: “I know people who don’t have kids in high school. My neighbors, actually, have elementary school kids, and they’re like, ‘We’re coming to the game. We bought T-shirts.’ Because they just want to help out with the cause. It’s broadcast on the news, it’s on the radio, it’s everywhere. It just shows so much how no matter if it’s your school or if it’s your kids, people just want to get involved and they want to know how they can help.”
Berry: “It explains so much about Traverse City’s personality and just how giving the entire community is, and accepting. Traverse City is such a special place in that everyone comes at you with open arms. Our community is so giving towards veterans. The hearts of everyone grow bigger during this game. Going there can definitely affect the way you view the city.
“There’s so much love in that stadium. And everyone wants to be there. It’s the event of Traverse City for the high schools. If you’re going to go to any of the games, I would tell you, you have to be at the Patriot Game.”
Click for more information from the Patriot Game website.
PHOTOS: (Top) Traverse City Central players shake hands with veterans before the first "Patriot Game" in 2012. (Top middle) Junior varsity players from Central and West hold the giant flag during last season's national anthem. (Middle) West players converge on a Central ball-carrier in front of a packed Thirly Field in 2015. (Below middle) A helicopter provides a fly-over as the Traverse City Central band takes the field. (Below) Students dress in blue and red in support of veterans and first responders saluted during the game. (Photos by Rick Sack/TC Rick Photo.)
Camden-Frontier Enjoys 8-Player Rebirth
By
Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
October 20, 2016
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
CAMDEN – When it comes to football at Camden-Frontier, fewer is better.
Three times better.
After enduring back-to-back winless seasons in 2014-15, Camden-Frontier made the switch from 11- to 8-player football. The result? The Redskins are 5-1 this season with a shot at making the MHSAA playoffs.
Camden, a farming village with 512 residents in the 2010 census, is nestled in a tri-state area just two miles east of the Michigan/Indiana border and 4 miles north of the Michigan/Ohio border. Frontier is a civil township just 11 miles northeast of Camden.
The school sits between the two along a peaceful country road that is void of traffic and other structures. Except on football weekends. This fall, the communities have connected with the football team and its success, even though the 8-player format wasn't embraced at the start, even by many of the players.
“At first, they didn't know how it was going to go,” said Ryan Sigler, athletic director and assistant football coach. “It was brand new to them, but it didn't take very long for them to see what it was going to be like. We did lose maybe six or seven kids who aren't playing and should be playing. They decided it wasn't for them, but I think after seeing how this year went and what's coming in the future, I think they will come back.
“It has been a positive experience, and the morale in the school is higher than it's ever been.”
Making the switch
After the second consecutive winless season in 2015, Camden-Frontier's football coach resigned, and the search was on for a new coach. In the process, switching to 8-player football became a possibility.
“I am a firm believer in JV football, and I want our kids to be able to play JV football,” Sigler said. “With our low numbers – I think we were 22 or 23 in our whole program last year – you're not going to have JV games because you take half of your kids and they go right to varsity.”
When Waldron football coach Mark Long's name popped into the discussion, Sigler and Camden-Frontier Superintendent Scott Riley explored the idea of going to 8-player. Not only did Long have experience and success in 8-player football at Waldron, Sigler and Riley could not get past the failures of the Redskins in the previous two seasons.
“Last year, we scored two touchdowns – one on offense and one on defense,” Sigler said. “The year before, we scored four touchdowns total.
“Scott and I kind of got talking, and we decided that Mark would be the right guy. He came to us in the process and said, 'If I come, I want to go 8-man football.' We kind of talked back and forth, what it would do for the program and how it would help us.”
Long agreed to leave Waldron, his hometown, to pursue a fresh, new challenge at Camden-Frontier.
“I had been coaching at Waldron for about 16 years,” he said. “I coached basketball and football, I was the athletic director, and we were extremely successful in football.
“I had the opportunity to go to Camden-Frontier and coach and take them from 11-man to 8-man, and it was something that I thought would be a good challenge.”
While Long's challenge was on the field, Sigler had to put together a schedule of 8-player teams. It was too late to join the Southern Michigan 8-man Football League, so he ended up with just a seven-game schedule, including a drive of 5 hours, 30 minutes that covered 298 miles to Pellston, which is just south of the Mackinac Bridge.
“We were not able to get into the league schedule, but we will be back in next year,” Sigler said. “We just got in too late, and we didn't want to break any contracts.
“Mark knew a lot of 8-man teams, so we could set our schedule, and we were able to get seven games. I wish we would have gotten at least eight. We're right in the mix for a playoff spot. It could come back to bite us that we only had a seven-game schedule.”
Making the sell
While setting the schedule at late notice was tough, selling 8-player football to a bunch of young men who had played only 11-player football was going to be tougher. Six or seven quit the program, but slowly the others bought into the new format.
“I was set on not playing varsity at all,” sophomore fullback/middle linebacker Cole Mapes said. “I heard that we were going to stay at 11-man for JV, and I didn't care for 8-man.
“Then I started seeing what was going on, and I saw how much dedication that Coach Mark put into it. With 11-man, we had no hope.”
Others slowly but surely accepted the new format. Long said the younger players were more open to the switch than the older players at first.
“A lot of the sophomores started showing up on Day 1 in the weight room and the 7-on-7s in the summer,” he said. “The young kids really bought into it quickly.”
Some of the veteran players, like junior guard/defensive end Austin Zilka, were more apprehensive about the move.
“My initial thought was, 'Why are we changing?'” Zilka said. “I understood that we hadn't had the best record, but I didn't understand why we were changing.
“I never thought about not playing because either way, when you pad up and get hit, it feels the same whether there are eight men on the field or 11 men. It took me about two weeks to get adjusted and (I) realized that I had no choice if I wanted to play football. Now, if I had a choice, I like that we're winning, but I like the teams that we played in 11-man. But I think I'd stick with 8-man.”
With the players buying into the program and the success, Sigler is hopeful players who decided not to play this season will return to the program next season.
“They decided it wasn't for them, but I think after seeing how this year went and what's coming in the future, I think they will come back,” he said.
Early wins – and doubts
Camden-Frontier started the season quickly, but not everybody was impressed. The 86-8 opening-game victory, along with wins by 56-0 and 50-0, left many in the community wondering if it all was simply because of the level of competition.
That question was to be answered in Week 5. On a Saturday – and Homecoming – Camden-Frontier hosted 8-player power Battle Creek St. Phillip, a team that lost in the MHSAA championship game in 2015 and had started its season 4-0.
“I kind of felt uneasy just scheduling them,” Sigler said. “We had a bye week before we played St. Philip, so we prepared for two weeks. We're preaching the whole time that we have to prove that we're the type of football team that we want to be, and it is going to take hard work. We had the best two weeks of practice that we had all year.”
It turned out to be a signature moment of the season. The Redskins shut out St. Philip 22-0, and suddenly that 8-player football team that had beaten four nobodies in the eyes of the community was now the apple of the community's eye.
“It was huge for the community to see that there are other good 8-man football teams and there's going to be a lot tougher competition down the road,” Long said.
And the attitude toward the football team changed.
“We went into that game thinking that they were going to be good, and by all means they were, and it was one of the defining moments that we had as a team,” Zilka said. “And it proved to all the people that said, 'You guys beat a team that isn't very good 86-8, and you're not very good.' It showed that we're here to make a statement.
“They realized that we can play pretty good football and be a good 8-man team, and they kept encouraging us and it helped.”
Expectations from fans also were not negative as they had been in previous years.
“The atmosphere at the football games is a lot better,” sophomore running back/outside linebacker Cale Lehman said. “People expected us to lose, and now it's like they know we have a chance at winning.”
Suddenly, following the Redskins was bordering on an epidemic.
“It was awesome,” Sigler said. “I've noticed a lot more people are staying longer at our games now. You'll have the parents who come out and stay for their kids, but families and others are coming out and staying for the whole game.
“We drove up to Pellston for a game – it was a five and a half hour drive – and we had more people in the stands than they had, and it was Parents' Night. It's been awesome how the parents and community have run with this. We had a full set of stands at Lawrence. People have really bought into this and gotten on board with it.”
Camden-Frontier lost to Lawrence 32-8 in a battle of unbeatens, and the next week was the trek to Pellston. Not many high school teams from small towns get to have a road game that includes an overnight stay.
“We went up Friday after school,” Sigler said. “Our middle school coach runs a logging company, and his logging company donated hotel rooms for us. Tight-knit communities do things for each other.
“We drove up and had the kids bring snacks and food and when we got out there, we grilled outside. It was awesome. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, all that stuff. After that, we went and bowled for two hours, just to get them doing something fun and to relax.”
Then, on Saturday, the Redskins defeated Pellston 58-12.
“It was a team-bonding experience as well as a game,” Zilka said. “We had fun, and then we did what we came up there to do.”
Several parents who made the trip took their sons to see the Mackinac Bridge after the game.
“Some of those kids had never seen the bridge,” Sigler said. “Most of the parents went, and a lot of them surprised the players and took them to the bridge after the game. It was a cool experience.”
One hurdle remains
The season has been a full one. A switch from 11- to 8-player football. A new coach. New opponents on the schedule. A huge Homecoming victory. A 298-mile trip and a visit to the Mackinac Bridge.
What possibly could remain? How about this scenario: Camden-Frontier sits in the No. 16 spot in the points race for the playoffs. Sixteen teams qualify for the 8-player playoffs, and the Redskins need to win and maybe get a little help to secure their first postseason berth since 2000.
Tonight, Camden-Frontier will visit Waldron – yes, the same Waldron that was coached by Long for several years and is his hometown. A better script could not be written for the final game in the regular season with the playoffs on the line.
“I live in Waldron and my daughter goes to Waldron,” Long said. “I coached there and grew up there and played there, so it will be emotional for me and a little tough, but hopefully when the game starts, it will be just another game.”
While Waldron remains home, getting the chance to coach at a new place has been refreshing for Long.
“It has been a rejuvenation,” he said. “It's no different than a job. Once you've been someplace for a certain amount of time, you become complacent. I'm around new kids, but I really still care about the kids I coached at Waldron.”
And he has a great appreciation for the communities of Camden and Frontier and his new team of players.
“For them to come in and buy in – and the community to buy into 8-man football the way that they have – has been a blessing for me,” he said. “They have accepted me from Day One, and I can't say thank you enough.”
With newfound success, don't expect Camden-Frontier to rush back to 11-player football. But Sigler said never say never.
“I think we will stay here for a while, but I wouldn't say that we'll never go back to 11-man again, either,” Sigler said. “But it's not likely anytime soon.”
“The biggest misconception is that a lot of people look down on 8-man football. I didn't know at first if it was right for us, but I'm glad we did it. Obviously."
Chip Mundy served as sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980-86, and then as a reporter and later copy editor at the Jackson Citizen-Patriot from 1986-2011. He also co-authored Michigan Sports Trivia. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Sophomore running back Cale Lehman finds an opening against Elyria Open Door Christian of Ohio. (Middle) Junior running back Hunter Fackler carries the ball as Austin Bennett (14) and Logan Barnes (17) provide blocking. (Photos by Matthew Lounsberry and Andrew King/Hillsdale Daily News.)