Performance: Morrice's Hunter Nowak
November 15, 2018
Hunter Nowak
Morrice senior - Football
Morrice’s third-year varsity quarterback continued the play Friday that has helped his team to the best season in program history. Nowak ran 28 times for 158 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Orioles to a 40-8 win over Colon in an 8-Player Division 1 Semifinal, earning the senior signal-caller the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week.”
Nowak has run 204 times for 1,922 yards (9.4 yards per carry) and 33 touchdowns this season, and completed 24 of 49 passes for 529 yards and eight more scores. His 232 points rank third all-time since MHSAA-sponsored 8-player football was added a decade ago. He took over the QB spot in 2016, and Morrice went 4-5, but the Orioles improved to 9-2 last season and this fall finished the regular season 9-0 for the first time in the program’s 11 or 8-player history. Last week’s Semifinal was the team’s second ever and first since 1996, and this Saturday’s championship game against Pickford at Northern Michigan University’s Superior Dome will be the Orioles’ first trip to the MHSAA Finals in this sport. Along the way, Morrice avenged last season’s playoff loss to North Central Thumb League Red rival Deckerville – which went on to finish 2017 Division 1 runner-up – and handed Wyoming Tri-unity Christian its only defeat this fall in the Regional Final two weeks ago.
Nowak plays only football at Morrice, but does also play on a high school-level rugby club team based in Howell. He carries a 4.0 grade-point average while dually enrolled at Lansing Community College, and hopes to study aviation after high school with aspirations of becoming a commercial airline pilot.
Performance Point: “The defense played great. They played shutout. The defense really won us the game, I think,” Nowak said of the Semifinal win over Colon. “We were able to put up 40 points, but that was a great offense they had. … It’s the first time we ever went to a state final for this, and we’re just really excited about it. We’ve been playing football since third grade, and we’ve always had successful seasons. We always thought that especially our senior year, we always thought, man, we really need to do really good that year. For it to happen, I think it’s great, because we’ve been working hard all year (and) ever since we started playing varsity. We’re thankful to the town for showing up at the games. Everyone comes out. It’s a big deal.”
That’s when we knew: “Our sophomore year, we didn’t do too great. We got four wins as sophomores; we could’ve done better. Last year we were OK – we lost to Deckerville in the second round (38-0). … Our first game (this season), we beat Deckerville (34-14). I think that was big. We went there, we won by 20 points, and that’s when we realized we’re a good team this year – we really have a shot to go far. We had lost the second round of playoffs the year before by a lot there. So to have our first game, since playing there, be right there again, and to be able to win – it put behind all the doubt that we had last year.”
Taking this on together: “I think it’s the combination of a lot of us have been playing since third grade together. And there’s not a whole lot of us, so that bond has just grown through the years. And I think we’re just really good at football, and the whole speed thing really helps too. … I think it’s just knowing what someone else is going to do. If I’m running the ball, I can get a sense of where my lead blockers are going to go, what they’re going to do. We can try to get a sense of what other people are going to do. We can communicate easier. If something happens, we can fix it real quick, because we know how to talk to each other.”
It’s a speed thing: “I think 11-man was more about who’s going to be bigger on the line and then trying to work around that. (Eight-player) is not so much who is bigger on the line, it’s who can get off the line quicker and find the hole faster. We’re not the biggest team, but we’re a very fast team. That definitely helps us out.”
Revved and rallying: “When you’re done with the game and you’re walking back to the stands, there’s a lot of people I’ve never met before. But they’re all congratulating us, and they seem really excited about it. They’re there. They don’t know us personally, but they’re excited for the football team and they want to tell us, ‘Good job.’ There’s a lot of people talking about coming up (for the Final).”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2018-19 school year, Second Half and the Michigan Army National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Past 2018-19 honorees
November 8: Jon Dougherty, Detroit Country Day soccer - Read
November 1: Jordan Stump, Camden-Frontier volleyball - Read
October 25: Danielle Staskowski, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep golf - Read
October 18: Adam Bruce, Gladstone cross country - Read
October 11: Ericka VanderLende, Rockford cross country - Read
October 4: Kobe Clark, Schoolcraft football - Read
September 27: Jonathan Kliewer, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern soccer - Read
September 20: Kiera Lasky, Bronson volleyball - Read
September 13: Judy Rector, Hanover-Horton cross country - Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Morrice quarterback Hunter Nowak (32) pulls away from a Colon defender during last week’s Semifinal win over the Magi. (Middle) Nowak and teammate Sam Koresky celebrate one of his touchdowns. (Photos courtesy of the Lansing State Journal.)
Hastings at Home in Interstate 8, Preparing to Begin Next Title Pursuit
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
August 22, 2025
HASTINGS – Jamie Murphy remembers the decision as relatively simple.
The decision to move to a fourth conference in 29 years was of particular interest to a Saxons football program which had struggled badly during stints in the Ottawa-Kent Conference White and O-K Gold. So Hastings finally pulled the trigger on moving from the O-K Gold to the Interstate 8 Athletics Conference in 2016, and the results have been no less than stunning for the team.
"I encouraged it," said Murphy, the Saxons' coach since 2013. "This conference is more like the Hastings community. There are towns with one high school, one middle school, three or four elementary schools and the schools are all public … . There are similar dynamics with all of them."
While switching conferences naturally effects all of a school's teams, the results are often most judged by what happens under Friday Night Lights. There the decision to move from 21 years in the O-K White and O-K Gold has been like night and day for Saxons teams. Hastings went 16-26 in six years in the O-K White before compiling a 35-59 mark in the O-K Gold. Over two decades in those leagues, Hastings football teams had only six winning seasons and three of them were with 7-2 regular-season records from 2009-2011.
But that's all changed with inclusion in the Interstate 8, which was formed in 2016. The conference includes four old rivals – Coldwater, Battle Creek Harper Creek, Battle Creek Pennfield and Marshall – which were part of the Twin Valley with Hastings from 1977-94. Saxons football teams went 67-58 over 18 years in that conference.
After a slow start in the Interstate 8 which included a 9-19 conference mark from 2016-19, Saxons teams have won 28 of 31 games the last five years. Included are four straight league titles from 2020-2023, with only a 32-0 loss to Battle Creek Harper Creek a year ago keeping Hastings from a fifth championship. That stretch includes one torrid string where Hastings, which opens conference play Sept. 12 against Jackson Northwest, won 21 of 22 league games from Oct.16, 2000, to Oct. 18, 2024.
"Teams are very similar and there are ups and downs with any high school football team," Murphy said. "But we've been competitive in a league which has always been competitive in the state playoffs. How well you do there speaks volumes for how good programs are."
Interstate 8 teams are a respectable 18-18 in the MHSAA Tournament since 2019, including a 6-5 mark from Hastings.
Murphy said one of the most appealing aspects of the conference is a tight relationship between coaches. Virtually all, he said, have similar philosophies which include an emphasis on supporting multi-sport athletes, work in the weight room in March and April, modest summer programs and making the players a priority during the season. Murphy said coaches freely communicate via meetings, texts and emails with each other up to 10 months a year. Contrast that, Murphy said, with the O-K Conference where a select board determines which schools play in what divisions.
"We all want to keep the sport popular and alive," said Murphy, named a national 2025 Semper Fidelis Coach Award winner for his work upholding the U.S. Marines standard of excellence while developing teen leaders.
First-year Hastings athletic director Mike Mohn wasn't a part of Hastings' decision to move to the Interstate 8, but like Murphy he likes the idea of the similarity between schools, including an emphasis – but not overemphasis – on football programs. Athletic departments rely on income derived from football, and Hastings is no exception. Like many Interstate 8 schools, Hastings' home field, Baum Stadium at Johnson Field, can hold between 2,500 and 2,700 fans, with the home side featuring room for up to 1,600. Mohn said a typical Friday night crowd well exceeds 1,000 fans.
"We have like-minded schools in the Interstate 8," he said. "One of our goals is to build relationships, and we've done that. I think our games are well-attended, we can pack our side of the stadium and they can see a good product on the field. Year-in and year-out, we've been competitive and we're proud of that."
There is good reason to believe Hastings will be in the hunt for a fifth conference title in six years. The team returns 17 letterwinners, including six starters on offense and five on defense. The roster could include five sophomores and help from last year's 5-3 junior varsity club. Among the returnees is junior quarterback Mason Tossava, who ran for 300 yards and passed for 500 more as a sophomore. Hastings lost its top running back from its Wing-T offense, but does return 1,000-yard rushers Cardale Winebrenner and Tyler Frazier. Defensively, two all-conference returnees include cornerback Spencer Wilkins and tackle Trapper Reigler.
"Every year our goal is to win the league and make the playoffs," Murphy said. "That's who we are."
PHOTOS (Top) Hastings coach Jamie Murphy takes a moment for a photo during his team’s weight training session earlier this month. (Middle) Cardale Winebrenner (standing) spots for teammate Trapper Reigler; both are captains this fall. (Photos by Steve Vedder.)