Performance: Muskegon's La'Darius Jefferson
November 29, 2017
La’Darius Jefferson
Muskegon senior – Football
Muskegon’s 6-foot-2, 215-pound quarterback ran 32 times for 247 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Big Reds to a 28-10 win over Farmington Hills Harrison in Saturday’s Division 3 Final, earning Jefferson the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week.” The championship was Muskegon’s first since 2008 and came after the Big Reds fell by a point to Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in the 2016 championship game – when the Eaglets scored with four seconds to play.
Jefferson, who also celebrated his 18th birthday Saturday, finished this season with 2,097 yards and 33 touchdowns rushing and 1,205 yards and 21 touchdowns passing. His rushing touchdown total will make the MHSAA record book, and his performance Saturday earned four entries for accomplishments in a championship game. After splitting time at quarterback as a junior – and running for two touchdowns in the 2016 Final – Jefferson led arguably the best team in the state, regardless of division. The Big Reds scored 722 points, which rank third-most in state history, averaging 51.2 per game, which ranks 10th. Their average margin of victory was 45 points, and they outscored their five playoff opponents by a combined 221-36.
Individual awards are piling up for Jefferson, who was named Division 3-4 Player of the Year by The Associated Press and statewide Michigan High School Football Player of the Year by MLive. He previously had committed to continue his football and academic careers at University of Central Florida, but has re-opened his recruiting with Michigan State and Georgia Tech among those recruiting him hardest. Jefferson, who also ran track last spring, has big plans aside from football; he carries a 3.4 cumulative grade-point average and is a member of National Honor Society, and he plans to study aerospace engineering wherever he ends up.
Coach Shane Fairfield said: “He is just a selfless kid that loves to win, that loves family. He’s driven by the relationships in his home. And he loves his teammates. And he was more vocal and determined this week to get this win, because his biggest thing is he wants all the kids who aren’t going to have the chance to experience what he’s going to experience after he graduates to have some type of experience that they can say either, ‘Hey, I played with La’Darius’ or ‘I won a state championship when I was in high school.’ And that’s it – he’s very aware of how lucky and fortunate he is to be in the position he is, and he just wants to share that with all of his teammates.”
Performance Point: “It’s amazing. It’s something people dream of,” Jefferson said. “People dream about scoring the last touchdown in their backyard, making the final hoop. It’s a blessing. I’m trying to hold my tears in. We worked so hard to get here. We’ve been gassed and pounded. It’s so special. … This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me besides my family.”
Team of destiny: “It’s something these boys have been dreaming about. I kid you not; I told Eli Jackson, 44, our eighth grade year that we were going to win it. I mean, we’re here.”
Motivated Muskegon: “We had a chip on our shoulder until (the clock) was zero-zero. We weren’t done. We had a chip on our shoulder all year. Everybody we played, we said we’re going to punish. … Everybody doubted us. Everybody said we lost Kalil Pimpleton, one of the best players in the state (who played this fall at Virginia Tech). We lost JaCorey Sullivan (Central Michigan) … Andrew Ward (Nebraska), one of the best defensive players in the state last year. We lost them big boys up front. So we overcame.”
Checkmate: “I’ve been more humble (this season). I enjoy the moment. I feel like last year it was an amp moment; I wasn’t feeling it. I told myself, it’s all I’ve got. It’s my last job. I go through every day and I do a checklist. As a kid I dreamed about winning player of the year and breaking records and doing all this, and I did all that. The final checklist was win a state championship, and I can go home and check that off.”
Soaring on and off the field: “I know I want to be a successful young man beyond football. I want to go to college and study aerospace engineering, get my degree and help provide for my family. I’ve got goals beyond football. I thought as a kid that football was the only thing that I had, (but) I can do without football. I’m a great student. I work hard; I work my butt off in the classroom. I want to build planes. Who don’t want to build planes? Who don’t want to be like, ‘Oh, La’Darius built this big machine that’s flying?’ It’s cool; it’s unique.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2017-18 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.
Previous 2017-18 honorees:
November 23: Ashley Turak, Farmington Hills Harrison swimming - Read
November 16: Bryce Veasley, West Bloomfield football - Read
November 9: Jose Penaloza, Holland soccer - Read
November 2: Karenna Duffey, Macomb L'Anse Creuse North cross country - Read
October 26: Anika Dy, Traverse City Central golf - Read
October 19: Andrew Zhang, Bloomfield Hills tennis - Read
October 12: Nolan Fugate, Grand Rapids Catholic Central football - Read
October 5: Marissa Ackerman, Munising tennis - Read
September 28: Minh Le, Portage Central soccer - Read
September 21: Olivia Theis, Lansing Catholic cross country - Read
September 14: Maddy Chinn, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep volleyball - Read
PHOTOS: (Top) La'Darius Jefferson crosses into the end zone for one of his four touchdowns during the Division 3 Final on Saturday at Ford Field. (Middle) Jefferson breaks into an opening while Harrison defenders pursue.
Sand Creek's Muck Making His Move
August 16, 2018
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
SAND CREEK – Alec Muck doesn’t take for granted that he’s one of the fastest athletes in the state.
It just makes him want to become faster.
“I’ve always had speed,” said the Sand Creek senior. “I guess you could say I was blessed with speed. But I train hard, too. I do a lot of stuff on my own, I work with a personal trainer and I lift. It motivates me.”
Muck is a five-time MHSAA Finals track champion and has rushed for more than 2,600 career yards for the Aggies’ varsity football team. As he prepares for his senior season on the football field, he said he’s healthy and ready to go out a winner.
“I just want to go out and play hard and give it my all,” he said. “I’m going to do whatever it takes for my team. High school football is so different than anything else. I want to leave it all out there.”
Muck has a future as a college athlete. He’s just not sure in which sport. This summer, he went on a multi-state, multi-campus recruiting tour during which he blazed to a 4.3-second 40-yard time in Columbus, Ohio.
“That definitely caught the attention of a few coaches,” he said. “I kept my time around that 4.3 all summer.”
Other stops on the tour included Louisville, Cincinnati, Findlay and Western Michigan University. The 5-foot-10, 175-pound speedster doesn’t have any formal offers to play college football, but he expects that to change this season.
“I have a passion for both track and football,” he said. “But, I love the grind of football and everything about the game. If I could choose, I’d probably say football. I’ve always wanted to play at the Division I level.”
Muck was part of the Sand Creek varsity football team as a freshman. He blossomed into a weapon as a sophomore. In the third game that season, against Whitmore Lake, he carried the ball 11 times for 277 yards and five touchdowns. It remains his most productive game of his career. In all seven Tri-County Conference games that year, he rushed for at least 100 yards. He went on to rush for 1,505 yards as a sophomore, racking up nearly 2,000 all-purpose yards and 26 touchdowns.
His junior season saw a slight dip in his carries, but he still averaged more than seven yards per rush and came up two yards short of 1,000. He started the season spending some time at quarterback. That experiment ended early in the season, however, and he expects to line up at several different spots on the field this year – but not quarterback.
“I like running back,” he said. “That’s where I’ve played since my Pop Warner days. I like to run and see the whole field. Running with the football is way different than running the track. You have to know when to go only 50 percent, so you know where to make your cut, then explode. You have to have more lateral movement.”
Sand Creek coach Scott Gallagher said the Aggies need to find more and creative ways to get Muck the football.
“He’s explosive,” said Gallagher, in his second season leading the program. “We have to put him in different positions and get him the football in a lot of different ways. He’s had the best camp he’s had since I’ve coached him.”
Muck causes headaches for opposing coaches. He is a threat to score every time he touches the ball.
“Obviously Alec has tremendous speed; however, his ability to take over and change a game is underrated,” said Ottawa Lake Whiteford coach Jason Mensing. “His imprint on the TCC will be lasting.”
Gallagher said Muck sets high expectations for himself.
“He’s hard on himself,” Gallagher said. “He is very driven to be successful, and he wants to that success to rub off on his teammates.”
Muck’s training has involved a lot of speed drills – often on his own. His weightlifting is for strength and maintaining speed, not bulking up.
“My normal warm-ups are low sprints, not long-distance running,” he said. “When I run the short sprints, I set a goal for each sprint and try and beat that time. I run for time.”
Prior to the Regional track meet this spring, Muck injured his hamstring. He took a week off running before the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals, but the break didn’t slow him as he won both the 100 and 200 dashes. He won the same events as a sophomore and won the 200 as a freshman. His championship winning times this spring were 10.98 seconds in the 100 and 22.02 in the 200.
“I was really careful warming up at the state meet and, in the preliminaries, I ran easy, just so I could get to the final,” he said. “Once I got there, I knew I could do it.”
Throughout a summer of football camps and 7-on-7s, Muck also attended physical therapy for the hamstring. He said he’s now at 100 percent and ready to start football – and go out with a bang.
“This is the most dedicated the team has been since I’ve been playing,” he said. “The offseason training, the commitment to the weight room, it’s all there. I’m just ready to go out there and lead by example. It’s time to play football.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTO: Sand Creek running back Alec Muck is a five-time MHSAA Finals track champion with more than 2,600 career rushing yards. He's healthy and ready for a breakout senior year of football. (Photo by Mike Dickie.)