Powers North Central Extends Title Legacy
November 18, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
GREENVILLE – Their parents are taking credit for this, and for many reasons, rightfully so.
But the moms and dads who birthed the athletes rolling through Powers North Central’s football and boys basketball programs these last few years never stacked championships like this. For that matter, no class at any Michigan school has accomplished what the Jets seniors added to Friday night.
North Central’s 58-22 win over Deckerville at Legacy Field finished a second straight undefeated 8-player football championship season for the Jets, to go with two straight undefeated Class D championship teams for their boys basketball team – and ignited questions of how a school with only 115 students from a small Upper Peninsula community could come up with such a collection of talent.
Jets assistant coach Gerald Whitens provided his son, star quarterback and hoops guard Jason Whitens, with one explanation.
“Most of our parents went to North Central. It’s coming back around,” Jason Whitens said. “We had a good family group that stayed at Powers North Central, and we just kept filtering through and growing as a group. My dad said he blazed the path for us, and we just made it even bigger. So I have to give him a little credit.”
Added senior running back Bobby Kleiman, whose dad Scott also is a football assistant and played with Gerald Whitens on the school’s 1984 Class D champion basketball team: “(This kind of group) doesn’t come by often, I can tell you that. But we’re blessed to have the kids we have. The timing, everything, it just fell into place. We grew up with each other, we love each other, and it’s just a blessing to have the kids we have.”
That blessing to North Central athletics has been an unmovable obstacle for football opponents the last two seasons.
The Jets finished this run 13-0 to move to 26-0 since switching to 8-player before the start of the 2015 season.
But this most recent win didn’t come as smoothly as the score might indicate – at least during most of one quarter.
The first belonged to North Central, and the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Whitens in particular. In 2015, Kleiman became the first player in the then-five seasons of 8-player football to run for more than 200 yards in an MHSAA Final, finishing with 205. Whitens obliterated that record in the first quarter Friday, running for 231 yards and three touchdowns on only five carries as the Jets opened up a 20-0 lead.
But Deckerville, also undefeated and making its first championship game appearance since winning 8-player in 2012, didn’t fold. In fact, the Eagles (11-1) rode the running of senior tailback Austin Fritch and senior quarterback Brandon Pattullo, who combined for 162 yards rushing and three touchdowns during the second quarter to put the Eagles up suddenly 22-20 with 1:57 to play before the break.
North Central had trailed only once before this season, into the third quarter Week 2 against Crystal Falls Forest Park before coming back to win 60-42.
“We’re not used to other people scoring on us and having close games,” Bobby Kleiman said. “But we played Crystal Falls two weeks ago (a 60-50 Regional Final rematch); they’re an exact replica of this team. We had one of the craziest games ever with them, and they really prepared us for this game.”
Indeed, Whitens scored on a 44-yard run a minute after Deckerville took its lead, and the Jets never trailed again. Kleiman added a 49-yard scoring run less than three minutes into the third quarter, and Whitens added 37 and 2-yard scoring runs and a 71-yard touchdown pass to senior Marcus Krachinski.
Whitens finished with an 8-Player Finals rushing record that may not be broken in some time, 352 yards on only 17 carries (20.7 yards per carry) with six touchdowns. His numbers could’ve been greater, or at least different if for just two plays, both dropped passes that likely would’ve resulted in touchdowns. Still, Whitens completed 6 of his 12 throws for 100 yards despite rain that blew sideways for most of the first three quarters.
Deckerville had given up only 50 points total this season and only 18 during the playoffs despite facing two other undefeated teams.
“We made a nice comeback there, but you’ve still got to keep going, and we weren’t able to make some plays,” Deckerville coach Bill Brown said. “We can’t give up big plays and expect to win. We don’t have a kid like that that can get 80-yard runs every time and score.”
Fritch and Pattullo did both finish with 133 yards rushing, Pattullo on only 12 carries for an average of 11.1 yards per attempt.
Kleiman added 123 yards rushing on 10 carries despite what North Central read as Deckerville aligning to stop him early on. That read led to Whitens’ big first quarter, including a 38-yard run on the first offense play of the game, on the “dart” quarterback keeper play that North Central continued to throw at the Eagles throughout the night.
The addition of Friday’s performance gave Whitens 2,496 yards and 44 touchdowns passing this season, along with 943 yards and 22 touchdowns rushing.
He’s one of 11 seniors who played his last high school football game – and six of those seniors also played in last season’s Class D Basketball Final.
“This is the best class probably ever in the state, to do what they’ve done,” North Central coach Kevin Bellefeuil said. “Two basketball titles, two football titles, and they have to be a favorite to win a third one (in hoops).
“This is a special group of kids. We have the right mix of skill players, offensive linemen, linebackers; we have a little bit of everything.”
And some will take only a short break. Whitens said at first he’d be back to work for basketball Saturday morning. Then he self-corrected – he’ll wait until Monday instead.
“You’re never satisfied with who you were last year, or the day before. You’re always growing to get better each and every day of your life, and that’s how I go about my life,” Whitens said.
“We’ve got our eyes on the ultimate prize. This is our last year, last run at it, and we’re going to enjoy it. … I’m going to get home, join our community, let them bask in the glory with us. And then Monday morning, I’m ready to go.”
The MHSAA Football Finals are sponsored by the Michigan National Guard.
PHOTOS: (Top) Powers North Central quarterback Jason Whitens breaks away for one of his six rushing touchdowns Friday. (Middle) A Deckerville ball carrier works to get free of a North Central defender. (Below) Whitens confers with Jets coach Kevin Bellefeuil. (Photos by John Johnson/MHSAA.)
Vandercook Lake Football Returns, Growing Despite School's Decreased Enrollment
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
September 17, 2024
A few weeks ago, Daniel Midena noticed someone watching his Vandercook Lake football team practice in Jackson.
Upon some quick investigation, he discovered it was a friendly visit.
“I found out it was one of our alumni,” Midena said. “Turns out he just wanted to congratulate our guys on that win. I told our kids, if we do this right, the community is going to support you.”
The Jayhawks had defeated East Jackson 43-28 on Sept. 6 to win their first 11-player varsity football game since 2018.
“I’m just so proud of the kids,” he said. “They put in a lot of hard work. To just experience that win and to know, ‘Yeah, we can do this.’ That was great for the kids. This is what winning feels like. So many people reached out with congratulations – some people that I don’t even know.”
The last winning season for Vandercook Lake was in 2015. It’s been a rocky road since for the football program, which has struggled to field full varsity teams and win games for the last decade. The Jayhawks moved to 8-player football in 2020 in an effort to save the program, but by 2022 the team was down to 10 players or fewer at times. They lost games that fall by scores of 79-0, 58-0, 65-0 and 70-0 before halting the season.
Midena, 32, a physical education and health teacher at Vandercook Lake, has been the architect of the rebuild. A Brooklyn Columbia Central graduate, Midena took over the Vandercook Lake Middle School football program a couple of years ago and saw some success. One of his teams went undefeated.
Once he entered the picture, the team more than doubled its turnout for football, from 11 players in 2022 to 30 players last season. This year he has nearly 40 athletes participating on the varsity and JV.
“We were at rock bottom,” he said. “I said, ‘Let’s see if we can change this. I was able to reach some of the kids in the hallways. We were able to double the numbers. There were a lot of kids who should have been playing. They just expected to lose here and didn’t want to play. I am trying to change that – to get an expect-to-win mentality.”
He’s also teaching the game to some athletes who never had the opportunity to play youth football or learn the game growing up.
“Still today, I’m teaching things I wouldn’t think I would have to,” he said. “From not playing football, some of these just need to be taught the simple rules. Every day we teach the game more than we play it. They must know the game before they can do it. That was a big thing. We’re literally teaching basic rules and schemes.”
Midena has no trouble teaching the rules of the game. He’s officiated basketball, baseball and football for the MHSAA for several years. Last year he was one of the officials for the 11-player Division 4 Final at Ford Field.
“I think that helps big-time with the rule knowledge and teaching the kids,” he said of his referee background.
Most of all, he’s building relationships with a new era of football players at the Jackson County school. When he was asked to take over the program once the school decided to return to 11-player football, he decided to take off his referee hat and pick the coaching whistle. Having coached several of the current varsity players while they were in middle school was an advantage.
“I feel we have done a tremendous amount of growth from last year to this year,” he said. “I had relationships with them; they knew my expectations.
He is now looking to build consistency in the program.
“Most challenging is consistency,” Midena said. “That is our big word. I still fight numbers every day. Monday, we finished the JV game with 11 players, and we won. That is still a problem. The kids have to learn that you have to show up every day for practice. It’s the process over the outcome. You can’t just show up and think we are going to do okay on Friday.
“We’re still trying to drive home to the kids you have to be consistent in everything you do.”
The Jayhawks are focused on building a foundation for football teams of the future. The current team has two seniors, six juniors and more than 30 freshmen and sophomores.
While he hopes there are more wins on this year’s schedule, he is not taking anything for granted.
“We take things on a game-by-game basis,” he said. “Our goal is to go out and compete and see how we are going to do.”
Some players are pulling double duty, participating in cross country or marching band this fall.
“They run in, I give them some details, and they go out and perform in the band. We share athletes in other sports,” he said.
The Vandercook Lake school district is going through a steady decline in enrollment, something Midena says keeps him up at night. In 2008, the high school enrollment was two students shy of 400. This fall, the enrollment is 190.
“I have to keep reaching the kids that we have here,” he said. “I can only concentrate on the kids we have here at the school. That’s what I am going to continue to do – try to get more kids to come out and 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 Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Vandercook Lake’s Leland Barton carries the ball against East Jackson this season. (Middle) Jayhawks coach Daniel Midena, middle, high-fives his players. (Photos by Jeff Steers.)