Scheduling Controversy
November 14, 2017
A dozen years ago, I asked our counterpart organizations in other states if they scheduled their schools’ regular-season varsity football games. Very few did so.
More recently, I’ve realized that I didn’t ask enough questions. It turns out that few statewide high school associations tell schools who they play each week of the regular season. However, many more give schools the group of opponents they may schedule. They place schools in leagues and/or districts and/or regions and instruct schools to schedule from among those schools only or predominantly.
I have been waiting for the tipping point where a sufficient number of high schools in Michigan are sufficiently stressed over scheduling football games that they would turn to the MHSAA to solve the problem.
I’m anticipating this might occur first among schools playing 8-player football, and that success there will lead to our assistance for 11-player schools.
One approach – the simpler solution – would work like this:
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All 8-player schools within the enrollment limit for the 8-player tournament would be placed in two divisions on the basis of enrollment in early March. About 32 schools in each, based on current participation.
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At the same time, each division would be divided into four regions of about eight schools.
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In April, the schools of each region would convene to schedule seven regular season games for each school.
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Based on current numbers, schools would still have two open weeks to fill, if they wish, for games with schools in other regions or of the other division or in neighboring states.
A second option – the date-specific solution – would provide every school its weekly schedule for all nine dates, or weeks 1 through 8, or weeks 2 through 8, depending on local preferences. This would not be difficult in concept once there is agreement on what criteria would be used and what value each criterion would have.
For example, one important criterion would be similarity of enrollment; another of great value would be proximity. Perhaps league affiliation would be a factor with some value. Perhaps historic rivalries would be another factor with a value. Then the computer spits out schedules for each school for every week for two years, home and away.
I don’t campaign for this task because, frankly, it will produce complaints and controversy. But if this organization exists to serve, then this is a service that today’s chronic complaints tell us we should begin to provide soon.
I suggest we do this for 8-player football for the 2019 and 2020 seasons (with a paper trial run for 2018). If it proves successful, we could expand the service to 11-player schools as soon after as they are satisfied with our efforts for 8-player schools.
Capac Ends 14-Year Postseason Drought, Eager to Begin 8-Player Playoff Run
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
October 29, 2025
Not having the option to qualify for the 8-player postseason wasn’t something the Capac football concerned itself with the past three seasons.
Enrollment was too high at the school to be included in the MHSAA playoff field, and while the 2024 team most certainly would have made it, co-coach Troy Schneider said that since there was nothing that could be done about it, the players weren’t really concerned with it.
But this year, with the opportunity finally there, it lit a fire under the Chiefs.
“It was very motivating for us,” Capac senior quarterback Brody Tesnow said. “All summer, we had decent numbers show up to workouts. Our senior group was really pushing everyone. Our coaches have been on us all year, telling us this is our year that we can do this. I mean, really, we had a decent season last year, and I just feel like that pushed me more to come back this year and be even better.”
Capac is back in the playoffs for the first time since 2011, and at 7-2 is coming off its best regular season since 2001.
That year, the Chiefs advanced to the Division 5 Semifinals. This year’s run will start Friday night with a matchup at Brown City in 8-Player Division 1. A win would be the program’s first in the postseason since 2009.
“I’d love that,” Tesnow said. “That would be a great feeling for us, all the seniors. I remember that win over Deckerville (in Week 8), that was a surreal feeling. I could only imagine what a playoff win would feel like, especially after 14 years of not being in the playoffs.”
It’s been a long road for Capac, which has now had its first back-to-back winning seasons since running off four straight from 2008-11.
Enrollment at the school was near its height back then, peaking at 613 in 2008 before starting a steady decline. It first dipped below 400 in 2015, and by 2020 it was under 300.
That, naturally, led to a decline in football participation as well, and the team was unable to complete the 2020 season, a year where nearly everyone was granted access to the postseason because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After a 1-8 run in 2021, with a total school enrollment of 211, Capac made the decision to switch from 11-player to 8-player. In each of its first three seasons under the new format, Capac was over the 215-student limit for competing in the postseason. This year, the school is at 203.
“I didn’t have any decision in that, but our numbers had dropped steadily for a number of years in the school,” said Schneider, who had coached at Capac in 2000s, and took over as varsity coach with Bill Nestle in 2024. “When we came out of the (Blue Water Area Conference), we were a small school, and we were getting pretty well destroyed. Once we moved into the other conference (Greater Thumb), we were with Ubly and Harbor Beach, and I wasn’t coaching at the time, but those are some really good teams, too. There were quite a few people who did not want to make a move to 8-man, but the writing was on the wall with the numbers at the school and the numbers in the football program. It’s been a good move for us. Obviously, a lot of schools have gone to that in the last five years.”
When the program moved to 8-player in 2022, the current senior class was entering high school. Schneider and Nestle had been coaching that group in middle school, and it had shown quite a bit of promise.
There are currently 15 seniors on the varsity team, and while there are only 18 players total on the roster, the junior varsity and middle school programs are thriving, which has people in the high school program optimistic about a future that was pretty uncertain not long ago.
“We’ve got some potential coming up – things are looking pretty good,” Schneider said. “The junior group is small, so they’re going to have small numbers next year as seniors, but the three juniors we have are starters. The next three to four years, it should stay steady and we should be solid.”
But there’s still plenty of work to be done this year, and Capac is confident heading into the postseason despite the fact it lost to Brown City 61-22 in Week 3.
Much of that confidence comes from that Week 8 win against 2024 8-Player Division 1 champion Deckerville. The 28-20 triumph ended Deckerville’s 20-game win streak, as it had not lost since the 2023 Semifinals. It was the first regular-season loss for the Eagles since Sept. 29, 2023.
“Starting the season we went kind of slow, but beating Deckerville told us that we were on that top tier,” senior defensive end and tight end Wiley Roose said. “I mean, after that game, it was crazy. To me, it was definitely the highlight of my sports career in high school. The whole team really came around.”
Beating Deckerville is an accomplishment in its own right, but the fact the Eagles had this season defeated Brown City and Kingston – which delivered Capac’s two losses – was another boost of confidence for the Chiefs, who are ready to show how far they’ve come this fall.
“We watched some film from the game (against Brown City) earlier in the season, and we were just comparing what we were then to how we are now,” Tesnow said. “It’s a huge difference. I’m pumped. We’re proving everyone wrong, and I love that feeling of being the underdog and surprising people.”
Tesnow and his teammates are hoping to continue doing that, but what they’ve done already to get the Capac program back on the right track is a massive accomplishment in itself.
“Coach Nestle and I care about all our players, but seeing these kids develop for five years, go through school, go through some of the losing seasons early in middle school then slowly build and get better – I can think of a number of kids and how they improved with being more aggressive, being tougher and taking the next step,” Schneider said. “It’s really nice to see the kids develop through the program. It’s been sweet. It’s that much better because it’s a great group of kids. They’re wonderful.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Capac huddles up during the closing minutes of its Week 8 win over Deckerville. (Middle) Sam Schneider (22) carries the ball and follows his Chiefs blockers as they attempt to create an opening against the Eagles. (Photos courtesy of the Capac football program.)