Seeing is Believing as Confident Britton Deerfield Playing for Finals Trip
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
November 12, 2024
A little confidence can go a long way. A lot of confidence could get you to the state championship game.
Britton Deerfield is enjoying a remarkable turnaround season this year and will host Morrice for an 8-Player Division 2 Semifinal on Saturday.
Last year at this time, head coach Erik Johnson was shaking off the pain of a 2-7 season.
“It’s a great story,” Johnson said. “You go 2-7 and, really, last year, the last five weeks of the year we weren’t even in the game. We were getting blown out by halftime in most of those games.
“For those kids to have the resolve and come back and have the kind of success they are having this year is just great to see.”
Britton Deerfield is in its fourth season of 8-player football and having its best season yet. The Patriots have won nine straight games heading into Saturday’s Semifinal against Morrice and have set a school record for points scored in a season. Over the last six weeks, they are averaging 60.3 points per game and set the school’s single-game scoring record.
Senior Luke Wiser said the difference from last season is the team’s confidence.
“It’s all in the mindset,” Wiser said. “Last year we didn’t have the great confidence we have now.”
BD struggled early this season until that confidence kicked in. The Patriots defeated Pittsford in Week 1 but gave up 58 points. They lost in Week 2 to Mendon, giving up 66 points.
Johnson went to the defensive drawing board and challenged his players to get better.
“We talked a lot about the mental aspect of tackling,” he said. “They’ve been tackling since middle school. They’ve been through every tackling drill you can do. Now, it’s about the mental part of football, wrapping up and making the play.”
Over the next two weeks BD held Colon and Concord to one touchdown each.
The new Patriots offense started to soar as well. Johnson had favored a spread offense with a lot of jet sweeps and the quarterback alternating running and throwing the ball. In the offseason, he made a change.
“I knew we were going to have a stable of kids who could run the ball and a couple of different kids who could throw the ball, so I started to think of how I could maximize their efforts,” he said. “We went to more of a single wing offense. I watched a video series about the single wing and worked on ways to adjust that to make it work for our 8-man game.”
The single wing look requires the center to snap the ball to one of three backs and none playing the traditional role of quarterback. The results have been great.
The Patriots have rushed for 68 touchdowns this season and average 7.9 yards a carry. Wiser has rushed for 1,549 yards and scored 27 touchdowns. Caden Freeman has rushed for 806 yards, Caden Kubacki 666 and Cayden Allshouse 569.
Wiser credits the BD offensive line.
“It’s almost like I’m not running,” he said. “I follow my blocks and break off a run, but I think they really do an outstanding job, and our offense moves through them.”
Johnson said as the linemen settled in this season, they started to come to him to suggest different things.
“You know things are going well when the kids see something on the field and come talk to the coaches about it,” he said. “I’ll just say, ‘Yeah, let’s give that a try.’”
On defense, seniors Hunter Kniffin and Jayden Brooks lead the Patriots in tackles. Junior Liem Roe has eight interceptions.
In the first round of the playoffs, BD knocked out Adrian Lenawee Christian, which had won three Finals championships over the last four years. That, in itself, turned some heads.
“To beat LCS was huge for our confidence,” Johnson said. “We have been able to beat some teams that have had our number. LCS had handled us in every game we have had with them until this year.”
BD has eight seniors who have stepped into leadership roles. Juniors who played a lot as sophomores are contributing too.
“We had some younger guys in the backfield last year, but those guys have all grown up,” Johnson said. “The seniors have done an outstanding job of being there, ever since summer. When all of your seniors are there, that feeds down through the program. Other kids see that.”
Johnson said four years ago he couldn’t have predicted the current group of seniors would be where they are today.
“Some of those kids didn’t even play when they were a freshman,” he recalled. “It’s been a pleasant surprise to watch that group mature, and to see them now have success is awesome.”
The Patriots captured the first Regional championship for the program since Britton and Deerfield combined to form one high school in 2010.
From 1993 to 2010, the two schools played a cooperative football program and reached the 11-Player Semifinals in 1999 and 2000. A photo hangs in the school showing a huge crowd ringing the field during the playoff runs those seasons.
The team plays in a new stadium, just a few hundred yards from the old stadium, which is now the practice field.
“The crowd was great,” Johnson said of the Regional championship win over Pittsford. “They were into it. They stayed until after the trophy presentation and celebrated. It was great.”
If Britton Deerfield wants to get to the Division 2 championship game Nov. 23 in Marquette, the Patriots will need that crowd and confidence when they face the 10-1 Orioles this weekend.
“Our kids are really confident,” Johnson said. “That’s a good thing. You get that feeling like you can’t be stopped, and you can win every game you play. That’s good to have.”
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) Britton Deerfield’s Caden Kubacki, with the ball, stretches forward for extra yardage against Adrian Lenawee Christian. (Middle) Luke Wiser (4) takes on a Pittsford tackler. (Top photo by Deloris Clark-Cheaney. Wiser photo by John Discher.)
Moment: The Final Thrill
December 16, 2020
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
Over the course of nearly 34 years on this job, you often get asked what single championship game you would rank at the top of your list. You could ask that question to 100 people and get 100 answers – and guess what? They’d all be right. Such is the beauty of high school sports.
Which is why, after all these years, my game for the ages is one that has stood the test of time in my mind for over 30 years. It had everything you would want in a high school game – fantastic competition – great plays – and when it was over, some of the best sportsmanship I’ve ever seen – NO – make that THE best sportsmanship I’ve ever seen. To be on the field, you’d have a hard time telling who won and who lost by the way the players from both teams hugged and shook hands and sincerely congratulated each other. Which is how it should be after every – single – game.
And what topped it all off after that was the winning team making a trip to a pep assembly at the other team’s gym the following week to thank them for a great game, and present a banner signed by every member of the team.
That game was the 1989 Class B Football Playoff Final. The last year that four divisions were conducted in that postseason tournament. The last game played in that format.
Farmington Hills Harrison and DeWitt. The powerful, dominant Hawks and even legendary at that time coach John Herrington – and the All-America quarterback in Mill “The Thrill” Coleman; against the pride of the Ingham County League, the Panthers of DeWitt, from what was an old farming bedroom community north of Lansing transforming into a new money suburb of the Capitol City.
The Hawks, the reigning Class B champs after winning the third of their state-record 13 titles against St. Joseph the previous November, were heavy favorites. DeWitt was making its fourth Playoff appearance and moving up in class after reaching the Semifinals in 1988, only to lose to powerhouse Detroit St. Martin dePorres.
The underdogs used an efficient running attack to take a 21-14 halftime lead on Harrison. John Telford, who rushed for 153 yards in the game, had two of the scores. Harrison tied the game early in the final period on the first of two scoring runs by Coleman, this one from 19 yards out.
DeWitt then put together a grinding drive, culminated by quarterback Chris Berkimer sneaking it from one yard out. Harrison blocked the extra point and DeWitt led 27-21 with 2:20 on the clock.
That left way too much time for Coleman. He engineered a 67-yard, five-play drive to tie the game. It didn’t even take a minute off the clock.
“When they scored I looked at the clock and knew we had enough time and all three of our time outs,” Coleman told the Detroit Free Press after the game. “I kept thinking back to that drive John Elway had against the Browns a couple of years ago in the playoffs when he had to go 98 yards.”
Three straight passes to Mike Saputo, Steve Hill and Greg Piscopink got Harrison down to the DeWitt 16; and Coleman then rolled out on a Student Body Right for another seven yards.
At the DeWitt 9, Coleman dropped back for what appeared to be another pass, but the Panthers' pressure forced The Thrill to run. Coleman eluded five tacklers along the way, finally diving into the end zone to score.
“We knew he (Coleman) was good, and we just tried to contain him,” DeWitt coach Gail Thornton told the Lansing State Journal after the game. “But every once in a while he would get loose for a big one.”
Steve Hill kicked the extra point and Harrison was back in the lead, 28-27. Hill would then intercept Berkimer on DeWitt’s first play after the ensuing kickoff to seal the deal.
PHOTO: Farmington Hills Harrison's Mill Coleman rolls left at the start of what would be the game-winning run for his team in the 1989 Class B Football Final. (Photo by Gary Shook).