Snowbirds Soar Again As 8-Player Power
October 4, 2019
By Chris Dobrowolski
Special for Second Half
GAYLORD — After the first three weeks of the football season, it didn’t look like anyone was going to be able to stop Gaylord St. Mary.
The Snowbirds, after all, had scored 215 points over three convincing victories during their first season since making the move to compete as an 8-player team.
But that high-powered, explosive offense was ground to a halt over the last two weeks. It wasn’t because of a sudden lack of execution by St. Mary. Nor was it due to a stout defense rising to the occasion. Rather, it was back-to-back forfeits by opponents who weren’t able to field teams that sidelined the Snowbirds’ dynamic attack with an unwanted midseason break.
“Our kids want to play, but unfortunately it is what it is,” said Gaylord St. Mary head coach Kevin O’Connell. “It stunk for the kids because I know they really wanted to look forward to Friday nights, especially homecoming.”
St. Mary tried to turn the two-week pause into a positive. They hit the reset button and went back to focusing on fundamentals, with short periods of live contact during quick, but effective practices.
“Our practices have been nothing short of awesome,” said O’Connell.
St. Mary will find out this week against Suttons Bay if the time off disrupted its offensive flow. But the players are confident the break was not a hinderance.
“I don’t think it broke our rhythm. I think it brought us closer together,” said quarterback Brady Hunter. “We were able to bang heads with each other, get some frustration out.”
Hunter is one of a multitude of weapons the Snowbirds have in their veer option attack. The senior quarterback is joined by a stable of talented running backs in seniors Steven Koscielniak and Logan Murrell, and juniors Christopher Koscielniak and Dominic Keister. Senior center Rory Curran anchors the offensive line.
“I like this offense,” said Steven Koscielniak. “This is what our team is about, quick and fast.”
While the Snowbirds’ scoreboard numbers are eye-popping, the team’s individual stats are more modest – partly because those main threats didn’t play in second halves of two games St. Mary was thoroughly dominating. Also, there is enough talent on board to share the wealth and not miss a beat.
“It’s everybody. There’s not just one player who runs it. It’s the whole team,” said Steven Koscielniak.
As the quarterback, however, Hunter is thrust into the important role of leading the group, a task he does well. The three-sport standout, who also excels at basketball and baseball, fittingly, has his pilot’s license.
“He’s one of the best leaders,” Steven Koscielniak said. “No doubt about it. He pushes us to the next level. He pushes us in practice, when we’re lifting.”
“He conducts himself the right way in everything,” O’Connell said of his signal caller. “He conducts practices. He speaks respectfully. He’s a great leader.”
Each of St. Mary’s skill players are returning starters, but it’s been a completely different experience this season for the Snowbirds, who were depleted by injuries and suffered through a 2-7 grind a season ago.
“We took our lumps,” said O’Connell, in his seventh year in charge of the Snowbirds. “A lot of that had to do with we were senior-laden the year prior and then a lot of the seniors last year didn’t get quality reps the year prior. High school football is extremely cyclical.”
Still, St. Mary had a good outlook for 2019. It had speed, athleticism, leadership and experience all on its side, plus a better fit as an 8-player team for a school its size.
“We definitely saw it coming,” said Hunter. “Last year we had a little bit of a rough season. Coming into 8-man we had all of our skill players returning. We knew this offensive power was here.”
The offense has been so impressive that it overshadows what the defense can do, but St. Mary is tough on that side of the ball as well. The Snowbirds’ depth allows them to have only a few players who play on both sides of the ball. Kyle Murphy and Chris Grody are disruptive on the defensive line, while Murrell leads the defensive backfield and Christopher Koscielniak – who his coach lauds for his toughness – is an all-state caliber linebacker.
“He’s not physically imposing, but he is so tough,” said O’Connell. “He’s disciplined. He’s good.
“We’re not big in stature. We just have a lot of tough kids.”
The astonishing thing is the Snowbirds have only started to tap their potential on offense. The team hasn’t even utilized some of its capabilities yet.
“We like to spread ourselves so we’re very diverse. If a team comes and stops our run, we’ve got a great spread offense, a great wing set and a lot of stuff we can throw at them,” said Hunter.
The time to introduce some of that could be coming as the schedule ramps up considerably when St. Mary finally steps back onto the field. The matchup at Suttons Bay is a showdown between unbeaten teams and is followed by contests against a pair of current 4-1 teams in Vestaburg and Mio — the latter a rematch from a 48-32 Week 2 game — and 3-2 Brethren.
“It’s definitely going to be fun,” said Hunter. “Those blowout games aren’t really fun for anyone. Suttons Bay’s a great team. Mio, (Vestaburg and Brethren) — they’re all great teams. It’s going to be a good battle towards the end of the season, and it’s really going to prepare us for playoffs.”
Chris Dobrowolski has covered northern Lower Peninsula sports since 1999 at the Ogemaw County Herald, Alpena News, Traverse City Record-Eagle and currently as sports editor at the Antrim Kalkaska Review since 2016. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Gaylord St. Mary’s Logan Murrell (7) follows Steven Koscielniak (1) and another blocker around the edge during a Week 3 win over Central Lake. (Middle) The Snowbirds bring down the Trojans' T.J. Schultz. (Photos by Sports in Motion.)
1st & Goal: 2021 Week 5 Preview
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 24, 2021
The football talk is turning up as we reach the midpoint of the 2021 regular season.
Much of what’s coming to the MHSAA office these days concerns the first-time fully-implemented “enhanced strength-of-schedule” format for selecting this year’s playoff qualifiers. So as we prepare to look at some of the games that will shape the field, here’s a quick review of the process that eventually will get us to 256 teams for 11-player and 32 teams in the 8-player brackets.
Let’s start with 11-player and start with the most fundamental change. Teams no longer make the playoffs by winning a certain number of games. Six-wins-and-in is out. Just like for 8-player, the field will be selected solely based on playoff-point average accrued as a combination of success and opponents’ strength of schedule.
The calculation of playoff-point average actually changed last year – but because nearly every team made the postseason due to a temporary COVID-19 restructuring, the new math mostly went unnoticed. Simply put, the newer formula is designed to reward a team for scheduling strong opponents by giving it bonuses based on opponents’ successes throughout the season – no matter if that team won or lost when it played those opponents. Those bonuses also are assigned differently, with points awarded by Division instead of the former “Class” of an opponent. Click here for a further breakdown of the differences between old and new formats.
One more important thing to note: Playoff divisions for 11 and 8-player are determined before the season instead of after Week 9. So teams know every possible opponent long before the playoffs start and can follow their progress toward making the field every week on the MHSAA Website.
MHSAA.tv will carry more than 160 games live this weekend, with Bally Sports Detroit broadcasting Friday's DeWitt/Grand Ledge matchup on its PLUS cable channel and State Champs! Sports Network streaming games both Saturday (Paw Paw at South Lyon East) and Sunday (Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice at Detroit Catholic Central). See the full schedule from the MHSAA Score Center and see below for glances at some of the games that could impact league and playoff races the rest of the regular season. (Games are Friday unless noted.)
Bay & Thumb
Freeland (4-0) at Frankenmuth (4-0)
The Eagles have not lost a league game since Week 4 of 2014, a stretch of 42 consecutive conference wins including the first three of this fall’s Tri-Valley Conference East slate. Freeland could provide the greatest threat yet to that run. While Frankenmuth won last year’s matchup 41-3 in the delayed regular-season opener, the Falcons went on to make the Division 5 Semifinals as the Eagles advanced to the title game at Ford Field. (Freeland and Frankenmuth lost to eventual champion Grand Rapids Catholic Central in successive weeks.) That success has carried over for both. Freeland opened this season downing reigning Jack Pine Conference champion Clare, and last week’s 43-13 victory over Essexville Garber was similarly notable. The Eagles, meanwhile, are the only team to defeat Goodrich so far.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Midland Dow (2-2) at Bay City Western (4-0), Millington (4-0) at Carrollton (3-1), Richmond (3-1) at Croswell-Lexington (3-1), Mount Pleasant (4-0) at Midland (2-2), Harrison Township L'Anse Creuse (3-1) at Port Huron (3-1).
Greater Detroit
Warren De La Salle Collegiate (3-0) at Orchard Lake St. Mary's (4-0)
The way Detroit Catholic League Central teams have begun this season, it will be hard to not pick one of that league’s matchups as the Detroit area’s premier game over the next few weeks. This one gets the nod over Sunday’s Detroit Catholic Central/Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice showdown in part because De La Salle is coming off a 21-16 win over the Warriors and already has an important edge in the standings. But also making this intriguing is the bounce-back success of St. Mary’s, which finished 2-4 a year ago but has opened with a series of nice wins including over Hudsonville and Harper Woods.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Brownstown Woodhaven (4-0) at Allen Park (4-0), Belleville (3-1) at Dearborn Fordson (4-0), Clinton Township Chippewa Valley (3-1) at Romeo (4-0), South Lyon (4-0) at White Lake Lakeland (4-0).
Mid-Michigan
Jackson Lumen Christi (4-0) at Hastings (4-0)
The Saxons were among the best stories of the 2020 season, as they broke a string of seven straight sub-.500 finishes to win a share of the Interstate 8 Athletic Conference title. Hastings actually lost last year’s opener to Parma Western, but started its turnaround the next week by downing the Titans 14-13. The Saxons are up to nine straight regular-season wins, but get a Lumen Christi team this time that has an opening win over reigning Division 7 champion New Lothrop to its credit after putting everything back together to finish last fall with a Regional Finals run.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Evart (4-0) at Beal City (3-1), Grand Ledge (4-0) at DeWitt (3-1), Montrose (3-1) at New Lothrop (3-1), Fowler (2-2) at Pewamo-Westphalia (4-0).
Northern Lower Peninsula
Boyne City (4-0) at Traverse City St. Francis (4-0), Saturday
This means little in the short run as these two play in different divisions of the Northern Michigan Football Conference, but could say a lot if they continue on to win league championships and make playoff noise. They’ve long been rivals, playing together in multiple conferences including the NMFC’s Legends division through 2019, and they represent some of the best this region has to offer with Boyne City ranked No. 5 in Division 6 by playoff-point average and St. Francis No. 4 in Division 7. Boyne City is giving up only six points per contest and will try to match a Gladiators offense averaging 50 points and coming off two straight games scoring 63.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Grayling (3-1) at Kingsley (4-0), Traverse City Central (3-1) at Petoskey (3-1), Maple City Glen Lake (1-3) at Charlevoix (3-1), East Jordan (3-1) at Oscoda (2-2).
Southeast & Border
Riverview (4-0) at Monroe St. Mary's Catholic Central (4-0)
Monroe St. Mary and Milan often are the talk of the Huron League, but Riverview is looking again like possibly the team to beat after winning last season’s league title and opening this fall’s conference schedule by outscoring three opponents by a combined 116-17. The Pirates have won 11 straight league games going back to mid-2019, including 35-7 over St. Mary in last year’s opener. But the Falcons are surging as well and already have overcome a major league obstacle, defeating Milan last week 21-15.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Petersburg Summerfield (3-1) at Adrian Madison (2-2), Napoleon (3-1) at Hanover-Horton (2-2), Hudson (4-0) at Ida (3-1), Sand Creek (3-1) at Ottawa Lake Whiteford (3-1).
Southwest Corridor
Edwardsburg (4-0) at Plainwell (4-0)
It’s impossible to not marvel a bit at Edwardsburg’s work again this season. The Eddies have outscored their four opponents by a combined 203-7, and those four opponents are a combined 11-1 not counting their Edwardsburg defeats. Enter Plainwell, potentially headed toward an 11th-straight .500 or better season, riding its best start since 2013 and boasting a defense giving up just under nine points per game. The challenge is mighty, of course, but the Trojans can’t be overlooked.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Watervliet (4-0) at Berrien Springs (4-0), Constantine (4-0) at Parchment (3-1), Niles (3-1) at Vicksburg (3-1), Centreville (3-1) at White Pigeon (4-0).
Upper Peninsula
Hancock (2-2) at Houghton (3-1)
Go back probably to 2013 – when Houghton need to defeat Hancock in Week 9 to make the playoffs – for the last time this rivalry carried so many additional implications. Houghton is off to its best start since 2016 and would be part of the Division 6 playoff field if the season ended today, while Hancock can eclipse last season’s win total with another one tonight and could make up some ground in the Division 5 playoff race.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Iron Mountain (2-2) at Bark River-Harris (3-1), Marquette (3-1) at Gladstone (2-2), Manistique (2-2) at Ishpeming Westwood (3-1), Kingsford (3-1) at Escanaba (1-3).
West Michigan
Hudsonville (2-2) at Rockford (4-0)
The Eagles’ record requires the context of their losses being to Saline and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s – which are a combined 8-0 – and by just a combined six points. Hudsonville edged Jenison by just a point last week and make any feelings of early disappointment all but disappear with a similar result against the Rams. The Ottawa-Kent Conference Red powers missed their regular-season game against each other last season, but Rockford won their playoff matchup to run their streak in the rivalry to six.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Reed City (3-1) at Big Rapids (3-1), Grand Haven (3-1) at Caledonia (4-0), Byron Center (4-0) at Grand Rapids Northview (3-1), Muskegon Mona Shores (3-1) at Zeeland East (3-1).
8-Player
Adrian Lenawee Christian (4-0) at Colon (4-0)
This is another strong candidate for 8-player regular-season game of the year, combining storylines and successes. Colon will attempt to hand Lenawee Christian its first defeat in two seasons of 8-player football and was the only team to come close to slowing the Division 1 champion Cougars last season – Lenawee Christian won their matchup 24-6, but scored 47 or more points against their other 10 opponents and are up over 61 points per game this fall. The Magi – Division 1 champs two seasons ago – enter this meeting having posted two straight shutouts and averaging nearly 53 points per contest. But the Cougars aren’t just tough to stop; they also are giving up just under seven points per game.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Crystal Falls Forest Park (4-0) at Norway (3-1), Newberry (301) at Rudyard (4-0), Genesee (3-1) at Burton Atherton (3-1). SATURDAY Suttons Bay (4-0) at Munising (3-1).
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PHOTO: Alma defenders begin to collapse the pocked during Freeland’s Week 2 win over the Panthers. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)