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St Phil Football Thrives with 8 on Field

By Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com

August 22, 2016

BATTLE CREEK — Five years ago, the future of football at Battle Creek St. Philip looked rather bleak.

The Fighting Tigers had won just three games over the previous two years, and numbers continued to dwindle.

“Our last year of 11-man, I think we had 18 boys out for football,” said Dave Downey, who has coached at St. Phil for more than 20 years. “We were not competitive playing 11-man.

“The kids just weren’t coming out because it wasn’t fun. We were getting beat all the time.”

The school decided to go to 8-player football, and the program has thrived.

Last season, the school’s fourth playing 8-player, St. Phil finished 12-1, losing only 58-33 in the MHSAA 8-player Final to Powers North Central.

“After we went to 8-man (five years ago), we had 28 on the roster,” Downey said. “The program really grew because we went to 8-man. It actually saved the program.”

The transition was not without a few fumbles.

“We didn’t know what we were in for,” Downey said. “That first year we struggled a little bit. We ended the season 7-4, but we learned a lot.

“It was an eye-opener for us. We didn’t know what to expect.”

Although the length of the field for 8-player is still 100 yards, the width is five yards fewer on each side.

That first season, Downey said he had confidence his 8-player team could play on an 11-man regulation field – but soon found out why the field is not as wide.

“Our first year, we didn’t move the markers in and we couldn’t cover the field, especially anyone with speed who would get on the outside and go,” he said.

“Our first game, we lost bad because we thought we could play on a big field, which we couldn’t.”

This year’s nine seniors have played 8-player all four years, but it gets even better than that for St. Phil.

“They’ve actually played 10 playoff games already (over four years), so they’ve already played (the equivalent of) four seasons,” Downey said.

“This is almost like their fifth season. Experience-wise, this group of seniors is really valuable.”

Success and motivation

Last Thursday, St. Phil scrimmaged Lawrence and then Big Rapids Crossroads to get game experience before opening the season this Friday at Kingston.

“We didn’t keep score, but it went well,” Downey said. “It was good experience for some of the younger kids, especially the freshmen, to play and learn.”

He said the veterans, especially the co-captains, are like having extra coaches on the field.

“They know exactly what our schemes are and our blocking patterns and they really help us out,” he said. “Our line is coming back. We’re solid up front. 

“We have Noah Ellinger, our captain; Grant Hallacy who started last year as our other guard; Andy Forche at center and all of them played a lot last year on the line.”

Senior co-captain Grayson Obey has played football since fourth grade and said going from the traditional 11-player in Rocket youth football and middle school football to 8-player was no big deal.

“I think going from middle school to high school, not 11-man to 8-man, was harder,” he said.

Obey said last year’s success is a great motivator.

“We got a taste of a really good team last year, so it’s good motivation to work hard and try to push to get that again this year,” he said.

Ellinger agrees that the transition to 8-player was not a big deal.

“It’s two less linemen and I’m a lineman, so it’s just kind of shortening it up a little bit,” he said.

Playing both ways on the field takes some getting used to at the beginning of the season, Ellinger said.

“The first couple games it’s pretty hard,” he said. “You’ve got to learn to manage your time. It’s kind of tiring, but you get used to it.”

Downey said the parents like 8-player because “it is a little bit safer.

“We don’t have as many big kids on the field as 11-man. When you have the big kids, the little kids are the ones who seem to be getting hurt all the time.”

St. Phil lost all-state quarterback Brendan Gausselin to graduation, but Downey is eyeing sophomore Ryan Reincke and freshman Connor Gausselin for the position while senior Drew Lantinga recovers from a basketball injury.

“Last year Drew played wide receiver and linebacker,” Downey said. “He was the leading tackler on the team last year at linebacker.”

Connor Gausselin is Brendan’s brother.

“My brother played football and was pretty good, so I want to follow in his legacy,” Connor Gausselin said. “He’s helped me a lot. In every sport I play, I like being in control like a leader, so quarterback is a leader on the field and I like that.

“I’m very excited. My brother said high school football is the best part of high school, being under the Friday night lights. It will be fun.”

8-player grows statewide

Enrollment numbers are key to 8-player football in Michigan.

Of St. Phil’s 140 students, 21 are on the football team.

While Michigan has 564 schools playing 11-player, the state had 40 playoff-eligible 8-player teams last season. Currently, 48 teams are eligible for the postseason heading into this fall's first games. 

Only Class D schools are eligible for playoffs, and enrollment must be 206 or fewer this year.

Class C schools or those with larger enrollments (cutoff was 212 students for the 2015 season) may compete in 8-player but they are not eligible for postseason play.

This fall, four Class C schools are competing in 8-player: Kingston, which was Class D last year; Dryden, Rudyard and Grand Traverse Academy. The latter two fielded 11-player teams last season.

Burton Madison Academy was Class C last year but dropped to Class D this year and is now eligible for postseason play.

St. Phil plays in the Southern Michigan 8-Man League with Tekonsha, Burr Oak, Camden Frontier, Waldron and Litchfield.

Other seniors on the Tigers are Tim Minier, Mike Scriber, Ben Swagler, Alex Yacovoni and Jordan Snyder. The other juniors are Justice Steiner and Morgan Bohannon.

Other sophomores are Chris Kubasiak, JC Downey, Nolan Kersten and Brodie Landstra. Other freshmen are Marcel Williams, Charley Harrington and Gus Strenge.

Assistant coaches are Jack Brown, Marc Pessetti and Jeff Minier.

Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.

PHOTOS: (Top) Battle Creek St. Philip’s Drew Lantinga hauls in a pass last season; he’s moving to quarterback this fall. (Middle top) Dave Downey, Noah Ellinger, Grayson Obey. (Middle below) Senior Tim Minier surges after taking a hand-off during practice earlier this month. (Below) Ben Swagler pushes ahead during the Tigers’ 2015 win over Portland St. Patrick. (Photos from 2015 courtesy of Battle Creek St. Philip; practice photo and head shots by Pam Shebest.)

'Wakers' Continue Marching Together

November 5, 2019

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

First the local media picked it up, which made sense – it was a great story, and easy to appreciate whether you’ve heard of Maple City or could find Fife Lake on the map.

In what was still perhaps surprising but a logical next step, The Associated Press and then Detroit Free Press and MLive took the story statewide. But then CNN and NPR told the rest of the U.S. – which was followed by interest from The Kelly Clarkson Show and a Skype interview with one of Ellen DeGeneres’ representatives.

There is no way Maple City Glen Lake athletic director Mark Mattson could’ve foreseen any of that publicity as he prepped for his football team’s home game Sept. 27. All he knew was that his high school didn’t have a marching band, and Fife Lake Forest Area – at least this season – didn’t have a varsity football team.

If you pay attention to high school sports in general or statewide news casually, you’ve probably heard some of the rest of this story. Mattson invited Forest Area director Brandon Deike and his band to play at Glen Lake’s game that night against Gladstone. A week later, after their story had been told all over the country, the schools combined for a “Marching for Ellen” spirit video hoping to land on the show.

Things have quieted back down substantially for the two small northern Lower Peninsula communities. But their march together continues.

“We don’t want it to end,” Mattson said. “Sometimes you see these initiatives begin, and it’s really cool, and they fizzle out. We want to work with our kids and their kids and Brandon over there to make cool things happen as we support each other – and at the end of the day to make his program grow and make our program grow over here.”

A little background: Forest Area’s high school and Glen Lake’s are 45 miles away, or about an hour’s drive whether traveling through or around Traverse City. Glen Lake has nearly 250 students in its high school, and Forest Area has about 175.

Glen Lake’s football team is 9-1 and hosts Harrison on Friday in a Division 6 District Final. Forest Area started this fall playing 8-player football, and won its first game against Brethren 64-44. But the Warriors had started with a small roster that got smaller as the season got going – and by Week 3 didn’t have enough players to finish the season, so they canceled the rest of their games.

Meanwhile, Forest Area’s band has rebuilt mightily since the school’s music program was cut in 2011 – while Glen Lake’s band began this school year with one high schooler playing with a 10-member middle school group. In fact, Mattson asked his school’s football players and cheerleaders the last time they were at a home game where there was a band – and they couldn’t remember one.

So the Sept. 27 game happens, and all of the feel-good fanfare that came with it. With a few weeks, the statewide and national attention slowed way down – but the relationship between the schools was just beginning to grow.

A week later after the Gladstone game, Glen Lake hosted Elk Rapids on the night that was supposed to be Forest Area Homecoming – so during that school day, a group of Glen Lake football players and cheerleaders went over for Forest Area’s pep assembly, at first to be part of the “Marching for Ellen” video but then sticking around to take part in the Warriors’ festivities.

Then on a Monday night, Oct. 14, Mattson took a group of students to Traverse City to support Forest Area during the area’s band expo at Thirlby Field. There was some hope the schools might unite their forces again for Glen Lake’s final regular-season home game Oct. 25. But although that didn’t completely pan out, Forest Area did sent over 20 members of its band, who sat in bleachers on the track with Glen Lake’s student section, band and choir – and cheered on the now growing Glen Lake band, which included Mattson on the saxophone he’d stopped playing in sixth grade.

“One of the Forest Area kids called over from the bleachers, ‘Mr. Mattson, come here. I think we need to call our schools ‘Wakers,’” Mattson said (with the student referring to a combination of the mascot names Warriors and Lakers). “It really had gone from literally about zero to what we’ve got, and it’s a really collaborative partnership here."

“This isn’t their band director or myself making it happen. This is by and large kid driven. Our kids keep asking, ‘Are they coming for the game Friday night?’ Or their kids talk to Mr. Deike and say, ‘Can they come to our pep assembly?’ They know they’re welcome back to play with us any time.”

Mattson has recently taken over as administrator as well of Glen Lake’s fine arts department, and rebuilding the school’s band is a high priority. Glen Lake has brought in retired Traverse City West band directors Pat Brumbaugh and Flournoy Humphreys as “artists in residence” to revive the program. They’re teaching a two-day-a-week Intro to Band class, and Mattson said there are about 35 fifth and sixth-graders signed up.

Mattson also noted how the Forest Area band has opened up the perspective of his school’s football players, who have gained a real appreciation for all of the groups – cheerleaders and band especially – who join the players on the field in making for a great football night.

“What started from one simple gesture to help a school out and vice versa turned into, and I think Brandon would echo it, turned into valuable lessons for our society about teamwork and collaboration, and that kindness matters,” Mattson said. “When it’s driven by young people and really executed by our young people, how does it get better than that? They’re the next generation of leaders. To take it from simply, ‘Yeah, that sounds cool,’ to go and play at Glen Lake, to what it’s become, it’s a great lesson for all of us. That when these kids take the initiative and make it their own, special things happen – and that has happened.”