Undefeated Mancelona Earns League Title, Playoff Possibilities
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
October 8, 2021
Dan Derrer knows the highs and lows of coaching high school sports.
He’s been at the helm of the Mancelona football team for 16 years. During that span, the Ironmen had back-to-back undefeated seasons, a few with a handful of wins, and a winless 2017 campaign.
Now, the Ironmen are 5-0 for the first time since 2012 and facing the biggest game of their season.
Tonight they’re hosting conference rival Boyne City, also undefeated in the Northern Michigan Football League Leaders division. A win puts Mancelona in the driver seat with a trip to Charlevoix and a hosting of Glen Lake left to round out the regular season.
A potential conference title, postseason qualification and a drive toward a state championship have been on the team’s list of goals since the summer. The Ironmen are coming off a 3-5 2020 finish.
“I’ve had some really, really good teams,” Derrer said. “I’ve had some teams that weren’t as talented and didn’t win as much.
“Every season is different … you never know.”
Winning and losing seasons, Derrer said the Ironmen always have given it their all.
“We’ve always taken the approach one game at a time, one practice at a time and try to get better every day,” he said. “Those years when you don’t win a lot takes a toll on the kids and the coaching staff.
“When the kids go out and play hard and they give you all they got, that is really all you can ask for,” he continued. “It’s definitely fun when you win — even those other teams – they gave you everything they had, and that’s all you can ask for.”
The Ironmen kept unbeaten this year with a 14-8 win in their last outing over Kalkaska. Jason Naumcheff connected with Oumar Sy on the game’s final play to earn the victory.
Seniors Justin and Adam Ackler and Mason Crandall have put together a handful off multi-touchdown games this year to lead the Ironmen. Naumcheff, a junior quarterback, is throwing regularly for touchdowns. The Ackler brothers, Naumcheff and Crandall also average around double-digit tackles per game to lead the stingy defense.
The Ironmen are bolstered by retuning linemen Jake Watson, Jason Kihn, Kacy Pinney, Trace Miller, Kaleb Myszak and Justin Johnston and starting defenders Aaron Anderson and Landon McCorry.
“We were pretty excited about what we had coming back, and these guys work hard,” Derrer said. “So far, so good.”
The Ironmen also are coming off a bye week. The break was expected to help the team get through injuries and better prepare for the big game with Boyne.
“We’ve been banged up,” Derrer acknowledged. “We’re trying to get guys healthy so hopefully we can be at full strength going into the Boyne game.”
Improved line play has helped the Ironmen this fall, Derrer points out. It has followed the addition of assistant coach Ralph Munger. He’s been focused on the trenches. Munger’s arrival follows Taylor Borst stepping in as the defensive backs and strength and conditioning coach in 2018.
Munger, one of the most successful high school football coaches in Michigan history, retired after the 2019 season with 335 victories at Rockford and Frankenmuth and three Division 1 championships with the Rams. His Rockford and Frankenmuth teams produced six undefeated regular seasons.
Borst and Derrer met Munger as the 2020 season started. They hit it off right away. Munger represents another one of the highs in Derrer’s coaching career.
“He’s a very knowledgeable guy, and he’s awesome to have around,” Derrer said. “He’s been a huge help to us.
“He’s done a great job working with our lines,” Derrer continued. “It’s been unbelievable – we’re very fortunate.”
The Mancelona coaching staff chose to end a practice early in August to go to Rockford. They all attended a rededication ceremony of the Rockford football stadium. The stadium’s name was officially changed in January from the Ted Carlson Memorial Stadium to the Carlson-Munger Stadium to honor two men whose contributions exemplify "Ram Pride."
Today Munger is grateful he’s had a chance to work the Mancelona student-athletes. They’re in the midst of playoff contention and a battle for a conference championship.
They’ll enjoy hometown support too.
“Two of our last three (games) are at home, and they’re all going to be big games,” Derrer said. “All those games are going to be critical for conference and playoffs.
“We’ll have our hands full, but hopefully we’re up for the challenge.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. 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) Mancelona’s Adam Ackler (2) carries the ball during an opening-day win over LeRoy Pine River. (Middle) Ironmen coach Dan Derrer consults with quarterback Jason Naumcheff (12). (Below) Longtime Rockford coach Ralph Munger, here with Jason Kihn (54), joined the Mancelona staff this fall. (Photos by Miles Postema.)
MHSAA Vault: Shooks a Legend as Freshman Coach
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 4, 2026
The following originally appeared in the Lansing State Journal on Oct. 28, 2004, and was reprinted by the MHSAA that winter.
Wayne Shooks retired from coaching entirely in 2008 and died Tuesday at the age of 84.
Wayne Shooks tried the varsity football thing once. Some time during the late 1980s, longtime DeWitt coach Gail Thornton asked Shooks to be his offensive coordinator.
“I didn't sleep a night. My wife, after three weeks, said, ‘You're going back to freshmen,’” Shooks remembered.
And those three weeks were in the month of June.
But Shooks' wife must have been on to something. Because few, if any, freshman football coaches have accomplished what Shooks finished with one last win last fall.
He ended his 16th and final season as freshman coach with a 135-2-1 record.
Amazing.
“You can't lose a game for him, or you'll feel bad,” DeWitt senior Mat Brynick recalled from his days as a freshman. “Coach never says it, but it's what everyone expects.
“He taught us how to win.”
Guys like Shooks, 62, usually go unappreciated.
They get the kids fresh to high school, fresh to high school sports, and still learning things like not spiking the ball after a touchdown.
But few freshman football coaches are as legendary as Shooks is in DeWitt. They are so unappreciated that it's impossible to find out if anyone has accomplished what he's done.
Shook is not big on numbers. Never has been during his 41 years teaching in the district, or more than 20 coaching everything from football to basketball to wrestling to tennis. Oh, and track since 1980.
He also coached 8th-grade football for a few years, junior varsity for one season and was a varsity assistant. But he'll be remembered for what he did with the freshmen.
The losses came in 1993 to Mason during a terrible wind storm, and in 2002 to Greenville. That same year, the Panthers tied Haslett, meaning it was the only year during his tenure that DeWitt wasn't sure if it finished first in its league, since league titles aren't handed out at the freshmen level.
“The kids felt bad. They did their best,” Shooks remembered.
But the losses, however few, were more of a relief for Shooks than a letdown.
Don't take that to mean Shooks doesn't like to win.
Sure, he embraced the role of teacher as much as any freshman coach. But as DeWitt varsity coach Rob Zimmerman said, “If he was a 5th-grade coach, he'd be the most competitive 5th-grade coach you've ever seen.”
“I never pointed (our record) out, it was not our goal,” Shooks said. “Our goal was to win the next week. Although the kids knew it. They just assumed we were going to go 9-0, I guess.”
Guess so.
Shooks had more easily-attainable goals:
- Have fun
- Learn fundamentals
- Emphasize the logical stuff, like the importance of bringing equipment to school every day
“He does a really good job teaching expectations about being young men and being great students,” Zimmerman said. “It's gigantic.”
And it kept kids coming back to junior varsity and varsity. You could hear the fun coming out in Brynick's voice.
He was remembering his freshman football experience, remembering his time with perhaps Michigan's most successful coach at that level.
“I remember a few games, we'd find one play that works, and we ran it to death, pounding it and pounding it,” Brynick recalled. “He loves running the same play over and over. If you can do that, march 80 yards down the field, you're doing something right. No one could stop us.”
That was not all Brynick remembered, or didn't.
Shooks almost never yelled. If he did, it meant a kid messed something up over and over and over again.
He has a doctorate in zoology. Education is obviously a big deal. He loves to win, but he loves to teach. And he's hesitant to go looking for any attention for what he's done.
All made him a perfect freshmen football coach.
“Sometimes I don't think people understand about coaches. You think college level, they are coaches first, that's their job, but not at the high school level,” Shooks said.
“It's not what I've done, it's what they've done. I've always believed the focus should be on the kids. My job is a teacher. I coach because I love to coach.”
PHOTO DeWitt freshman coach Wayne Shooks, fourth from right, stands for a photo with this final football team in 2004. (Photos courtesy of the DeWitt football program.)