Davison's McRill Packs Plenty of Thrills
August 30, 2016
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
DAVISON — The sense of excitement is palpable when Brenden McRill recalls one of the biggest adrenaline rushes he's had on a football field.
He's in his third year as Davison's starting quarterback, but it's the one time he got to play on the other side of the ball that makes McRill really light up.
Although he's put up impressive numbers at the game's most glamorous position, the opportunity to make eight tackles as a safety in a first-round playoff loss to Lapeer last season was about as fun as it gets for McRill.
"Oh, it felt great," he said. "I was so excited for that, because I hadn't played defense since my freshman year. I was ready to go out there and hit somebody."
Spoken like a true ... wrestler.
The willingness to absorb punishment is considered a barometer of toughness for a quarterback, and McRill is certainly willing to do that for the good of the team. Most quarterbacks, however, don't get as hyped as McRill to deliver a blow.
But he isn't wired like most quarterbacks, which is why Davison coach Kyle Zimmerman could confidently add the following hash tag to a Twitter post about McRill: #MyQBIsTougherThanYours.
The groundwork for McRill's unique makeup was forged on the wrestling mats of the Davison youth program and fine-tuned at the high school level under the guidance of Roy Hall, who has coached the Cardinals to six MHSAA team championships and four runner-up finishes since 2000.
McRill was the MHSAA Division 1 champion at 189 pounds as a junior.
"It definitely makes me different, because I love to hit," McRill said of his wrestling background. "If I'm near the sideline and see a guy, I'm going for the hit; I'm not sliding. That aggressiveness and toughness has definitely helped me."
While McRill is as tough as they come, Zimmerman is reluctant to have his quarterback playing both ways on a regular basis.
"To be honest, he probably should play defense," Zimmerman said. "He's one of our best defenders. At the first day of practice, everybody does drills to simulate stuff. He's lights-out. Anything he does on a football field, he's going to excel at. He's played end for us, he's played linebacker, he's played safety, he's played quarterback.
"We've got other guys we know can play. You know it's a huge drop-off if you put yourself in a position where you could lose someone. If you see the quarterback out there, people are going to be attacking him, trying to tire him. We want him to play at a high level on offense."
And that he does.
McRill received honorable mention on The Associated Press' Division 1-2 all-state team last season as a dual-threat quarterback. As a passer, he was 68-for-136 for 1,306 yards, 13 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also ran 161 times for 642 yards and 11 touchdowns.
In the 2016 opener against Saginaw Arthur Hill, McRill was 3-for-5 for 52 yards and two touchdowns passing to go with five carries for 27 yards and a touchdown in the first half of a 62-12 rout of the Lumberjacks.
The mission for McRill and his teammates is to get Davison back on the state high school football map. The Cardinals made the MHSAA playoffs seven straight years from 2002-08, reaching the Semifinals three times and going 65-19 during that span. In the seven years that followed, Davison went 33-33 and made the playoffs three times.
"We had three starting sophomores that first game my sophomore year," McRill said. "There was me, offensive tackle Zach Slezak, who at the time played defense, and Corran Thornton, who started at defensive end. We started it together. Our senior year, we want to make it our best and have one of the best years Davison's ever had."
On the wrestling mat, McRill knows what it's like to compete at a high level.
McRill added his name to the list of individual MHSAA champions coached by Hall when he won the Division 1 title at 189 pounds with an overtime decision over previously unbeaten Nicholas May of Kalamazoo Loy Norrix. McRill was fifth at 152 as a freshman and third at 160 as a sophomore.
"Going into high school, I planned to win it right away my freshman year," said McRill, whose only blemishes on a 38-2 junior record were against MHSAA champions. "Just with that legacy and Coach Hall's style, you're expected to win. You're working as hard as you can. ... It felt real good to get that out of the way."
He helped Davison reach the MHSAA Division 1 Team Finals in 2014 and 2016, with a semifinal appearance in between in 2015. Each of the last four years, however, Davison has lost to the eventual champion.
"It's kind of upsetting, but it will make us hold each other more accountable that we need to finish this year," McRill said. "We need to win. We've got a lot of guys back and some incoming freshmen who are ranked guys and very good. So I'm very excited for this team coming up."
McRill does what he can to maintain his sharpness as a wrestler, but he devotes most of his attention to football over the summer.
"I try to get a couple of drills in right now when the season's going," he said. "When we get to the playoffs, I try to stay off it, focus on football and stay healthy for that. Right after football, I try to get a couple days off and get ready for wrestling. I try to train hard, because I know I have a lot of catching up to do."
McRill doesn't compete in the national wrestling tournaments that many of his competitors do over the summer, but that hasn't hurt his exposure to college scouts. He is weighing offers from Central Michigan, University of Michigan and West Virginia.
Once football and wrestling seasons conclude, McRill said he may return for one final season on the baseball diamond. He grew up playing baseball, but cut back on it once he realized his college future was likely to be in football or wrestling.
He didn't play baseball as a freshman, because he was working to win the starting quarterback job the following fall. McRill was called up to the varsity baseball team as a sophomore after throwing a no-hitter on the junior varsity team.
"I think I'm going to come out my senior year," he said. "We've got a great group of guys in baseball, too. That's one that people kind of sleep on, but we could come up with something in baseball."
In the meantime, the arm that threw a no-hitter for the JV baseball team will be firing touchdown passes for a football team that could have a special season.
"The first day I saw Brenden, I knew who my quarterback was from how he competed and how he threw," said Zimmerman, whose first year at Davison was McRill's sophomore season.
"We were probably going to take our lumps early, but it's going to pay off in the long run. He was steady his sophomore year, he was good last year and he's going to explode this year."
Bill Khan served as a sportswriter at The Flint Journal from 1981-2011 and currently contributes to the State Champs! Sports Network. 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) Davison quarterback Brenden McRill lines up over center during his team's game last season against Saginaw. (Middle) McRill holds up his weight's bracket sheet after winning the Division 1 title at 189 pounds last winter. (Below) McRill looks to lock up during his championship match. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Process, Relationships Still Matter Most as 4-Time Champ Shillito Coaches 41st Season
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
October 18, 2024
It was John Shillito's third year as Muskegon Orchard View football coach, and while the wolves weren't exactly knocking at the door, some faint low growls could clearly be heard.
Shillito had been successful at Comstock Park with his teams going 21-8 over three seasons, but the move to Orchard View included 3-6 and 4-5 records the first two.
While there wasn't yet widespread anxiety, Shillito recalls there was a bit of concern.
"I was much younger then and wasn't as successful yet in education," Shillito said. "But we weathered it and came through the other side. But you wonder a little; there's always a little self-doubt. I think it was important to go through it, because you can learn as much even when you're not winning."
Michigan high school football is the better for Shillito sticking it out. Two schools later, Shillito finds himself as the state's third winningest active coach and seventh overall with a 333-106 mark over 41 seasons.
His Zeeland West team is 6-1 this season and likely to become his 27th team – and 15th in a row – to qualify for the playoffs. Shillito's teams at Byron Center, Muskegon Orchard View, East Kentwood and Zeeland West have won a combined 16 conference titles.
Not bad for someone whose first love was baseball. Shillito's father, Harry, played three seasons professionally in the Brooklyn Dodgers system during the "Boys of Summer" era of the 1940s and 50s. Shillito grew up as a talented catcher in the spring and top football prospect as a defensive lineman in football. When programs such as Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Northern Michigan began showing an interest, the lure of a football scholarship made it an easy decision which sport he would follow.
After playing three years at Central Michigan, his coaching career kicked off with an assistant gig at Central Bucks East in Pennsylvania in 1980. He became head coach at Comstock Park in 1982.
Shillito said the same motivation which drove him into coaching has kept him in the sport for nearly five decades. It's not necessarily winning state championships – he’s won four at Zeeland West – or fulfilling a deep competitive drive or even the lure of Friday Night Lights in a small community. It's showing up at practices, adhering to a process and building and honing relationships with players and other coaches.
Take those away and the 67-year-old Shillito, a member of the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, would definitely be looking elsewhere to spend Friday nights in the fall.
"It's the process; I love a good practice. You know when (it's good) and when it isn't. More than even the football, it's the coaching process and the people I work with," he said.
"Winning is a week-to-week deal. This week's game is what we're all about. And then in the offseason, it's preparation for the year coming up. The state titles are always a bonus."
Which isn't to say Shillito isn't competitive. Whether it’s been playing hockey, wiffle ball, 3-on-3 basketball or backyard football with his brothers, Shillito's competitive spirit has thrived.
"Oh yeah," he said. "But I'm a glass half full-type competitor. I can find the positive side in either wins or losses. But for me it's about the preparation, no doubt about it."
Shillito's success has come even with opponents knowing exactly what they'll see offensively from his teams: the famed wing-T offense, which he's run since the mid-1990s and was taught to him by famed West Michigan coach Irv Sigler. In fact, Shillito said if there is anything responsible for his success, it's the ability to implement what he's learned from coaches as a whole such as Mike Henry, the longtime basketball coach at Orchard View, or former Remus Chippewa Hills football coach Ron Reardon.
When he first got into coaching, Shillito said the wing-T seemed the easiest to teach. He's tweaked the process over the years, but it's been highly successful for him wherever he's coached. The number of Michigan teams which run the wing-T has probably lessened over the years as passing has taken over many high school offenses. But Shillito said the run-first philosophy can still be found in pockets all over the state. Shillito said he has no second thoughts about devoting his offense to the wing-T, and the success only underscores the point.
"It can be difficult if you're not winning, no doubt about it," said Shillito, who figures he's coached about three dozen 1,000-yard rushers. "But the value in the system is that it's an easier process. That is, if you get a buy-in from the players and community. We've had that at Zeeland West."
As the sun begins to set on Shillito's coaching career, he's hard-pressed to pick his best, favorite or most surprising teams. For starters, there's the 1983 Byron Center team which reached the Class C Semifinals, or the 1995 and 1999 Orchard View teams which played in Class B Finals and combined for a 24-3 mark.
Or maybe the 13-1 Division 1 runner-up club at East Kentwood in 2002, and the 2006 Zeeland West team which claimed the Division 4 title after winning its last 11 games by an average of 35 points per. Or the 2011 Zeeland West team which went 14-0 to kick off a phenomenal five-year stretch during which the Dux went a combined 60-6.
Ask Shillito about any of those seasons, and his answer as to what he remembers most about his coaching career may be surprising. Many of his most cherished moments include his teams going just 5-6 over the years against Muskegon, including three playoff losses that ended the Dux's season. Balance that with his record against other programs, such as a 73-16 mark against other Lakeshore teams, including an 18-7 record against rival Zeeland East. Or a 10-4 record against traditional Grand Rapids-area powers such as Lowell, Grand Rapids Catholic Central, South Christian, West Catholic and Hudsonville. In the postseason, Shillito's teams are an amazing 54-22 over 26 seasons in the MHSAA Playoffs.
As for knocking heads with Muskegon, Shillito said the thrill of a great rivalry and the consistency his teams have shown over the years is what has always driven him.
"It's the longevity and consistency," Shillito said. "I've gotten to work with great people who have had an equal share in this. I've had such a wide variety of guys I've worked with in four programs, and it’s meaningful. "
He is coy on when he might finally call it a career. He could wake up tomorrow and decide it's the time, or it could be next week, the end of the season or maybe one more season. Who's to say?
"We're getting close now," he will say. "We're always in the moment; that's just where we are. Then we'll evaluate things after the season. That's been true now for several seasons."
PHOTOS (Top) Zeeland West football coach John Shillito, right, receives the Division 4 championship trophy from MHSAA Representative Council member Orlando Medina in 2015 at Ford Field. (Middle) Entering this season, Shillito ranked seventh all-time and third among active coaches for football victories in the MHSAA record book. (Below) Shillito prepares to send in one of his East Kentwood players during the 2002 Division 1 Final at Pontiac Silverdome. (MHSAA file photos.)