LMCU High School Football Preview Show Week 1 2025

LMCU High School Football Preview Show Week 1 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
They motion purchased house, sending it back. Play fake fish
fires across the middle.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Touchdown has his man on a little crossing route. Chuck
Dahn holds it in in trapping this with a bullet
deer in South Christian on the board.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Fourteen to six hand off from a left to right cutting.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Up, Campaign us off board off to the races.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Twenty fifty ten touchdown.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
He saw his senior brother do what he said, I
can do it too. Campaign takes it from forty two
yards out and the Bulldogs extend their lead.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
It's almost game night, West Michigan. Time to hear from
the coaches and the guys who call the games.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
In the press box.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Who's in this week's top ten and what about the
players of the week. No one covers high school football
like we do. This is the LMCU High School Football
Preview Show, exclusively.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Here on ninety six.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Won the game and powered each week by Lake Michigan
Credit Union. We treat our members like neighbors and also
brought to you by Meyer Kids, Food Basket, Jay and
H Family Stores, Van der Longholm Improvement, Trinity Health, Sporting You,
Wing Doozy, Straight Line Fence, Rapid Radios, Uptown, Cheapskate in

(01:09):
Granville and ken Wood, MKD Funeral Homes, Win Shoolers, Delicious
Cheese Spreads, haulse Jepson Physical Therapy, Discount Door and Montel Construction.
And now here are your hosts, Brett Pakita and Jason Hutton.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Twenty twenty five season kickoff the LMCU High School football
preview here on ninety six. Won the game along with
Jason the Book Hutton on Brett Pikita. We've got a
great show coming you way tonight if you haven't heard yet,
Our LMCU game of the Week tomorrow night starts the
season Byron Center at Hudsonville bull state finalists a year ago,
and we're gonna hear from both head coaches. We caught

(01:44):
up before training camp even started, Jay with Mark Cisco
for the Bulldogs and Brent Sandy from the Eagles.

Speaker 5 (01:48):
Summer's too long, Bratt, We can't wait. So yeah, we
got ahead of it. We went out. We talked to
these guys, two of our favorites, right and two guys
that do a great job. Both made it to Ford
Field last year.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Man Alive.

Speaker 5 (01:57):
They're going to play each other to start the season.
It's like Chris.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
Also coming up, we'll have our four pack segment back
with our colleagues Bunk Gino and Tom Kender. We preview
some of the bigger games in week one, Jay.

Speaker 5 (02:07):
And there are a lot of them, a lot of
I mean Muskegon, Grandville come out. How good is that
Selena at Rockford. You got Kyle Short coming back to
with Alma Mater, Lower East, Grand Rapids, traditional rivals, Kenwell
Hills Forests, Northern. Maybe my favorite game of the weekend
Northew West Catholic.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
On Friday night, and keep going. I know, I know it.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
And we'll finish the show as always with our top
ten rankings for the West Mission area with Jay and
I and we'll have some players to watch this season,
and there are a lot of those as well.

Speaker 6 (02:33):
Well.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Let's get started.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
And they were Division one state finalists from a year ago,
the Eagles of Hudsonville making to Ford Field, and here
joining us is their head coach, Brent Sandy.

Speaker 6 (02:43):
First of all, thanks for having me, guys. It's awesome
that you guys are doing this. He guys do such
a great job for local high school sports and especially football,
so I'm excited and Hunter to be on here. Summer
has been great. The kids are really excited buying in
to know what we're trying to do and what we've
been doing. Their pomp as well as myself and our
staff just work, I get better. So it's been a

(03:03):
great summer so far.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
Jason Frank, can you describe what the feeling was like
even going through the school year last year after the
football team did what it did, Because there's something about
what a football team makes a run. It kind of
creates a lot of excitement around all of the athletic programs,
boys and girls.

Speaker 7 (03:20):
That's a great point.

Speaker 6 (03:22):
It just I don't know, man, there's an electricity in
the air all school year long. Really, I mean it
kind of carried through, but it was just it was
a ton of fun.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Man.

Speaker 6 (03:31):
It was like, you know, being a teacher in the
school around the kids every day. I had a number
of kids and I teach at ap macro econ class
and a number of football players second third trimester in
the class, and.

Speaker 7 (03:42):
Just everybody was super positive, you know, really.

Speaker 6 (03:44):
Throughout the year and then you know, like you guys
reference the crowd we had at Ford Field and through
all our playoff games was incredible And at one point
I just stepped up, you know, on the field and
look back towards the stands and just just blown away
by the support that our community has showed, not just
last year but since I've been here.

Speaker 7 (04:04):
It's been really a blessing. It's incredible.

Speaker 5 (04:07):
What kind of impact did that have on this team? Right,
because you have a lot of new guys, you have
some guys were replaced. What does winning the ok red
going to Ford Field, just having that success and you
have a successful program, but last year even took it
up and notch.

Speaker 7 (04:21):
What does that do for this group? So it's been interesting.

Speaker 6 (04:24):
That's one thing that I've been talking about with my
staff quite a bit. So last year was the first
year we did a senior leadership retreat, actually brought them
up to our cottage and brought close to thirty seniors
with us and had some real great conversations and came
up with some core values. And there was a little
bit last year of just I don't want to say

(04:48):
like doubt, but maybe questioning of some of the stuff
we talked about. And we had some really strong leaders
to kind of you know know, we were taking things seriously,
just you know, the maturity level and everything else.

Speaker 7 (04:59):
So that was interesting seeing.

Speaker 6 (05:00):
This year we did the same thing, and the buy
in by everybody has been incredible, almost like, hey, somebody,
you know, bring up an opposing point of view, Somebody
challenge what we're saying.

Speaker 7 (05:11):
You know, almost as an educator you want the kids
to do.

Speaker 6 (05:14):
But I think the success that we've had, not just
with our varsity team last year, but our junior varsity
team want up going nine to zero as well. So
the kids are going to be juniors this year. They're
used to success, and they're drinking the kool aid, so
to speak of what we've been preaching and worrying about
the process and worrying about who we are as a program.

(05:35):
The first few years here, you know, we're always like, oh,
well the kids, Oh we got to win the Red
and we got a B State champs and everything else.
And the last couple of years we haven't really talked
about that. We've just talked about being the best version
of ourselves we can be. The buy in of that
has been really incredible right now. So it's interesting because
last year we had a really strong group of senior leaders.

(05:56):
Weren't sure what these group of seniors how they would lead.
But it's been incredible so far, the buying that they've had,
and I think that's success has helped us with that.
Now it's just our job to kind of continue that culture.

Speaker 4 (06:10):
So coach, you lose a tough first game to Howl,
you would play later in the playoffs. Then you rattle
off twelve wins in a row to get to Ford Field,
and then you play Detroit Kastec and they was a
one state championship game.

Speaker 8 (06:22):
You guys fall short than that.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
Is there one game that you look back at or
maybe the kids brought up to you that you point
to and say that maybe was a turning point in
our season of where, Okay, we've got something rolling here, guys,
and this could be a special season.

Speaker 8 (06:35):
And they just kind of took it from there.

Speaker 6 (06:36):
I think the kids would all say Rockford game as
a program last year or the year before, our freshman
team had one in our JV team in one, and
the kids are kind of they had beaten them, but
I don't know if they believe that we truly could
beat them at the varsity level. So I think for
that was a big game for our varsity players. But
I'll even say, like the East Landsting game, and we
had a big step at a two point conversion to

(06:58):
help win that game week two, and if we lose
that game Week two, we start zero and two in
the season and things could be totally different.

Speaker 7 (07:07):
Now, not a lot of people are going to turn
to that.

Speaker 6 (07:09):
Game and point that one out, but I think that
was really instrumental of getting that win and then kind
of getting a little bit of confidence and starting to roll.

Speaker 7 (07:17):
So maybe those those two games going into it.

Speaker 5 (07:21):
You look at your team this year, and you've already
mentioned the JV team last year, which was phenomenal, but
your senior class is really good too, and a lot
of those guys didn't necessarily get a ton of playing
time last year because last year's senior class was so good.
So how do you balance the Obviously, you have talent,
I don't think there's any questioning that, but.

Speaker 9 (07:40):
Our experience you don't have as much experience.

Speaker 5 (07:42):
How does that work itself out in your mind to
get where you want to be this year?

Speaker 6 (07:46):
Yeah, that's something that we've been asking ourselves a lot.
So our seniors this year when they were JB they
were nine to.

Speaker 7 (07:52):
Zero as well. So you know, the two classes of a.

Speaker 6 (07:55):
Team and oero with JB now it helps our numbers
are pretty strong, so we don't bring up as many
wares is maybe a lot of programs that we played
do I mean last year we had a Luke on
the varsity team all year and then Tyler helped us
in the playoffs.

Speaker 7 (08:08):
But outside of that, we're playing juniors and seniors.

Speaker 6 (08:11):
So what I'm hoping that will help us was playing
that you know, extra month plus of football during playoffs,
and we brought our whole JV team with us, and
then our juniors of course competing against you know, those
guys are basically our scout teams for our varsity team
all throughout the playoffs, and we're hoping that that, you know,

(08:31):
extra time with the kids is going to pay off.
But yeah, you're right, last year we had a lot
of kids. The year before that, we didn't have the
depth and a lot of juniors had to start for us,
and so they had ten games of varsity experience from
the prior year.

Speaker 7 (08:46):
So we lean on that quite a bit. And you know,
opening up.

Speaker 6 (08:49):
With Byron Center, I mean, man, they're one of the
best programs you know in the state of Michigan, and
we had tremendous round of respect for coach Cisco and
his staff and his program there that we get to
try to equave the process as best we can with
these kids and get him ready because we're going to
be tested right away. So the position battles are interesting
that we're having right now more so than probably last year,

(09:11):
right to kind of figure out who's who's going to
kind of step in and play where.

Speaker 7 (09:15):
But that's kind of.

Speaker 6 (09:17):
Fun, you know, it's kind of exciting every day at
practice and see like all right, you know, hey, did
this coun take a step forward?

Speaker 7 (09:22):
Do that can take a step back?

Speaker 9 (09:24):
You know?

Speaker 7 (09:24):
How do they look as we put our whole puzzle.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
I want to talk about one athlete in particular, and
I'm always impressed when high school players recognize the team
is greater than yourself and sometimes you have to ego
check and step back. And I'm sure you and the
coaching staff are a part of this. And I'm talking
about Brady van Lake, very good quarterback. At a quarterback battle,
you went with the senior Griffin Baker, but he knew

(09:47):
he was going to play a lot.

Speaker 8 (09:48):
He steps into wide receiver and he's huge for you.
Now he gets to be quarterback again.

Speaker 4 (09:53):
But talk about that mental state for him, because I'm
so impressed. Like I said, he didn't like say, Okay,
I'm not the quarterback, so he's pouting. He's over there,
and he was one of your major contributors. And you
guys like you saw with Carson business South, Christian had
some special packages for him, different things that he could
do to really shine as the athlete he was.

Speaker 6 (10:15):
I can't say enough good things about Brady just. I mean,
there was a lot of you know, just people in
Hutsbell care about their football, right and for even Brady's
sophomore year to come up when Griff went down to
play varsity, he played against Granville in the regular season and.

Speaker 7 (10:33):
Had a tremendous game. And of course there's a lot
of talk.

Speaker 6 (10:37):
From people in the community, kids and whomever else, like
you know, the quarterback controversy and all that, and Brady
just the whole time was a huge supporter of Griff
as Griff was with Brady and just had a team
first mentality and last year one of our core values
was brotherhood. And you know, he's really just a kid

(10:59):
that's lived that his whole life. I mean, he he
came to football late. He was, you know, a high
level soccer player growing up. His dad was actually a
professional soccer player, so it's been interesting for his dad
kind of learning and understanding football when Brady came out
as a seventh grader and so played quarterback seventh and
eighth grade and then had some injuries freshman soper a

(11:22):
year a little bit, but you know, just a tremendous
kid and just he's worked really hard at that quarterback
position all you know, I mean, I guess since starting
in seventh grade and now for him to be the
one that runs a show for us. The kids just
love him. I mean, he's one of those kids that's

(11:42):
good at everything. When I had the seniors up here
at you know, my cottage, like wake surf and he's
doing three sixties.

Speaker 7 (11:48):
And everything else.

Speaker 6 (11:49):
Like you know, he just I mean, you throw anything
at him, He's going to probably be the best kid
in the room at whatever he does.

Speaker 7 (11:55):
And we're just lucky he chooses to do football, and
you know he'll be our punter.

Speaker 6 (11:59):
He would have broke the school net average and punt
last year until he they shaked the one in kash
Tech which left us with pretty bad field position at
the at the very beginning of the game. But uh,
but yeah, he can kind of do anything, you know
that that he wants.

Speaker 7 (12:15):
So just put even a better kid than he is
a play.

Speaker 5 (12:18):
If memory serves, there were a couple punts in that
cast that game. I believe there was a high snap
that he went up and got and really bailed out.
I was a heck of an athletic play to get
that punt off.

Speaker 7 (12:30):
And yeah, good number as well.

Speaker 5 (12:33):
But yeah, yeah, right, I want to talk about running back, right,
because you were really good there last year with Price Fox.

Speaker 7 (12:40):
But when we saw Owen.

Speaker 5 (12:41):
Harsman, I know we talked about this last year with
you as well. I mean, he was just so impressive
to me. Now he becomes a senior, what's the next
step for him? And how good can he be carrying
the football for you?

Speaker 6 (12:52):
And yeah, so Owens, Owen's uh and Brady, they're as
good in terms of breakaway speed as we've had since
I've been at Hudsonville. You know, team speed is a
big thing that we've really tried to push and work
on and and Owen has that and he's just fearless.

Speaker 7 (13:08):
He he wants to run through everybody.

Speaker 6 (13:10):
So sometimes it's a matter of a little bit finesse
and then working on his hands out of the backfield.
But when he gets going downhill, like I wouldn't want
to be in his way. So we're we're excited what
he's gonna do and are We had a sophomore running
back last year, White Van Mason, who had an incredible
JV year, and so we hope that he can kind
of spot own a little bit similar to what Owen

(13:33):
did for Bryce last year, and and Bryce when he
was a junior did for bo grow Ice Bryce's junior year.
So we asked our running backs to carry ball a lot,
and Owen will kind of be that guy. Last year
he was a dying nose for us, just really hard
for people to block and some of our packages defensively,

(13:53):
I don't know how much we'll let our defensive coaches
use him there because he's going to be, you know,
really important for us offensively.

Speaker 7 (14:00):
We'll see he's uh, yeah, he's just.

Speaker 6 (14:03):
Kind of a freak athlete, very strong, very fast, and yeah,
it'll be fun watching them back there, you know.

Speaker 4 (14:09):
The beginning coach, it seems like we say this every
year the Oka Red and when you run the table
like you did.

Speaker 8 (14:14):
You know how good of an accomplishment that is as
a team to win it.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
But when I look this year, I mean Kate Kaufman
and now year two with their new head coach, he's
going to Michigan State as a quarterback Jane and I
saw grand Haven and the Hope seven on seven. I
was impressed with some of the athletes they have at
the skill position and their coaching staff now developing that program.

Speaker 8 (14:32):
And then you know you're throwing.

Speaker 4 (14:34):
The regulars, right. You got Rockford, you got Grandville, you
got Jennison. I always say the Okay Red coaches are
some of the best. I put them up against anyone
as far as a conference in the state of Michigan.
So as I say that to you, here we go, coach,
do you see this as wide opener races?

Speaker 8 (14:49):
Maybe we've seen it a while.

Speaker 6 (14:51):
Yeah, I mean you know, like you look at Jennison
beat Rockford last year in the conference, and that proved that.
And I mean we knew, honestly, and no disrespect to
the other teams in the state of Michigan, but we
were kind of bummed out when we saw our draw
for playoffs last year with with East kent Wood and
then the winner of the Grandville Rockford game, which wound
up being Grandville.

Speaker 7 (15:12):
We felt like if we could.

Speaker 6 (15:13):
Get out of there, we had a legitimate shot to
kind of make some noise. And we were fortunate to
pull up those first couple of wins. But I really
thought anybody who won that district had a really good
opportunity of making the state finals, and we were fortunate.

Speaker 7 (15:28):
To do that.

Speaker 6 (15:28):
But to your point, this year, I mean, Kentwood is
loaded with tailent, grand Haven had some some top line
guys that are really really impressive, and and of course
Granville and Rockford are going to be as good as
they've ever been as well. And Josh has done a
great job at at Jennison with getting those kids to

(15:51):
buy in. And I know his uh, his group of
seniors last year. I mean they were I think eight
and one when they were soft Wars, and so that
group was used to kind of having some success. Not
a lot of people talked about that, you know, within
our conference, but we knew. I think our group of
seniors were eight and one, so as Rockford and so

(16:12):
was Jennison. I think we all kind of beat up
each other when when they were software, so we knew
that talent. That group is very talented, and they got
a really good running back too for them. So yeah,
I mean I've told everybody last year until this year,
I mean, we can beat any team that's in our schedule,
but I mean we could lose any team that's center
schedule too, And it's kind of the fun of it,
you know, it is a wide open race.

Speaker 7 (16:35):
And yeah, there's some.

Speaker 6 (16:35):
Really good teams out there, and I would agree, I
think their coach really well, So.

Speaker 7 (16:40):
It makes a fun man iron sharpends iron I guess
as well.

Speaker 5 (16:42):
Just think about the okay, right running backs with Tank, Terry,
Brodie Skyeman, Owen Harzma, Andrew Williamson.

Speaker 9 (16:48):
I mean that's insane all in one conference.

Speaker 7 (16:53):
It really is. It really is. And yeah, and uh
that's what we felt like last year with.

Speaker 6 (16:57):
The kid from East Lansing as well, who was It's
just you know nuts and now you know Byron Center.
I can't remember that kids last day either, but yeah, exactly,
it's like holy, I mean, yeah, it's it's our defense.

Speaker 7 (17:12):
Is to strap it up and be ready to go
every game.

Speaker 5 (17:14):
So let's talk about Byron Center real quick, because that's
a new addition to the schedule.

Speaker 7 (17:17):
I don't believe Iron.

Speaker 5 (17:17):
Center how to fill played in football, at least at
the varsity level. How exciting against this, I mean, you
get to host it. It's a team that went to
fort Field and one Division one. It's a team that
went to Fortfield Division two. I gotta imagine the atmosphere
is going to be crazy on Thursday, August twenty eighth.

Speaker 7 (17:32):
Yeah. I really feel like we're very similar communities.

Speaker 6 (17:36):
I would like to think, you know, we try to
model our program very similar that Mark does over there.
You know, we work on coaching our kids from when
they're young all the way up. I know Marks them
a lot to put in time with his youth in
middle school program, and that's what we've tried to do
here at Hudsonville. And it's neat to kind of start
reaping the benefits of that on these last couple of years.

(17:57):
But just good kids come from good families, played really hard,
intercultur really well. So we're gonna it'll be a very
similar teams that we'll get to, you know, hash it
out and see. And I know they graduated a number
of guys from their team last year and as did we.
But I know that they're going to reload similar to
we will too, and have a lot of numbers in

(18:19):
their program. And we got to see them a little
bit at Jennison the indoor facility that they have there
that we did some practices, like I know, like it
was snowing a couple of days, and so we practiced
indoors and ran in and talked to them a little
bit as as we.

Speaker 7 (18:33):
Were leaving there coming in and vice versa a few
those days. So yeah, it'll be electric.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
All right time.

Speaker 4 (18:56):
Now for our four pack, we welcome in our colleagues that
join us in the press box for every game night.
Tom kendra from the Lake Shore with Jay and Buck
Gino with my call on ninety six to one the
game guys, thank you so much. Obviously, we've got a
busy week, a lot of great games. But let's dive
right in and get your thoughts on first and foremost
our game of the week tomorrow night, and that's Byron
Center at Hudsonville and Tom Kendrew'll let you start.

Speaker 10 (19:18):
Well, it's hard to beat a game like that at
both teams went to the State Finals last year at
Ford Field, so you know they're coming in excited for
this year. You know, I look at it like a
lot of teams in the area breaking in new quartererbacks
this year, and I think that's going to be a
big key in this game in terms of the outcome
and see what happens. You know, and as good as
the Oka Red is the top four teams and that

(19:39):
Okay Green, I would put them up against anybody. Byron Center,
Mona Shores, Muskegan and Forest Shield Northern.

Speaker 5 (19:45):
Jason your thoughts well, and as Tom talked about the
new quarterbacks Easton Whitchers at Byron Center and Brady van
Lake at Hudsonville, I really like both of those guys.
It's the running backs to me that are still on
the show here. When you talk about campaign for Byron
Center and Owen Harsma for Hudsonville, you know both these
teams are going to want to establish the ground game.
We talk about the schedule for Byron Center to start
those first five games. Wow, the importance goes up on

(20:05):
this game for Byron Center if they can find a
way to get a win.

Speaker 4 (20:07):
Buck Gino, I know you're excited and going to be
there high above at Eagles Stadium with a call with me.

Speaker 11 (20:12):
Well, the problem is going last is that Jason and
Tom take all the good points. But what I will
say is that both these teams are very similar Breck
because they both, as Jason mentioned, have new quarterbacks that
were good wide receivers on last year's teams, and both
of them, probably their biggest question marks are going to
be upfront on the offensive line. So very mirror images
of each other, both coming back from a Ford Field

(20:34):
visit and also very disappointed, which is going to leave
these kids hungry. They were there at Ford Field last year.
The kids that are coming back and they want to
make it back there and this time bring a trophy home.
So this is a critical game for both teams to
get out of the gate. Well, somebody is going to
start zero to one, but just to have a good
effort and look clean because the biggest improvements are from
week one to week two, and like you said, some

(20:55):
of these these schedules don't give you any breathing rooms.
I think the ok Green and the Oka Red there
are pound for pound, probably the best division that we're
going to have this year in the Okay Conference.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
So happy for both coaches to Mark Cisco and Brent
Sandy and their staffs ending at Ford Field. I know
they wanted to win it, but it says something about
how quality the football is in the divisions. They came
out of the Red and obviously the Green to get there.
It's going to be fun tomorrow night. All right, let's
go to Lake Shore game of the week Powama Westphilia,
a powerhouse as we know at North Muskegon. What an

(21:25):
opener you can listen to it on one oh seven
m us the Moose with these guys and Jason, let's
start with you.

Speaker 5 (21:30):
Well, obviously two of the best teams in the state.
Division seven is hardly arguing that Millington won at all.
They beat North Miskeigon in the semifinal in Palmostvlia. In
the regional they met in Week one last year with
eight to seven PW with a late touchdown and two
point conversions of the fourth quarter. These games always seem
to come right down to the end of twenty twenty
three D seven Regional with twenty eight twenty seven. There's
an eighteen seventeen game in there. I mean, Tom, I

(21:50):
think we're gonna have a one point game. That's my prediction.

Speaker 10 (21:52):
We very well could Jay, you know, and these teams
can meet again in the playoffs, no question about it.
What intrigues me about this game Unlike a lot of
the teams in the area, they got two veteran quarterbacks
coming back, Ty Thalen at Plama Westphalia and Bryce Colbert
at North Muskegan. All he did last year was twenty
three touchdown passes against just two interceptions. So a great

(22:16):
quarterback match up there.

Speaker 4 (22:17):
I love it for a small school too, guys, Before
I let Buck chime in with North Muskegan, the resiliency
they've had and what a great job their staff has
done and the kids they've had through the program. You know,
James Young transferring over, what are we going to do?
They didn't sweat a bullet. They were like, here we go.
We've been here before, and I'm excited to see this
edition North Muskegan, just like I think a lot of
people were surprised pleasantly by last year's edition and how

(22:40):
good they were.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Buck Gino your thoughts.

Speaker 11 (22:42):
Well, I think this is probably just the same as
the last game that we talked about, Brett for our game,
except for now you have two quarterbacks that are coming
back from successful seasons last year and they have more experience.
The question is going to be the weapons around them. Yes,
there are some returning players, but they're also going to
be new bases in there. And again you're getting off
you try to get off to a good start, but

(23:04):
you're scheduling probably your biggest rival in week one. They
have played some doozies. It's going to be a good
one and there's nothing like, as you said, the small
school atmosphere, I mean, the whole town is going to
be there. Quintessential high school football and it's gonna be
a great game to watch between two teams that consistently
are good in Division seven.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
Jay open up the show talking about how good the
schedule was for week one. Well, one of our reporters
is going to be out of this game, Lucas Symbol
And Jay, I know you really like this one.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Muskegan at Grandville.

Speaker 5 (23:32):
Wow, Well, what I love about this game is a
lot of people are really high in Grandball, like, ok,
red Champion good for Grandville and how can you argue
when they have Tank Terry and a really good offensive line. Miskegan, though,
has been pretty good against the flat te offense. You
look at their battles with John Schilto and Zeland West
and nobody does it better than John Hilto. Shane Fairfield
of course calling the defense from Miskegan and I'm gonna
love that matchup.

Speaker 4 (23:52):
Did you see who they were scrimmaging by the way,
Cedars Friggs right getting ready?

Speaker 1 (23:57):
I love that one, Shane Fairfield. But you know your thoughts.

Speaker 11 (24:00):
I think Formskegean. This is a real measuring stick game.
We know the disappointment of last year missing the playoffs
and Greenville coming off with kind of a surprise campaign
when they were able to get to the second round
and upsetting Rockford in that first round of the playoffs,
but they lost a lot on the offensive side as
far as skill. They're moving some guys around. Obviously with

(24:21):
Tank Terry they're going to have that, but plenty of
new faces around and buy him. And so it's going
to be very interesting to see what they do because
you know that they're going to try to take Tank
Terry away. It's easier said than done, but they're going
to have to find other guys to contribute if they
want to go far. And like Jason said, be as
good as they can be to win the Okay Red

(24:43):
for Muskie Can, they've got a lot of momentum coming
into the season, but after last year, I feel that
they're very hungry. They wanted to prove themselves. But this
is how you're going to do it. You got to
be a team that not only is a division or
two above you, but also headed it like not by
getting into the playoffs.

Speaker 7 (24:58):
So the schigue was.

Speaker 11 (24:59):
A lot to prove. This is going to be a
very interesting matchup, and I think this is another one
that is a really good first week because you have
both teams now hopefully they're getting their strength to schedule up,
and this I think helps with scheme more than Grandville.
I think the Schegan lose this game is probably okay
for them, But Grandville loses this game, boy, their schedule
gets no easier and so this one I think is

(25:20):
a little bit more critical for Granville.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
Tom Kendrad, I know you love this because you've got
Muskegan Rockford in week two.

Speaker 10 (25:25):
That's right want to start to the season for Shane Fairfield,
Grandville and then Rockford. But I just love this matchup.
The first time these teams have played since twenty fifteen,
the Skegan seven and two all time against Granville. I
went to practice a few weeks ago and already Shane
Fairfield had his guy talking about Tank Kerry. Jason is right.
Shane Fairfield is a defensive genius and he loves playing

(25:48):
a running team. I think this is going to be
a great matchup. This one I got coming right down
to the wire.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
I'm just going to say this. Two years ago playoffs
East Lansing Jays, Clarizio, see the stats and if you're
a Grandville fan, you don't want that for Tank Terry
in this matchup. Let's go to our final one, guys,
and we could have chose a few different games, but
buck Gino, you've got this one. The Huskies have four
skills Northern against Don Fellows Kellawa Hills.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
What a matchup.

Speaker 11 (26:13):
Well, aside from my personal rooting interest, I think that
Adiosko has got a really good class coming out. He's
got a quarterback that's coming back. His son, Owen started
as a sophomore and now as the second year starter
as a junior. Hey, the other guy on the other sideline,
the same thing. Grayson Fellow is a sophomore starter and
his dad. Yes, the head coach, Don Fellows, He's got

(26:34):
his returning for his second year, so a very intriguing matchup.
This one was a tight one last year, but Northern
lost some weapons. They've got four of their five offensive
lineman returning though that were starters at the end of
last year, so that's going to be a big boost
for the Huskies. But Kella Hills Boyt has got some
dangerous weapons and all sorts of guys that they can
spread the ball around to. And oh yeah, Grayson Fellows

(26:55):
kindly can he throw it, but he can run it too,
So I think this one has potential to be as
tight as it was last year, but significantly higher scoring
than the one last year, which was more of a
defensive struggle.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
Tom Kender, I'm going to go right back to you
on this one.

Speaker 10 (27:08):
A lot of buzzs coming out at Forestfields Northern in
this preseason. You know, last year Byron Center was the
breakout team in the ok Green. A lot of people
think Forrestfields Northern could be that team this year. You
know Owen Ostapo great talent at quarterback, and same thing
at Kenawa Hills. They had twelve sophomore starters a year ago,
they're going to be a year older, a year better.

(27:29):
I look at Kenawa Hills, that's the favorite in the
River City's conference.

Speaker 5 (27:33):
I'm with you, Tom, I look for this game. You know,
Kenow Hills wants to throw at forests, Northern wants to
run it right. So it's the contrasting styles. Which team's
going to do what they want better? I like both
offensive lines here. Buck talked about Fahn's offensive line. Kenniwa's
experienced up there too. I think this has two really,
really good teams, and I think this is a huge
game early, especially for Northern because they're scheduled that Okay,
Green's really tough.

Speaker 4 (27:53):
I'm just going to add it's a lookout game. If
you win this game, lookout for Kenna Hills. If you
win this game, lookout for Forestills Northern. But I think
both those teams we're going to be talking about both
of them as we get towards the end as playoff.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Teams coming up. By the way Mark Cisco.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
In our second Coaches Corner edition, we'll take a closer
look at the twenty twenty five Bulldogs of Byron Center.
We return right here on the LMCU high School football preview.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
For our LMCU Game of the week's schedules, show and
game broadcasts, and the visit our great sponsors. Visit our
Trinity Health High School Football page at ninety six to one,
the game dot com one oh seven mus Theemoose dot
com or Wood Radio dot com.

Speaker 4 (28:44):
Mark congratulations on a great season. At twelve and two,
you guys end at Ford Field in Division two and
can you just put into words what that means as
far as a program, not necessarily even for you, but
your coaching staff, the kids. I mean, I live in
this community. I saw what it did for the student body,
let alone the student athletes or participating. But there is
something as you go through it to it now right

(29:06):
as you get ready for another season after it.

Speaker 12 (29:09):
Sure, I mean number one, it was a blast, like
everybody had a good time. It was long, you know,
Peter stirsmy to tell me about how long it was,
and it seemed like it never ended.

Speaker 9 (29:16):
And so you go through that phase a little bit.

Speaker 12 (29:19):
But having the soccer team play in the finals, then
we got to play in the final.

Speaker 9 (29:22):
Swim team was second in the state, talk team one state.

Speaker 12 (29:25):
I mean, it just changes really the perception of kids
of what they're capable of, and you know, it takes a.

Speaker 9 (29:32):
Lot of It takes a lot of luck and a
lot of things go on your way to get to
those points.

Speaker 12 (29:36):
But at the same time, if you don't think you
can get there, then you're probably not gonna tell us
a little bit.

Speaker 9 (29:40):
About your twenty twenty five group.

Speaker 5 (29:41):
Obviously, right, you graduated some amazing seniors and you always
walk that balance between, well, you got to replace those guys,
But at the same point, how much do you hope
that they leave behind something that will help the younger guys,
the guys coming up try to continue what they built.

Speaker 12 (29:58):
Sure, you know, we lose a lot of game experience,
some things that took place just because those guys have
been around enough to just know and they could make
adjustments and do things on the fly that a lot
of kids probably aren't able to do and it takes.

Speaker 9 (30:13):
Time to do that.

Speaker 12 (30:14):
Right, at the same time, that those guys practice hard
and they liked practicing, you like that. You hope that
the guys that are coming back had a good time
with them doing that, because that's that's the thing that's
going to make you better.

Speaker 9 (30:26):
Really, not how much you practice, but really how hard
you practice.

Speaker 12 (30:30):
When I say hard, I don't mean necessarily physical all
the time, but just just focused intensity and understanding the
importance of all the finer details that take place. And
you know we're two hours period and them are out
the door and we're not going to extend it at all.
You know that that's their time to be in football
and so things. There's little things that can be picked
up during practice if you're paying attention.

Speaker 8 (30:51):
Mark, I'm a big believer.

Speaker 4 (30:52):
As you go through a season like you did that
win or lose, there's usually a game that you point
to and say that for maybe the season changed, or
that's where maybe the kids realized, like you said, what
they could do their potential. To me, the Mona Shores
regular season game jumps out. We were there, I saw it.
It was a very competitive game, but one that you know,
you guys could have easily won too. Is there a

(31:14):
game that you can point to and say that we
knew that we could be state.

Speaker 8 (31:18):
Final stuff for that or changed our season?

Speaker 9 (31:20):
Well, I don't know if we ever knew we could
be state finalists.

Speaker 12 (31:22):
I mean, until you've reached that point, you just never
think you're going to make it. To be honest, I
meant guys that have been there know that. And you
guys that haven't been there, just you know, you walk
away every season. Are we going to ever make it there?
I don't know that there was necessarily a turning point
of the season.

Speaker 9 (31:37):
You know, that game, the Mona Shores game obviously.

Speaker 12 (31:39):
Was a big game for us because we played without
a few kids and still had opportunities to win the game.
I think we saw a lot of growth by a
lot of younger kids on our team that night, and
so that certainly helped out.

Speaker 5 (31:50):
All right, coach, So let's you know, we look at
your your roster and we already talked about how many
how much game experience you lose, So let's just kind
of start at the top there. Land and tong Gate
was such a good quarterback for you, and he's going
to be obviously very difficult to replace.

Speaker 9 (32:04):
What's the outlook for Byron Center at quarterback?

Speaker 5 (32:06):
And how do you try to get that position where
you want it to be to have success this fall?

Speaker 9 (32:12):
Well, I think it's in good hands.

Speaker 12 (32:14):
You know, both East and Whitters and Tate Bambridge played
there two years ago when Landon was hurt.

Speaker 9 (32:18):
Both played significantly in important games.

Speaker 12 (32:20):
East Camp went Forestils Northern, you know, pressed into into
action because guys, because Landon was banged up, and then
you know, Landon took the majority of the snap's last fall.
But when Easton came to the game, we didn't necessarily suffer.
He was still moving the ball well, probably a little
bit better runner than he gets credit for. And you know,
and Tate Bainbridge played the second most players of anybody
on our team at two positions. He's never played before,

(32:42):
which means he's pretty much capable of just filling in
where you need him to and.

Speaker 9 (32:46):
Being pretty good.

Speaker 12 (32:47):
Both are super smart kids too academically, which helped right.
And then the two JV kids, King Bank Camp and
who had an outstanding baseball season, and Brady Hartson. Both
you know, split time last year on the JV. That's
we do that on JVING freshman levels, we always spend
time because you just never know who's going to be around,
or is somebody gonna get hurt and now guy's got
to play.

Speaker 9 (33:06):
That makes a little tough sometimes for younger guys.

Speaker 12 (33:09):
But in the grand scheme of things, they've both played
in fourth quarters of big games at the JV level,
So they just have to learn to operate at a
higher level to throw her and to throw the ball
in tid the windows, to handle the pressure of noise
and movement by opponents, and just some physicality of it.

Speaker 5 (33:28):
Let me just follow up real quick on that coach
that it was interesting to me you played two guys
at quarterback at the freshman JV level, which is that's
intriguing to me.

Speaker 7 (33:35):
When did you go to that, why?

Speaker 9 (33:37):
And just how how has it worked out for you?
We've done that since I've been here for a couple
of reasons.

Speaker 12 (33:42):
Number one, you know so many times people have gone
through a season with their guy at quarterback and boom
that guy twists and ankle or where sheet missed more time?

Speaker 9 (33:51):
What are you gonna do? You got to have somebody
kids know and kids trust, So that's part of it.

Speaker 12 (33:56):
The other part of it was just making sure that
you never know who was going to move away for
a while there when we were transitioning from a farming
community into a suburban community. Suburban people that came in
were here until eighth grade and then their parents got
jobs in Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and they were gone Louisville
and bloom boom boom boom, so they disappeared. And a
lot of those kids are in my neighborhood and were

(34:17):
friends of our family. So I just thought at the
time that if you didn't have two quarterbacks, you're.

Speaker 7 (34:24):
Going to be in trouble.

Speaker 12 (34:24):
You're going to run in trouble somewhere, especially at the
high school level. And really sometimes we had three and four.
I mean in two thousand and fifteen, Reed Vanderberg was
an All Conference guard who played quarterback up until his
senior year, and I used to let him go out
and throw the pregame and opposing fans that have good
times seeing number fifty eight out there throwing, you know,
pat going pregames.

Speaker 9 (34:45):
So it served us well.

Speaker 12 (34:48):
You know, two years ago at Campood, we went through
five quarterbacks in that game. Tonguegate played there, wib Them
played there, Alaska played in that game, White Cheers and
Banbridge all played in.

Speaker 9 (34:57):
That game, and they were already to go.

Speaker 12 (35:00):
Our kids trusted him and knew that they could function
within our offense, and we didn't have to make grand
scheme changes.

Speaker 9 (35:07):
So we've been lucky with that. It's been a fied
at times with parents.

Speaker 12 (35:11):
It's been a fight with coaches even sometimes because who
plays in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 9 (35:16):
Usually be out and flip the coin and then they
can pick and choose what quarters they play in.

Speaker 12 (35:20):
But and it's hard to do that, but our coaches
have really bought into that. We do it at the
middle school level as well, so and really it's benefited us,
I think.

Speaker 9 (35:31):
In the long run.

Speaker 8 (35:32):
Obviously you're more than one player.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
But one player I've got to ask you about because
I've watched him since he's a freshman.

Speaker 8 (35:37):
He just does never looked like a freshman to me.

Speaker 4 (35:39):
He had a big play obviously in the state finals
for you in a big run, and I think it
helped him learning from his brother last year, was a
senior who came back and played with you guys.

Speaker 8 (35:49):
But how good can campaign be, coach?

Speaker 9 (35:51):
No, Sky's the limit, right.

Speaker 12 (35:52):
I mean, he's six foot tall, he's two hundred and
ten two hundred and fifteen pounds depending on the day.
You know, he's a one of the fastest guys on
our team.

Speaker 9 (36:03):
He's a nine and.

Speaker 12 (36:04):
A half foot broad jumper, all the things, and he's
never really trained for football, like it's all you know,
he's been a baseball guy and his football has been
that he's done them both concurrently, but he's never really
taken the time to do that.

Speaker 9 (36:17):
He's a physical kid.

Speaker 12 (36:18):
I think that was the biggest transition in his game
this year was showing some physicality against bigger players.

Speaker 9 (36:24):
Like he's always been the bigger guy right when.

Speaker 12 (36:27):
He was growing up, and now he's puting his people
that's not the case. And he really upped his physicality
for sure of us. And like his brother, I mean,
he's just game smart. He's been around, he's watched a
ton of games. He's always played baseball at a high
level and you can't replicate that, right, So he's just
like I said, this guy's the limit. He'll be as

(36:48):
good as we want on both sides of the ball
for us.

Speaker 7 (36:52):
Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 5 (36:53):
Twenty two Campaign is going to be a guy to
watch this year.

Speaker 9 (36:55):
For sure.

Speaker 5 (36:55):
He was outstanding last year on the way to fort
Fields is sophomore. All right, let's talk about this team?

Speaker 7 (37:00):
Is this group?

Speaker 5 (37:01):
Obviously it's early, you know, practice is just about to
get started. We've got a long ways to go. As
you sit here and look at it and evaluate it
as a coaching staff. What do you see as areas
where you guys pinpoint and say, we have to be
good here. We have to find a way to do this,
make up for this if we want to get to
where we.

Speaker 7 (37:18):
Want to be this year.

Speaker 5 (37:19):
Is there an area where.

Speaker 12 (37:20):
You see that, Well, we're a split staff, and I
try to keep my nose out of some stuff. But
you know, the number one thing is defensively, we have
a ton of bodies to replace. Defensively, I think we
started eight or nine seniors defensively.

Speaker 9 (37:34):
Played some other guys periodically.

Speaker 12 (37:36):
But again, our kids have to get a lot of
experience really fast, and that includes practice.

Speaker 9 (37:42):
We split our team for the first two weeks evenly.

Speaker 12 (37:45):
We've done that probably for the last six years, so
they actually kind of compete against each other because I
think developing depth.

Speaker 9 (37:52):
At the high school level is really, really, really important and.

Speaker 12 (37:55):
I've kind of learned my lesson along the way doing that,
and that's the best way to do it is to
put some guys.

Speaker 9 (38:01):
You know, you don't have a first team.

Speaker 7 (38:03):
We don't have We don't have that.

Speaker 12 (38:04):
We have an orange team against the white team, and
we keep reps and keep track of how that goes
during the day and it's not huge, but again, it
creates a higher level, a higher standard of play and
drew work and so on and so forth, because kids
actually believe they have a chance and if they believe
they have a chance to.

Speaker 9 (38:21):
Play more, they're going to pay attention and practice harder.

Speaker 12 (38:24):
So defensively, we've had a lot of guys that played
last year, but not a lot of guys that played
big minutes.

Speaker 9 (38:30):
And so you could look across the board on our
defense and you're going to see that, right. I mean,
I heard you saying that we had to replace the secondary,
which is a true statement.

Speaker 12 (38:39):
You know, we have to replace to two linebackers, but
we've played for we have to play replay two d ms.

Speaker 9 (38:45):
That were started for us that we're both outstanding players.
We have to replace the dtackle.

Speaker 12 (38:49):
So there's a lot of kids that have to play
and play well.

Speaker 4 (38:52):
Early for US coach, and no, look at the schedule.
I know some of it's in your control of some
of it's not. And obviously as you get better, it
falls into the outgoing. Like we talked with a lot
of teams where teams might not want to play or whatever.
But when you look at it, Hudsonville to open East
kent Wood ham in Indiana, which you don't have to
tell the audience about Hamm in Indiana.

Speaker 8 (39:09):
They always have athletes and they're always competitive.

Speaker 4 (39:12):
And then you go Muskegan and Mona Shores in Okay Greenplay.

Speaker 8 (39:16):
Wow, what a first five weeks. But I know you
guys embraced that, right sure.

Speaker 9 (39:21):
I mean it's an opportunity.

Speaker 12 (39:22):
You know, you're you're gonna play in big stages against
really good teams very early.

Speaker 9 (39:27):
It's really good athletes, you know, really good coaches. So
the good news is that.

Speaker 12 (39:32):
Can't waste time during the preseason, right and the kids
know that, so that that kind of hides the focus
a little bit early on, is a little less of
us coaches kind of dragging kids. They're pushing kids through
the first two weeks of the season. Yeah, if we
have bodies left after that, I feel five games physically

(39:53):
we'll have a chance to be okay. But you know
it's not unlike Granville schedule last year. There are darn
good football team, but boy, they were taking on the
teeth early. And you have to have kids that are
really mentally tough. They can handle that. Understand that situation
and don't get frustrated.

Speaker 9 (40:10):
So that'll be really important for us.

Speaker 5 (40:12):
I want to ask us specifically about Week one and
playing Hudsonville. Obviously, Hudsonville goes to the D one State final,
you go to the D Tuesday Final, and you guys
come together here. I don't think Byron Center Hudsonville have
ever played in football. But you know this matchup Obviously,
people like Brett and I and the fans and like,
this is I mean, Week one is loaded with great
matchups on our side of the state, right, but in
my mind, Brett's going to be there calling that game

(40:33):
like that's the premiere game. Do you just try to
like not worry about that and just like, hey, we
got to be what we got to be, or do
you guys take any opportunity to embrace Hey, we're playing
in a Marquee game here in this area.

Speaker 12 (40:47):
So yeah, we're playing in a Marquee game in this area.
And if I said anything different, our kids would just
look at me and think I'm a liar and everything
else that came in my mind, I'd be wrong too, Right, Yeah,
it's a great opportunity for them, right, I mean, and
we were always first game focused. You need to play
well in the first game. I don't care like you
don't have time to get better. You have nine days

(41:08):
from the start of practice really till you started to
beat the game prepic.

Speaker 9 (41:11):
Some schools are less, but the max is.

Speaker 12 (41:14):
Nine days just to get through some detailed stuff. So
you better be ready to go early because then you
have the four days just to get ready for them.
And you know, we've done a lot of summer work
then prior to that, so we know they're very similar.

Speaker 9 (41:28):
They're extremely physical.

Speaker 12 (41:30):
They were extremely physical in the playoffs last year and
during the regular season. So that's a big game and
that's the only game that's on our schedule right now.

Speaker 8 (41:38):
Mark last question from me, and I think it happened.

Speaker 4 (41:40):
It was a crazy scenario, But take us back to
I think like COVID when you guys had to find
a game and you went down to Indiana and played,
and I remember talking to you as part of our
scoreboard show after that. Rick Burkey was doing the interview,
and you were so excited, the kids were excited. Was
just a crazy game that you pulled.

Speaker 8 (41:56):
Out and won.

Speaker 4 (41:57):
But I was thinking about the bonding time that you
had as a team, and now you still have an
Hammond on your schedule of Morris Illinois and your schedule.
Have you come to where, maybe with other coaches too,
you embraced that a little bit because it's almost like
a college field or a bonding moment or is it
still that, Oh man.

Speaker 8 (42:14):
We have to do these long trips.

Speaker 12 (42:15):
You know?

Speaker 9 (42:16):
That was I think twenty twenty one.

Speaker 12 (42:18):
We played Sea home at Seahome because the COVID game
got canceled in twenty twenty.

Speaker 9 (42:24):
So we're three hours on a bus.

Speaker 12 (42:26):
There's nowhere conditioning in their locker room, so we sat
on the bus right up until game time.

Speaker 9 (42:31):
There was no place to hide.

Speaker 12 (42:32):
We drove back, there was a car accident on a
ninety six, so we got stuck in traffic. It was
a Thursday night because we hadn't started school before Labor
Day until then, and so we got back at one
morning and our kids were in school at seven thirty.

Speaker 9 (42:47):
I'm like, I see all seven thirty have a good time.

Speaker 12 (42:49):
But going into that before, prior to that game, I
had kids raise their hand how many people have started
a game on this team? And there was one kid
in the room that raised his hand, So that was
bonding time for them on the bus.

Speaker 9 (43:02):
And then Middleville had the COVID issue.

Speaker 12 (43:04):
So we had to find a game, and we went
down to Elkhart to play Shattuck when he was at Elkhart,
so there's another two hours. It was actually shorter for
us to go down there, and there was to go
to the east side. Has an east Side guys call
him like, Hey, I'm going to Elkhart. It's closer, but again,
you know, it's a couple of hours down, it's a
couple of hours back. You're play in a double overtime game.
You can't get off the field because they had an

(43:25):
incident in the parking lot. And again, so that here's
stories for kids that don't know each other very well
to sit around and be with each.

Speaker 9 (43:32):
Other and that type of situation. So I think that
really helped us.

Speaker 12 (43:37):
And if you just said we're gonna win seven games
that year, I probably would have laughed at you, along
with our kids.

Speaker 9 (43:43):
But but we did.

Speaker 12 (43:44):
We made it in the playoffs and played pretty well
in the first round before we're losing to Caledonia.

Speaker 9 (43:49):
But I think that was a big deal.

Speaker 12 (43:51):
And now it's you know, you have to find a game,
and where's it going to be and you know around
here at field. So then are you gonna go, Well,
you're gonna have to go one hundred ninety miles to
the east side of the state, or you're gonna have
to go somewhere outside of the state. So and then
you have to find people that are gonna play so
which isn't always easy.

Speaker 9 (44:11):
And I understand that and I think our kids do too. So,
you know, picking up Hammond was was good.

Speaker 12 (44:16):
I know Mac knows the area and knows the football
and state of Michigan pretty good.

Speaker 9 (44:20):
He's done a really good job down there at Hammond
dealing with some tough circumstances.

Speaker 7 (44:24):
For sure.

Speaker 12 (44:25):
Yes he has athletes, but there's a lot of other
things that they have safe care to, you know, really
create a good football program. And then we picked up
Morris on a whim last year, and you know, they've
been in the finals multiple times in the state of
Illinois and they're gritty and got on the bus and
drove fore and a half hours and I've driven him
that way three times this summer and just shake my head,

(44:45):
like man, because construction's awful, just easimilar and it's gonna
be a long night. So yeah, kid's gonna have to
grow up fast from you know, high school kids to
to you know grown ups.

Speaker 5 (44:56):
So parts that are head coach Mark Cisco. We cannot
thank you enough for the time. You always been great
to us over the years. We look forward to watching
your team compete this fall. The season's already here. Thanks
for the time and that's the luck in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 9 (45:07):
You're welcome. Appreciate you guys having me onfciating all the
work you guys do with this and nine a lot
of people you know hanging by.

Speaker 12 (45:13):
Your guys words for sure and probably likely so, so
appreciate all your homework and all of the duty for us.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
Or your one stop site for up to date schedules, scores,
and standings for the ok Conference in River City's alliance,
go to West Michigan oksports dot com powered by the
great winning flavor of winn Shuelers cheese spreads.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
All right, Jay, it's top ten rankings time. You have yours,
I have mine.

Speaker 4 (45:45):
Plus we'll get our uptown cheapskate players to watch this
upcoming season.

Speaker 5 (45:49):
Yeah, so for preseason top ten, I'm going to Hudsonville
number one, and you know the Eagles kind of finished
there last year for me, and I know they graduated
a ton. I just think this is two really good classes.
I think the senior classes a lot of ten. Maybe
we haven't seen all of it because there were so
many good seniors last year. But I really like this
Hudsonville team. I think they start out number one. I
think they've earned that position with these two really really

(46:10):
good classes. I love Brady van Lake at quarterback and
Owen Harsma at running back. I'm standing in the Oka Red.
We have you, Okay Red here in this top six.
So I have Grandville at two. Now the Bulldogs, I
have Tank Terry, one of the best running backs in
the state of Michigan, no question, recently committed a fair state.
But defensively, you know Casey's enter year two is defensive coordinator.
They have six starters back on that side of the ball,
and you know how much teams in the OK Red
throw the football. That secondary should be a strength for Grandville.

(46:33):
I have Mona Shores at three. I'm certainly concerned about
the loss of George Duggans. That's a big loss. He'd
be a three year varsity starter. But her his Achilles
in July and he's not expected to play this season.
But Joe Sole comes in from Portage Northern, so it's
not like you're starting over with a quarterback after Jonathan
Pittman three year started graduat. But you love like Stewart
at running back. And also I'm going on at Kozak

(46:53):
just does such a good job there. I have Mona
Shores Edinar three. I'm going to East kent Wood four.
A lot of people high in East Kent What Kay Kaufman,
Tyrone Spence, we're together last year, first year for both
of them at East Kentwood now year two. I like
Kaufman's weapons, Mighty, Edmund's gonna have a big year. Owen
Vanderveen's a guy we didn't see last year preseason injury.
They lose their center, Charlie Nichols, who's really good. So
I eas Kentwood at four. Number five, I'm going with

(47:15):
Byron center the Bulldogs coming off that D two state
title run. I think with Campaign and company. I really
like Easton Whitchers at quarterback. Schedules really tough. I have
Rockford at six. I can't remember the last time I
had Rockford out of my top five to start the season,
but seven and three a year ago. Certainly some questions
with this team, but I also think they're sneaky. I
think Rockford could be better. I think than a lot
of people think as well. Big test out of the

(47:35):
gate with Selene. Number seven for me then is Miskegan
loved the Big Reds. I know they were three and
five last year. They were in my top ten last year,
a three and five. Their schedule is that tough, skiking
should be good again. I like getting back to Miskegan
football a little bit this year. Lamar Bradford at quarterback,
five of their front seven returning on defense. Of course,
Shane Fairfield calls the defense. I expect them to be
really good on that side of the ball. I'm going
Northview eight Wildcats perfect regular season last year. Brayln Jefferson

(47:58):
transfers in from Hudsonville. Should be really good. Quarterback Jalen
get Back at running back, the weapons, the offensive line.
I think Northe is gonna be really good again. I' grandup,
It's clock Central at nine. I actually really like this
grandup It's Catholic Central team. I just think there's a
lot of really good teams in front of them. With
Odin Spencer as a sophomore, they need to find a
playmaker at wide receiver, I think, but Kamal Hillard at
running back, and they're gonna be really good on defense
and a running them out. My top ten, I have

(48:19):
four sols Northern super high on the Huskies at offensive line.
With four guys back, they're really good up there. Owen Ostapo,
Eddies Sun really good at quarterback, and Colton Sawyer lookout
for him at running back.

Speaker 4 (48:28):
All Right, I'm gonna start by saying I saw sixteen
teams scrimmage, not all of them from the West Monsterior.
That's the most I've ever seen. So here's my top ten.
I go Hudsonville one, defending OK RED Champs Division on
state finalists, as you mentioned. I go Mona Shores two.
Even with the Duggins injury, I mean Mack Cosey, they
just get it done.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
Whoever they play.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
Nothing phases this team, and now they're a year older.
East Kentwood I'm high on two. Jay I am at
number three, Kid Kaufman effect, tyrone and Spencer effect, whatever
you want to call it.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
It's been a long time since East Kentwood was I
would consider a power Hulse.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
Right, you go back to John Stilito, probably excited playoff team.
Here we go and challenge for the Oka Red this year.
I have Byron Center at four, Rockford at five, Grandville
at six. So I'm like you, okay, Red heavy. And
how about the matchups we're gonna have with our games
of the week. You got Muskegan Rockford next week, We've
got Byron Center Hudsonville to start. We're gonna find out
about Forest Hill's Northern in week two with Jennison. These

(49:22):
are gonna be a lot of fun. Grandville Miskegan playing
each other in week one. I have seen Little West.
I didn't think I would have the defending state champs
as high, but impressed.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
With them in the scrimmage.

Speaker 4 (49:31):
They were in that scrimmage with Hudsonville, with West Catholic
and East Grand Rapids as well. So I have them
at seven, Miskegan eight, Unity Christian nine. People forget they
were the okay gold champs. They ran the table and
I think the toughest division last year, and then Norfew
is ten.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
I have Catholic Central.

Speaker 4 (49:46):
I'm keeping an eye on West Catholic I'm keeping an
eye on I know you and I both like Kenway
Hills and Don Fellows. In year two, Foresteels North I
would throw in that group, and I would throw Coopersville
in that group as well. The champs of the River
City's aligned.

Speaker 5 (49:56):
Well, I'm keeping my eye on Zealing East. I really
like the chicks. In fact, I'm picking them to win
the goal. And you know how good the gold is
the Eland Last, Forest Hills, Central South, Christian Unity Christian
I'm picking Zealand East win that.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
League real quick. A couple of players to watch for
you this season, yeah.

Speaker 5 (50:08):
Eli McCauley, four year varsity, started the offensive line for
Forests Northern. Also going to start on the defensive line.
I mean, this kid is big and strong and he
moves really well for a guy his size. I know
you're going to get into some skill guys. I just
think we need to give some love to the offensive
line and defensive line. And Eli McCauley is going to
lead to charge for Forests North this year. One of
the reasons I have him in my top ten and
I'm going to Zealand West. Marshall Johnson started at guard.

Speaker 7 (50:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (50:30):
Last year in defensive end. He's moving to tight end
this year for Zealand West, but defensively as an edge rusher.
I mean, this guy's this guy's athletic, strong, going to
be a college player. Really watch out for Marshall Johnson.
I believe he's switching at number eight this year.

Speaker 4 (50:42):
I know I'm a Michigan State fan, so you're saying, Okay, yeah, obviously,
Kate Kaffin, I'm just excited. Whenever you have a Division
one scholarship quarterback, you gotta go out.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
And see that guy, right, and so proud of him.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
I watched him as a sophomore and we was with
the South Christian program at that point. So excited to
see him in game action in a conference like the Okay, Red,
It's going to be a lot of fun. And then
my other one is Campaign from my own backyard. You
remember Kellen Payne and you remember campaignia that big run
in the state championship game. He's six foot, he's two fifteen, he's.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
Only a junior.

Speaker 4 (51:11):
He's going to be a legit Division one running back,
so look out. And obviously he's got Hudsonville in Week one.
Hope you enjoyed the show and we'll see you next
week Thursday, six o'clock right here on ninety six to
one the Game.

Speaker 3 (51:24):
We hope you enjoyed this edition of the LMCU High
School Football Preview Show and exclusive presentation of ninety six
one the Game and iHeartMedia powered by Lake Michigan Credit Union.
Find out more at LMCU dot org and also brought
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(51:47):
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just a reminder that you can follow all of the
high school sports action this fall with conference schedules, scores,

(52:08):
and standings for your favorite teams by logging onto West
Michigan oksports dot com