'3rd-Quarter Team' West Catholic Shows Why in Record-Setting Triumph

By Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com

November 25, 2022

DETROIT – When Negaunee senior Phil Nelson returned the opening kickoff of the second half Friday and tied the Division 6 championship game at 14, it woke something up inside Ford Field.

Unfortunately for Negaunee, that something was Timmy Kloska.

“I just saw that kick return, and it really fired me up,” the Grand Rapids West Catholic senior running back said. “Our o-line got going, the holes were opening and we just got going.”

Kloska dominated the rest of the game, rushing for 172 yards and four touchdowns during the second half, leading West Catholic to a 59-14 victory. It was the sixth Finals title for West Catholic, and first since 2017. 

The Falcons’ 59 points set the record for an 11-player Final, breaking the mark set by both Flint Powers Catholic and Saginaw Nouvel in 2011.

“It’s great,” said Kloska, who finished with 241 yards rushing for the game. “Me and all my friends, and all the players on the team, we’ve worked really hard for this. This has been a dream since we were in seventh grade, watching all those state championships. It’s a great feeling because we’ve worked so hard.”

The Falcons’ Danny Groskiewicz (24) and Joe Debski bring down a Negaunee ball carrier.West Catholic put on an offensive display, gaining 520 yards of total offense and averaging 14.9 yards per play. That number sat at 16.8 yards per play entering the fourth quarter. 

The Falcons had five touchdowns of longer than 30 yards, and three longer than 60. They were also remarkably balanced, as they gained 295 yards on the ground and 225 through the air on the arm of quarterback Bernie Varnesdeel.

“Our coaches, all week, have put us in good positions,” said junior receiver Carter Perry, who had touchdown receptions of 72 and 32 yards in the first half. “When you get put in that position, it’s almost easy to make the plays and execute them.”

It started right away, too, as Perry’s 72-yard score came on the first play from scrimmage.

“I knew right before the game he was going to be wide open,” Varnesdeel said. “We were working on that play all week at practice, and he’s been open most of the time. He was the main option right there, so I just hit him and executed.”

Despite the big-play success, West Catholic (13-1) wasn’t able to pull away from Negaunee because it barely had the ball during the first half.

Negaunee (13-1) had a 20:03-3:57 edge in time of possession, and ran 37 plays to West Catholic’s 13. But it took until the final play of the half for the Miners to get on the scoreboard. They scored on a 6-yard pass from Ty Jacobson to Nelson on 4th-and-goal to make it 14-7 at halftime. The scoring toss was set up by a 32-yard pass on a reverse flea flicker from Jacobson to Eli VanBuren on a third down near midfield.

“Our gameplan was really similar from the first half to the second half, but you have to give Negaunee a lot of credit,” West Catholic coach Landon Grove said. “They did a really good job. They slowed the game down. They ate up a lot of clock. That’s credit to them. They got us out of rhythm, and they kind of forced our hand a little bit by not letting us have the football.”

When Nelson ran the kick back to start the second half and tie the game at 14, it seemed as if Negaunee’s strategy was working perfectly. 

West Catholic players celebrate Friday’s win. But West Catholic’s 45 unanswered points to end the game negated all of that.

“We ran out of gas,” Negaunee coach Paul Jacobson said. “We played toe-to-toe with them for a half, Phil had a great return to start the second half. I don’t know if we woke a sleeping giant. It was a combination of that, and we kind of ran out of gas. Then they rolled that second half on us.”

The Falcons scored 31 points in the third quarter, and didn’t take up a lot of time in doing so. 

Kloska had touchdown runs of 61, 16 and 3 yards, and Varnesdeel threw his third touchdown pass of the game, a 68-yarder to Andrew McAlary. Carson Beekman added a 31-yard field goal.

Those five drives lasted a total of 4:35.

The difference between the third quarter and the first half, however, was that the West Catholic defense was getting the Negaunee offense off the field.

“Kind of our M.O. this year has been third quarters,” Grove said. “Kind of coming out with our hair on fire and taking over games. That’s what we did again today. That’s a testament to our defensive staff for making those adjustments they needed to make. Then our kids buying into those adjustments and believing in the process.”

Kloska added a 13-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, while Elliot Zainea had a 26-yard touchdown run for the Falcons.

Varnesdeel was 5-of-10 passing on the night for his 225 yards and three scores. McAlary had three catches for 121 yards, and Perry had his two for 104.

Charlie DeBruyn led the West Catholic defense with 10 tackles, including 3.5 for loss, and forced a fumble.

Kai Lacar led Negaunee with 45 yards rushing, and Ty Jacobson was 7-of-12 passing for 78 yards.

“I’m just proud of these guys, the way they battled adversity,” Paul Jacobson said. “They battled a ton of different stuff this year. Just the ups and downs, they were able to stick together. We really preach a family mentality, and they stuck together through and through. I’m proud of these guys.”

Click for the full box score.

PHOTOS (Top) West Catholic’s Carter Perry (13) gets upfield during his team’s Division 6 championship win. (Middle) The Falcons’ Danny Groskiewicz (24) and Joe Debski bring down a Negaunee ball carrier. (Below) West Catholic players celebrate Friday’s win. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)

Another 1st-Time Opportunity Awaits as Hart Continues Memorable Playoff Run

By Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com

November 1, 2023

HART – When Hart High School constructed a new trophy case last year, football coach Joe Tanis was given the job of organizing it.

West MichiganTalk about adding insult to injury.

Tanis found a home for all 67 of the trophies in the new display case – including District, Regional and state championship trophies from every sport under the sun, from cross country to wrestling to bowling. Every sport, that is, except for football.

“We have a chance to do something very special this Friday night,” Tanis, in his third year as Hart’s head coach, told his huddled team at the end of Monday’s practice. “We have a chance to add the first football trophy to that trophy case.”

Hart (9-1), which qualified for the football playoffs for the first time in school history and became the final Muskegon-area school to earn a playoff berth, then picked up its first playoff win Friday, 44-22, over Kent City in a Division 6 District Semifinal in front of 2,000 fans at Hart.

“Winning a playoff game felt amazing,” said senior quarterback and safety Connor Edwards. “It was so cool to look out at the crowd and see it packed all the way to the concession stand. I’ve never seen that before.”

The Pirates will now play for a coveted District championship trophy this Friday night at Reed City.

“I grew up watching Hart football and never have we ever had a good football team,” said senior cornerback and running back Austin Martinez. “The coolest part is that our grade, since we were little kids playing Bucs football, said we were going to turn it around and now we’re doing it.

“Our team is just a bunch of aggressive guys that don’t back down from anyone.”

 Hart coach Joe Tanis, in his third year, has led the Pirates to a 9-1 record thus far and the school's first-ever playoff victory on Oct. 27 against Kent City. Hart’s football woes go back decades, and many in the town of 2,126 located about 30 miles north of Muskegon were starting to wonder if their Pirates would ever win on the gridiron. In fact, one must understand the depths of despair the Hart football program has endured to appreciate the current level of euphoria.

Before Tanis’s arrived in 2021, the Pirates had won a total of 12 football games over the previous 10 years, with their last winning season coming with a 5-4 mark in 1997.

Tanis’ tenure started off in typical Hart fashion at 2-5, but his team won its final two games in 2021, leading into a 6-3 season last fall and 9-1 this year.

“We have celebrated on 17 of our last 21 Friday nights,” Tanis said.

Hart’s football turnaround is the final piece of the puzzle to complete the school’s amazing sports renaissance.

Hart won five consecutive Finals titles in girls cross country from 2017 to 2021, the boys cross country team won the school’s first boys team championship last fall, girls track has captured back-to-back Finals titles, competitive cheer took fourth in Division 4 last spring, girls basketball made it to the 2023 Division 3 Semifinals and boys basketball finished 20-0 last regular season – winning the school’s first boys basketball conference title in 60 years.

Football started its turnaround with the arrival of Tanis and defensive coordinator Jacob Tumele in 2021 – a coaching duo which has worked tirelessly recruiting, getting kids in the weight room and, as Tanis readily admits, getting a big boost with the realignment of the West Michigan Conference.

The WMC broke into two divisions in 2021, with a larger-school Lakes division featuring powers Oakridge, Whitehall and Montague, and Hart settling into a much more favorable schedule in the smaller-school Rivers division. The Pirates took second in the Rivers this fall, with their only loss coming at the hands of unbeaten North Muskegon.

Tanis also preached an “all-in” mentality, starting with himself.

Tanis, a Grandville native whose last head coaching job before Hart stretched seven years at Muskegon Orchard View, bought a house on Pirate’s Way leading into the town’s academic campus.

“One of the conditions of this job was that I had to move into town,” explained the 41-year-old Tanis. “Well, to get to my driveway, you first have to pull into the school driveway, so I can’t get any closer. And we absolutely love it.”

All five members of the Tanis family could easily walk to school each day. Joe is the dean of students at the high school, wife Jilanna works in the district’s central business office located in the early elementary building, his two youngest kids are in the elementary school and his oldest child is at the middle school.

“There is a Tanis in all four of the buildings,” Tanis said with a smile.

 Hart's senior football players and their coaches take a final walk off the field after defeating Ravenna, 44-0, on Oct. 20 in the final regular-season home game.

On the field, Tanis dug back into football’s past to find Hart’s new offense – the single wing, which features a direct center snap to one of the three backs, a quarterback who blocks more than he throws and an unbalanced line to create mismatches at the point of attack.

Hart, which starts seven seniors on both sides of the ball, is averaging 49 points per game during its current five-game winning streak.

Senior Joseluis Andaverde (known to all his teammates as “Beast Mode”) is the most dangerous offensive weapon with 185 carries for 1,537 yards and 19 TDs. His primary blocker is Edwards, the quarterback, who has rushed for 756 yards and 12 touchdowns while completing 11-of-35 passes for 267 yards, five TDs and one interception.

Five of the Pirates’ six starters on the offensive line are seniors, with the exception of standout sophomore Hollis Rockwell at center – which is a critically important position in the single-wing offense.

Tanis feels the unique offense really benefits his team in the playoffs, when teams have only one week to prepare for it.

That being said, Tanis knows his undersized and inexperienced playoff team will be the underdog this week at Reed City, a perennial playoff team which came within one point of advancing to Ford Field last season, losing 13-12 to Negaunee in a Division 6 Semifinal.

“The major appeal of taking this job was having the opportunity to do things that have never been done here before,” said Tanis. “We have done some of those things, and hopefully there are more to come.

“You have to change the way the kids think, and we’ve done that. Now these kids think of themselves as winners.”

Tom KendraTom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Senior tailback Joseluis Andaverde runs the ball in a game against White Cloud on Aug. 31. (Middle) Hart coach Joe Tanis, in his third year, has led the Pirates to a 9-1 record thus far and the school's first-ever playoff victory on Oct. 27 against Kent City. (Below) Hart's senior football players and their coaches take a final walk off the field after defeating Ravenna, 44-0, on Oct. 20 in the final regular-season home game. (Photos by Harriet Kidder.)