All Hands on Deck, P-W Earns 1st Title
November 26, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
DETROIT – Jared Smith’s final football game in a Pewamo-Westphalia uniform ended Saturday how he’d always dreamed.
He waved his arms up and down during the final seconds, beckoning to the crowd for a final blast of cheers as he first hugged teammates, then hoisted up assistant coach Nathan Thelen and spun him around a few times for probably his longest carry of the Division 7 Final.
With that, the most successful decoy in MHSAA championship game history began celebrating the history-making event that’s always mattered most.
It was apparent by halftime Saturday there would be no career rushing record for the Pirates senior back, who will graduate atop all-time lists in five other categories. He didn’t score this time and didn’t even lead his team in rushing. But the second-most traveled rusher in more than a century of Michigan high school football ended as a champion, drawing so much attention from opponent Detroit Loyola that his teammates could do the lifting in a 28-14 win at Ford Field.
“We have so many weapons on the team this year, so many tremendous athletes. … Teams are going to key on me just because of what I’ve done, and it opens up things for everybody else,” Smith said. “When everybody steps up, we’re hard to stop.
“I’ve got no problem with how we win if we come out with the win. I said at the beginning that I don’t care about my records. I just wanted a state championship.”
That championship was the first in Pirates football history, coming in their third Finals appearance, the final victory of a perfect 14-0 run. They entered the playoffs ranked No. 2 in Division 7 and beat No. 1 Traverse City St. Francis, No. 3 Saugatuck and No. 4 Ubly on the way to Detroit before downing No. 5 Loyola.
Last season, P-W led into the final four minutes of the Division 7 championship game before falling 22-16 to Ishpeming. And the lessons from that day – plus the familiarity with this stage from that trip – clearly paid off for a team that returned nine starters on both sides of the ball and the second player to go over 8,000 yards rushing for his career.
Smith entered with 8,140 yards over four varsity seasons, only 291 yards shy of the career record set by East Grand Rapids’ Kevin Grady from 2001-04. But Saturday, Smith ran for a mere 48 on 20 carries, not even the most on his team – but enough to open up opportunities for the Pirates’ pair of quarterbacks, senior Ryan Smith and junior Jimmy Lehman. They orchestrated an attack that scored the second-most points Loyola had allowed in the playoffs over the last five seasons – second only to the 30 P-W scored against the Bulldogs in a Semifinal win last fall.
Ryan Smith led the Pirates in rushing with 81 yards and a touchdown, while Lehman was 6 of 8 passing for 127 yards and a pair of touchdowns tosses to senior Logan Hengesbach. Lehman also added a touchdown run from a yard out with 5:05 to play.
That Lehman run score not withstanding, it’s been a little predictable which quarterback was going to do what. But with the Bulldogs keying on Jared Smith, it didn’t matter much. Lehman’s first touchdown pass came on play-action after a fake handoff to Smith. Ryan Smith’s running touchdown came after a fake dive up the middle to Jared, which drew the interior of Loyola’s defense as Ryan ran right two yards into the end zone.
“(The quarterback predictability) does speak to the play of our offensive line, which was solid today,” P-W coach Jeremy Miller said. “When Ryan comes in, we’re reading some stuff, and we want to get him going with his legs, but Ryan can also throw the ball, hurt you through the air. When Jimmy comes in, it’s more of a passing look for us, and we use him as more of a blocker, but then today Jimmy got a big play for us at the end of the game with his legs.
“To both of their credits, for the last two years they didn’t care who was in, they didn’t care who was carrying the ball, what we were doing. They supported each other, and that’s an example of the brotherhood we had on this team.”
Loyola, a three-time finalist this decade and the champion in 2014, pushed to the end despite facing a three-score deficit with just under nine minutes to play.
The Bulldogs (11-3) got on the board with an 18-yard touchdown pass from senior Price Watkins to junior tight end Keith Johnson, followed by a two-point run by Watkins that made the score 21-8. After Lehman’s run touchdown, Loyola drew to the final deficit on sophomore D’Vaun Bently’s scoring run with 2:04 to play.
The Bulldogs’ late offensive start surely wasn’t helped by the absence of senior Malcolm Mayes, who didn’t play (and was reported earlier in the week to be injured). The usually run-heavy veer offense gained only 123 yards on 38 carries and 186 yards of total offense.
“They attack with the D ends. They really were crashing them,” Watkins said. “So it was hard to make those outside runs. We run a veer, and it’s outside – so they crashed down with the D ends, and basically stopped us from running our plays.”
Senior linebackers Nathan Smith and Devon Pung led the Pirates’ defensive effort with nine and seven tackles, respectively. The most impressive individual defensive performance, however, came from Loyola senior linebacker Kailen Abrams – he had 16 tackles, including 4.5 for losses, at one point taking down Ryan Smith two plays in a row to help force a field goal attempt that ended up no good.
Total, the Bulldogs had nine tackles for losses and a sack. But the Pirates just kept coming.
“Our plan going in there was more concerned with that quarterback read (by Ryan Smith) than Jared. I thought with our speed, I thought we could contain Jared, but we were concerned with the read with the quarterback,” Loyola coach John Callahan said. “And he did an outstanding job on the read. He rode that until the very end, tucked it and took it.
“We watched enough film on them to know they had some receivers, had some guys. Early on that first half, the kids made some big-time plays. … (But) they aren’t just Jared, and obviously you saw that.”
The MHSAA Football Finals are sponsored by the Michigan National Guard.
PHOTOS: (Top) P-W quarterback Ryan Smith breaks a Detroit Loyola tackle during Saturday’s Division 7 Final. (Middle) Logan Hengesbach (5) and Garrett Trierweiler celebrate one of Hengesbach’s two touchdown catches.
Long Losing Streak Becoming Distant Memory as Adrian Football Re-Emerges
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
October 10, 2023
It’s hard to point to one particular move that led to the resurgence of the Adrian High School football program, but there’s no doubt the Maples are back.
Just a few years ago, they were in the throngs of a 30-game losing streak, had a difficult time fielding a junior varsity team and the school’s administration conducted a survey about possibly leaving the Southeastern Conference.
Now, Adrian is 6-1, finished just a game out of first place in the SEC White and is primed for a Division 4 playoff run.
“There are a lot of really good things going on with the football program, the school and athletic program,” said second-year varsity football coach Joel Przygodski. “We have great kids who love to work hard. I’m glad to see them being successful because they work so hard.”
Przygodski is part of an overhaul at Adrian, which has seen a new superintendent, high school principal and athletic director over the last couple of years.
“The leadership is all in line with a similar point of view about how high school athletics should be a positive experience for kids,” Przygodski said. “It’s really fun to be a part of a school district like Adrian when everybody is rowing in the same direction.”
Historically, Adrian has had success on the football field. From 1999 to 2011, the Maples missed the playoffs just twice. Then came a series of 2-7 and 3-6 years, but a bounce-back 7-5 in 2016.
The program took a downturn after that.
Adrian didn’t win a game during the 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons. The Maples lost 30 straight in all before defeating Brooklyn Columbia Central in Week 2 of the 2021 season. Those losses included the Maples forfeiting a 2020 playoff game – when almost all teams made the postseason due to COVID-19 – due to a lack of available players.
Przygodski was one of the Adrian assistants during the playoff years, then left to become an assistant coach at Saline. He remained a teacher in the district, however.
When the Adrian head coaching job opened after the 2021 season, Przygodski didn’t hesitate to throw his name into the candidate pool.
“I taught the same kids who are playing now in middle school, so it’s not like I had to meet these kids for the first time,” he said. “It was more of a re-introduction to them. They only knew me as Mr. P, not as Coach P.
“The kids wanted to win, they wanted that discipline and structure, and they just hadn’t had it for one reason or another.”
Chad O’Brien, in his third year as the Adrian athletic director, is pleased with the progress of the athletic program. The baseball team won an SEC title last year, and the basketball team has had success as well.
“I think we have a lot of good people in good positions right now, and that makes a huge difference,” he said. “The continuity of the staff is huge. We have everyone on the same page. We discuss it as a group. We interact a ton. We aren’t separated. Everyone is moving in the same direction.
“There are still things that need to be addressed, but it’s definitely different than it was two years ago.”
The biggest turnaround has been in the football program. With some of the same players who were part of the 30-game losing streak, the Maples went 5-5 last year and are 6-1 this fall.
The Maples opened the season with four straight wins before falling 28-18 to Chelsea, the only blemish on a great season so far. They followed up the loss to the Bulldogs with back-to-back conference wins over Jackson and Pinckney to finish 4-1 in the SEC White. They have two nonleague games left to get ready for the postseason.
Quarterback Sean Parker is the unquestioned leader of the team. A four-year starter, Parker has thrown for 1,147 yards and 13 touchdowns this season while completing 65 percent of his passes. He has also rushed for 356 yards.
“He’s one of the smartest kids I’ve ever coached,” Przygodski said. “He has 4.1 GPA. He’s a very intelligent young man who works very hard. He’s kind of a silent leader, but a fun kid to be around. He’s gotten better each and every day.”
Chase Henline is the rushing leader with 780 yards and eight touchdowns. Five Maples have more than 100 yards receiving and are in double digits for catches.
Parker is one of 15 seniors.
“The majority of them have played all four years, and a handful of them are four-year starters,” Przygodski said. “When you have kids who have been battle-tested and have endured some of the things they did as freshmen and sophomores, then having a pretty decent year as juniors, it sets the stage for a pretty good senior campaign with everything falling in line.”
Przygodski is an Ann Arbor native who was head coach at his alma mater – Ann Arbor Huron – for four years before coming to Adrian in 2010. He served time as an assistant with the Maples under Phil Jacobs and was in Milan for a year. He then worked under Joe Palka at Saline for four years.
“I learned a lifetime of football working for Joe for those four years,” he said. “I think the biggest thing I got from him is how he organized. Everything was down to the details. If you put our practice plan and their practice plan next to each other, it would probably look similar. That’s probably the thing I learned the most.”
Przygodski isn’t worried about an encore just yet, but praised Adrian for its facilities and strength and conditioning program under Toby Ernst, now in his second year.
“They check all of the boxes of what you need to be competitive and successful in high school sports,” Przygodski said. “The community support has been phenomenal. It’s a place where you can compete and win.”
O’Brien said Adrian will continue to move forward with its athletic program.
“We’ve always had good kids here. We just had to have the right people directing them,” O’Brien said. “The biggest thing is we are going to do what’s right for kids, do what’s right for our district and do what’s right for our league. Every decision we make, we make sure we are following that.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Adrian’s Carson DeKeyser (7) and Thomas Dayharsh celebrate a touchdown during Friday’s 34-0 win over Pinckney. (Middle) Maples quarterback Sean Parker rolls right behind the protection of Antonio Brown. (Photos by Deloris Clark-Osborne.)