Cadillac Freshmen Wing, Westinghouse Become Wingmen for Each Other
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
October 18, 2024
Lawson Westinghouse has a wingman.
He really has several, but arguably no one closer than Dominic Wing, the 6-foot-5 freshman starting quarterback at Cadillac High School.
Westinghouse is also a freshman at Cadillac. A couple of other freshman, lineman Tanner Johnson and wide receiver/linebacker Will Howell, also are standing ready and willing to support.
Westinghouse, an avid long distance runner, likely will never play a down on the football field for the Vikings. But he’s usually helping the quarterbacks with drills at practice and looks like a member of the coaching staff on the sidelines during games.
He’s taken all road trips with the Vikings, sitting right next to Wing on the bus. Unfortunately, the road trip string is likely to end tonight when the Vikings head to Marquette for a matchup with league and playoff implications. Cadillac goes into the game 4-3 overall with a 3-2 Big North Conference record. Marquette is 5-2, 4-1.
Westinghouse can’t make the trip because he’s battling sickness complications from chemotherapy. He was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer called Ewing Sarcoma a few years back.
He got good news earlier this season indicating he was cancer free, but had to return to chemo this week.
Wing, Johnson and Howell spend time daily with Westinghouse reading. Westinghouse had goals of reading the book “The Twin Thieves” by the end of the school year and trying to stay in school every day.
The boys try to get Westinghouse through a few pages every day. Wing is his primary reading partner, having developed a close bond with Westinghouse since transferring to Cadillac from Morley Stanwood this fall.
They first met at a basketball game last winter at Cadillac. They reconnected on the first day of school this fall and sat side by side during road trips to Midland, Gaylord, Sault Ste. Marie and Greenville as Cadillac recovered from an 0-2 start winning four of its last five games heading into tonight’s contest.
“I had a bunch of friends (at Cadillac), so I came up for a game,” Wing recollected. “(Lawson) saw me there, and he came up and introduced himself.
The friendship started to really take off with the first day of school, the two freshmen said. “(Lawson) wanted to be on the field, and we started reading in the mornings, which was really nice,” Wing recalled.
The special bond has led to a looser game warm-up and become a key to Wing’s mental preparations. It may be even more critical than Wing’s off-field opportunities to consult with a former NFL quarterback, John Wolford.
“We both talk the whole time on the bus rides,” Westinghouse said.
Wing treasures the conversation.
“We connect on the bus,” Wing said. “Once we get off the bus, he’ll get my warm-up ball and he’ll come over and watch me warm up, and I think it is pretty cool.”
Second-year coach Nick Winkler, who also serves as a special education teacher for Cadillac, loves how the new quarterback has connected with Westinghouse, who may rank as the most popular kid in school.
“Dom does a really good job of looking out for opportunities to take some time with Lawson during games and practice,” said Winkler. “Playing quarterback is hard enough as it is, so to intentionally do that speaks a lot to Lawson and a lot of people in the program.”
Westinghouse said he loves football and running. He recently asked his parents to buy him a football, and he’s been secretly practicing away from the football field. He also has run the Mackinac Bridge Labor Day event both ways every year.
One of the most memorable moments for Winkler, Wing, Howell, Tanner and Westinghouse is far from the best one though. Lawson found himself sick on the way back from the Sault victory, and the boys had an opportunity to comfort him and practice a little caregiving.
“It was a late-night bus trip back, and Lawson gets sick,” Winkler said. “Those guys really helped him out — I think that speaks to their character.”
Another freshman, Ty Pettit, cannot play football due to a health condition, but also has been welcomed to the team. He participates in quarterback drills and serves as an equipment manger. He also serves as the resident prankster on the team, according to Winkler.
“I mostly hang out with the team and encourage them to do their best,” Pettit said of his role.
Without Westinghouse tonight, Wing will rely more on his consultation with Wolford, who first connected with Winkler in Green Bay. Wing is coming off completing 14 of 18 attempts for 200 yards in last week’s win. He has one touchdown pass and no interceptions.
Wolford played for the Los Angeles Rams from 2019-2022 and then during then during the 2023 season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His first NFL start was in place of injured Jared Goff in the 2020 regular-season finale, and he led the Rams back into the playoffs with a 10-6 victory. He became the first quarterback to pass for more than 200 yards and rush for more than 50 in his NFL debut. He also backed up Matthew Stafford as the Rams won the 2021 Super Bowl.
‘‘Dominic’s grooming as a quarterback has not been normal,” said Winkler. “He has the opportunity to talk with an NFL quarterback every week if he wants to, and I would say that relationship would come second to what he and Lawson have developed.”
Wing will miss Westinghouse every time the offense comes off the field tonight.
‘I usually like to look for him and we give each other a little fist bump when I come off,” Wing said.
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) From left, Ty Pettit, quarterbacks KaLenn Harsh and Dominic Wing, Lawson Westinghouse and Cadillac football coach Nick Winkler take a moment for a photograph during a recent practice. (Middle) Tanner Johnson, Will Howell and Westinghouse read “The Twin Thieves” together. (Below) Westinghouse keeps an eye on the action. (Practice photos by Tom Spencer; reading photo courtesy of the Cadillac athletic department.)
Wingfield's Fame as Gamebreaker Grows after Record-Setting Junior Season
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
August 30, 2023
Mekhi Wingfield’s journey to becoming one of the most dynamic football players in all of 8-player football in Michigan began in Detroit and is continuing today at Jackson County’s Concord High School.
Wingfield moved to the Concord area when he was in the sixth grade. He was still two years away from playing football for the first time. Basketball was his thing. And meeting people.
“The first day of school I made friends,” Wingfield said. “I’m one of those guys who like to talk. I’ll go up to anybody and try and talk to them. I like to hear different perspectives in life.”
Wingfield doesn’t need any introduction in 8-player football. Last season, the 6-foot-3 receiver had a record-setting season for the Yellow Jackets, making a name for himself across the state.
In nine games, he had 76 catches for 1,035 yards and 16 touchdowns. He set an 8-player record with 17 receptions in a game and moved to the top or close to the top of the charts in numerous other categories, including career touchdowns (26) and career receptions (139).
Britton Deerfield head coach Erik Johnson saw firsthand what Wingfield can do on the football field.
“He is a very talented football player,” said Johnson, who competes against Concord in the Tri-River 8 Conference. “Last year he almost singlehandedly beat us with big play after big play.
“They run a lot of jet sweep action with him where they toss it to him … but he has the size, speed, and athletic ability to hurt your defense with the short passing game and then just running right by you for the deep ball.”
Johnson has watched Wingfield for a couple of seasons now. This year, BD plays Concord twice.
“In the 8-player game, it is really tough to dedicate two defensive players to one offensive player, but Mekhi's ability almost makes you have to that,” he said.
Wingfield says his best game came against BD.
“There is a small little rivalry with them,” he said. “When they came to our place last year, I had like three touchdowns on them. That was so fun. Best game of my high school career.”
Wingfield’s family moved to south central Michigan to help care for his grandmother, who lived in Albion, when he was about 10. His older siblings went to Marshall, but he enrolled at Concord.
He and his twin sister are the youngest of seven in the family.
He was introduced to football in the eighth grade and played some that season, but not the full year. By his freshman year, his athletic ability blossomed.
“When I got to the ninth grade is when I got into Coach (Max) Clark’s program, and I started being dedicated to football and sports,” Wingfield said. “I got in the weight room and just became a field rat.”
Clark has had an impact on his life, Wingfield noted: “Football with Coach Clark – I can’t say it was always easy, but he’s helped me and guided me and took me under his wing. I had to work for my spot. I was the underdog coming in. I didn’t have football under my belt. I had to learn. I sat back and learned until it was my time to shine.”
Wingfield, who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.45 seconds, picked up football rather quickly.
“I used to watch it on TV, but I never played it,” he said. “When I got onto the field, it was like second nature. My coach loved me, so he got me the ball so much. It was just a lot of fun to me.”
Wingfield’s athletic ability is why he touches the ball so much.
“I like to classify myself as a route runner,” he said. “I can run routes, I can get open, I can create space and catch those 50-50 balls. I’m hoping the defensive backs have a long night when they face me.”
Clark said Wingfield was a great athlete even as a freshman.
“He’s a relentless worker,” Clark said. “You can tell he wants to be good. We took him to Albion, and he was learning some track technique, long jump. Even on his warm-up laps, he had to be first.”
Last season’s surge in receptions, yards, and touchdowns surprised Wingfield.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “We had a new quarterback. We had played basketball together, but I didn’t even know he could sling it like that. We just went out and had fun. My goal was to have a better year than my sophomore year. I didn’t know I was going to go quote-unquote ‘crazy’ like that.”
While Wingfield said basketball is still his favorite sport, football is gaining ground. He spent much of this past summer at football camps, fine-tuning his game. He received an offer to play football at Grand Valley State University.
He’s also an outstanding track athlete. Last season he helped Concord’s 400 relay win a Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals title. The relay units he was on also finished second in the 800 and 1,600, and he was second in the long jump.
Concord opened the season last week with a loss to Bridgman. Wingfield said the team has already moved on from that defeat and is geared up for a chance to make the playoffs. Concord wasn’t eligible last season due to its enrollment but is under the threshold this season and could qualify.
“We’re just moving forward week by week,” he said. “I think that helped us to see a good team early. We know how to handle getting punched in the mouth. That is a good team we played. We’ve got to just keep on going. This is like the first year that we could get to go to the playoffs. I’m very excited about that.”
Clark is a social studies teacher at Concord and has Wingfield in one of his classes.
“This week we were doing an activity where we asked the students if they would rather live in a city or the country,” Clark said. “Mekhi said country. I was surprised, knowing he grew up in a big city. He just said, ‘I’d rather live in the country, because that’s where Concord is.’”
“It was huge difference coming here,” Wingfield noted. “Culture shock, you might say. I went to Concord and have loved it ever since. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
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) Concord’s Mekhi Wingfield breaks away from a Britton Deerfield defender during last season’s matchup. (Middle) Wingfield is a senior this fall. (Action photo by Madisyn Barrett/Concord Chronicle. Posed photo courtesy of the Concord athletic department.)