'Coaching Bug' Still Drives St Mary's Porritt
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
August 19, 2015
ORCHARD LAKE – George Porritt never seriously considered entering the coaching profession when he graduated from Hillsdale College in 1979 with a degree in both parks and recreation and physical education.
At age 14 he had worked part time in the parks and recreation department in Independence Township, a few miles south of Clarkston where he grew up. With that experience, Porritt thought he had found a career path.
But a year after graduating from college, Porritt, like most in their early 20s, was looking for work – any kind of work. During the fall of 1980, Dan Fife, the head varsity boys basketball coach at Clarkston, hired Porritt as his freshmen coach. The next school year he became an assistant football coach, along with current head coach Kurt Richardson, under Walt Wyniemko at Clarkston.
“I got the coaching bug,” Porritt said.
And he’s been a coach ever since.
Competing in the Detroit Catholic League Central, considered by many the state’s best football conference, is a challenge every year. Butting heads with legendary coaches such as Al Fracassa (now retired) at Birmingham Brother Rice and Tom Mach at Detroit Catholic Central is a daunting task, but Porritt and St. Mary’s have proved worthy adversaries.
The Eaglets are coming off a 12-2 finish and Division 3 title, their fifth under his leadership.
Most who follow high school sports link the name Porritt with football. It’s understandable.
In 1986, St. Mary’s hired Porritt as a teacher, and that summer he became a varsity assistant football coach under Rob Haeger. Porritt replaced Haeger in 1989.
His record heading into this season is 234-66, which ranks 10th among active coaches. Since 2006, St. Mary’s has reached the MHSAA finals six times. He’s coached 15 players who have gone on to play in the NFL.
There’s more. His brother Rich is the offensive coordinator at Clarkston. His uncle, Bob Porritt, coached at Okemos and a cousin, Rob Porritt, coached at Haslett and Perry.
George Porritt loves coaching football, and it’s likely he’ll coach few more seasons.
But there’s something Porritt loves more than football, and that’s being a part of St. Mary’s.
He’s been the school’s athletic director since 1989, and the year before he was hired as the varsity basketball coach. He coached basketball for 22 seasons (he took six years in the mid-90s off to help his wife, Terry, raise their three children) before he retired from that position this past July.
Porritt’s success in football often overshadowed his success as a basketball coach. He coached the Eaglets to the Class B title in 2000, they reached the Class A Semifinals in 2006 and his teams won 10 Catholic League Central titles, six league championships, 12 district titles and six regional titles. His career record is 336-180.
When asked why he stepped away from basketball, Porritt said he pondered that move two years ago but continued on because of his relationships with the coaching staff and, of course, the players.
In the end he got out of coaching basketball to spend more time with his family. His son Kenny lives in Maryland and he and his wife are expecting their third child. His daughter, Marilyn, graduated from University of Oregon and recently moved to Nashville, Tenn., to begin working for Vanderbilt University. The Porritts’ third child, Mason, is a senior at Grand Valley State University.
Terry Porritt travelled from Maryland and Tennessee earlier this month to visit her children, leaving her husband at home to coach football. Family time is precious, and the Porritts plan to spend more time with their family in the years to come.
But don’t expect George Porritt to leave St. Mary’s. Though he’s not coaching basketball, he’ll be at every home game because of his duties as athletic director. And aside from long road trips, he’ll be at the away games, too.
“I enjoyed my coaching at Clarkston,” he said. “And I wanted to get a teaching job there. But getting into education was tough then, as it is now.
“I love St. Mary’s. When you drive on this campus, it’s an awesome place to be. I want to work here as long as I can. I’ve met so many great people. Msgr. (Stanley) Milewski was awesome. (Headmaster) Larry Reeside has been tremendous. He inspired me and taught me so much. Then there’s the kids.”
Porritt mentioned one player, in particular, on the team this season as being a special person. His name is Josh Ross and his brother, James, plays for University of Michigan. Josh Ross is a 15-year-old junior but one of the team leaders, and he's already received scholarship offers from Michigan State, U-M and Notre Dame. Porritt said Ross is a no-nonsense type of player and one who helps maintain discipline, on the field and off.
Total, the Eaglets will return five starters on both offense and defense. Senior quarterback Brendan Tambone is back and joined by returning starting running backs Brandon Adams and Justin Myrick; Adams scored the lone touchdown in last season's MHSAA Final. Others of note include junior receiver/defensive back Kaylee Hamlee, who has offers from a handful of Big Ten programs, and 6-foot-5, 275-pound two-way lineman Cameron Kolwich, who will sign with Northwestern this fall.
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area but also contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Orchard Lake St. Mary's football coach George Porritt huddles with one of his players during last season's Division 3 Final. (Middle) Porritt watches a play unfold against Coopersville during his team's 2000 championship game win. (Below) Porritt receives last season's champion's trophy from Muskegon running back and MHSAA Student Advisory Council member Jared Pittman and the Representative Council's Orlando Medina, athletic director at Harrison Township L'Anse Creuse.
Monroe SMCC Wins Championship Grind
November 29, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
DETROIT – If Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central could draw up the perfect game for its preferred style of play, it might look a lot like Friday’s Division 6 Final.
Yes, the Falcons defeated Maple City Glen Lake to win their first championship since 2014, so that makes it memorable no matter what. And sure, SMCC would’ve loved to score more – the offense averaged 34 points per game heading into the night.
But look past all of that and consider: The Falcons had 63 plays to Glen Lake’s 32, and ran the ball 58 times. They had 22 first downs to Glen Lake’s six. They had the ball nearly twice as long – 31:17 to 16:43 – and didn’t have one penalty called against them. And the defense posted its first shutout of the season.
Offensive efficiency and defensive prowess have been hallmarks of a program that was playing in its eighth MHSAA Final – and the victory was proof again that the workmanlike approach remains a viable a championship approach during an era dominated by wide-open and fast-paced attacks.
“It’s not really the score that we anticipated, but it’s OK – we’re a grinding team, we have faith in our defense and our offense to eat up time on the clock,” SMCC senior quarterback Wyatt Bergmoser said. “We just rep our plays, and if it does come down to the defense we let them do their thing and it’s not a big deal – we have trust in the other players on the field.
“We were on different teams (before high school) but we knew we’d come together and play together in the future, and that’s something we dreamed of and hoped for forever. As a kid, I went to the 2014 state championship game. I just remember sitting in the stands and thinking to myself, I want to be here one day. I want to be here with my friends, with my other players and grind it out and get a state championship for myself. And that’s what we did, and I love all my players and teammates for that.”
The Falcons finished 12-1, their only defeat this season 28-21 to Division 4 Milan in Week 3.
That close loss, which eventually decided the Huron League title, provided a lesson that would serve St. Mary as it worked to finish off its mission for the ultimate playoff prize.
SMCC led in the fourth quarter by a point, and punted on 4th-and-4 with just under seven minutes to play. Milan went ahead on the next possession, and the Falcons ran out of time.
On Friday, SMCC punted only twice and converted on four of five fourth-down tries, including two during a 14-play, 55-yard fourth-quarter possession that didn’t result in a score but did drain 7:48 off the clock. That possession also left Glen Lake to try to tie beginning at its own 7-yard line with 2:27 to play.
“Earlier in the year we were hitting some big runs, but three, four, five yards are great plays for our offense,” SMCC coach Adam Kipf said. “We don’t need to hit a home run. We don’t need to get 10 yards every time we touch it. But if we’re getting three yards a pop … 2½ yards, we’re in great position. We like to do that, and we’ll chew up 35, 36, 37 seconds on the play clock too, and that’s by design. We want to keep it out of their hands.”
The game’s lone score came on a Bergmoser six-yard touchdown run just under five minutes into the second quarter, which capped a 10-play, 94-yard drive lasting 5:22.
The Falcons ran for 249 yards total, led by senior Alex Morgan’s 123 on 22 carries. They held Glen Lake (12-2) to 127 yards total, 75 of it coming through the air on passes by senior quarterback Reece Hazelton. The Lakers got no deeper into SMCC territory than the 36-yard line.
“They were probably the biggest team we faced all year, since we’re pretty big ourselves,” Glen Lake junior receiver/defensive back Finn Hogan said. “It was a little different change of pace for us. It took a drive or two for us to get used to, and they capitalized.”
The seven points tied the fewest Glen Lake gave up in a game this season – seven times the Lakers gave up seven, and they allowed a solid 16.2 on average over the entire fall. Hogan and senior linebacker Jonathan Wright led Friday’s effort with 12 tackles apiece, and as a team Glen Lake had six tackles for loss.
Bergmoser also was his team’s high tackler with seven.
Glen Lake had last appeared in a Final in 2016, also finishing Division 6 runner-up that year. The Falcons, meanwhile, finished a rare 4-5 that fall, but came back with seven wins in 2017 and nine last season to set up this year’s run.
“Going into high school my freshman year, I knew we had a special group in our class. I think everyone knew we were special,” Morgan said. “My sophomore year we had 11 starters on the team that made the playoff run. Our junior year we had a ton of juniors starting on that team. So we had one goal in mind this senior year, and it was to be right where we are right now.”
PHOTOS: (Top) St. Mary’s Alex Morgan (26) is slowed by Glen Lake’s C.J. Helfrich (2) and Finn Hogan. (Middle) A Glen Lake defender works to bring down the Falcons’ Samuel Cousino.