Detroit Embarks on Historical Weekend
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
November 27, 2015
DETROIT – Basketball used to be king in Detroit. Detroit Public School League teams like Detroit Cooley, Detroit Pershing, Detroit Southwestern and others won MHSAA championships and sent numerous players on to college to play at major universities like Michigan, Michigan State and others.
Recently the quality of basketball has taken a step back, and football has taken center stage.
This past March, Detroit Western International was the first PSL team to win the Class A boys basketball title since Pershing in 2009 and just the second since Detroit Central won the Class A title in 1998. This is a far cry from what is considered one of the glory eras in PSL history. From 1987-94, teams from the PSL won eight consecutive Class A titles.
(It should be noted that Detroit Renaissance did win Class B titles in 2004 and 2006, and Detroit Crockett also won the Class B title in 2001.)
In 2007 Detroit King was the first PSL team to win a football state title. For those outside of the city, it might not have meant that much other than a simple statistic. But for the PSL coaches who longed for respect statewide, King’s victory over Midland in the Division 2 Final was vindication.
When Detroit Cass Tech won back-to-back Division 1 titles (2011, 2012) a few years later, football fans across the state began to realize that what King accomplished in 2007 was not a fluke. Teams from Detroit were relevant statewide.
This weekend another first will take place. King will play for the Division 2 title (against Lowell) on Friday and Cass Tech will play for the Division 1 title (against Romeo) on Saturday. It’s the first time two PSL teams will play for MHSAA championships in the same season. Both games kick off at 1 p.m. at Ford Field.
The milestone is not lost on the coaches, Dale Harvel of King and Thomas Wilcher of Cass Tech.
Wilcher pointed to King and then-coach James Reynolds for taking the lead. King was the first PSL team to reach an MHSAA Final (1989 and 1990), and by doing so created instant credibility.
“King established what we could accomplish,” Wilcher said. “By winning the first state title, by winning both the PSL and then the state the same year.
“I don’t prepare my kids the same way. From day one I’m preparing for a state championship, Thanksgiving Day weekend, not for nine weeks. You have to condition a different way. You have to have a long-haul focus. The kids you started with might not be the ones you finish with. King High set that bar.”
Step aside for moment and realize what Wilcher said. Cass Tech and King is the most intense rivalry in the city. Emotions run high, and sometimes they boil over. But here is the coach from one team praising the other. In addition to the rivalry, there is mutual respect.
“It’s great,” Wilcher said of the two city powers playing for a title. “It’s great for the city.”
Regardless of what takes place Friday, Harvel said he, his staff and players will be at Ford Field in support of Cass Tech.
And Harvel said it’s not just about King and Cass Tech. What will take place this weekend will affect all PSL schools: their players, coaches, student body and alumni.
“It’s a factor with our school system,” he said. “It’s a pride factor even if you don’t play for Cass or King. The alumni for all public schools are represented.”
Harvel said even though most point to the 2007 championship season as a turning point, it was the teams that lost in the Class A Final in 1989 and 1990 that started it all. Some forget that back in 1989 there were just four MHSAA Finals champions, not eight, making King’s run all the more noteworthy. The next season the playoffs were expanded from four classifications to eight.
Coincidentally, each team has had two difficult playoff games and two one-sided affairs on their way to Ford Field. King (13-0) trailed Detroit U-D Jesuit, 24-21, in a Pre-District before winning, 35-24, and King led Detroit East English 7-0 after three quarters before pulling away for a 26-12 victory in a Regional Final.
Cass Tech (11-2) blew past its first two opponents by the combined score of 84-20. In the Regional Final it trailed Macomb Dakota 10-0 before coming back for a 16-10 victory. Last week, the Technicians held on to defeat Canton 48-41 on a snow-covered field at Troy Athens. Canton had possession on Cass Tech’s 40 for the last play of the game.
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 and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTO: Detroit Cass Tech (green helmets) and Detroit Martin Luther King, here in the Detroit PSL Final, give the league two MHSAA finalists for the first time. (Photo courtesy of the Detroit Public School League.)
Ubly Sends Out Retiring Coach with Program's 1st Finals Win in D8 Rematch
By
Scott DeCamp
Special for MHSAA.com
November 25, 2023
DETROIT – You could not have written a better script for Ubly’s football program and its tight-knit Thumb community Saturday at Ford Field.
The Bearcats captured their first Finals championship, avenged last year’s title-game loss to Ottawa Lake Whiteford, and sent head coach Eric Sweeney into retirement a champion with a 21-6 victory over the Bobcats in the Division 8 title game.
Might Sweeney consider an encore and coach another year?
“No!” Sweeney quickly responded with conviction, prompting laughter among attendees of the press conference and even his own players before adding another “no.”
Sweeney served as Ubly’s head varsity coach for only four seasons, but he compiled a 48-5 overall record. He led the Bearcats to the top of the mountain after the program had made several title pursuits prior to Saturday, including a last year’s which ended with a 26-20 loss to Whiteford and a 2020 Finals run that concluded with a 22-0 defeat to Centreville.
“You know, I’m done. I’ve coached for 23 years at every level there is. No, this makes it easier to walk away,” Sweeney said. “I loved coaching all these years. I got to coach these guys (referring to his players at the press conference) for four years at the varsity level. I coached them in seventh-grade basketball. I know these kids pretty good.
“My kids are all well out of high school, and there’s just other things I want to do in life. I’m just proud I’m leaving the program in the condition that it is.”
It may be impossible to leave it better than Sweeney and the Bearcats did Saturday and throughout their perfect journey in 2023.
Ubly completed this run with a 14-0 record and did it the Bearcat way – with physicality at the point of attack, a clock-grinding, ball-control offense; and a very stingy defense. The Bearcats outscored their opponents this season by a combined 596-134 margin.
“It means a lot. Like, last year, we lost here and we felt terrible for the seniors, the way we went out, basically on a last-second thing,” said Ubly senior Evan Peruski, who also started at quarterback in the Bearcats’ 2022 and 2020 Finals losses.
“It means everything. I mean, a lot of us up here, we’re friends with kids that played 10, 20 years ago. I saw about 30 of them in the crowd, people I knew that played 20, 30 years ago. They’re there supporting us.”
Whiteford, which was seeking its third Division 8 title since 2017, saw a 27-game winning streak end and closed the season with a 13-1 record – a tough conclusion to a tremendous two-year run.
“I’ve been coaching football a long time. I don’t think I’ve ever had an experience of a senior group like these guys that we have,” said Todd Thieken, who finished his second season as Whiteford’s head coach but has been in the game since the late 1980s with various stops in Michigan and Ohio.
“A couple of seniors came up to me after the game and they said, ‘I’m sorry, coach.’ I just said to them, ‘I’m just sorry that I don’t ever get to coach you again,’” Thieken added, getting a bit choked up. “I’m still going to be around and in their lives and making sure that they continue to get through school and be successful young men.”
Well-executing Ubly and Whiteford squads engaged in a game of keep-away, both aiming to possess the football and keep it out of the opponent’s hands.
Ubly won that battle, possessing the ball for nearly a 2-to-1 margin (31:51-16:09). The Bearcats nearly doubled up the Bobcats in total offense as well, 310-165, led by an overwhelming advantage in rushing yardage (281-60).
Senior Seth Maurer led Ubly with 138 yards on 27 carries, highlighted by his 4-yard touchdown run that drew the teams even with 1:31 left in the first half before senior Brett Mueller hammered through the ensuing PAT for a 7-6 edge.
Whiteford had struck first in the contest. Ubly’s game-opening, 16-play, 79-yard drive that consumed 8:01 of the clock was stopped just shy of the goal line after a review determined Peruski’s knee was down inside the 1. Whiteford then marched 99 yards the other way and got into the end zone on a 4-yard scoring pass from freshman Tre Eitniear to senior Hunter DeBarr. The two-point conversion pass failed, but the Bobcats led 6-0 with 8:11 left in the second quarter.
Ubly’s defense settled in after that, allowing only 66 yards the rest of the way.
Meanwhile, Ubly’s offense continued to move the ball. The Bearcats extended their lead to 14-6 on Peruski’s 11-yard TD pass to senior Ryan Learman on 4th-and-goal from the 11. Junior Luke Volmering all but put the game away with his 3-yard scoring run with 6:13 remaining.
“I think our line does a great job. The big fella here (pointing to 6-foot-3, 270-pound senior lineman Mitchell Foote) had a heck of a game today,” Sweeney said. “When you’re running our offense, it’s an offensive line game. I’m an offensive line coach, so you know, it’s kind of my kind of game. I’m not smart enough for all this fancy passing stuff.
“We’ve got to play the game at the line of scrimmage, and I thought defensively our D-line made some big plays as it went on and the secondary did a great job, too. … The game was won at the line of scrimmage.”
Peruski did enough to keep Whiteford’s defense honest. He ran six times for 32 yards and completed 2 of 3 passes for 29 yards. Volmering ran 16 times for 77 yards. Ubly senior Canden Peruski led the defense with 11 tackles.
Whiteford senior Jake Iott was all over the field, registering 18 tackles. Bobcats senior Kolby Masserant made 13 stops, while senior teammate Ryin Ruddy notched 11 tackles. Eitniear was 6-of-11 passing for 78 yards, while Ruddy went 3-of-4 for 27 yards. Iott led his team on the ground with 37 yards on 12 carries.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity. You know, I’ve been starting for four years on varsity,” DeBarr said. “I’m glad the coaches and some of my teammates could make me a better player for those four years. We won a lot of big games and, you know, you lose a couple of big games. It was fun.”
Saturday marked Ubly’s fourth Finals appearance. The Bearcats also had lost to Traverse City St. Francis in the Division 7 Final in 2008.
Sweeney attributed much of Ubly’s success over the past couple of decades to his cousin, former head coach Bill Sweeney. The Bearcats have won 10 Regional titles over the last 20 years.
Eric Sweeney also credited the unwavering support of Ubly’s community and that of the Bearcats’ rival schools along the way. Ubly spent the week practicing indoors at the Laker Legacy Center of rival Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port.
“It’s not as much for me personally. It’s for our community,” Sweeney said. “The support we get from the Thumb area is unreal. It just means a lot.”
Said Foote: “It just means the world. Best coach I’ve ever had. He’s always pushed us. (They) just had to make him go out with a state championship. It would be a shame to not give him one.”
PHOTOS (Top) Ubly coach Eric Sweeney presents the Division 8 championship trophy to his team Saturday morning at Ford Field. (Middle) The Bearcats’ Seth Maurer (30) follows teammate Canden Peruski’s block into a small gap in the Whiteford defense. (Below) Mitchell Foote (76) brings down the Bobcats’ Ryin Ruddy. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)