Division 6 Football Final: Play it Again, Yellowjackets
November 25, 2011
DETROIT – So began the legacy of Ithaca quarterback Travis Smith.
And so continues an incredible run by one of Michigan’s newest football powerhouses.
The Yellowjackets pushed their winning streak to 28 and claimed their second straight MHSAA championship by downing Constantine 42-14 in Friday's Division 6 Final.
They did so led by a number of last season’s top players, but minus their 2010 Final star. That’s where the sophomore Smith came in, joining the starting lineup in the season’s second week and bringing Ithaca back to Ford Field for another title.
“It’s more special just because this is the last time to suit up for most of us. We’re not going to be able to play another game next year, and we get to end on the biggest stage high school football has to offer in Michigan,” Ithaca senior linebacker/running back Garrett Miniard said.
“I think it was almost a little jealousy of the seniors last year of being able do that, being able to go out on top. I think that kept us going throughout the season, throughout the offseason. Being able to have that luxury of going out on top just like they did.
Ithaca (14-0) hasn’t lost since its 2009 Semifinal against Montague. With two more wins to start next fall, the Yellowjackets can become the 14th team on the MHSAA record book list with at least 30 straight victories.
And Smith should be there to lead the way. He connected on 18 of 25 passes for 299 yards and a touchdown Friday, and ran for 43 yards and a score. Miniard rushed for 43 yards and two touchdowns, and had 14 tackles. And senior David Brown caught six passes for 122 yards and also ran for a score.
Smith followed the path this fall of another former sophomore starter at his position – Alex Niznak, who graduated in the spring, plays at Central Michigan now, but didn’t leave before leading the Yellowjackets to both their first Semifinal berth and MHSAA championship over the last two seasons. Niznak’s title game performance last season included 251 yards passing, 138 rushing and an MHSAA Finals-record five touchdowns running the ball.
Brown originally took over at quarterback this fall. But he was injured on opening night – after running for three touchdowns against Williamston – and missed significant time, allowing Smith to take hold of the offense. Smith finished his first varsity season with a not-too-shabby 2,310 passing yards, 969 rushing yards, and a combined 48 touchdowns throwing or running.
“Coach (Terry) Hessbrook told me to just go in there and do what I can do, and just play football,” Smith said. “I’ve got so many good athletes around me. I just need to get my players the ball and let them do what they can do.”
Ithaca twice had catching up to do in the Final, with Constantine (11-3) scoring first and then taking a 14-7 lead midway through the first quarter – before the Yellowjackets rolled to 35 unanswered points.
“These kids had this goal since last year … of getting back here,” Hessbrook said. “We didn’t want Ithaca football to just be one and done, or a one-year wonder. And they’ve worked really hard.”
Constantine junior Ben Mallo did run 17 times for 189 yards and both scores. But the Falcons were without quarterback Tommy Reed, who was injured during last week’s Semifinal win over Ecorse. They played Ithaca to a 14-14 halftime tie before the Yellowjackets’ offense broke the game open.
“We’ve played offenses with that type of talent. Last week, for instance. And I’m sure Coach Hessbrook watched those films and saw some things he could do against us," Constantine coach Shawn Griffith said. "It’s a lot different than what we do, and you saw we caused them a little bit of problems early in the game as well. We do our thing, they do theirs. They do their thing very well. We did ours well. We just weren’t quite there on a couple drives that ended short.”
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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.
Talk 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’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.
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 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.)