Five for 50: Record Remains Golden

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

September 20, 2012

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Tom Essenburg remembers one night 50 years ago like it was just last Friday.

Rain had been falling steadily on Sept. 21, 1962, as the Holland and Muskegon Heights football teams took the field at Holland's Riverview Park for their Week 2 game.

Heights was coached by the already-legendary Okie Johnson, and at his disposal were a handful of speedsters who could potentially make for a long night for Essenburg, a senior defensive back – although he had a hopeful hunch the wet weather might hinder the Tigers' passing game.

“I’m thinking to myself, what’s going to go on today?” Essenburg remembered this week. “They threw six passes the whole ballgame, because it was so wet.

“They didn’t complete one to a Muskegon Heights player,” he added. “But they completed five to me.”

Friday marks the 50th anniversary of Essenburg grabbing five interceptions, an MHSAA record for one game that twice has been tied but still stands half a century later.

The next day's Holland Evening Sentinel first told of Essenburg's final interception, which he returned for a touchdown with 13 seconds to play in the 12-0 victory. The report's seventh paragraph explained  that Essenburg “had quite a night with enemy aerials."

Essenburg, by his own estimation, was good but “not anything exceptional” at football. But he'd go on to captain the Western Michigan University men’s tennis team and officiate five MHSAA Football Finals during a 41-year career wearing the stripes. He's reffing still – he will be in the white hat Friday at Zeeland East – and owns and operates a fitness club in Grand Rapids.

It is more for those reasons that Essenburg is known well in the west Michigan athletic community. But the times have come, every few years or so, when someone runs across his name in the MHSAA record book, or recognizes his name from the record board at Holland High.

Doing his job

“I had a job to do. I was a defensive back. My job was to make sure people didn’t get behind me,” Essenburg said this week. “I don’t think I counted (the interceptions) during the game. Not until I got the paper the next day did I think that (five) must have been right.”

When his family headed to Holland to see relatives, Kristin Callis remembers her dad asking her and her siblings if they’d like to stop by the field to see where he had his history-making moments.

“Of course we would groan and act like it would be the end of the world to make the stop. I only recall seeing the field once,” said Callis, the eldest of Essenburg’s three children. “It was really just a funny thing my Dad would say to us. He was proud yet humble when it came to his accomplishment.”

Essenburg also played baseball, basketball, and ran track at points during his high school years. After a standout tennis career with the Broncos, he became a teacher and later athletic director at Allegan High – and as a coach he started a boys tennis program that became one of the state’s elite under successor Gary Ellis.

Essenburg does most of his officiating these days for football and softball, and also has worked at the collegiate level. This spring, Essenburg received his 40-year service award from the MHSAA for his work between the lines.

“Excelling in high school sports charted the course for the rest of my Dad's life,” Callis said.

Essenburg owns Endurance Fitness in Grand Rapids. Previously, he started the Ramblewood Raquet Club in Grandville and managed the East Hills athletic club for nearly two decades. All three of his children got their first jobs at his club, and he taught them to play as many sports as they had interest. Essenburg's tennis skills no doubt passed down to Callis, who played at Hillsdale College. And, of course, the children have a pretty good idea what's happening on the football field when they were kids, Essenburg would quiz Kristin, Heidi and Ryan on football officiating signals.

History lives on

Essenburg's listing is the oldest for a defensive statistic in the MHSAA football record book. (Temperance Bedford's Tony Gill in 1990 and Concord's Zach Brigham in 2010 also grabbed five interceptions in one game to tie the record.)

But in a final ironic twist, recognition didn't come right away. Back then, a local service club sponsored a Player of the Week award for Holland's football team, with the best player each game honored the following Thursday. For the Heights game, Essenburg had to be a shoe-in.

The award that week went to a defensive lineman.

"I was just heartbroken. I said, 'What more could I do?'" Essenburg said. "But that was fine. Later in the year I got it."

“It’s a good thing I’m a referee,” he then joked. “If I was (a back judge), I might be really lenient with pass interference.”

PHOTOS: (Top) Tom Essenburg was mentioned prevalently in the Sept. 22, 1962 Holland Evening Sentinel for his five interceptions the night before against Muskegon Heights. (Middle) Later that season, the Sentinel also ran a photo of Essenburg attempting to haul in a pass. (Bottom) Essenburg has officiated in five MHSAA Football Finals, the most recent in 2004 at the Pontiac Silverdome.

Surge Becoming Storied as Boyne City Continues Memorable Playoff March

By Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com

November 22, 2024

Not many would say Boyne City’s football team followed the script this season.

Northern Lower PeninsulaAfter the way the Ramblers started this fall, only a scriptwriter could have envisioned the season they’ve enjoyed.

Boyne City started with just 17 varsity players in August. After moving up some from the JV squad and losing their opener to Standish-Sterling 33-14, the Ramblers picked up a couple of wins. They then fell in Week 4 to Kingsley, last year’s Division 6 champion, 26-20.

But that’s where the losses stopped. Boyne City is on an eight-game winning streak – which included a 21-15 victory over Kingsley in the District Final two weeks ago.

And when the Ramblers found themselves down 14-0 to Reed City midway through the second quarter last week in their Division 6 Regional Final, nobody would have blamed them for abandoning the script.

But if there is one, it called junior Owen Hewitt’s number. He took over, scoring four touchdowns to lead Boyne to a 35-28 win that advanced the Ramblers to Saturday’s Semifinal against Lansing Catholic.

Ben Stanek (8) works to break free from a pair of Traverse City St. Francis defenders during a 23-20 Week 9 win over Traverse City St. Francis. “It wasn’t a dire situation,” said Boyne City coach Dave Suttle. “Our quarterback Drew Neer all year long has run our offense very well, and when we need a big play he’s always there. We threw a little curl, dig route over the middle to Owen and he went 63 yards for the score and kind of rejuvenated our team.”

Neer, also a junior, has connected with Hewitt and senior Jaden Alger the most this season. Hewitt’s first TD came with 1:22 left in the first half. Hewitt’s second was Boyne’s first offensive play of the second half and tied the game at 14-14.

It may have been Suttle scripting Hewitt’s performance.  

Suttle expected Reed City to focus on stopping senior running back Ryan Spade, who has nearly 1,800 yards on the ground this season.  

“Owen looked too good in practice last week, and we knew Owen was going to have a game,” Suttle said. “They were keying so hard on Ryan. We figured this was going to be the week, and we put some things in the game plan for him.”

Hewitt was extremely fired up coming out of halftime break, the sixth-year coach noted.

“Owen’s been our big-play guy all year,” said Suttle. “He’s got probably 600 yards receiving, and I think he’s scored 15 touchdowns between receiving and rushing. He’s been there but hadn’t had that wow game yet, that ‘Hey, who is this kid?’ And that was his game.”

The tough times this season from the small numbers to early losses united the team and created success, their coach proudly noted.  

Ramblers coach Dave Suttle, middle, raises the District championship trophy with senior Leon Xiong (11) and junior Owen Hewitt (14).“From football specifically, we have made lifelong friends,” Suttle said. “We’ve learned how to help other people and depend on each other. The boys keep throwing out there they truly feel like they are all one family now. There’s all kinds of kids in this group. They have each other’s back. They’re not looking to blame anybody or point fingers. They’re just a solid group of gritty kids.”

Defensively, the Ramblers also have been led by Spate. He’s been involved in nearly 100 tackles. Sophomore Hyker McKinney has been involved in more than 70 tackles and Alger, junior Thomas Ager, senior Ryan Chapp, Hewitt and sophomore Ben Stanek are right behind them in solo tackles and assists.

Chapp and senior Leon Xiong have anchored the defensive line for the third straight year, Suttle pointed out.

“They’ve really stepped up this year, and they have pretty good stats,” Suttle said. “They are big-time leaders.”

The offensive line, in particular seniors Wiley Belcher and Zach Herrick, also continue to impress.

“They keep getting better every week and just keep pushing on,” Suttle said.

Win or lose this week or next, this team’s legacy already is solidified.

“I want this group to be remembered as the group that may have been counted out by a lot of other people or may have been overlooked,” Shuttle indicated. “We have a pretty good tradition of having a winning program, and we’ll make the playoffs and things like this, but this team sticks together and gets through the rough times and just never gives up.”

Tom SpencerTom 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) Boyne City’s Ryan Spade (3) breaks into the open during his team’s 21-15 District Final win over Kingsley. (Middle) Ben Stanek (8) works to break free from a pair of Traverse City St. Francis defenders during a 23-20 Week 9 win over Traverse City St. Francis. (Below) Ramblers coach Dave Suttle, middle, raises the District championship trophy with senior Leon Xiong (11) and junior Owen Hewitt (14). (Photos by Brandon Kish.)