Harbor Springs Earning Historic Opportunities
October 5, 2018
By Chris Dobrowolski
Special for Second Half
HARBOR SPRINGS — This isn’t your brother’s Harbor Springs football team.
This year’s Rams are putting together a season on the gridiron that hasn’t been seen here in quite some time.
They are off to a 6-0 start, their best since 1999, and with that has come talk of ending some long, infamous streaks in the school’s football history.
“For me, as a player, honestly it’s been really cool because we’ve never been able to do this before,” said senior running back Jackson Wells. “Harbor Springs has been known for bad football in the past. Now, everyone is like, ‘Congratulations, how does it feel to be 6-0?’ We’re the first team to do this in decades, and it’s really cool.”
Even with three weeks to go in the regular season, Harbor Springs’ six wins have matched its most for a season since 2000. While their unblemished record has already earned the Rams a third trip to the postseason in the past four years, they aren’t satisfied by simply being a postseason participant.
There are bigger goals still to achieve, and longstanding barriers to break down.
Consider this: The last Harbor Springs team to capture a conference title was the 1987 squad that went 7-2 overall and 6-1 in the Ski Valley Conference to share the championship with Indian River Inland Lakes. Then there is the playoff drought, as the Rams are 0-5 all-time in the postseason.
“It’s a sticking point in everybody’s mind,” said senior tight end Brett Vandermus of trying to get a playoff win. “We clinched a spot, but now we’re worried about getting another win this week.”
On Friday, Harbor Springs faces Johannesburg-Lewiston in a matchup that could end the Rams’ 31-year conference title dry spell. The two teams square off in a battle of undefeated teams atop the Northern Michigan Football League Legacy division. The Cardinals come in having won five straight games, but must travel to Harbor Springs’ Ottawa Stadium. A Rams’ win would earn them a share of the championship.
“A conference title would be awesome,” said Vandermus. “I’ve had four older brothers play, and none of them (won a conference title). We just have a more solid roster than what’s been at Harbor’s disposal, and we have a lot of discipline.
“Hopefully it’s just packed, because normally we’re not used to coming out and having huge home crowds.”
Excitement definitely is building around school and across town for the Rams, who finished 4-5 a season ago as a young team.
“I wouldn’t say I expected this, but we had a really good summer and the guys worked really hard,” said head coach Rob Walker, who is in his eighth year.
The Rams have been motored by a quick, veteran backfield of Wells, Connor Williams and Jeep Damoose. That trio has been a three-headed monster in Harbor Springs’ wing-T offense, sharing the workload and limelight, while making it difficult for opponents to try and game plan to slow down all three. Jason Proctor, Matt Walker, Vandermus, and fellow tight end David Harrell are among the key cogs on the offensive line. Sophomore quarterback Grant Richardson has been a huge addition since the season began. The first-year signal caller has not only brought athleticism to the position, but he’s also injected an aerial aspect with seven touchdown passes to an offense that traditionally likes to establish the running game.
“He just keeps getting better and better,” Walker said of his quarterback. “There have been games where he’s the best athlete on the field.”
If there was a defining moment for Harbor Springs, it came in the second week of the season in a 14-7 victory over Frankfort — a team that has rightfully earned a reputation as a football powerhouse.
“I would say that was definitely an eye-opener for us to show we could beat a big-time team like that,” said Wells, who set the tone when he scored on a 75-yard run on the first play from scrimmage. “That was definitely a momentum booster right there. It showed we have the talent and that we can work as a team to beat some big-time teams in our area.”
This year it’s the Rams that are looking like one of those elite teams. It’s put them in a spot they’ve dreamed of but aren’t necessarily accustomed to — as the squad gunned for by every opponent.
“I feel like momentum is piling on, which is a motivator,” said Vandermus. “But at the same time, it puts a target on our backs for the other teams we have coming up.”
Chris Dobrowolski has covered northern Lower Peninsula sports since 1999 at the Ogemaw County Herald, Alpena News, Traverse City Record-Eagle and currently as sports editor at the Antrim Kalkaska Review since 2016. 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) Harbor Springs players salute the crowd after a victory this fall. (Middle) Grant Richardson takes off running against Newberry in Week 3. (Below) Center Matt Walker is set to snap the ball during a Week 1 win over East Jordan. (Photos courtesy of the Harbor Springs football program.)
Drogosh & De La Salle Cap 3rd-Straight Finals Trip as Repeat D2 Champs
By
Scott DeCamp
Special for MHSAA.com
November 25, 2022
DETROIT – Two years ago, Brady Drogosh started at quarterback for Warren De La Salle Collegiate as a skinny, nervous sophomore in the MHSAA Division 2 championship game against Muskegon Mona Shores.
The University of Cincinnati commit and his Pilots classmates have come a long way since then. They’ve grown by leaps and bounds.
Drogosh & Co. walked out of Ford Field on Friday with a second-straight Division 2 championship after a 52-13 defeat of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central.
“I know a bunch of us walked off the field saying, ‘We don’t ever want to feel like this again,’” Drogosh said of the 25-19 Finals loss to Mona Shores in 2020, “and now we’ve gone back-to-back years going off as winners. I think mental preparation is a big part of it.”
De La Salle (13-1) captured its fifth Finals championship overall, and also fifth over the last nine years – the Pilots also seized titles in 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2021. In March, De La Salle claimed the Division 1 boys basketball championship to make it three big trophies in two major sports over a 13-month span. Drogosh was among the football players also on the basketball team.
He exhibited major growth from his sophomore to senior seasons on the big stage of Ford Field.
Two years ago against Mona Shores, Drogosh was 5-of-11 passing for 59 yards with no touchdowns, and he ran five times for 13 yards with one score. Last season, in a 41-14 Finals win over Traverse City Central, Drogosh was 14-of-19 passing for 142 yards with three TDs and no picks, plus he ran 19 times for a game-best 173 yards and one TD.
On Friday against Forest Hills Central, the 6-foot-4, 215-pound dual-threat QB was nearly flawless in the passing game. He completed 21 of 23 passes for 249 yards and two TDs with no interceptions. He was nearly unstoppable on the ground, too, piling up a game-high 152 yards and three scores on 15 carries.
Forest Hills Central (13-1) was making its first Football Finals appearance since 1994, when the Rangers lost 17-13 to Farmington Hills Harrison in the Class A title game at the Pontiac Silverdome.
“I coach the defense, and we just couldn’t slow down the quarterback,” Rangers coach Tim Rogers said about Drogosh. “Why he’s not recruited by Alabama, I don’t know. He’s a darn good quarterback. He can make all the throws, he runs really well, he obviously checks a lot of things at the line of scrimmage. Man, he’s an excellent football player.”
As Rogers and his team found on film study and then even more so in person, De La Salle’s very large roster boasts several excellent players.
One of them, senior wideout Triston Nichols, played on a torn ACL and scored on a 9-yard pass from Drogosh to give the Pilots a 35-0 lead near the midway point of the second quarter.
De La Salle scored barely two minutes into the game on a Drogosh 3-yard run. The Pilots led 21-0 after one quarter and 38-13 at halftime. They put up two more TDs in the third quarter to go up 52-13 and start the running clock.
The majority of Drogosh’s numbers were accumulated during the first half.
The prolific point total was nothing new to De La Salle, which shattered its program’s single-season scoring record with 614 points. That eclipsed the 562 points amassed by last year’s team. The Pilots threatened the MHSAA Finals record of 56 points, but a drive to the Rangers’ 1 by the reserves was snuffed out by a high shotgun snap.
In five playoff games, De La Salle outscored opponents by a combined 223-42 margin.
“Coming in with this group three years ago, I asked a lot out of them and they stood up tall and they accepted every challenge we gave them,” said Dan Rohn, who took over as De La Salle’s head coach in 2020 when Drogosh and his fellow seniors were much less experienced.
“They might walk out of De La Salle, which has had some tremendous football teams and tremendous groups, as maybe the most decorated and successful class of football players. I know I couldn’t be more proud to be part of that.”
Rohn previously guided Grand Rapids West Catholic to four Finals titles between 2010 and 2015.
De La Salle senior defensive end Mason Muragin, who is committed to the University of Illinois, knew what to expect when Rohn took over at De La Salle.
“Three years, three state championship appearances, two wins – I think he’s really building a dynasty here and it’s an honor to play for him,” Muragin said.
De La Salle outgained Forest Hills Central in total offense, 476-151. Junior Rhett Roeser scored two rushing TDs for the Pilots, while senior Jack Yanachik hauled in a scoring pass from Drogosh. Junior Landon Ryska kicked a 25-yard field goal and went 7-for-7 on PATs.
For Forest Hills Central, senior Justin Osterhouse completed 4 of 14 passes for 84 yards with two TDs and one interception. He connected with juniors Roman Brummel and Ty Hudkins for second-quarter scoring tosses.
“We got outplayed in all facets of the game. That’s a really good football team. We looked long and hard to find weaknesses on De La Salle’s team – we couldn’t find it on film,” Rogers said.
Forest Hills Central played a number of close games this season, most recently a 20-17 double-overtime victory over Dexter in a snowy Semifinal.
The conditions were much different inside Ford Field, but De La Salle proved too much for the Rangers.
“A lot of people doubted us and before the year no one really knew what to expect because we graduated a lot of seniors (30 from the 2021 team), but this is the toughest team I’ve ever played on and the most courageous guys and it just means a lot to get here,” said Hudkins, who paced the Rangers defensively with a game-high 12 tackles and a fumble recovery.
De La Salle’s lone loss this season came in Week 4 against Catholic League rival Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice in a wild 43-42 game.
The Pilots learned from that defeat, just like Drogosh and his teammates grew from the disappointing Finals loss two years ago.
“Me and one of the other captains, Dante Pancotto, who’s an offensive lineman, we watched the sophomore state championship game on YouTube and it really just shows the growth of how (far) we’ve come in three years,” Drogosh said.
“I think it’s all about the mental preparation. I think we were mentally challenged our sophomore year with COVID and everything, and I think we bounced back a lot our junior year and got even better this year.”
PHOTOS (Top) De La Salle’s Brady Drogosh (12) attempts to find an opening during his team’s Division 2 championship win Saturday. (Middle) The Pilots’ Triston Nichols (25) hauls in a scoring pass. (Below) Drogosh steps into a throw with FHC’s Nolan Hartl (21) in pursuit. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)