Haslett Saving Big Hits for Game Time
August 16, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
HASLETT – The sound of cleats on pavement. He and his teammates, hand in hand, walking toward the field together minutes before kickoff. Manowar’s “Heart of Steel” ringing in their ears from a few minutes before.
Justin Kuchnicki gave himself goose bumps Monday describing Haslett’s weekly pregame ritual, which the senior lineman will take part in again beginning Aug. 26 when the Vikings open this season against Remus Chippewa Hills.
They’ll certainly be revved up – and especially to lay some big hits after saving them up during three weeks of non-collision practices.
Haslett has one of the most successful football programs in the Lansing area, with two trips to MHSAA championship games and 14 playoff appearances total over the last 18 seasons. The Vikings finished 6-4 a year ago against a schedule featuring four eventual playoff teams.
The program also might be the first in all of Michigan high school football to fully eliminate full-speed hitting at practice, something Haslett has moved toward over the last few seasons before longtime coach Charlie Otlewski decided to knock it out of his practice plans completely this fall in large part to keep his players healthier for when it matters most.
“It gives you the edge when it gets to game day. You practice all week and you’re not really hitting or doing anything like that, and you get to game day … and everyone’s ready to just go out there and fly around and make plays,” Kuchnicki said. “You’re not really worried about kinks and stuff in your body that you’d have from practices, so you just go out there and lay it on the line.”
Friday was the first day Michigan high school players were allowed to practice in full pads. Storms drenched mid-Michigan that afternoon, so Haslett’s first day in full gear was Monday. And from a distance, it sounded like any other full-contact practice with the normal hoots and hollers and smacking of pads.
But on closer look, it was anything but. Lineman worked against blocking dummies on a sled or teammates holding hand pads. When the offense came together to run plays, linemen blocked against overturned plastic trash barrels. On the opposite end of the field, subvarsity players worked on defensive pursuit angles but again without hitting. Under a set of uprights laid an old gymnastics mat used to soften the fall during tackling drills, which players again did against standup dummies instead of their teammates.
Reducing collisions – that is, live, game-speed, player-vs.-player hitting – remains the focus of most conversations on health and safety in football. Much of the discussion is centered on reducing concussions, and MHSAA rules changes that took effect beginning with the 2014 season limit teams to one practice per day during the preseason (when teams frequently practice twice) where collisions can take place. During the regular season, teams can have collisions during practice only two days per week.
Otlewski – who formerly coached St. Ignace from 1990-93 before taking over at Haslett in 1994 – said his practices used to follow what could be considered a traditional after-school plan: individual position drills for an hour or more followed by 11-on-11 full contact team practice for 30-40 minutes, twice a week.
But a handful of reasons, chiefly the desire to avoid injuries, started his program on a different path five years ago.
“Nobody wants injuries, but you surely don’t want them in practice. Then the concussion thing started to happen. (But) we didn’t do it because of concussions; we did it because of general overall injuries,” Otlewski said.
“If we lose a guy in Thursday’s scrimmage, or next Thursday in a game, OK, that’s football. But what we don’t want to do is lose someone in practice, because that seems unnecessary.”
The initial changes Haslett began to make to practices that fall of 2011 became drastic two years later, when he and his staff went to a different practice model completely. The Vikings now break every practice into 10-minute sessions alternating between team time and position drills, so position coaches can work with players individually before and after seeing how they perform when all 11 are running plays together.
This new breakdown brought the amount of player-on-player contact at practice down significantly as much more time was dedicated to learning proper footwork, blocking and tackling techniques and other fundamentals. Players on Monday worked at 50-percent speed, at most, against teammates either in front of them and also not moving at game speed, or against others holding pads and dummies.
The last two seasons, the only full-contact session during practices came during preparation for goalline situations; Otlewski and his staff decided to eliminate those this fall as well.
“We’re OK with a certain level (of contact). But we never want to go on the ground; we always want to stay up,” he said. “We want to go fast enough so where we have to use the perfect technique to get there footwork-wise. But we’re trying to eliminate the physicality part.”
To be clear, eliminating all collisions/contact is not required by the MHSAA. And there are probably more than a few in the coaching fraternity who would think Haslett is making a massive mistake.
But the Vikings’ no-contact strategy follows a way of thinking made popular in part by coaches like Dartmouth College’s Buddy Teevens, whose team hasn’t tackled during practices in six years. The Ivy League as a whole adopted a policy of no tackling in practice for the regular season beginning this fall.
Otlewski said teaching to tackle without contact allows his players to practice the same technique-building drills during four-player offseason workouts, his team’s no-pads summer camp and then while wearing pads during the season. His defense doesn’t face a live offense during the week, but he doesn’t think his players lose out because they can gain just as much from watching film and working on pursuit angles and recognizing formations. Same goes for his offense, which can still practice skill work and the passing game full-speed while lineman go half-speed working on footwork and blocking technique.
And he sees 37 players on his varsity roster, with that total remaining consistent over the last many seasons – while three opponents on this year’s schedule don’t have junior varsities and a fourth won’t field a freshman team.
His players three seasons ago didn’t really like the idea of not hitting in practice at first. But they’ve since bought in. He hasn’t heard a ton from parents either way; but he taught a class on football for local moms over the winter, and they seemed to like the idea as well.
“On one hand, I’m a little apprehensive,” Otlewski said. “OK, we haven’t gone full go. Is there a difference all of a sudden when it’s live Thursday against (Grand Rapids) Christian? Are we going to be up to speed?
“I think I still worry about that a little bit. But once we get into it, it’s fine.”
Kuchnicki is just as confident. Contact doesn’t bother this guy. He’s 6-foot-6 and in the neighborhood of 320 pounds. Sure, he’d love to have one contact practice this year so he and his teammates can back up some of the trash-talking they do to each other on the field.
But he’s fine with saving his biggest hits for opponents – and especially those who might think Haslett won’t be prepared for a physical game.
“They’d probably think we’re soft,” Kuchnicki said. “But when it comes game day, they change their minds instantly. I’ll tell you that.”
Geoff Kimmerly joined the MHSAA as its Media & Content Coordinator in Sept. 2011 after 12 years as Prep Sports Editor of the Lansing State Journal. He has served as Editor of Second Half since its creation in Jan. 2012. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for the Barry, Eaton, Ingham, Livingston, Ionia, Clinton, Shiawassee, Gratiot, Isabella, Clare and Montcalm counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Haslett lineman work on blocking during Monday's practice. (Middle) Vikings coach Charlie Otlewski instructs his players on one of the team's blocking schemes. (Below) Backs work on the option with barrels serving as the defensive front.
1st & Goal: 2022 Week 6 Preview
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 30, 2022
Many Michigan football league play right through the end of the regular season, although often league championships are decided by power-packed matchups in Weeks 6, 7 or 8.
This Week 6 is shaping up as perhaps the week that may most shape the 2022 regular season.
A number of eventual conference champions could be decided tonight – some surely by the eight matchups of teams entering the weekend both 5-0.
Games below are Friday unless noted. Click for the full schedule from MHSAA.com and check out the broadcast schedule from MHSAA.tv.
Bay & Thumb
Saginaw Nouvel (4-1) at Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary (5-0)
MLS quietly has been dominating this season, with its 233 points only 24 shy of the team’s total over nine games last season. While three wins have come against teams that remain without a victory, a fourth was 43-32 over Marine City Cardinal Mooney, which leads the Detroit Catholic League Intersectional 2. MLS’s next two games – this one against Nouvel and next week against Ithaca – should be similarly tough and will decide if the Cardinals will claim the Tri-Valley Conference 10-2 title, which would be their first league championship since their most recent overall winning season in 2019. Nouvel’s only loss was to Ithaca in Week 3.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Almont (3-2) at Croswell-Lexington (5-0), Grand Blanc (3-2) at Lapeer (5-0), Linden (4-1) at Swartz Creek (5-0), New Lothrop (5-0) at Montrose (3-2).
Greater Detroit
Warren De La Salle Collegiate (4-1) at Detroit Catholic Central (4-1), Sunday
Every season this game means something, and this season it’s likely to again determine the Detroit Catholic League Central title. DCC went undefeated in Central play to win the league championship in 2020, but relinquished it to the Pilots last season as De La Salle downed the Shamrocks 17-7 in what ended up the title decider. Both teams have done serious work over the first five weeks this fall. DCC came back from a season-opening loss to Clinton Township Chippewa Valley with wins over Davison, DeWitt, Detroit U-D Jesuit and Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice by two points. De La Salle’s only loss was by a point to Rice, and the Pilots own wins over Detroit Renaissance, Muskegon, Jesuit and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Davison (4-1) at Walled Lake Western (5-0), Detroit Central (5-0) at Detroit Northwestern (4-1), Marine City (4-1) at Madison Heights Lamphere (4-1), Macomb Dakota (5-0) at Romeo (4-1).
Mid-Michigan
Portland (4-1) at Charlotte (5-0)
This could be Charlotte’s biggest game since 2008, when it shared the Capital Area Activities Conference Gold title with DeWitt and Haslett. A win over the Raiders would give the Orioles a share of the CAAC White championship – a nice jump after going 2-3 in league play last season. Charlotte has had only four overall winning seasons since 2008 but has all but guaranteed one this fall. Portland, meanwhile, is a five-point Week 2 loss from being undefeated and looking to take back the White after seeing a league title streak end at six last season.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Marshall (4-1) at Hastings (4-1), Gladstone (5-0) at Durand (5-0), DeWitt (3-2) at Grand Ledge (4-1), Olivet (4-1) at Pewamo-Westphalia (3-2).
Northern Lower Peninsula
Charlevoix (5-0) at Boyne City (5-0)
Boyne City’s last league loss was to eventual champion Charlevoix in 2020. Charlevoix’s only league loss since 2019 was last year to eventual champion Boyne City. And that makes for a pretty solid rivalry as this matchup could again decide the Northern Michigan Football Conference Leaders title. Charlevoix hasn’t given up a point since opening night – with a 48-0 shutout of third-place Elk Rapids among the four straight. Boyne City won by forfeit last week but is barreling along at 46 points per game – making the Ramblers’ offense vs. the Rayders’ defense the matchup of the night.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY East Jordan (3-2) at Frankfort (4-1), Sault Ste. Marie (4-1) at Kingsley (3-2), Cadillac (3-2) at Petoskey (2-3), Evart (4-1) at McBain (2-3).
Southeast & Border
Clinton (5-0) at Dundee (5-0)
Dundee football re-arrived on the scene in 2019 with its first playoff appearance since 2013, and the Vikings took it a step farther last season making the District Finals for the first time since 2011. A win this week would be another giant step, as Clinton has won nine or more games the last three seasons and continues to be a major contender in the Lenawee County Athletic Association. Clinton has won its first three league games this fall by a combined 137-13, and Dundee has given up only 20 points over its first three including against two of the same opponents.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Union City (4-1) at Addison (4-1), Ann Arbor Huron (3-2) at Dexter (5-0), Napoleon (5-0) at Grass Lake (3-2), Tecumseh (5-0) at Jackson (3-2).
Southwest Corridor
Berrien Springs (5-0) at Buchanan (4-1)
These two are part of the inaugural Lakeland Conference, with Benton Harbor, Dowagiac and Niles Brandywine, and a win tonight would put Berrien Springs one away from earning the first league title (while a win combined with a Brandywine loss to Benton Harbor would give the Shamrocks a share of the championship). These two also are rivals from the former Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph Conference, and Berrien Springs has won six of the last seven meetings – but Buchanan already has more wins this fall than all of last season.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Edwardsburg (4-1) at Paw Paw (3-2), Portage Northern (3-2) at St. Joseph (4-1), Allegan (3-2) at Constantine (4-1), Battle Creek Central (4-1) at Portage Central (2-3).
Upper Peninsula
Calumet (3-2) at Iron Mountain (4-1)
Iron Mountain is up to No. 3 in Division 8 playoff-point average, ahead of four undefeated teams thanks to that lone loss coming to unbeaten Division 6 Negaunee. But Calumet has been a bit of a thorn during a strong five-year run by the Mountaineers, winning two of three meetings on the field since Iron Mountain joined the Western Peninsula Athletic Conference in 2018. The Copper Kings won last year’s matchup 21-6 and have picked up three straight wins (one a forfeit) this fall since opening the season with losses to Negaunee and Gladstone – arguably the two best teams in the Upper Peninsula.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Negaunee (5-0) vs. L'Anse (3-2), Maple City Glen Lake (3-2) at St. Ignace (4-1), Bark River-Harris (3-2) at Manistique (2-3). SATURDAY Detroit Old Redford (3-2) at Kingsford (3-2).
West Michigan
Grand Rapids Catholic Central (5-0) at Grand Rapids South Christian (5-0)
Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s 41-game winning streak may face one of its toughest challenges yet – and that’s saying something as the Cougars defeated South Christian by only a point in 2020 and have won three straight Division 4 or 5 Finals. GRCC already has outlasted Ada Forest Hills Eastern and held on against Cedar Springs to defeat the latter by a point. But the Sailors have yet to play a game closer than 22 points – that one a 28-6 win over Cedar Springs – and have given up only 33 points on the year.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Whitehall (5-0) at Muskegon Oakridge (5-0), Lowell (4-1) at Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central (5-0), Grandville (4-1) at Rockford (5-0), Muskegon Mona Shores (4-1) at Zeeland West (5-0).
8-Player
Morrice (5-0) at Merrill (5-0)
This almost assuredly will end up deciding the Central Michigan 8-Man Football Conference championship, as these two sit atop the standings and two games ahead of four more teams tied for third. Merrill is ranked No. 4 in Division 1, and Morrice is No. 6 in Division 2, and neither has faced a massive challenge yet – the closest game for both was a 22-point win over Breckenridge. Morrice has been among standard-setters in 8-player, with a combined 46-4 record over the last five seasons. But Merrill appears on the verge of joining the elite coming off its first win over annual power Portland St. Patrick since moving to 8-player in 2020.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Brown City (4-1) at Britton Deerfield (3-2), Climax-Scotts (5-0) at Colon (5-0), Pickford (4-1) at Munising (5-0), Martin (5-0) at Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian (5-0).
Second Half’s weekly “1st & Goal” previews and reviews are powered by MI Student Aid, a part of the Office of Postsecondary Financial Planning located within the Michigan Department of Treasury. MI Student Aid encourages students to pursue postsecondary education by providing access to student financial resources and information. MI Student Aid administers the state’s 529 college savings programs (MET/MESP), as well as scholarship and grant programs that help make college Accessible, Affordable and Attainable for you. Connect with MI Student Aid at www.michigan.gov/mistudentaid and find more information on Facebook and Twitter @mistudentaid.
PHOTO Caledonia, on defense, faces Holt during a season opener. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)