Hutchinson Makes Name at Divine Child
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
September 13, 2017
DEARBORN – Often, a child of a successful athlete has difficulty living up to that standard.
To this point, that’s not the case with Aidan Hutchinson.
He plays a similar position as did his father Chris, an All-America defensive lineman at University of Michigan in 1992. But there are differences as well between father and son – although like his dad, Aidan also will head to Ann Arbor after he graduates from Dearborn Divine Child.
All Falcons fourth-year coach John Filiatraut knows is that he hit the lottery when the Hutchinsons decided Aidan would attend Divine Child – not that he didn’t see it coming, given Aidan’s mother, Melissa Hutchinson, and his two older sisters, Mia and Aria, all attended the Catholic school.
“They’re great people,” said Filiatraut, a 1986 Divine Child graduate. “It’s a treat. Coaches can complain and whine with the best of them. But we’re lucky to have Aidan.
“And Chris is not very intrusive. I was worried about that at the beginning. With his background, it would be easy to step in. We as coaches are trying to do things right here. (Chris) is committed to Aidan and for him to do this on his own, and not cast a shadow on Aidan.”
Coming off its winningest season (10-3) since 1985 and a Division 3 Semifinals berth in 2016, Divine Child is off to a 3-0 start this fall.
As for those differences between father and son, size is one. The elder Hutchinson was 6-foot-2 and weighed 221 pounds when he graduated from high school. His playing weight at U-M was 250. His son is 6-6 and weighs 255 pounds, and is considered one of the top prospects in the class of 2018. Aidan plays defensive end and tight end. His father was a defensive tackle.
Chris Hutchinson grew up in Houston and played football at Cypress Creek High before going on to University of Michigan, where he played four seasons and was named first team All-America as a senior defensive lineman in 1992. Chris Hutchinson said private school education was all new to him, but he couldn’t be more pleased with the educational – and now with his son – athletic experiences his family has enjoyed.
Not surprisingly, Aidan has accepted a scholarship offer to attend U-M. He did make unofficial visits to Notre Dame and Wisconsin, in addition to his interest in attending Penn State, but eventually U-M won out.
And so far his senior season has unfolded as planned.
“We’re 3-0. It’s great,” he said. “Michigan is undefeated. We’re undefeated. It’s all great.”
Chris Hutchinson didn’t allow Aidan to play tackle football until he was in the seventh grade. Aidan did play flag football, and other sports like soccer, but his father held him out of the physical contact until he thought Aidan was ready.
“It was a big change for me,” Aidan said of playing tackle football. “I had to learn a lot because most of the other kids had been playing two or three years. It wasn’t too bad a transition. I just had to learn quickly.”
Despite his size, and his weight as an infant (11 pounds, one ounce), Aidan wasn’t a large child growing up. He weighed 135 pounds when he was in the eighth grade, then 160 as a freshman playing on the line on Divine Child’s junior varsity team. Over the next two years, he grew seven inches and added 70 pounds.
“I’ve been (growing) all through high school,” he said. “Am I done growing? I don’t think so, but I’m hoping I am.”
The answer is likely the former. Aidan just turned 17 last month (Aug. 9).
Though his size is a plus once he gets to college, there are times when it can work against him at the high school level.
“It’s different when you’re 6-6 going against a 6-foot kid,” Chris Hutchinson said. “You have to keep your head down, and stay low.”
Chris Hutchinson, who’s a doctor in the emergency room at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, understands it’s not his place to coach his son from the sideline, even though, as the team physician, it’s his job to be on the sideline. He keeps a safe distance and allows Filiatraut and his staff do their jobs.
At home, it’s a different story. The two view film constantly to determine where improvements can be made.
“Thank God for Hudl,” Chris said. “I only focus on technique. When Aidan tells me they’re using a double team, I ask what type? There are different ways you can use a double team.
“It’s important not to be that dad who coaches. There are way too many dads who do the coaching thing. The hardest thing for me is not to say something, and have him come to me. When they do ask, then you can go forward.”
Aidan is quick for his size, and he attributes much of that quickness and his ability to react quickly to the other sport he plays, lacrosse. He started playing lacrosse the same year he began playing tackle football, and to him they go hand in hand.
“It’s a ton of fun (playing lacrosse),” he said. “My whole group of friends play. All six of us started (on varsity) as freshmen, so we should be pretty good this year. There’s no question it helps me in football. One hundred percent. It helps with my hip movement, and in lacrosse it forces you to back pedal.”
Filiatraut said Hutchinson is a special part of a special team at Divine Child. Its quarterback, Theo Day, is one of the state’s best. Day led the Falcons to the Division 3 Semifinals last season and has committed to sing with Michigan State.
“Aidan gives great effort all of the time,” Filiatraut said. “Honestly, he’s on the shy side. He’s trying to figure it all out. He’s doing his best to be a vocal leader, but it’s not in his nature.
“He’s got a ton of want-to. He wants to be good, and to get better.”
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.
PHOTOS: (Top) Deaborn Divine Child’s Aidan Hutchinson grabs a water break while dad and team physician Chris Hutchinson keeps an eye on the field. (Middle) Hutchinson blocks against Benton Harbor during his team’s Week 1 win. (Below) Aidan, Chris, mom Melissa and U-M coach Jim Harbaugh take a photo after Aidan commits to sign with the Wolverines. (Photos courtesy of the Hutchinson family.)
Jones' Motto Inspires 'Get To' Foundation's Work to Provide Opportunities
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
October 4, 2023
Ben Jones always had the same, simple message, even if it was 100 degrees and sunny or 35 degrees and raining sideways, and whether he was playing for a powerhouse like Muskegon Catholic Central or coaching a program trying to establish itself at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood.
“We get to play football today,” Jones would say, as many of those around him were complaining and grumbling.
It was never “have to” for Jones, but always “get to.”
Jones, who was about to start his second year as head coach at Cranbrook, had his life tragically cut short by a drunk driver who crashed into his vehicle as he was traveling home from work in Detroit on Aug. 19, 2020. He was just 30 years old.
While Jones is gone, leaving a hole as large and painful as the 6-foot-2, 260-pound frame he carried as a tight end in his senior year at Hillsdale College, that “Get To” mentality is alive and well, and thriving and growing – thanks in large part to the efforts of his football teammates from Muskegon Catholic and later at Hillsdale.
The Get To Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, was formed in Jones’ honor and has grown exponentially in less than three years, providing grants to sports organizations and scholarships to student-athletes.
“There is a core group of about 10 of them that have worked on (the foundation), and it’s been amazing,” said Theresa Jones, Ben’s mother, who with her husband Bruce has worked with the foundation. “It started small, and then it caught fire.”
The president of the foundation is Tim Hornak, Jones’ best friend and teammate in the trenches at both Muskegon Catholic and Hillsdale. Hornak returned to deliver a pre-game speech before the Crusaders’ home game on Sept. 15 against Kalamazoo United, where he talked about the man who is the inspiration behind the rapidly-growing Get To movement.
“You don’t have to, you get to – that simple difference can change your lives,” said Hornak, who teamed with Jones when both were seniors to help the Crusaders to a 14-0 record and the Division 8 championship in 2008. “You get to play football tonight and continue the tradition that started here in the 1950s.
“You get a chance to line up and play a great game with your best friends.”
Inspired by Hornak’s words and Jones’ legacy, the Crusaders downed Kalamazoo United 27-7 that night, the team’s second-straight win after an 0-2 start, which put them back in the Division 8 playoff picture.
A tailgate party was held before the game as a fundraiser for the Get To Foundation, and it happened to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the Crusaders’ 2008 championship team – arguably one of the best teams in the school’s storied history. MCC has won 12 state championships, trailing only Farmington Hills Harrison in state playoff history.
The phrase “get to,” according to Hornak, goes back to the whiteboard in the MCC locker room his sophomore year and perfectly captures Jones’ approach to life and to football, whether his team was unbeaten like at MCC or struggling like the Chargers did just after he and Hornak graduated.
Jones, who wore No. 62 at MCC, was a two-way starting lineman who also played on the Crusaders’ 2006 championship team as a sophomore. His best friends on the team were the Hornak twins, Tim and Jon, whose father Mike was an assistant coach.
After his funeral service on Aug. 24, 2020, Jones’ hearse made a stop at MCC’s Kehren Stadium on the way to the cemetery, taking a lap on the track around Mike Holmes Field.
He went on to play on three teams which won or shared Great Lakes Interscholastic Athletic Conference titles at Hillsdale, where he wore No. 91 and played tight end and H-back.
“He had an inner self-confidence that you could tell right away when talking to him,” said Hillsdale coach Keith Otterbein. “He was very positive. He encouraged his teammates.”
Jones graduated from Hillsdale in 2013 with a degree in financial management and a minor in mathematics, moved to Royal Oak and took a job as a portfolio manager and financial planner at Schwartz & Co. Investment Advisors.
In his free time, he worked as an assistant varsity football coach at Cranbrook from 2015 to 2018, before being elevated to head coach in 2019 at the age of 28.
One of his first actions as head coach was getting Cranbrook football T-shirts printed with the message “Get To” on the back. Jones guided the Cranes to a 6-4 record and a Division 4 playoff berth in what would prove to be his only season as head coach.
He died nine days before Cranbrook’s scheduled season opener in 2020, which ended up being delayed six weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the immediate aftermath of Jones’ shocking death, the Hornak brothers and other former teammates vowed to do something to honor Ben and to help out his family. Out of that mission, the Get To Foundation was born.
Get To has awarded scholarships for the past three years. In 2023 alone, the foundation awarded $16,000 in scholarships to 22 student-athletes from around the state.
In addition, Get To has awarded $55,000 in grants to 17 organizations – including $3,000 to the Eaton Rapids High School football program for new shoulder pads and helmets and $2,500 to the Detroit Tigers Foundation’s Gloves for Kids program.
The next event on the foundation’s busy calendar is a speech by best-selling motivational author Jon Gordon at Lawrence Tech University on Oct. 17.
The foundation’s board has trademarked the phrase “Get To” and hopes to continue to grow the organization’s size and scope – in a way mirroring how big and impactful Ben’s life could have been if it wasn’t cut short.
For more information or to make a donation, go to the organization’s website at www.gettofoundation.org.
The relentless efforts of Ben’s ex-teammates to keep his memory alive means the world to his parents, as well as his two younger siblings – Alissa, a standout swimmer at Hillsdale who is now the school’s assistant women’s swimming coach; and Nate, who also played football for the Chargers and is now a foreign currency trader for Barclay’s, based in New York City.
Theresa Jones said coming together with all of Ben’s closest friends for Get To Foundation events has been a continuous blessing for the family.
“Every time we have an event for the foundation, it’s all of Ben’s friends and family members dressed up and having a good time,” his mother said. “It always feels like Ben’s wedding reception that he never got to have.”
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) Ben Jones is shown before the 2008 Division 8 championship game at Ford Field during his senior year at Muskegon Catholic Central. The Crusaders defeated Crystal Falls Forest Park, 40-0. (Middle) Jones works with his linemen during his first year as head coach at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood in 2019. (Below) A plaque honoring Jones has been placed in the tunnel leading from the home locker room to the football field at Hillsdale College. (Top photo by Tim Reilly. Additional photos courtesy of the Get To Foundation.)