McKelvey Fills Record-Setting Kicking Role with Lenawee Christian Football
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
October 11, 2022
ADRIAN – A couple of years ago it would have been easy to image Brady McKelvey scoring a last-second shot for Adrian Lenawee Christian to win a basketball game or for him to find the back of the net with a game-winning goal in soccer.
But fast forward to today and McKelvey might be more likely to kick a game-winning field goal for the No. 2-ranked Cougars 8-player football team.
“I watched football of course, but I never played it until last year,” McKelvey said. “It’s interesting. It’s been a lot of fun. I’m glad Coach (Bill) Wilharms asked us to try out.”
McKelvey is a two-sport athlete in the fall, playing for both the Lenawee Christian soccer and football teams. He’s played on MHSAA championship teams in both sports. Last week McKelvey reached rare territory when he kicked his 100th career extra point – the state record for 8-player football.
“We were never big football players,” McKelvey said, referring to him and his brother, Jacob, now a student at the University of Michigan. “We just always had a soccer ball in our hands.”
Wilharms is the strength and conditioning coach and varsity football coach at Lenawee Christian, which has grown into an 8-player powerhouse, winning Division 1 championships in the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Brady and Jacob McKelvey were working out at the LCS facilities two springs ago when Wilharms asked if they wanted to try out kicking for the football team.
“I always wondered what it would be like to kick a football,” Brady McKelvey said. “I’ve always wanted to, but never had the opportunity. We were excited to try it out.”
Both came out for the team last season and were coached by Casey Opsal, a former Hudson kicker and now a Lenawee County sheriff’s deputy who is one of Wilharms’ assistants. With Opsal’s guidance, Jacob and Brady blossomed into outstanding kickers.
“He’s been the person who has taught me everything I know about it,” McKelvey said. “He helped me improve a lot.”
McKelvey has never attended a football camp or had a lesson in kicking a football from anyone outside of the LCS staff. Yet, his statistics are nothing short of amazing.
Last season, McKelvey had a string of 52 consecutive extra points at one point and finished the season making 59-of-61 attempts. He has a current streak of 23 straight makes heading into this week’s game and is 44-for-45 overall this year. In two seasons, that makes him 103-for-106. He kicked his first field goal earlier this season, giving him 106 career kicking points.
Twice in his career he’s kicked 10 extra points in a game. This year he’s hit at least eight PATs four straight weeks. He also averages about 45 yards per kickoff.
Wilharms said he’s happy McKelvey decided to try his leg at football and said the senior is still learning nuances of football, such as where to place the ball on kickoffs.
“He is a good athlete,” Wilharms said. “His PATs are consistent. We are definitely glad to have him on the team.”
Brady and Jacob shared duties last season, although by the end of the season Jacob was kicking off and Brady was handling the bulk of the extra points.
“At first, one of us would go out and kick and the next time the other one would go out there,” McKelvey said. “Toward the end of the season, I was better at extra points, and he was better at kicking off. It is cool to be on a team that scores a lot because you get to kick a lot.”
LCS has no trouble scoring. The Cougars are 6-1 and average 49.8 points per game.
Soccer continues to be McKelvey’s favorite sport. The Cougars are having a solid season on the pitch as well, and he is a big part of that team’s success too.
“I still love soccer,” McKelvey said.
Cougars soccer coach Nathan Sharpe said McKelvey is a team leader. He has three goals and three assists this fall. “He’s a captain and a key player on our team,” Sharpe said.
McKelvey said kicking the ball in soccer and kicking the football are very different things requiring different technique.
“It’s surprisingly different,” he said. “A soccer ball is a lot bigger. You have more room to hit it. You want to lean over and try and keep it toward the ground. A football you have to make a much different type of contact because you want to get it up into the air.
“The first time I kicked a football with no coaching, it was interesting. I had to try and completely switch how I was kicking.”
He’s learned the technique so much that this winter he is considering not playing basketball so he can go to football kicking camps. He’s hoping to become good enough to try out or walk-on to a football team in college.
“I didn’t really expect to be as consistent as I have been,” he said. “You watch college kickers, and even they miss sometimes. I work at it as much as I can. With soccer games, there are times I cannot go to football practice, but I try and get out there as much as I can.
“I think it would be awesome to kick in college,” he added. “I plan on going to some camps this winter. If I’m able to walk-on somewhere, that would be fine with me.”
Besides soccer, the McKelveys have a basketball background as well. Their dad Scott has coached boys and girls basketball in Lenawee County for years. He recently was hired as the boys varsity coach at Blissfield. The boys grew up being managers and hanging around the teams that Scott coached.
McKelvey is setting the bar high in the 8-player football record book. LCS still has two regular-season games remaining and is considered among the favorites to make a long postseason run – meaning he could push that extra point number a lot higher.
“I’m very happy I tried out for the team,” he said. “Being part of it is a lot of fun. The guys on the team have always treated me as part of the team. I really like being on the team. All the success we have makes it so much fun.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Brett McKelvey prepares to kick off during a game this season. (Middle) McKelvey, with father Scott McKelvey and mother Melissa Dempsey. (Photos courtesy of Jeff Jameson/Lenawee Christian.)
1st & Goal: 2022 Week 8 Review
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 17, 2022
Plenty of regular-season wheels were still in spin during football’s Week 8, including opportunities for a few more historic league championship claims and a few upsets to keep this season’s playoff field a little tougher to forecast.
Dexter and Durand are among the latest to celebrate league titles many years in the making. Spring Lake, Elk Rapids and East Grand Rapids kept us on our toes as well as we dug deeper into crunch time with only one week of regular-season matchups to play.
Here’s a look at how those teams and others continued to drive us forward as we draw nearer to playoff selection coming up this Sunday.
Bay & Thumb
HEADLINER Goodrich 21, Linden 0 The Martians (7-1) added the overall Flint Metro League championship to their Stars division title and also extended their winning streak that began after a season-opening defeat. Since that Week 1 loss, Goodrich has given up more than seven points in a game only once, with this its third shutout of the fall. The Martians have won all three meetings with Linden (5-3) since joining the Metro in 2019. Click for more from the Flint Journal.
Watch list North Branch 35, Croswell-Lexington 21 The must-follow Blue Water Area Conference race has reached a conclusion, with North Branch (7-1) clinching a share of the championship with this victory and Armada (7-1) clinching a share with its win over Richmond on Friday. The Broncos avenged a 28-7 defeat last year to the Pioneers (6-2), who went on to win the 2021 BWAC title.
On the move Harbor Beach 28, Bad Axe 7 The East’s Harbor Beach (7-1) won this matchup of Greater Thumb Conference division runners-up, avenging last year’s 42-33 loss to the Hatchets (5-3). Davison 49, Grand Blanc 14 The Cardinals (7-1) avenged last year’s 43-7 loss to the rival Bobcats to set up a winner-take-all Saginaw Valley League South title matchup this week against Lapeer. Freeland 40, Birch Run 6 The Falcons (7-1) have moved up in the Division 4 playoff-point rankings three straight weeks and now sit at No. 12 after sending Birch Run (4-4) one spot out of the Division 5 qualifier list to No. 33 heading into the regular-season finales.
Greater Detroit
HEADLINER Detroit Cass Tech 28, Detroit Martin Luther King 14 The Detroit Public School League Blue championship game was a rematch from Week 4, won by King 28-23. But this time, Cass Tech was able to shut down a Crusaders offense averaging 43 points per game and break a three-game losing streak against its biggest rival. Cass Tech (5-3) also received a nice boost to No. 29 in Division 1 playoff-point average after entering the weekend at No. 31. King, at 5-2, sits No. 12 on the Division 3 playoff-point list. Click for more from the Detroit News.
Watch list Farmington 39, Birmingham Seaholm 21 A two-point loss to Troy in Week 5 put the Falcons (6-2) in chase mode, but they earned a share of the Oakland Activities Association Blue title by handing Seaholm (7-1) its lone loss in the league finale. The next-best news for both is both were sub-.500 last year and have rebounded in big ways.
On the move Belleville 42, Livonia Franklin 14 The Tigers (8-0) clinched another Kensington Lakes Activities Association East title outright and ran their overall winning streak to 19, while dealing Franklin (7-1) its only defeat. Detroit Central 31, Detroit Southeastern 14 The Trail Blazers (8-0) ran their regular-season winning streak to 18 in finishing an outright PSL Gold championship run with a second win over Southeastern (5-3) this fall. Clarkston 48, Lapeer 13 The Wolves (6-2) have two good losses and some really solid wins this season, this one over the Lightning (7-1) just the latest and enough to push Clarkston up to No. 7 on the Division 1 playoff-point list.
Mid-Michigan
HEADLINER Durand 23, New Lothrop 21 The Railroaders’ season would have been considered a mighty success with just a shared championship in the Mid-Michigan Activities Conference. But Durand (8-0) continued to make its case as one of the most intriguing stories of this season statewide by edging the Hornets to claim the title outright, after two weeks ago earning a share of its first league championship since 1983. Even with the loss, New Lothrop (6-2) moved up a spot in Division 7 playoff-point ranking to No. 12, and its defeats this season are by a combined three points. Click for more from the Owosso Argus-Press.
Watch list Holt 16, East Lansing 13 The Rams actually ran their winning streak over East Lansing (6-2) to two, but this one spun the Capital Area Activities Conference Blue race on its side with Holt (5-3) clinching a share and East Lansing and Grand Ledge now set to decide the other half of the championship when they face off this week. The Trojans had entered the weekend in first alone.
On the move Portland 32, Cadillac 6 The Raiders (7-1) are shaping up as Division 5 contenders again, with this win over the Vikings (5-3) moving them up three spots to No. 6 on that playoff-point average list. Charlotte 44, Flint Hamady 34 The Orioles’ rise continues as they moved to 7-1 by handing Hamady (7-1) its lone defeat. Hastings 33, Jackson Northwest The Saxons (7-1) clinched a share of the Interstate 8 Athletic Conference title and can claim it outright this week against winless Battle Creek Pennfield.
Northern Lower Peninsula
HEADLINER Elk Rapids 26, St. Ignace 19 Add the Elks (6-2) to teams enjoying an unforgettable fall. They finished third in the Northern Michigan Football Conference Leaders, but earned their most notable win this season over a St. Ignace team that’s clinched a share of the NMFC Legacy title and will play for the outright championship this week. Elk Rapids (6-2) has put together its best season since 2018, while the Saints (6-2) are surging through their best showing since 2016.
Watch list Traverse City St. Francis 42, Lawton 7 We’ve been watching the Gladiators all season, and it feels like we’ll be watching them late into November again as they moved to 8-0 with a big win over last season’s Division 7 runner-up Blue Devils (6-2).
On the move Traverse City Central 21, Bay City Western 0 A four-game losing streak in September had the Trojans (4-4) solidly outside the Division 2 playoff field, but a three-game winning streak has moved them back up to No. 21 in Division 2. McBain 46, Manton 20 After a few weeks skating outside the top 32 in Division 8 playoff-point average, McBain (4-4) is up to a more comfortable No. 27 with winless Muskegon Heights Academy up next. Charlevoix 38, Kalkaska 0 The Rayders moved to 7-1 with their second-straight shutout and sixth in eight games this season.
Southeast & Border
HEADLINER Dexter 21, Saline 14 The Dreadnaughts (8-0) defeated eight-time reigning champion Saline to clinch the Southeastern Conference Red championship outright – that league title also Dexter’s first in 59 years. Cole Cabana scored all three touchdowns, while the Dreadnaughts’ defense stood strong again and is giving up only 10.4 points per game this season. Saline moved to 6-2. Click for more from the Ann Arbor News.
Here are the highlights of the Saline at Dexter game that aired on Football Fridays Overtime powered by STATE CHAMPS! on @BallySportsDET#MIFTBL | @DreadStrong | @colecabana pic.twitter.com/JndzfPoY2k
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Watch list Adrian 39, Sturgis 13 The Maples (4-4) finished fourth in the SEC White, but their four wins are the team’s most since 2016, and they are one spot outside making the Division 4 playoff field after moving up seven spots with this win over the Trojans (5-3).
On the move Napoleon 36, Addison 18 The Pirates (8-0) clinched the Cascades Conference championship outright with their first win over Addison (4-4) since 2018. Hudson 46, Dundee 17 The Tigers (8-0) guaranteed a winner-take-all Week 9 matchup with Clinton in the Lenawee County Athletic Association while taking Dundee (6-2) out of title consideration. Ottawa Lake Whiteford 50, Erie Mason 14 The Bobcats (8-0) finished a perfect run through the Tri-County Conference and sit No. 2 in Division 8 playoff-point average, while Erie Mason (5-3) is hanging in at No. 29 in Division 7.
Southwest Corridor
HEADLINER Buchanan 34, Benton Harbor 22 The Bucks (7-1) wrapped up the inaugural Lakeland Athletic Conference championship outright, and deservedly so after putting up the most points a tough Benton Harbor defense has given up this season. Similarly, the Tigers (4-4) tied the third-most Buchanan has allowed, and will hope to continue that trend this week as they sit two spots outside the Division 5 playoff field with a trip to Constantine next. This win moved Buchanan up three spots in Division 6 to No. 12. Click for more from the Niles Daily Star.
Watch list Homer 34, Reading 30 The Trojans (6-2) didn’t catch Union City in the Big 8 Conference but finished a solid second thanks to their first win over Reading (6-2) since 2016. They also guaranteed their best record since 2019 with the win.
On the move Edwardsburg 46, Chelsea 7 The Eddies (7-1) are making some noise, with this win over the reigning Division 4 champion Bulldogs (5-3) a good conversation starter. White Pigeon 44, Kent City 19 A three-game winning streak has White Pigeon (5-3) steadily moving up the Division 8 playoff-point list, and this win over Kent City (6-2) was their most impressive of the fall. Watervliet 32, Parchment 7 Watervliet (5-3) was in need of some added comfort in the Division 6 playoff field, and this win pushed it up six spots to No. 22. Parchment (4-4) fell five spots to a less comfortable No. 34, two out of making the postseason.
Upper Peninsula
HEADLINER Negaunee 48, Houghton 0 The Miners (8-0) not only experienced no letdown after a big Week 7 win over Gladstone, they put up their third-most points of the season and earned their second shutout in clinching a share of the Western Peninsula Athletic Conference Copper title. Negaunee will play for its first perfect regular season since 2016 against Ishpeming Westwood this week, while Houghton (5-3) is working to hold onto a playoff spot in Division 6 and could see the Miners again. Click for more from Upper Michigan Source.
Watch list Kingsford 46, Hopkins 7 The Flivvers (6-2) quietly have won five straight – with Hopkins (5-3) playing for a league title share this week. Kingsford has gone over 45 points three of the last four games and held its last four opponents to single digits.
On the move Gladstone 22, Gaylord 14 The Braves (6-2) quickly bounced back from that Negaunee loss, with a sixth win representing their most in a season since 2017 – and against a Gaylord team (5-3) enjoying its best since 2018. Iron Mountain 28, Ishpeming 8 The Mountaineers (7-1) are holding on to the top spot in Division 8 playoff-point average for the second-straight week after defeating a possible playoff opponent in the Hematites (4-4). Bark River-Harris 34, Ishpeming Westwood 6 The Broncos (6-2) may bring a little more momentum to this week’s West-PAC Iron title decider with Ishpeming after avenging last year’s 50-8 loss to Westwood (4-4).
West Michigan
HEADLINER Spring Lake 35, Hudsonville Unity Christian 32 The Lakers (3-5) have quite a bit to make up to have a shot at making the Division 4 playoffs. But they made a massive impact on the Ottawa-Kent Conference Blue race with this upset, denying Unity Christian (5-3) a chance to clinch a share of the league title and instead bringing Fruitport and Grand Rapids West Catholic back into the mix. Click for more from the Grand Haven Tribune.
Watch list East Grand Rapids 15, Lowell 14 The Pioneers (3-5) were coming off two losses, but in edging the Red Arrows (5-3) they pushed into a pretty solid No. 24 slot in Division 3 playoff-point average.
On the move Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central 30, Grand Rapids Christian 7 The Rangers (8-0) are one of two undefeated teams left in Division 2 and now own a share of the O-K White championship with the chance to repeat as outright winner this week. Muskegon Mona Shores 15, Muskegon Reeths-Puffer 0 With their second shutout of the season, the Sailors (7-1) clinched a share of the O-K Green title. Grand Rapids South Christian 37, Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills 7 These Sailors now own a share of the O-K Gold championship but with a tough opponent coming up in Forest Hills Eastern as they seek to win outright.
8-Player
HEADLINER Rogers City 42, Alcona 26 The North Star League Big Dipper championship belongs to Rogers City after this highly-anticipated matchup. The last three between these rivals had been decided by a score, but the Hurons broke away and are now one more win from a first perfect regular season since 1998. Alcona is 6-2. Click for more from MI Sports Now
Watch list Central Lake 26, Farwell 22 Early losses to Gaylord St. Mary and Indian River Inland Lakes are why Central Lake ended up third in the Ski Valley Conference. But the Trojans have won five straight (including a forfeit) and handing Farwell (7-1) its lone loss makes them a team to watch even more as we head into the postseason.
On the move Climax-Scotts 28, Adrian Lenawee Christian 21 The Panthers (7-1) are absolutely among the best teams in 8-player Division 2 with this win solidifying that reputation. Lenawee Christian (6-2) remains a favorite in Division 1. Gaylord St. Mary 38, Rudyard 14 The Snowbirds also are a Division 2 team to watch coming off a solid win over Division 1 Rudyard (5-3). Kingston 56, Mayville 26 The Cardinals (8-0) are a win away from a possible first perfect regular season since 1999, and this win over Mayville (5-3) was one of their best.
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PHOTOS (Top) Detroit Central's quarterback attempts to launch a pass amid a Southeastern rush during the PSL Gold final. (Middle) A Detroit Cass Tech ball carrier looks to break past a Martin Luther King defender during the PSL Blue championship game. (Photos by Chardonne’ U of Olivia B. Photography.)