Piggee Leans on Big Reds After Dad's Death, Lifts Team with Dazzling Play
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
November 3, 2021
Watching Destin Piggee do his thing on the football field – drawing collective gasps from the crowd with an array of moves, bursts of amazing speed and dramatic stops and starts – is nothing short of pure joy.
What a contrast from the tragedy the quiet, humble, 15-year-old Muskegon High School sophomore suffered two months ago.
Muskegon coach Shane Fairfield said his young sensation has the heart of a lion, but that heart was ripped out of his chest on the afternoon of Sept. 3 – just hours before the Big Reds hosted Detroit Cass Tech in the biggest game in the state that weekend.
Piggee learned that his previously healthy father, 43-year-old Dereko Piggee, had died from complications after a short bout with COVID-19.
He then did what his dad would have wanted that night and played for the Big Reds, ripping off a 43-yard run (appropriately, one yard for every year of his dad’s life), giving a packed house at Hackley Stadium a preview of what was to come over the next eight games.
“I played that game, but I wasn’t in my right mind,” admitted Piggee, a 5-foot-6, 160-pound slot back and return man.
“My teammates and my coaches have helped me like you wouldn’t believe. If I didn’t have football, I probably would have gone out and done something stupid.”
The next game at Zeeland West was even more challenging, as earlier that day was his father’s funeral service – and then the young man who is too young to drive a car had to lay his father and best friend to rest at the cemetery.
He responded once again, scoring the winning touchdown on a 32-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Piggee hasn’t slowed down since, rolling up 705 rushing yards on a mere 30 carries, for a staggering 24 yards per attempt, with nine touchdowns. He also has caught nine passes for 201 yards and a touchdown, giving him 17 plays of 20-plus yards on only 39 offensive touches.
“He is a gifted natural athlete, but you should see the way this young man works,” said Muskegon coach Shane Fairfield, who has led his team to nine straight wins after the humbling Week 2 loss to Cass Tech. “His love for the game and for his teammates is contagious.”
Muskegon (9-1) hopes to win its 10th-straight District championship at 1 p.m. Saturday when it hosts Cedar Springs (8-2).
The Big Reds, who have also won five straight Regional titles, are aspiring to make it to Ford Field for the eighth time in the past 10 years. Muskegon has won a state-best 878 games and 18 state titles, including six in the playoff era, with the latest coming in 2017.
It has been the emergence of super sophomore “smurfs” Piggee and his good friend, running back Jakob Price (5-7, 165), which has keyed this team’s resurgence.
Exhibit A was Muskegon’s 49-28 win over crosstown rival and two-time reigning Division 2 champion Muskegon Mona Shores on Oct. 8. With the Sailors keying on senior quarterback Myles Walton, the sophomores stole the show – Price with six carries for 217 yards and TD runs of 70 yards and 99 yards and Piggee with six carries for 123 yards and two TDs, along with two catches for 71 yards and another score.
Against Wyoming earlier this year, Piggee touched the ball twice all game and scored touchdowns both times, on an 82-yard run and an electrifying 50-yard punt return.
Although he makes it look easy on the field, it’s been a daily, hourly, minute-by-minute battle off of it for Piggee and his family, especially his mother, stepmother, grandparents and siblings.
“One day after school, I just started crying and I couldn’t stop,” said Piggee, who is the youngest of his father’s five children.
That was when his Big Red family stepped in.
Senior Damari Foster hugged him and held him for a long time, before passing him off to freshman coach Corey Bibbs, who then handed him to Fairfield.
“Coach Fairfield finally got me to stop crying,” said Piggee, who wants to study electrical engineering in college. “He told me about some of the hard things he dealt with growing up, and I learned some things from him.”
Piggee said he draws motivation from his friend Dametrius “Meechie” Walker, a towering, 6-5 senior defensive lineman who was diagnosed last fall with osteosarcoma in his left leg, a rare bone cancer most often seen in teenage boys. The cancer has ended the playing career for Walker – who already had six Division I scholarship offers including from Michigan State, Minnesota and Kentucky – but he remains a positive, smiling force on the Muskegon sideline.
While Piggee is motivated to play hard for Walker, he is also determined to follow in the footsteps of his father, a 1996 grad who was a three-year varsity player and all-area defensive back for the Big Reds. He played running back, but was better known as a dangerous return man and lockdown cover man in the secondary.
“I remember Dereko was a nice, nice kid,” said Dave Taylor, Dereko’s head coach at Muskegon, who led the Big Reds to Class A championships in 1986 and 1989. “He did what I told him to do, and he was one of my favorites.”
This year’s Muskegon team is the youngest in Fairfield’s 12 years as head coach, with as many as eight freshmen and sophomores starting in some games.
The turning point in the season came after the 49-14 defeat at the hands of Cass Tech, when Fairfield challenged Piggee and his underclassmen teammates to rise above their youth and start playing “big boy football.”
“Big boy football means being confident and being in control of yourself at all times,” said Piggee. “We got on a group text and talked about that after our loss.
“We support our brothers here even when no one else does. These guys have helped me to get through every single day since my dad passed; you have no idea. I just want to go out and play as hard as I can for them.”
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) Muskegon’s Destin Piggee (3) eludes the grasp of a Lowell defender during the Big Reds’ District Semifinal win Saturday. (Middle) Piggee takes the field with his teammates before the Sept. 3 game against Detroit Cass Tech. (Below) Piggee makes his move upfield against East Kentwood. (Top and below photos courtesy of Local Sports Journal. Middle photo by Tim Reilly.)
Ruddy Makes Biggest Plays at Most Crucial Times as Whiteford Wins 2nd Title
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 25, 2022
DETROIT – When the Ottawa Lake Whiteford offense took the field Friday with the Division 8 championship on the line, head coach Todd Thieken had a message for his offensive coordinator:
Put the ball in Shea Ruddy’s hands.
Need to convert a crucial fourth down near midfield?
Put it in Ruddy’s hands.
Facing a 3rd-and-goal from the 7?
Let Ruddy make the decision to run or pass.
The senior quarterback paid off his coach’s confidence, making the plays the Bobcats needed and leading a go-ahead touchdown drive in Whiteford’s 26-20 victory against Ubly at Ford Field.
“I want us doing things that he’s either running it, or he’s directing the play in some way, shape or form,” Thieken said. “Obviously there were some big plays – (Hunter DeBarr and Jake Iott) made some big runs on that drive, (Ruddy) did, as well, big catch out of (Kolby Masserant). When I’ve got guys like this, I’m not going to sit here and lie and say I wasn’t nervous because the game’s on the line. But I definitely had a quiet confidence about what we had in front of us.”
Ruddy finished the game with 177 yards of total offense and two touchdowns to lead Whiteford to its second Division 8 title, the previous coming in 2017.
His second rushing touchdown of the day came with 1 minute, 59 seconds to play, breaking a 20-all tie.
“Originally I was just going to throw it,” Ruddy said. “But there was a lot of room to run so I just tucked it and figured I could get there.”
The touchdown run capped an 80-yard drive that took 7:42 off the clock. It included a 4th-and-5 conversion near midfield in which Ruddy rushed for seven yards. Nine of the 17 plays on the drive were either a pass or Ruddy run.
“That kid’s a heck of a player,” Ubly coach Eric Sweeney said. “That’s the best athlete I’ve seen this year. He’s quick, explosive and when you get a kid like that in space, he’s tough to tackle.”
It appeared that Ruddy had made it 28-20 with a two-point conversion, but a replay review showed he stepped out of bounds just prior to hitting the pylon. That gave Ubly (13-1) some renewed hope going into its final drive, but the Bearcats couldn’t move the ball. A fourth down throw, hurried by immediate Whiteford pressure off the edge, was knocked away by Ruddy’s younger brother, Ryin, and Whiteford (14-0) was able to run out the clock in the victory formation.
“That was probably one of the best high school football games I’ve ever been a part of,” Thieken said. “I’ve been coaching football for over 30 years, and the way that both teams out there just battled right down to the wire, the way the teams were going at it. … The way we finished that game was a testament to all 51 kids on our football roster and the way they worked since last June.”
Whiteford’s go-ahead drive came after Ubly had erased a two-touchdown deficit and captured the game’s momentum.
The Bearcats – who were making their third Finals appearance and first since 2020 – went down 12-0 in the first quarter, and trailed 20-6 in the third before turning things around.
They did it by not straying from the gameplan they’ve had all season – running the ball straight at their opponent.
Seth Maurer scored both second-half touchdowns, one on a 31-yard run, and the other on a 9-yard run. Ubly rushed for 107 yards on 12 carries during the third quarter alone.
“The resiliency of these kids? They’re tough,” Sweeney said. “Cornfield tough is what I would say. They never quit, which I wouldn’t expect these kids to quit. They really battled. I couldn’t be prouder. We have to come down here and win one of these, but the kids played hard and left it all out on the field. I couldn’t be prouder of them.”
Whiteford jumped out to its 12-0 lead thanks in part to an Ubly fumble on its opening possession. The Bobcats capitalized with a 26-yard TD run by DeBarr.
After a defensive stop, the Bobcats went 80 yards on 14 plays, scoring on a 1-yard run by Shea Ruddy.
Ubly would make it 12-6 with a 2-yard touchdown run by Mark Heilig. The drive was set up by an Evan Peruski interception at the Whiteford 30-yard line.
Whiteford stretched the lead to 20-6 right after the half, as it went 80 yards on 12 plays, scoring on a 4-yard run from DeBarr. Ruddy ran in the two-point try.
DeBarr finished with 94 yards rushing and the two touchdowns for Whiteford, while Ruddy had 65 yards on the ground and 112 yards on 8-of-12 passing. He also had an interception and tied his brother for the team lead with 12 tackles.
Masserant had five catches for 82 yards, and Iott had 11 tackles.
Maurer finished with 129 yards rushing for Ubly, while Heilig had 82.
Canden Peruski led the Ubly defense with 14 tackles, while Aiden Mackowiak had 13.
PHOTOS (Top) Whiteford coach Todd Thieken presents the Division 8 championship trophy to his team Saturday at Ford Field. (Middle) The Bobcats’ Shea Ruddy (1) pushes forward with Ubly’s Parker Peruski (68) and Evan Peruski (10) working to take him down. (Below) Ubly’s Luke Volmering (11) wraps up Whiteford’s Kolby Masserant. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)