Sand Creek's Muck Making His Move
August 16, 2018
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
SAND CREEK – Alec Muck doesn’t take for granted that he’s one of the fastest athletes in the state.
It just makes him want to become faster.
“I’ve always had speed,” said the Sand Creek senior. “I guess you could say I was blessed with speed. But I train hard, too. I do a lot of stuff on my own, I work with a personal trainer and I lift. It motivates me.”
Muck is a five-time MHSAA Finals track champion and has rushed for more than 2,600 career yards for the Aggies’ varsity football team. As he prepares for his senior season on the football field, he said he’s healthy and ready to go out a winner.
“I just want to go out and play hard and give it my all,” he said. “I’m going to do whatever it takes for my team. High school football is so different than anything else. I want to leave it all out there.”
Muck has a future as a college athlete. He’s just not sure in which sport. This summer, he went on a multi-state, multi-campus recruiting tour during which he blazed to a 4.3-second 40-yard time in Columbus, Ohio.
“That definitely caught the attention of a few coaches,” he said. “I kept my time around that 4.3 all summer.”
Other stops on the tour included Louisville, Cincinnati, Findlay and Western Michigan University. The 5-foot-10, 175-pound speedster doesn’t have any formal offers to play college football, but he expects that to change this season.
“I have a passion for both track and football,” he said. “But, I love the grind of football and everything about the game. If I could choose, I’d probably say football. I’ve always wanted to play at the Division I level.”
Muck was part of the Sand Creek varsity football team as a freshman. He blossomed into a weapon as a sophomore. In the third game that season, against Whitmore Lake, he carried the ball 11 times for 277 yards and five touchdowns. It remains his most productive game of his career. In all seven Tri-County Conference games that year, he rushed for at least 100 yards. He went on to rush for 1,505 yards as a sophomore, racking up nearly 2,000 all-purpose yards and 26 touchdowns.
His junior season saw a slight dip in his carries, but he still averaged more than seven yards per rush and came up two yards short of 1,000. He started the season spending some time at quarterback. That experiment ended early in the season, however, and he expects to line up at several different spots on the field this year – but not quarterback.
“I like running back,” he said. “That’s where I’ve played since my Pop Warner days. I like to run and see the whole field. Running with the football is way different than running the track. You have to know when to go only 50 percent, so you know where to make your cut, then explode. You have to have more lateral movement.”
Sand Creek coach Scott Gallagher said the Aggies need to find more and creative ways to get Muck the football.
“He’s explosive,” said Gallagher, in his second season leading the program. “We have to put him in different positions and get him the football in a lot of different ways. He’s had the best camp he’s had since I’ve coached him.”
Muck causes headaches for opposing coaches. He is a threat to score every time he touches the ball.
“Obviously Alec has tremendous speed; however, his ability to take over and change a game is underrated,” said Ottawa Lake Whiteford coach Jason Mensing. “His imprint on the TCC will be lasting.”
Gallagher said Muck sets high expectations for himself.
“He’s hard on himself,” Gallagher said. “He is very driven to be successful, and he wants to that success to rub off on his teammates.”
Muck’s training has involved a lot of speed drills – often on his own. His weightlifting is for strength and maintaining speed, not bulking up.
“My normal warm-ups are low sprints, not long-distance running,” he said. “When I run the short sprints, I set a goal for each sprint and try and beat that time. I run for time.”
Prior to the Regional track meet this spring, Muck injured his hamstring. He took a week off running before the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals, but the break didn’t slow him as he won both the 100 and 200 dashes. He won the same events as a sophomore and won the 200 as a freshman. His championship winning times this spring were 10.98 seconds in the 100 and 22.02 in the 200.
“I was really careful warming up at the state meet and, in the preliminaries, I ran easy, just so I could get to the final,” he said. “Once I got there, I knew I could do it.”
Throughout a summer of football camps and 7-on-7s, Muck also attended physical therapy for the hamstring. He said he’s now at 100 percent and ready to start football – and go out with a bang.
“This is the most dedicated the team has been since I’ve been playing,” he said. “The offseason training, the commitment to the weight room, it’s all there. I’m just ready to go out there and lead by example. It’s time to play football.”
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 Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTO: Sand Creek running back Alec Muck is a five-time MHSAA Finals track champion with more than 2,600 career rushing yards. He's healthy and ready for a breakout senior year of football. (Photo by Mike Dickie.)
Offseason Work Begins as Gobles Continues Building on Successful Reboot
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
November 14, 2023
GOBLES — Football season may be over for players at Gobles High School, but the Tigers do not have much time to relax.
For coach Greg Eichler, the season never really ends.
The Tigers made it to the MHSAA 8-player Division 1 Regional Finals before losing to reigning champion Martin two weeks ago.
While some of his athletes are preparing for their various winter sports, Eichler has been sitting down with players and coaches to “identify what went well, what didn’t go well this season and what are we going to do to address those things.
“For our kids, it’s setting goals athletically and academically. What are they looking to do the rest of the school year in their other sports and classroom and as individuals, as human beings? Our goal is to make sure that they grow in that aspect more than anything.”
Eichler also will talk with his coaches to “figure out what our shortcomings were and how we can improve on that in the offseason and make 2024 even better.”
That’s just the beginning for the third-year coach.
“In November and December, it’s equipment and helmet reconditioning, our banquet, sending out thank yous to our sponsors,” Eichler said.
“I’m going to communicate with our alumni. I always send out a state of the program, a whole write-up of what we’ve done and where we’re going.”
With his coaches, Eichler will evaluate game film and break it down, finalize stats and plan offseason workouts with the Tigers’ two strength and conditioning coaches.
“In January and February, there’s a whole bunch of other stuff,” he said. “That’s clinic season, that’s going to listen to other coaches, visit other staff, learn new things we can bring back to Gobles among a million other things.”
Starting from scratch
When Eichler – who is also the district’s K-12 assistant principal – took over the 8-player football program in 2021, he had just 10 varsity players.
The team folded after seven weeks.
“We had to start from scratch as far as building a winning mentality,” he said. “It started with getting in the weight room and lifting, getting bigger, getting stronger, getting faster. Building that winning mentality so that when we step on the field, we expect to win.
“Our kids had to learn how to raise the bar against those better opponents.”
This year’s team, with 24 players, made strides toward the ultimate goal – a state championship to go with the program’s 11-player Class D title won in 1984.
The Tigers finishing 8-3, defeated Mendon for the first time since 2005 and advanced a round further in the playoffs after losing in a Regional Semifinal a year ago.
“Progress is being made,” Eichler said. “It didn’t end the way any of us really wanted, but it’s going to make us stronger, make us better. It’s going to motivate us going into 2024.”
Building on experiences, setting examples
One player who brings MHSAA Finals experience to the team is junior Mason Mansfield. He placed eighth at the Division 4 Individual Wrestling Finals last season at Ford Field.
“Wrestling actually prepares you for football,” said Mansfield, whose winter season starts this week. “You’ve got to be tough in wrestling – six minutes tough. You’ve got to be tough to wrestle, especially to place and finish in the top of the top at Ford Field.”
While he wrestled at 150 pounds last year, he has moved up to 165 for this season. Eichler said Mansfield is one of the top athletes at the school.
“He is energetic and brings that into our locker room and our team,” he said. “Other kids feed off that.
“He’s very positive and brings an attitude of ‘we can overcome any challenge.’ He enjoys facing really good competition, and I think that wears off on the rest of the team and helps us elevate our play.”
Another junior, Jackson Geiger, will begin practice on the varsity basketball team next week.
“I feel like right now I’d rather be playing football because I have two weeks to spare until basketball starts,” said Geiger, who expects improvements from this season’s basketball team coming off of a 4-19 finish.
“Last year (basketball) was more of a bonding experience,” he said. “We played really well in practice, but at game time didn’t really show up.”
As for football, Eichler said Geiger embodies the "Tiger Way."
“Jack is an extremely hard worker,” he said. “He really dedicated himself to the weight room, so I thought he brought that work ethic.
“He leads by example. He’s great in the classroom. Not only on the field, but off the field, he’s a great role model.”
After playing varsity football this season, sophomore Nathan Ray will play junior varsity basketball. He started the 2022 football season on the junior varsity before being called up to varsity for the last two games of the season.
“The players (on varsity) are a lot stronger and faster,” he said. “It’s a different level of athleticism, but the game is still the same.”
Eichler said Ray is very coachable.
“Nathan puts his head down and works,” the coach said. “He’s great on and off the field and great in the classroom. He’s dedicated himself to the weight room and has committed to making himself better every day.”
Looking back on the football season, Eichler said: “I’m really proud of how far our program has come.
“If you look back two years ago, we barely could field a team. And now we’re a Regional finalist.”
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Gobles junior Jackson Geiger (74) squares up to make a block during his team’s game against Concord this season. (Middle) Clockwise from top left: Gobles coach Greg Eichler, Geiger, Mason Mansfield and Nathan Ray. (Below) Mansfield, left, wrestles during the first round of last season’s Individual Finals at Ford Field. (Top photo by Kathie Brown/Creative Photography. Head shots by Pam Shebest. Wrestling photo by High School Sports Scene.)