Scheduling Solution
September 27, 2016
One of our state's consistently best high school football programs needed a ninth game this season but could find no opponent within the state of Michigan. It was able to find a game with an equally prestigious football program in an adjacent state that was having the same problem – the "problem" of being such a formidable program year after year that other schools shied away from scheduling them.
Two different schools in two different states with two different football playoff formats and qualifying procedures, facing the same problem.
This helps to demonstrate that it is not any particular football playoff system that is at the heart of high school football scheduling difficulties. Much more at fault is human nature. One could change the qualifying system or double the number of qualifiers so that even winless teams make the playoffs, and some schools would still refuse to schedule others, which would then have to travel out of state to complete their schedules.
The solution to football scheduling will have very little to do with expanding the playoff field or changing the qualifying criteria. It is only when the scheduling of varsity football games is removed from the local level and assigned to the MHSAA that all teams will play the opponents that are closest to them in enrollment and location. Hard to fathom that will ever occur. But then, no team would have to travel out of state, or even across the state, to complete a varsity football schedule.
Performance of the Week: Colon's Justin Wickey
October 27, 2022
Justin Wickey ♦ Colon
Football ♦ Senior
Wickey caught 10 passes for 138 yards and five touchdowns as Colon finished an undefeated regular season with a 60-14 win over Tekonsha. In the process, the senior receiver set two more MHSAA 8-player records, for 31 receiving touchdowns to break the previous single-season record of 27 set by Lawrence’s Matthew Cammire in 2013. Wickey also is up to 55 career receiving touchdowns over the last two seasons, which broke Cammire’s record of 53 set from 2013-14.
Those are just the most recent records Wickey has broken this season. He’s up to 90 catches for 1,569 yards this fall – the 90 catches easily setting a record and the yardage ranking second all-time, 129 from tying the record in that category. His 3,076 career receiving yards in another record, as are his 154 career catches – and his 18 catches against Adrian Lenawee Christian set a single-game 8-player record. That 40-24 win over Lenawee Christian on Sept. 16 ended the Cougars’ 27-game winning streak.
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2022-23 Honorees
Oct. 20: Owen DeMuth, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood tennis - Report
Oct. 13: Mia Melendez, Ann Arbor Greenhills golf - Report
Oct. 6: Shawn Foster, Grand Ledge football - Report
Sept. 30: Hannah Smith, Temperance Bedford swimming - Report
Sept. 22: Helen Sachs, Holland West Ottawa cross country - Report
Sept. 15: Nina Horning, Lake Orion volleyball - Report
Sept 8: Arturo Romero, Muskegon Oakridge soccer - Report
Sept. 1: Austin King, Midland Dow tennis - Report
Aug. 25: Olivia Hemmila, Troy Athens golf - Report
(Photos courtesy of the Colon athletic department.)