St Phil Football Thrives with 8 on Field

By Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com

August 22, 2016

BATTLE CREEK — Five years ago, the future of football at Battle Creek St. Philip looked rather bleak.

The Fighting Tigers had won just three games over the previous two years, and numbers continued to dwindle.

“Our last year of 11-man, I think we had 18 boys out for football,” said Dave Downey, who has coached at St. Phil for more than 20 years. “We were not competitive playing 11-man.

“The kids just weren’t coming out because it wasn’t fun. We were getting beat all the time.”

The school decided to go to 8-player football, and the program has thrived.

Last season, the school’s fourth playing 8-player, St. Phil finished 12-1, losing only 58-33 in the MHSAA 8-player Final to Powers North Central.

“After we went to 8-man (five years ago), we had 28 on the roster,” Downey said. “The program really grew because we went to 8-man. It actually saved the program.”

The transition was not without a few fumbles.

“We didn’t know what we were in for,” Downey said. “That first year we struggled a little bit. We ended the season 7-4, but we learned a lot.

“It was an eye-opener for us. We didn’t know what to expect.”

Although the length of the field for 8-player is still 100 yards, the width is five yards fewer on each side.

That first season, Downey said he had confidence his 8-player team could play on an 11-man regulation field – but soon found out why the field is not as wide.

“Our first year, we didn’t move the markers in and we couldn’t cover the field, especially anyone with speed who would get on the outside and go,” he said.

“Our first game, we lost bad because we thought we could play on a big field, which we couldn’t.”

This year’s nine seniors have played 8-player all four years, but it gets even better than that for St. Phil.

“They’ve actually played 10 playoff games already (over four years), so they’ve already played (the equivalent of) four seasons,” Downey said.

“This is almost like their fifth season. Experience-wise, this group of seniors is really valuable.”

Success and motivation

Last Thursday, St. Phil scrimmaged Lawrence and then Big Rapids Crossroads to get game experience before opening the season this Friday at Kingston.

“We didn’t keep score, but it went well,” Downey said. “It was good experience for some of the younger kids, especially the freshmen, to play and learn.”

He said the veterans, especially the co-captains, are like having extra coaches on the field.

“They know exactly what our schemes are and our blocking patterns and they really help us out,” he said. “Our line is coming back. We’re solid up front. 

“We have Noah Ellinger, our captain; Grant Hallacy who started last year as our other guard; Andy Forche at center and all of them played a lot last year on the line.”

Senior co-captain Grayson Obey has played football since fourth grade and said going from the traditional 11-player in Rocket youth football and middle school football to 8-player was no big deal.

“I think going from middle school to high school, not 11-man to 8-man, was harder,” he said.

Obey said last year’s success is a great motivator.

“We got a taste of a really good team last year, so it’s good motivation to work hard and try to push to get that again this year,” he said.

Ellinger agrees that the transition to 8-player was not a big deal.

“It’s two less linemen and I’m a lineman, so it’s just kind of shortening it up a little bit,” he said.

Playing both ways on the field takes some getting used to at the beginning of the season, Ellinger said.

“The first couple games it’s pretty hard,” he said. “You’ve got to learn to manage your time. It’s kind of tiring, but you get used to it.”

Downey said the parents like 8-player because “it is a little bit safer.

“We don’t have as many big kids on the field as 11-man. When you have the big kids, the little kids are the ones who seem to be getting hurt all the time.”

St. Phil lost all-state quarterback Brendan Gausselin to graduation, but Downey is eyeing sophomore Ryan Reincke and freshman Connor Gausselin for the position while senior Drew Lantinga recovers from a basketball injury.

“Last year Drew played wide receiver and linebacker,” Downey said. “He was the leading tackler on the team last year at linebacker.”

Connor Gausselin is Brendan’s brother.

“My brother played football and was pretty good, so I want to follow in his legacy,” Connor Gausselin said. “He’s helped me a lot. In every sport I play, I like being in control like a leader, so quarterback is a leader on the field and I like that.

“I’m very excited. My brother said high school football is the best part of high school, being under the Friday night lights. It will be fun.”

8-player grows statewide

Enrollment numbers are key to 8-player football in Michigan.

Of St. Phil’s 140 students, 21 are on the football team.

While Michigan has 564 schools playing 11-player, the state had 40 playoff-eligible 8-player teams last season. Currently, 48 teams are eligible for the postseason heading into this fall's first games. 

Only Class D schools are eligible for playoffs, and enrollment must be 206 or fewer this year.

Class C schools or those with larger enrollments (cutoff was 212 students for the 2015 season) may compete in 8-player but they are not eligible for postseason play.

This fall, four Class C schools are competing in 8-player: Kingston, which was Class D last year; Dryden, Rudyard and Grand Traverse Academy. The latter two fielded 11-player teams last season.

Burton Madison Academy was Class C last year but dropped to Class D this year and is now eligible for postseason play.

St. Phil plays in the Southern Michigan 8-Man League with Tekonsha, Burr Oak, Camden Frontier, Waldron and Litchfield.

Other seniors on the Tigers are Tim Minier, Mike Scriber, Ben Swagler, Alex Yacovoni and Jordan Snyder. The other juniors are Justice Steiner and Morgan Bohannon.

Other sophomores are Chris Kubasiak, JC Downey, Nolan Kersten and Brodie Landstra. Other freshmen are Marcel Williams, Charley Harrington and Gus Strenge.

Assistant coaches are Jack Brown, Marc Pessetti and Jeff Minier.

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) Battle Creek St. Philip’s Drew Lantinga hauls in a pass last season; he’s moving to quarterback this fall. (Middle top) Dave Downey, Noah Ellinger, Grayson Obey. (Middle below) Senior Tim Minier surges after taking a hand-off during practice earlier this month. (Below) Ben Swagler pushes ahead during the Tigers’ 2015 win over Portland St. Patrick. (Photos from 2015 courtesy of Battle Creek St. Philip; practice photo and head shots by Pam Shebest.)

Lung Transplant Survivor Inspires, Teaches Through Football

By Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com

September 1, 2021

ADRIAN – As the final seconds ticked off the clock in the 2019 Division 8 Regional Football Final at Reading, Adrian Lenawee Christian assistant coach Jon Willett started looking for his wife. 

Reading would be going on to play the next week, while the LCS’s season was over. Willett desperately needed oxygen. He could barely breath.

Hillary Willett, Jon’s wife, pulled the car as close to the Reading field as she could, and Jon opened the door.

“I got in the car and sat down,” Willett said. “And I looked at her and I said, ‘I just coached my last game.’”

As miracles go, Willett was wrong. Less than two months after that football game that Willett thought was his last, he underwent a double lung transplant at the University of Michigan Hospital. He still doesn’t know how he survived so long, but is certain there was divine intervention. 

“I’ve always had a close relationship with Jesus Christ,” Willett said. “And I’ve always been passionate about football. I always thought that if I survived, I would use football as a tool to reach younger people. I’m doing that today.”

Willett helped coach the Cougars to last season’s 8-Player Division 1 championship and is back on the sidelines this season, coaching the Cougars JV team and continuing to serve as an assistant with the varsity.

He even gets in on some drills now and then, such as doing push-ups with the quarterbacks.

“Jon has been with me for seven or eight years,” LCS varsity head coach Bill Wilharms said. “He’s a great man and a great football coach. The kids love having him around, and he loves them. I love coaching with him, and he’s a big part of our coaching family.”

Willett grew up in Sand Creek, about 10 minutes south of Adrian in Lenawee County. He played on some outstanding Aggies football teams for Hall of Fame coach Ernie Ayers. Willett led the 1990 Aggies in rushing, finishing just shy of 1,000 yards his senior season.

He got into coaching when his sons, Noah and Isaiah, began playing flag football. 

“I coached them in flag football, then in Pop Warner,” Willett said. “I love coaching football. When Noah was in middle school I coached him one year, then became an assistant for the varsity.”

Adrian Lenawee Christian footballWilharms tabbed Willett to be the JV head coach, a position he’s held for the last couple of years. He also coaches varsity wide receivers and defensive backs and will assist the LCS scout team quarterbacks at practice. He jumps in whenever needed.

Sometimes, it’s as a motivational speaker.

“I share my testimony whenever possible,” Willett said. “I tell my players that life is short. You never know how long you are going to have. You truly don’t. You have to live your life to the fullest.”

Willett first was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis – chronic, progressive lung disease – in April 2017 when he visited the doctor due to a constant cough and shortness of breath. The prognosis was not good.

“The doctor said at that point I had 65-percent capacity of my lungs,” he said. “They gave me three to five years unless I could get a double lung transplant. They said that would be the only option and that there was no cure.”

Willett believed the doctors, of course, but admits he wasn’t the best patient. 

“I figured if I could make it 10 years, my kids would be out of school,” he said. 

The disease had other ideas. While he was put on oxygen due to shortness of breath, his LCS football players had no idea.

“I never did it in front of them,” he said. “I should have. I wasn’t a very good patient. I was wanting to be with the team. I wanted to coach.”

In July 2019, he noticed a big change. 

“My lung capacity had dropped,” he said.

He continued to coach. He had some doctors’ appointments here and there but remained coaching the entire season.  

“It was a mental thing,” he said. “I wanted to get through the season.”

He rode the bus to the LCS-Reading game. When the game was over, he told Wilharms that he had to go home.

“I told Coach Wilharms that I was just getting in the car with my wife,” he said. “She pulled the car up to the gate because it was so hard to walk. I couldn’t get air because of not having oxygen.”

When he told his wife that he thought he would never coach again, she said no.

“She looked at me and she said, ‘(You’ve coached your last game) with those lungs.’”

By Christmas of 2019, Willett had been in and out of the hospital on numerous occasions. He was on oxygen tanks around the clock. He went home at Christmas, believing it was his last.

“I said I want to go home. I think it’s my last Christmas. I wanted to be with my family,” he recalled.

When he returned to the hospital after Christmas, his son Noah sat in the backseat during the car ride changing out oxygen tanks every few minutes just to keep his father alive. Willett’s oxygen levels were dangerously low.

Adrian Lenawee Christian football“When I got to U-M, there was a whole team of people waiting for me. They worked on me and sent me up to ICU. It was bleak,” he said.

The LCS community sent out word via social media to pray for Coach Willett, his wife, two sons and two daughters, Emily and Abigail. Willett said those prayers were answered.

Willett was told by doctors he had to have a double lung transplant within 24 hours, or he would die. Seven hours and 13 minutes later, the doctor walked in, with tears in his eyes, and told the family they found a match.

Willett is feeling better now. In February of this year, about a month after Willett watched from the sidelines as LCS won the championship in Brighton, the medications he had been on took hold and he began to improve.

When the season started this summer, Willett was no doubt going to be part of the Cougars staff.

“Everything is very stable right now,” he said. “My lungs keep getting better. I can tell at football practice, walking from end zone to end zone, I’m feeling better. I’m building up. That exercise helps.”

Some day he plans on reaching out to the family of the person who donated lungs to him. For now, he’s grateful to be alive and thankful for every moment he gets to spend coaching football.

“I’m feeling great and loving the opportunity I have to keep coaching and be with the kids,” Willett said. “The story I get to share with my players is truly a miracle. God took me to the point where it was 100 percent out of my control.

“If I can use football as a tool to keep talking to the youth and help them become better men, I’m going to do that. Football is what drives me.”

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) Lenawee Christian head varsity coach Bill Wilharms (holding football) gives assistant Jon Willett a hug after last season’s 8-Player Division 1 Final win. (Middle) Willett returned to the sideline a year after a double lung transplant. (Below) Willett serves as junior varsity head coach and varsity assistant. (Photos by Jeff Jameson/Lenawee Christian Schools.)