Where will you find the league with four of the top 16 dominant high school football programs in the state?
Look no further than your own backyard, here in metropolitan Detroit, namely, the Catholic High School League.
Specifically, it’s the CHSL’s Central Division, comprised of Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Prep, Novi Detroit Catholic Central, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice and Warren De La Salle.
All were computer-ranked by MaxPreps.com, an online source of high school sports across America, earning points for state championships, appearances in state finals, and season-ending top 25 ratings for the gridiron seasons from 2006 thru 2016.
“I think it’s pretty accurate,” said CHSL director Vic Michaels. “There’s never been a doubt that we’re as good as any other league in the state. If you ask anyone, they’ll tell you the same thing.”
St. Mary’s Prep was ranked No. 1 as Michigan’s most dominant football program in the last decade. MaxPreps cited the Eaglets as a “model of consistency,” winning four state titles and finishing runner-up four times.
The Eaglets have won Division 3 titles the last three years, twice beating Muskegon (7-0 in 2014, 29-28 in 2016), which wound up No. 2, a mere 26 points behind OLSM. Catholic Central finished fourth, Brother Rice sixth and De La Salle 14th.
Combined, the four programs won nine state titles and 10 runners-up.
Past laurels aside, football practices for this fall officially get under way Aug. 7, allowing teams just 18 days to prepare for openers on Aug. 25, which, in a couple of instances, will be rugged tests.
St. Mary’s will host Macomb Dakota (16th in the MaxPreps poll), while De La Salle meets third-ranked Lowell in the Xenith Prep Football Classic at Wayne State University.
Catholic Central takes on Sterling Heights Stevenson at home. Brother Rice will host Detroit U-D Jesuit, a former longtime Central Division squad now competing in the CHSL AA loop.
For the first time in 41 years, Catholic Central gridders will not be greeted by the legendary Tom Mach, who retired at the end of last season as the third-winningest coach in state high school history with 370 wins, including 10 state titles and 23 CHSL crowns.
He will be replaced by Dan Anderson, Mach’s assistant for the last 18 years.
Brother Rice will introduce a new head coach, too. Adam Korzeniewski was defensive coordinator at Rice from 2010-13. Most recently, he was defensive coordinator at Birmingham Seaholm. He succeeds Dave Sofran, Warriors head coach for the last four years.
Two other CHSL teams will also have new head coaches: Brian Barnes at Madison Heights Bishop Foley, and William Tandy at Detroit Loyola.
Barnes, a former assistant at Clawson High, succeeds Sean Cobb. Tandy takes over for John Callahan who, in eight seasons, directed the Bulldogs to the 2014 Division 7 state championship and four trips to the state finals. Over the past 23 years, Tandy coached the Westside Cubs of the Detroit PAL league.
Nine Cabrini athletes move up
Here’s a salute to nine athletes from Allen Park Cabrini who are among 206 CHSL athletes taking their skills to the collegiate level this fall. The information came in after I had published the full listing recently.
BASEBALL – Peyton Harding (Spring Arbor), Trevor Kimes (Henry Ford College), Andrew Werth (Siena Heights). BASKETBALL – Abigail Burke (Bellarmine). SOFTBALL – Doree Arevalo (Schoolcraft), Montana Spears (Saginaw Valley State), Robin Sprys (Madonna). TRACK – Lindsey Bollinger (Madonna). VOLLEYBALL – Katelyn Pinkowski (Henry Ford College).
Contact Don Horkey at [email protected].
