Michigan Hiigh School Football

[Romeo]

Not sure how many of you are fans of high school football, but I just had to post this.
My nephew is the head coach at Romeo High School. This past weekend they finished their season by winning the Division 1 state title at Ford Field in Detroit. Their opponent was perennial powerhouse Cass Tech. Tech draws kids from all over Detroit and has a student population of somewhere north of 2500.
Romeo, on the other hand, is located just outside the suburbs and with a student population of just lee than 1600 draws players from its community only. Cass Tech has an abundance of D-1 prospects including an offensive line averaging just over 300 lbs. all five are destined for Division 1 football when they go on to college. Romeo countered them with a D line made up of four boys that average 5' 7" and weigh in at 175 or thereabouts. Here's apicture of them lining up against eachother.
They never knew what hit them. Final score Romeo 41, Cass Tech 27

[Gryphon Rider]

With the size difference, it looks like a doctored photo.    I'm not saying that I suspect it's doctored, it's just hard to imagine such a size discrepancy being allowed.  Romeo must have top-notch coaching to win that game and the season.

[The emperor has no clothes]

AWESOME !!!

[firea100]

Gary, Congrats from us in Marine City! We're normally in the thick of things come play off time, but this year seemed to be a rebuilding year.

Again, CONGRATS!!!

Larry in East China Mi.

[Alpha Dog]

Absolutely fabulous ROMEO.  Guess it is not the size of the dog in the fight, but the fight in the dog, in your case Bulldogs.  That D line looks about the size of my high school D line but that was back in the early 70s.  Sounded like Romeo's coach taught them to stay low and take out the Cass Tech behemoths and let the linebackers make the tackles.  Back in 2007 my high school, Midland High Chemics, lost to Cass Tech in the State Championship.  We were undersized also, but we did have a great quarterback, Andrew Maxwell who went on to be quarterback starter in 2012 and early 2013 for Michigan State until he got unseated by Connor Cook.  Most happy you beat them.
Chuck  

[Jess from VA]

Very cool.  

Grosse Ile HS was class B and we had 600 students.  Reminds me of some of the games we played against the big farm boys.  And our scrimmages against Trenton were brutal.  I remember wondering if their lineman had been held back in school until they were 25 or something.  

[cookiedough]

am impressed you won the game,  congrats indeed!

If that is a division 1 line,  hate to see division 4-5 or so.  Pretty tiny line for division 1 surprised you won the game with that much size difference.  The team must have some very talented, yet smaller and quicker,  players making up that team in order to win.

Reminds me of our division III high school team.  We were big, strong, and overall the best offensive/defensive line in our conference bar none.  We went to the sectionals against a taller, a tad faster,  but weaker offensive/defensive line.  We lost that game I think 14-6 with our worthless QB throwing like 4 interceptions all within the 20 yard line or less of scoring each time and a few fumbles close to scoring as well.  We had like 400 total yards vs. their 100 or so and still lost the game.  total domination on our part but still lost.  Their defensive line every single play just dropped to the ground laying down vs. getting blown off the line standing up.  It worked somewhat plugging up the holes since that many people laying on the ground made it hard to run thru. 

It is not always the strongest and biggest who win the football games.  Some of it is luck and as was probably the case in your team,  very talented, smaller, quicker players. 

[G-Man]

My son's school, Archbishop Stepinac, went undefeated during the season, then won the city and state CHFLAAA championship games for a perfect season!!!!!!!

[wiggydotcom]

Very cool, Romeo. Congrats to you, your son, and his school. I love high school football. Illinois'
system is made up of 8 classes based on school size.
Catholic schools have to use a 1.5 multiplier since they can recruit and have no bounderies. They still dominate for the most part.

Illinois runs their playoffs the two days after Thanksgiving. The small schools run on the first day(4games) and the larger schools run on the Saturday. I must have watched 4 of those games.
It's always cool to see who some of the Division 1 players are.

[Romeo]

In Michigan, they have eight divisions asked on school student population. They also have an 8 man football division for the very small rural schools.
I can say without a doubt that Romeo's d line was the smallest of all of them. The thing is, they are all very strong wrestlers and very fast. The linebackers were more normal on size averaging around 200 lbs.
What was so crazy though was to watch these smurfs spin on those big dudes from Cass Tech and come free in the backfield as the monsters were clutching air. Just to clarify, these boys played d line only. The offensive line averages around 240. We also had the best class of players at the skill positions in recent history. But yea, the coaches did a great job, and had great schemes.

[Romeo]

BTW It's not a trick photograph. I took the shot with my Canon dlsr with a 58/300 zoom telephoto lense. We were on the forty yard line four rows up and they were basically directly in front of me.

[Alpha Dog]

Well what that Romeo team did is remarkable.  A team close by Romeo, Clarkston has achieved great success also in the past three years winning two title I believe.  When you consider competition which includes Cass Tech, Detroit King, Farmington Hills Harrison,  Detroit Country Day ( lesser class ) and the legendary Birmingham Brother Rice all who are able to recruit to their schools,  well my hats off to you sir and the Romeo team.
Chuck

[Hooter]

Congrats to him! Sounds like he has some boys that have come to play unlike over here. Bunch of sissy's that can't wait to get their hands on their phones.      No one goes out anymore to play ball and I don't understand it.     The kids have gotten lazy and it shows even in practices. NO GET UP AND GO! There is no desire here anymore. Our sports have gone down the crapper due to failing grades and no interest, and that pertains to all sports except tennis and wrestling, those two sports do well.

[bassman]

We were having a bite to eat for an early dinner at "The Office" in Romeo and they were gearing up for the crowds expected to drop by to celebrate.  We were just finishing eating and they advised us to head south out of town because the intersection at 32 Mile and Main was going to get real crazy - real
quick !

CONGRATUALTIONS to the team on a job well done and a season well played !

[Romeo]

Well what that Romeo team did is remarkable.  A team close by Romeo, Clarkston has achieved great success also in the past three years winning two title I believe.  When you consider competition which includes Cass Tech, Detroit King, Farmington Hills Harrison,  Detroit Country Day ( lesser class ) and the legendary Birmingham Brother Rice all who are able to recruit to their schools,  well my hats off to you sir and the Romeo team.
Chuck

Chuck, you forgot Novi Catholic Central. The best team money can buy.
Romeo's path to the championship began against two time champs Clarkston, then up to play unbeaten Lapeer, a team made up of two schools that consolidated three years ago. Followed by the aforementioned CC who has won, I believe 18 or 19 championships.  After beating them, they went to the semi finals to play unbeaten Grand Ledge. That game was played in a driving snow storm from start to finish. Afterwords the big bad football players were making snow angels on the field. Hilarious.
I guess you can tell I enjoyed the ride. Truly a season to remember.

[Alpha Dog]

Congrats to him! Sounds like he has some boys that have come to play unlike over here. Bunch of sissy's that can't wait to get their hands on their phones.      No one goes out anymore to play ball and I don't understand it.     The kids have gotten lazy and it shows even in practices. NO GET UP AND GO! There is no desire here anymore. Our sports have gone down the crapper due to failing grades and no interest, and that pertains to all sports except tennis and wrestling, those two sports do well.

Where is here?  usually good teams in SW, MI  Like Muskegon ( won many state titles ), Grand Rapids CC, East Grand Rapids, great program in Lowell, Portage Northern and Central, sometimes Battle Creek, Montague in small school as is Dowagiac, and several others.
Chuck

[cookiedough]

Congrats to him! Sounds like he has some boys that have come to play unlike over here. Bunch of sissy's that can't wait to get their hands on their phones.      No one goes out anymore to play ball and I don't understand it.     The kids have gotten lazy and it shows even in practices. NO GET UP AND GO! There is no desire here anymore. Our sports have gone down the crapper due to failing grades and no interest, and that pertains to all sports except tennis and wrestling, those two sports do well.

Hey, I resent that remark on tennis since I love to play tennis.  If our small school would have had tennis as a sport, I would have picked that over football even.

Not so sure it is due to failing grades or laziness in some schools, lack of interest possibly though and other things going on.  Plus, a mixture of coaches showing little to no interest as well.  Our small school has so many 'other' social event clubs forming for the students dealing more with speaking/traveling vs. just physical sports as was the norm back some 20+ years ago when we were all going to high school.  My 2 high schoolers go out for track not because they are super into it, but more of a social event amongst their friends.  Social media has come a long ways since any of us were growing up in high school.  I don't think all this social networking with facebook/twitter/snapchat, smartphones, etc. is a good thing though and do not condone most of it.  I would not make it into today's generation in high school as would be the same scenario with my kids now in high school making a go of it some 20+ years ago when I was in high school. 

Anyways, rant off,  I think those high schoolers deserve a big congrats on a job well done against all the odds that were stacked against them.