Player Reflection Part 2: Seniors

After discussing this past season with the Yuncker, Smith, and Schafer, I then moved onto the Seniors. This group of guys included Tucker Gross, Chase Rollin, Kendall Flaugher, and Jake Matthews. I had to be “that guy” and start them off with probably the toughest question of the afternoon… how would you describe the season in just one word? These guys chose the word “different”. This was their first year with head coach Brad Gross, and the boys had to get used to a different personality, different rules, and some new traditions were installed this year. They seemed to get used to it pretty quick, finishing the season with an impressive record and playing very well all season, but they did mention it took a little bit to get used to. They also commented on how Coach Gross emphasized the academia side a little bit more than the previous head coach. Every Tuesday and Wednesday were team Study Hall days and there was also the “Saturday Rule” that was incorporated this year. The rule was if a player was caught acting up in class and got a Saturday detention, the team would practice at 8 AM that morning and practice before detention took place.

Next, I asked them what their favorite play/moment of the year was. Chase spoke up on this answer and said that before the MCC game, and during the first half of the game, was exciting for everybody. The others agreed on that andsaid the atmosphere of the game was just unbelievable. The fact that they were playing a fellow D8 powerhouse opponent on their home turf in a playoff situation was what made that moment hype for them.

Lastly, since these gentlemen are unfortunately departing, I wanted to know how these guys felt about being part of such an amazing tradition at Beal City these last few years. They were all a little bittersweet about their time here, more sweet than bitter, because although they did a lot of winning, they fell short of the championship title more than they would have liked to. But they were all proud to continue the legacy that is Beal City football and will have memories for a lifetime about playing for the program.

 

 

— Doug Moors

Getting to know our team

The purpose of our group is to further educate people in the town of Beal city about the school’s football team and keep them updated with how they are doing such as stats, player of the game, and the key plays of the game. Each member of our group was given specific tasks for this assignment. Everyone had to work from different social media websites. Josh W. was in charge of game recaps on Twitter josh W. mostly tweeted throughout the game and it was useful for people that couldn’t attend the game. Josh W. made sure he tweeted the big plays and the little plays of the game. Josh S. was in charge of the game preview. Early in the week before Beal City would play josh S. will do a preview of the game and talk about key players and who is projected to be the winner of the game. Josh C. worked on Facebook and would post information on their mainly for the parents and alumni.  Josh C. was also over the player of the week; every week after the game we will pick a player who we believed had the best game and completes a blog on him. Lamar was in charge of game stats and would post the stats after every game. Lamar was shared instagram with Doug and would post preview pictures of the game.  Doug was in charge of coaches interviews after the game Doug would go interview the coaches or maybe sometime throughout the week he will before Beal city next game. Doug also had a share of the instagram account posting pictures from the game.  I have educated you guys on my team and our roles on the blog and hope you guys enjoyed us this season and continue to check out our blogs!

by Lamar Benson

Player Reflection Part 1: Juniors

It’s been a few weeks since Beal City’s last game, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk football anymore. Earlier today I met with some of the Juniors and Seniors to talk about the season, what to expect next year, and did a fun Q&A to get to know your Aggies a little bit better.

I started off talking to the Juniors a little bit. The group of Juniors included Kyle Yuncker, Tristen Smith, and Nick Schafer. I asked what their most memorable game of the year was. The game against La Lumiere was the first one mentioned. They seemed to enjoy the change of pace playing against a team from another state, which doesn’t happen too often. Nick also pointed out he liked the fact that he ran the ball more than usual that game too.

Looking into next season, since they’ll be leading the team, I asked them what they feel the younger players could bring with them next season. The group thought that the competitiveness could spark fires, when needed, next season. The younger classes have an amazing track record coming into their varsity careers and aren’t used to losing; they want to win just as much as the guy next to them.

One thing these guys can’t wait until next year for is getting back at Evart after that upset earlier this season. The answer was almost immediate when I asked them what they were looking forward to next year. Even the Seniors agreed that if they were in their teammates shoes next season, that would be one of the first things on their list as well.

— Doug Moors

“Coaches Insight” With Head Coach Brad Gross: Off Season

Saturday November 28, 2015 was the last game played in the MHSAA football program.  With the championship games being held on thanksgiving weekend at Ford Field. This meant the end of the high school football season. Entering into the off season we caught up with Coach Brad Gross to ask a few questions.

After the Aggies went 9-2 this season the expectations for the off season was very simple. Coach Gross said he wanted his players who weren’t doing winter and springs sports to be in the weight room. Coach Gross “Players can’t sit around for 9 months out of year and expect to do well in 3 month football period.” He believes that the Beal City program has some of the best players in the highland football league. Coach Gross states, “With players lifting and exercising during the off season  it can help them grow stronger, stay in shape and hopefully prevent a lot of injuries that we suffered this season.” Hitting the weight room this off season is first step of many to returning to the winning the highland league and returning to the playoffs.

The Aggies have lost 14 players do to graduation for the upcoming 2016 season. We asked coach Gross on how he plans to fill the void of his senior class. Coach Gross “This is a common thing, we lose players every year and we are just looking for the next man to step up.” High school football is not like the pros and college, you play with pieces you get and the Aggies have plenty in their arsenal.

The JV team had an amazing season with a record of 8-1. With a large amount of the players moving to the Varsity level this off season. Coach Gross explains, “The JV team did excellent this year and has a lot of talent to bring to the varsity level.” Coach Gross believes that the JV players will do well moving on to the next level. With the Aggies losing quarterback Tucker Gross for next year Coach Gross is looking at few players to becoming the new starter. One player on his mind is JV quarterback Lucas Schumacher. Coach Gross thought he looked great this season and is looking forward to seeing him continue his success at the varsity level.

Next season should be a good one with lots of high expectations for the Aggies. Coach Gross plans to continue leading the Aggies to their winning ways. Starting with preparing his team for victory in the off season. Coach Gross knows he has a good group of players for the upcoming season. So good that coach Gross said “All of our players know our expectations, they know the work that has to be done and what to do.” A very strong statement from coach Gross leading to excitement for the upcoming season.

By Josh Steger

History of Success

Dating back to 1950 Beal City has been an absolute powerhouse. With a winning record of 449 wins 190 losses and can’t forget about 3 pesky ties the football program has been dominate. Meaning that Beal City has won just over 70% of all the football games they have played in. The first year of the MHSAA playoff system was put into place in 1974. In the 41 years that Beal City had an opportunity to make the playoffs, they made the playoffs 32 out of those 41 seasons. I believe this number still doesn’t give Beal City justice because between the years 1974-1979 Beal City had a winning record 6 out of the 6 seasons and still didn’t make the playoffs. Including three seasons of just one loss or less. I believe this is because Beal City wasn’t eligible for the playoffs because of the small size of the school. A playoff system wasn’t developed for smaller schools until 1980. If that’s the case, Beal City had made the playoffs 32 out of the 35 seasons. The Aggies have made the playoffs 91% of the time. To put his in perspective the New England Patriots have made the playoffs more often than any other team dating back to 1980. They had made the playoffs 19 out those 35 seasons. Compared to Beal City, a measly 54%. A better comparison is how often Beal City has made the playoffs and how often the Detroit Lions have missed the playoffs. Dating back to 1980 the lions have missed the playoffs in 71% of their seasons. And for some reason I’m still a fan of theirs.

Back to Beal City’s dominance and not the misery of being a lions fan. The success of this program is derived from the love and compassion for the game by the community. Just from the games our group was able to attend we could see how this town loves its football. Whether it be the entire town showing up for the game or younger kids playing their own version of football behind the end zones, this town and its people have morphed this small farm town into breeding grounds that make damn good football players.

 

By Joshua Lueck

MHSAA Division 8 Football Playoff Pairings – State Final

State Championship Game

#2 Muskegon Catholic Central at

#1 Waterford Our Lady

(Game played at Ford Field)

MHSAA Division 8 Football Playoff Pairings – Semi Finals

Semi-Final 1

#2 St. Ignace at

#2 Muskegon Catholic Central

(Game played at Thirlby Field in Traverse City)

 

Semi-Final 2

#1 Waterford Our Lady at

#3 Ottawa Lake Whiteford

(Game played at Hazel Park High School)

 

 

Thank You Beal City Aggies

Thank you Beal City

Football season has ended and we feel the need to say thank you Aggie Nation. We started off writing about the Aggies just for a class project. Our purpose was purely to gain a good grade in our class. As the season went on things changed for us.

We started to reminisce about our younger days when we were in high school playing football. The practicing 4x a week just to prepare for the Friday game under the lights. The varsity football team brought out the best in us. The exciting plays that they made every game in return made us work harder so we could bring the news of the game to everyone who could not come and watch. At the game we felt like we were apart of the Aggies. From analysing every aspect of the game to remembering almost every player on the roster.

We would like to also give a huge thank you to the fans. You guys traveled well to every Aggies game. You helped us remember player and the plays that happen when we couldn’t remember. We loved to hear you guys suggestions and feedback. Your help on our social media accounts was great. Retweeting and liking our post continued to makes us want to write.

From 5 students from CMU to you we say thank you Aggie Nation. You made us feel like we were one of you. Although the season has ended we are not done. Be on the look out for future post until the end of the year.

by Josh Steger

“Coach’s Insight” with Head Coach Brad Gross: MCC Game and Reflection

Today, I caught Coach Gross in the midst of some football stuff he was taking care of, including equipment inventory and rating the game officials, just some typical end of the year protocol that coaches everywhere do. He was generous enough to give me some time to talk about the MCC game from Saturday, the season as a whole, and what he has started doing to prepare for the next season.

As most of the Beal City community knows, the Aggies suffered a 48-13 loss against Muskegon Catholic Central. This was a match-up we’ve seen in past years, but not this early in the playoffs. This is usually a Regional final game or a Semi-final game at Ford Field. And although both teams are in two different conferences, they are no strangers to each other. Both are Division 8 powerhouses, and cross paths quite often come playoff time. Coach Gross tipped his hat to the Crusaders, who used a powerful running game, in order to take down the Aggies. Coach Gross was pleased with his players though, as they played hard and gave everything they had that game. He liked how the offense was moving that game, as Chase Rollin still posted a 100 yard rushing game, and the pass game was there. Sometimes when the offense was moving, the Aggies took themselves out of it a bit with penalties. Coach Gross noted that early in the game, their first offensive drive of the game in fact, they were moving the ball well and got themselves into a 4th and 1 situation, but got called for illegal procedure and pushed themselves back a little bit. Gross said, “sometimes good teams make you make mistakes”.

On the other side of the ball, Coach Gross knew it was big plays that hurt them. The shortest touchdown for the Crusaders was a 48 yard run, while the longest was a 93 yard scamper by Walker Christoffersen. Besides that, Coach was happy with the defense, as they showed their ability to bottle up the Crusader offense throughout the game as well.

In our first interview, I had asked Coach Gross about goals he had set for the team this season. He first mentioned getting the Ford Field as a goal for the postseason, but for the regular season all he asked of his team was to get better as the season went on. Coach Gross thought the team showed tremendous progress week after week, as he had thrown in some more complex plays and schemes that some of the kids weren’t too familiar with in years past, and he looks to continue to teach these to the players in upcoming years.

Even though it’s only been a few days since that Saturday afternoon, I asked Coach Gross what he had in mind for next season. First and foremost, he will be working on an offseason schedule and weightlifting schedule for the upcoming season. He understands, and advocates, that there are multiple players on the team that are a 2+ sport athlete. So he said he will have to schedule accordingly to their schedules as well. Gross is looking to continue the football tradition at Beal City next season, one that he has experienced and is now leading.

To our readers, although the Beal City football season is over, we will keep updating our blog and social media accounts for the remainder of the semester. So stay tuned and we will have more entries for you guys to read!

—- Doug Moors