FRUITPORT – Usually when a young team has a breakout season, there are pretty clear signs of it coming a year or two in advance.

But for fans of the Fruitport boys basketball team, those signs were probably not very obvious.

Last year the Trojans finished with a 7-18 record, including a painful 14-game losing streak. That was pretty consistent with the history of the team, which had never really made a much of a splash in boys basketball.

Over the past 10 years, for example, Fruitport has had only two winning seasons. In 2016-17 they were 0-21, the next year they were 2-19, and in 2020-21 they were 1-16.

But the past is the past, and this year’s Trojans put it all behind them in rapid and impressive fashion.

Last Tuesday they beat Kelloggsville 63-57 to gain their 16th win, which set a new single-season program record for victories.

On Friday they hammered Belding 75-43 to clinch at least a tie for the O-K Silver conference championship. It was the first boys basketball conference title in school history.

On the bus ride home from Belding, they watched as Godwin Heights, the team they were tied with at the top of the standings, lost to NorthPointe Christian, leaving the Trojans in sole possession of the championship.

Fruitport finished the regular season with a 17-5 overall record, which erased all memories of the misery of last season, and so many tough seasons before that.

Now they head to the Division 2 district semifinals on Wednesday against Oakridge, with the chance to earn a berth in Friday’s championship game.

The future also looks very bright, with four starters from the team set to return next season, including the three top scorers.

But whatever happens from this point forward, the 2024-25 Trojans will go down as the team that finally broke through and brought home a conference trophy after nearly 100 years of Fruitport boys basketball.

As head coach Steve Erny said after Friday’s game, “I think it’s only going to get better, but nothing can be taken from this group, because they were the first to do it.”

Building blocks to success

So how can such a dramatic turnaround happen in one year, particularly for a team with no championship history to fall back on?

The signs of it coming were actually there. You just had to be paying close attention.

Two seasons ago, in 2022-23, the Trojans also bounced back from a tough seven-win season and captured 15 victories, which was the program record until last week.

They did it by winning seven games in the brutal O-K Blue conference, which is a very tough league with a lot of great teams that Fruitport had to play twice a year.

The Tr0jans also stunned a very good Whitehall team in districts, which was a nice building block for the future, then played Spring Lake very close in the district championship game before finally losing.

Three key players on this year’s team – seniors Grade Anspach and Ryan Bosch and junior DayDay Williams – were on that team and got an early taste of what winning could be like.

“All three of those guys played a big role on that team,” Coach Erny said. “I think it was good for the program, and those three in particular. They learned what it was like to play at a high level.”

Last season the Trojans reverted to seven wins again, but there was a bit of silver lining.

They started out 4-2, before the painful 14-game losing streak took its toll. But they managed to pull themselves together after all of those losses, win their final conference game, then pull off victories over Orchard View and Oakridge in districts to reach the championship round again.

Fruitport lost to Soring Lake in the district title game for the second straight year, but the flurry of victories late in the season had a mental impact. The wins reminded the Trojans that they could be successful going forward, particularly with most of their key players set to return.

“The hardest part about last year is that we got off to a pretty good start, then had that really long losing streak until the late part of the season,” Erny said. “Then we were able to win some games in the postseason for the second straight year. Whenever you can do that, it leaves a much better taste in your mouth than being one-and-done in districts.

“I just knew that we had a bunch of guys coming back this season who wanted to win, we were going into a new division with more potential wins on the table, and we knew that could work in our favor.”

A change in conference alignment definitely helped this season, when the Trojans were finally able to leave the O-K Blue and compete in the O-K Silver.

The Silver was still very challenging, and the Trojans won the championship with three conference losses. But the fact that they hung in there and won the title could have something to do with the tough years in the O-K Blue, where they took a lot of poundings, but also toughened up in the process.

“Experiencing that rigorous schedule over the past few years hardened them up and let them know, this is the level we have to reach to be successful,” Erny said. “They learned that they had to want to become better, had to get in the weight room and get in the gym and do whatever it took to make us a better team. And these guys have done that.”

The Trojans have also benefited from the addition of three very young, talented players for three years in a row. As a result, this year’s starting lineup includes one senior, two juniors, one sophomore and one freshman.

In 22-23, DayDay Williams came to the varsity as a freshman with a lot of speed, a nice outside shot and a knack for driving through traffic to the hoop.

Last year Hudson Hazekamp joined the varsity as a freshman, and quickly showed talent on the offensive and defensive end of the court.

This year the ninth-grade phenom has been Dexter Lillmars, a gifted three-point shooter who actually leads the team in scoring.

“We’ve been fortunate to have some talented kids come through,” Erny said. “The latest one, Dexter, if you watch him play, he doesn’t play like a freshman. He plays poised, takes care of the ball, and if you give him an open shot, it’s probably going in.”

‘Pressure is a privilege’

The most impressive part about Fruitport’s season is not the fact that they finally won a conference championship, but how they did it.

It was about gaining some early momentum, then bearing down and getting some important wins after hitting bumps.

They started the season with three wins in four games, then got a huge victory that proved to be a momentum-driver for the rest of the season.

The Trojans beat archrival Spring Lake 46-43 on Dec. 13, their first victory over the Lakers since February of 2015.

Getting past that mental barrier gave Fruitport all sorts of confidence going forward.

“That Spring Lake game was a big one for our guys,” Erny said. “None of them had ever beaten Spring Lake at the varsity level, and getting that monkey off their backs gave them a little extra belief. I think it helped us out a lot.

“We realized, we can beat these teams, but we could also lose if we don’t play well. I think that game was a pretty good springboard into that belief.”

Fruitport lost in overtime to Western Michigan Christian in the next game, then ripped off five straight victories.

The Trojans hit another bump on Jan. 17, falling 64-46 to Calvin Christian in the first showdown for first place in the O-K Silver.

That painful loss didn’t slow them down for long, either. They promptly went on another five game-winning streak and got back on top of the conference standings.

Then came the low point of the season – the Trojans’ first and only two-game losing streak – when they fell to NorthPointe Christian 67-64 on Feb. 7, then lost to Godwin Heights 58-51 on Feb. 11. That put Godwin Heights in first place and left the Trojans a game behind.

Suddenly Fruitport had the daunting challenge of winning their final three games and hoping Godwin Heights tripped up down the stretch.

Somehow the Trojans got their act together and pulled it off. They beat Calvin Christian 55-47 to avenge the earlier loss, came back from a seven-point deficit in the second half to beat Kelloggsville 63-57, then got the big win over Belding last Friday to wrap things up.

The big margin of victory over Belding – 32 points – was incredibly impressive, considering the Trojans went into the contest with more than a little pressure. They were on the road and about to play for at least a share of the conference championship.

Instead of being nervous, the Trojans embraced the opportunity to finally be playing a meaningful game at the end of the regular season.

“We were talking about that in pregame on Friday, how pressure is a privilege,” Erny said. “If you’re feeling pressure about playing for a championship, think about all the previous teams that were playing for nothing. We wanted them to play with confidence, fly around and leave it all on the floor.

“Right from the start they were playing with confidence. They transferred the pressure into confidence, instead of being tight, and we were celebrating by the end of the game.”

When they walked out of Belding High School, the Trojans only knew that they had clinched a share of the conference title. They watched a live stream of the Godwin Heights-NorthPointe Christian game on their phones on the bus ride home, and erupted in joy when Godwin lost, leaving Fruitport alone to claim the conference trophy.

“We were all cheering for Northpointe,” said senior guard Grade Anspach. “We started chants on the bus, and were all jumping up and down and screaming and clapping. It was exciting.”

A quick glance at the Trojans’ season statistics tells the story of a very balanced and unselfish crew that worked together to win the title.

Lillmars is averaging 16.6 points per game, followed by Williams at 13.9, Hazekamp at 10.4 and Anspach at nine. Hazekamp is the leading rebounder with a 6.9 per game average, Williams is at 5.5 and Lillmars averages 5.3.

Anspach leads in assists with an average of four per game and in steals with an average of 2.7 per game. Williams has the top shooting percentage from two-point range at 58 percent while Lillmars is the best from three-point land at 44 percent.

That means four out of five starters lead the team in a different area, and it all adds up.

“What I have seen every day in practice, every day of the year and over the summer, is that they are easy to coach, really motivated, and really want to win,’ Erny said. “The basketball IQ is much higher than in the past.”

Anspach said the players worked hard and built chemistry in the offseason, and that paid off when the games began.

“We just got a special group of guys, and everyone has confidence in each other,” he said. “We had one of the better summers that Fruitport ever had last year, then in the preseason we were playing good, and it all started clicking.

“This has definitely been special. It’s definitely an eye-opener for other schools who have taken us lightly. We are turning the page and starting something new.”