MUSKEGON – Every Muskegon High School football player dreams of playing in a state championship game, because that’s what the Big Reds do.

Muskegon advanced to the state finals at Detroit’s Ford Field every year between 2016 and 2019, and again in 2022 and 2023.

But Jeremiah Dault played for the Big Reds in 2020 and 2021, the only two seasons during that amazing era when they didn’t get that far.

He was a great receiver for Muskegon, earning All-State honors in his senior year and setting a single-season team record for touchdown receptions.

But the Big Reds lost in the state semifinals in his junior year, and in the district round of the playoffs when he was a senior.

“It was kind of like the expectation,” Dault said about reaching the state finals when you play for Muskegon. “Not being able to do it, you feel like you let yourself and your teammates and your coaches down, and it sucked that I didn’t have another year to make it right.”

The missed opportunity doesn’t mean Dault will never be a champion, however. He’s now a standout rookie receiver with the West Michigan Ironmen, and he and his teammates will host the Coralville Chaos in the American Indoor Football league championship game at Muskegon’s Trinity Health Arena on Saturday night.

Dault is looking forward to the chance to win a title, and to show what he can do after returning from an injury that kept him out of the Ironmen lineup for several games this season.

“I am ready to be victorious with my guys,” said Dault, 21. “It sucks being so close to a championship and not being able to get one. I am just hungry, and I feel like I have something to prove. I will be going out there with a chip on my shoulder.

“I played at Muskegon, and people were coming to (Ironmen) games wondering where I was at, and I was sitting on the sidelines injured. That was a different kind of pain, and now I will be going out there angry.”

Dault initially committed to play college football at Lawrence Tech University after high school, but was unable to enroll for personal reasons.

He first tried out for the Ironmen in the spring of 2022, when he was only 18. He displayed plenty of talent and might have made the team, but the coaches knew that playing semipro football would block any chance he had of getting a college athletic scholarship. They convinced him to enroll at the junior college level, and he ended up playing for one season at Community Christian College in Detroit in 2023.

He did quite well, despite having a delayed start to the season.

“I caught seven touchdown passes there, and had around 400 yards,” Dault said. “I had a pretty good season, even though I started two games late.”

Personal circumstances kept Dault from returning to college the next year, however, and he ended up back in Muskegon, where’s he’s been working to make a living for the past few years.

He tried out for the Ironmen again this spring, and with his great speed and catching abilities, there was really no question about making the team.

Dault got off to a great start, catching two touchdown passes in the Ironmen’s season opener in March against the same Corvalville team that the Ironmen will play on Saturday.

One TD catch covered 12 yards, while the other covered 20. Both throws came from veteran Ironmen quarterback Alex Carder, who has been leading the team to winning seasons since 2016.

Dault relished the night, particularly since it happened in his hometown, in front of a lot of family, friends and Big Red fans. He also loved the chance to suit up and play in a game again, after skipping a full year of competitive football.

“When I scored those touchdowns, it was like, I was missing that,” Dault said. “I hadn’t played football for awhile, at least at a level where I could entertain people. I like to put on a show when I play.

“It was just a reminder of who I am. It reminded me that this is what I love to do.”

Dault admits that there’s a very big difference between high school and college football, played on a 100-yard field, and arena football, played on a 50-yard field.

“It’s a lot different,” he said. “Everything moves faster and happens faster, and it’s way more physical, because there is no out-of-bounds.”

Dault said the transition was not that difficult for him, however, because he had already worked out with the Ironmen and was familiar with the playbook. He also said catching the ball is pretty easy when it’s thrown by an old pro like Carder.

“I call Alex Carder HOFer, which means Hall of Famer,” Dault said. “When you got a quarterback like him, who’s been doing this for so long, and is as smart as he is, it makes it a lot easier. He will throw the ball to an area where you are getting open. You don’t have to do a lot of hard work.”

Dault went on to catch three more TD passes over the next few games, which was pretty amazing, since the Ironmen are blessed with several older and very talented receivers, like Toni Sok, Tyler Bruce and Tyler Hunt.

“He is a great talent – very explosive – and his route running is really, really good,” said Ironmen head coach Terry Mitchell.  “What I love the most is he’s very aggressive after the catch. And rarely do you find receivers who like to block, but he loves to block, and he also loves to make tackles on the kickoff team.”

Unfortunately an injury interrupted Dault’s season when the Ironmen were hosting the very tough Detroit Ravens.

“I was running a route and I tweaked my hamstring a little bit,” he said. “I am never one who wants to come out of a game, so I sat for a second and went back in. Then there was another deep ball and I felt my hamstring pop.”

The injury caused Dault to miss two full games. He returned to action when the Ironmen traveled to Iowa to play the Cedar Rapids River Kings, but played more of a decoy role, because he wasn’t fully healthy.

He’s been working out since then, however, and says he’s full strength and ready to go for Saturday’s championship game.

“I am ready to put on a show on Saturday,” Dault said. ‘I was telling the other guys, they all got so many touchdowns, I got to catch up.”