Many of the better high school football teams in Michigan turn the Sunday after their final regular season games into parties.
They gather at local restaurants, order pizzas, or have some other sort of festive events while watching the Michigan High School Athletic Association playoff pairings show, to see if they made the postseason cut, and if so, who they are going to play.
For the always super-focused Fruitport Trojans, however, it was a little bit different. After gathering in the high school media center to watch Sunday’s playoff show, and learning they will play Ludington on Friday in a Division 4 pre-district game, they headed straight out to the practice field.
After all, there is a big game coming up this week, and there was no better time to start preparing than right away.
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[2]“It was just a walk-through, just trying to keep them in the normal routine, and focused and locked in,” said Fruitport first-year head coach John Shipley. “We brought them in, had them do a little yoga, we had dinner, watched the show, then just wanted them to stretch their legs out a little bit.
“We talked a bit about assignments and jobs this week. The playoffs carry more responsibility for everyone, and we wanted to make sure everyone understands their role for the week.”
The players didn’t mind at all, according to senior running back Josh Eppard.
“After our name popped up everybody started cheering,” Eppard said. “We were excited we made it, but we knew we needed to lock back in and get back to work, so we did a little walk through at practice to help get us ready.”
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[4]“We had an idea of what to expect,” said senior defensive back Mason DeVries about the post-announcement practice. “The coaches were ready with what we are going to run, and maybe it will give us a little bit of a head start.”
The Trojans, 7-2, will visit Ludington, 7-2, on Friday at 7 p.m. at Ludington. The winner will go on to play Grand Rapids Christian or Kenowa Hills the following week in the district finals.
The Trojans will be making their first postseason appearance since 2022, when they beat Ludington in a pre-district game, then went on to lose to Whitehall in the district finals.
The Trojans will enter the playoffs with a lot of momentum, after finishing the regular season with an impressive six-game winning streak.
It all started with a 21-3 victory over Allendale in Week 4, followed by wins over Kelloggsville (42-0), Holland (39-14), Calvin Christian (42-6), Comstock Park (20-9) and NorthPointe Christian (27-14) on Friday.
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[6]What’s even more impressive is that they put together that winning streak after starting the season with a 1-2 record. Both of those losses – 34-28 to Hopkins in Week 1 and 19-14 to Belding in Week 3 – were final minute heartbreakers, the kind that can send a lot of teams into long tailspins.
But the Trojans pulled themselves together and ran the rest of the schedule with victories, and Shipley said he was not surprised.
“I knew the kids had it in them,” the coach said. “They are a resilient group. They’ve been hungry since day one. They looked at the losses as learning moments, and they just got back to work. I am extremely proud of how they were able to rally.
“All the credit goes to the kids. They worked their tails off and we are excited to get to the playoffs. There is nothing like it.”
Making the postseason was extra special to the kids who were on the team last year and came close, but lost two of their three final games by close margins and fell just short.
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[8]“Our coaches had us split the season into thirds,” Eppard said. “They said that every third part of the season we have to start out new, and that helped put us into a great spot to do everything right and to get into the playoffs.
“It’s a big achievement for the whole team to come back and make the playoffs for the first time in four years. It’s a good change with the new coaching staff and the new culture. We are going in the right direction.”
DeVries is pumped to get the chance to play in an extra game before his prep career is over.
“It’s a really exciting thing for me, being a senior, and I haven’t had a chance to play in the playoffs yet,” DeVries said. “I am really excited, and I’m hoping to have a really good time out there and a good game.”
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