NORTH MUSKEGON – James Young may be getting a lot of attention for his incredible passing stats this season, but North Muskegon’s sophomore quarterback is a team player first, and he understands how long it’s been since the Norse won a conference championship.

The last year was 1986, to be exact, and Young would like to help put an end to that drought.

His big chance will come on Friday night, when North Muskegon hosts Ravenna in a showdown that will likely determine the champion of the new West Michigan Conference Rivers Division.

“It would be such a good moment for the community and myself,” Young said. “It would mean so much to us. We’ve put in so much hard work, and it’s something we’ve looked forward to since summer. We’re trying to build something special here and I think a win like this would demonstrate what we want to happen.”

Even if a conference title was not on the line, Young would still have plenty of motivation for the Ravenna showdown.

In Week 7 of 2021, Young was carrying the ball when he was run out of bounds by a Ravenna defender and broke his collarbone on the play. That ended his very promising freshman season a few weeks early.

Ravenna went on to win that game 17-6.

“It’s definitely a game I’ve been looking forward to,” Young said. “It sucked last year getting hurt during Homecoming. I was kind of getting into my groove, being a freshman. But right when I hit the ground, I knew something was up. It sucked being on the sideline and watching my brothers play without me.”

Young has returned this season with a vengeance, putting up the kind of passing numbers that aren’t seen a lot in high school football.

He has completed 104 of 139 passes through six games, and leads the area with 1,561 passing yards, 19 touchdowns and just three interceptions.

“It feels really good,” Young said about his success this season. “Coach Witham and the staff have done such a good job of getting me ready. They’ve helped me make the right decisions and be smart with the ball.”

While Young has had some incredible games so far – including 169 yards and four touchdowns against Mason County Central, 275 yards and two touchdowns against Hart, and 311 yards and five touchdowns against Hesperia, he believes his best is yet to come.

“I’ve had a couple good games, but last week I had two interceptions, and I want to limit those,” he said. “We’re coming up on a good team and a better game. I’m just going to do whatever I can to help my team win.”

Coach Witham has put a lot of trust in Young to run the complicated Norse offense and couldn’t be more pleased with the results.

“We put a lot of weight on the (quarterback) position,” Witham said. “We only do that if we have the right person we can trust, and we have that in James. We as a staff talk a lot about how he does a lot of things that college quarterbacks do.”

Young has benefitted from his connection with a fellow sophomore, receiver TJ Byard, who totaled 452 yards and seven touchdowns on 19 catches through the first five weeks.

Young threw his first pass to Byard when they were in the third grade, and they’ve become a dynamic combo since then.

“We have so much chemistry,” said Byard, who is the area’s leading receiver. “We both know what the other is going to do. It’s just so much chemistry that we know it without telling each other.”

The Norse coaching staff has been looking forward to the Ravenna game since the new conference alignment was announced.

In the past, the Norse and Bulldogs were usually pretty good, but had little chance of winning the conference title against teams from much bigger schools like Whitehall and Oakridge.

When the league was divided into large and small school divisions, everyone figured North Muskegon and Ravenna would be the best of the smalls, and both teams are hungry for a trophy.

“For the kids, it means the world,” Witham said. “We talk about it a lot. North Muskegon has a very rich tradition in football, with very few losing seasons. To have a 36-year drought in conference championships is a very long time.”