Orchard Lake St. Mary’s running back RaShawn Allen dodges a tackle attempt from Detroit Loyola’s Price Watkins during St. Mary’s 35-14 win Friday at Hazel Park.

The Son of Swami is a big Hall of Fame fan.

So nothing pleases the All-Knowing One more than to see his grandmother, Kathy McGee, enter the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in Friday night’s induction ceremony at the Max M. Fisher Music Center.

SOS is thrilled that even at her advanced age, the former Flint Powers girls basketball coach has most of her mental facilities and should realize the honor being bestowed upon one of the greatest coaches in state history.

And it just so happens that SOS is familiar with a few other inductees. About a million years ago, SOS drove to Kalamazoo and spoke with a youngster who was supposed to be the best high school baseball player in the country — Derek Jeter, who was also capable of playing Division I basketball.

SOS also remembers going to Romulus to see one of the best shooters he’d ever seen — John Long, who was hitting three-pointers long before there was a three-point line.

There is also a sports writer being inducted — Tom Gage, who covered the Tigers for a small southeastern Michigan almost-daily paper for almost four decades. But SOS will remember him more for the time SOS covered the Port Huron-to-Mackinac race with him and got him hooked on Harry Chapin.

It has also come to SOS’s attention that the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., will hold its induction ceremony Friday, and among the inductees is a former running back and defensive back from Iron Mountain — Tom Izzo.

Evidently Izzo went on to get involved with basketball in some capacity, but SOS maintains Izzo is really a football coach at heart. If former fellow Iron Mountain grad Steve Mariucci ever decides to get back into NFL coaching, look for Izzo to become his special teams coach.

As for SOS, here are this week’s top games.

Week 3 high school football schedule

Hudsonville (2-0) at East Kentwood (2-0), 7 Friday. Is this the first of two games between these teams this year? In each of the last three seasons, Hudsonville and East Kentwood met in the regular season and then again in the state playoffs. Hudsonville won both in 2013 and Kentwood won both in 2014, before Hudsonville again won both meetings in 2015. Is it Kentwood’s turn this year? Maybe not. Hudsonville Ice Cream 26, Kentwood Kitchens 20.

Traverse City West (2-0) vs. Traverse City Central (2-0) at Thirlby Field, 7 Friday. The West defense will have its hands full trying to stop the running of Devante Walker and Jordan Fisher. And the Titans better not forget about the passing of Tobin Schwannecke, who isn’t playing like a sophomore. It would help if West’s Jacob Pawloski and Chase Childers play like lock-down defensive backs again. Traverse City’s Best 24, Suzy Merchant High 21.

Zeeland West (2-0) at Grand Rapids West Catholic (2-0), 7 Friday. Three-time defending Division 5 state champ West Catholic has played like it in two easy wins. Now it must handle the full-house, tight T-formation running attack of West, which has won three state titles in the last five years (two in Division 4, one in Division 3). West won its first two games this season by five and four points, which is not margin the Dux usually win by, so they may have to throw more than two passes this week. Quack, Quack West 29, Catholics West of Grand Rapids 26.

Northville (2-0) at Walled Lake Western (2-0), 7 Friday. Northville’s Ryan Nelson will need to keep an eye on Western’s Cody White, who will either dominate from the quarterback position or the wide receiver spot. Jack Burke will have to have a big game for the Mustangs as a quarterback and defensive back because Western’s skill position players are outstanding. If the game is close, Northville kicker Jake Moody could be a difference-maker. Walled Lake Casino 28, Northville Downs 20.

Southfield A&T (1-1) at Birmingham Groves (2-0), 7 Friday. Which Southfield team will we see here? The one which was blasted by Detroit King, 39-0, in the opener, or the one which beat Clarkston in overtime in Week 2? A good game by Southfield sophomore QB Sam Johnson is a must and he better keep an eye on Groves ball-hawking DB Ryan Flaherty. Groves has an effective passer of its own in Beau Kewley. AT&T 27, Orange Groves 21 (OT).

High school football rankings, Super 10 and divisions

Dearborn senior lineman Mustafa Khaleefah first went out for football as a sophomore. The 6-foot-6, 285-pounder quickly developed into a force on the field and was offered by Michigan State in June. “I was happy enough to commit the next day,” he said.

Mustafa Khaleefah sat in the Dearborn High bleachers on a recent evening, reflecting on how he had gotten to this point in his life.

“It’s been a weird journey,” he said. “Back in Iraq, I would not have seen myself doing this now.”

As a youngster growing up in war-torn Iraq, Khaleefah never would have envisioned himself growing into an intimidating, 6-foot-6, 285-pound football player who has accepted a scholarship to Michigan State.

Back then, the only football Khaleefah knew was soccer. But, back then, everything took a backseat to the Iraqi war.

“There was some good moments,” he said. “You remember the good stuff, of course, but there was a lot of bad stuff, too. The good stuff, for example, was my grandpa, every morning, would take me out to eat someplace. But there was a lot of bad stuff, like people getting killed.”

One murder in particular is difficult for Khaleefah to forget.

“Some guy was just walking, and some guys pulled up on a motorcycle and shot him up right in front of our driveway,” he said. “My dad had to clean the blood off the driveway. At that point we were like, we can’t have a family here.”

Never mind that the person murdered was a police officer — and the police station was across from the Khaleefah home. It was typical of the times in Iraq then, when even leaving your home could be dangerous.

“When he went to elementary school, me or his mom would take him to school,” said his father, Muhammad Khaleefah. “We were afraid of the kidnappers. It was very bad. So, we’d take him to the school, wait at the school until he’s done from the school and take him back to home.”

The family first moved to Syria and then Egypt, but the goal was to reach the United States. Khaleefah’s mother, Lina, a civil engineer, received a work permit and took her three children to Virginia while her husband remained in Egypt for four months until his documents were approved.

“I remember Mustafa’s face when he was at the airport,” his father said. “He was crying, but he could not show me the tears in his eyes. It was very hard for him.”

After being reunited in Virginia, the family moved to Dearborn a couple of years later when Khaleefah was in the sixth grade.

He played soccer in Virginia, but gave up organized sports when the family relocated in Dearborn. He was average size until a growth spurt began in the eighth grade.

The next year, he was a freshman at Dearborn and caught the eye of varsity football coach John Powell, who got him to come out for football as a sophomore.

“We don’t always get 6-3, 220; we get them only every so often,” Powell said. “I saw him running agilities and I was: ‘Holy, what is this? What is going on with this kid?’ He was a soccer kid; he came from a soccer background.

“I saw him move, and my line coach goes: ‘He’s going to play on the varsity.’ I said: ‘No kid has never played football in their lives and then played on the varsity at Dearborn High as a 10th-grader with no experience.’ ”

Week 3 high school football schedule

So Khaleefah didn’t play varsity as a sophomore … until Week 3. Two games on the junior varsity were enough to convince Powell where the youngster belonged.

“He played in a JV game, just dominated the whole game without having any clue what he was doing,” Powell said. “Then we brought him up, and as a 10th-grader he was getting in the way and he was athletic.”

Powell was not exaggerating about Khaleefah’s cluelessness. The youngster really didn’t understand the game.

“I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said, laughing. “They told me to block somebody, and I did. That was about it.”

Khaleefah’s first obstacle was convincing his parents to allow him to play football. Their main concern was his safety. Their second concern was how playing football might hinder his academics.

“At first they weren’t sold on it, they just wanted academics,” said Khaleefah, who has a 3.6 grade-point average. “But then they showed up to one of our games and they saw how much I loved it, and they fell in love with it, too. They know I like it, so they like it, too.”

It was not love at first sight for his parents, who were unfamiliar with American football.

“When he started to play the football in Dearborn, then I need to learn,” said his father. “So I asked a friend, he had a son playing football, and he gave me the rules. I asked Mustafa, and he gave me the rules on how to play the football and everything on the football.”

It also helped when Powell told Khaleefah’s parents that if he worked hard and continued to improve, he had a chance to make sure his parents didn’t have to pay for his college education.

“He told me that he would get the scholarship,” his father said. “He said he knew he would do it. That was the thing I encouraged him to do because it would take something from my shoulders — all the expenses from the college.”

Khaleefah said the first football game he watched was the 2011 Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, when he was in the sixth grade.

McCabe: Davison’s Tariq Reid has great vision, speed

Even after joining the varsity, Khaleefah had little working knowledge of the game and how it was played. But he found a way to learn the intricacies of the sport.

“I started playing Madden,” he said of the video game. “I learned a lot from Madden, to be honest with you. I learned so much. I learned all the positions where everybody played. That’s how I learned football.”

But learning the game was entirely different from learning how to play.

From the get-go, Khaleefah had superior footwork, but little else. He was big, but he wasn’t strong. That changed before his junior year.

“From my sophomore year to my junior year, it was about me and the coaches were just dedicated to it,” he said. “We’d be at the school until 9 o’clock at night. We’d be in the weight room. We got my strength up insane in like three months because of how much work we put in.”

As his basic understanding of the game grew, the more impressive he became on the field. But while he had his dominating moments as a junior, Khaleefah was far from a finished product, and certainly was not yet a Big Ten recruit.

“In my junior year, I had some technique, but it wasn’t there yet,” he said. “I was just nasty, that’s why I was so good — I blocked really nasty.”

Powell was positive Khaleefah could play in the Mid-American Conference and thought he had a shot to become a Big Ten player.

“His film as a junior was not a Big Ten film, it just wasn’t,” Powell said. “Part of it was we had to coach him better.”

But the key for Powell was to get a Big Ten team to notice the youngster.

“I sent Michigan State’s recruiting guy this video of him squatting 410 pounds 10 times,” Powell said. “It was like him getting the flexibility of a basketball player. They called me right away and asked: ‘Are you serious, Coach?’ ”

Son of Swami’s week 3 high school football picks

Suddenly, Khaleefah was on MSU’s radar and encouraged to attend camp there. His performance then led to an invitation to MSU’s elite camp. And by the end of the elite camp, Khaleefah had an offer, which he didn’t see coming.

“I was happy enough to commit the next day,” he said. “I didn’t know football, but I knew who Michigan State was. Out of all the schools in the Power 5 conferences, they were the only ones who kept telling me to come visit.”

It seems like a lifetime ago that Khaleefah was watching that policeman being murdered in front of his house.

Since then, Khaleefah has gone from not knowing how to speak English and having no idea what American football was to earning a scholarship to Michigan State after only two years of organized football.

“It has been some journey,” he said, shaking his head. “Basically, it was hard work and dedication. I think that if you work hard, nothing can stop you.”

Kathy McGee coached Flint Powers girls basketball to a 599-153 record over 31 seasons. “The girls taught me how to overcome,” McGee said.

Kathy McGee taught plenty about basketball to her many high school and college teams.

But it’s what the legendary Flint Powers Catholic High girls coach learned from her players that she considers her most cherished memories.

Like the “terrible misfortune in 1996,” McGee, 65, said Thursday.

“Liz Hallman was found dead in her sleep,” said McGee, who coached at Powers in 1976-2006 before accepting an assistant coaching position in 2007 on the women’s basketball team at Central Michigan. “She had a defect in the heart valve. Liz was an inspirational leader.”

Hallman was one of the Chargers’ most gifted athletes and a beloved student at the school.

After suffering a devastating knee injury in her junior season and working tirelessly on her rehabilitation, Hallman died in her sleep July 25, 1996, a few weeks before basketball practice began.

“She was a senior with great college potential,” remembered McGee, who coached at CMU for five years. “Her sheer determination and dedication to recover from ACL surgery taught me so much about life’s challenges.”

Hallman’s death devastated her teammates at Powers. The team started 3-3.

“We sat down, talked about Liz and how she’d react,” said McGee, whose players “made it a promise to work through the slump.”

Powers did, winning 20 in a row and capturing the state championship.

“The girls taught me how to overcome,” said McGee, who lives in the Flint area. “Liz had great desire. I am still in contact with her family. I saw them just recently.”

McGee’s family is “one of thousands” – the players, family and basketball friends she has made in the state and across the country.

Tonight at the Max M. Fisher Music Center on Woodward, she will be honored for her service to high school and college basketball by being inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, along with sporting heroes like former Detroit Pistons Ben Wallace and John Long and past Red Wings Brendan Shanahan and Chris Osgood. In addition, Class of 2015 inductees, New York Yankees great Derek Jeter and former Wing Mike Modano, will be honored after missing the ceremony in Detroit last year.

“I’m truly humbled to be going into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame with legends of the past,” said McGee, who led Powers to a 599-153 record over 31 seasons. “It’s just unbelievable for a girl who played basketball at high school in Michigan’s Thumb area.”

McGee coached “about a dozen” players to D-I colleges, among them Lisa Negri, who was voted Miss Basketball in 1991 and played at Ohio State, and Victoria Lucas-Perry, who graduated from Powers in 2002 and played at Michigan State.

“I’m proud of all my girls who played for me and went on to play at college,” said McGee. “But I’m just as proud of all the others who went on to be dentists, lawyers, industry leaders and great moms. That’s what you hope for.”

McGee, whose teams won 20 district titles, four state championships and 18 league titles, has been teaching some after-school programs since her retirement from basketball.

“Working with at-risk kids,” said McGee. “I also still go to basketball games.”

McGee went to high school at Elkton-Pigeon Bay Port High, from where she graduated in 1969 and then attended CMU.

“I tried making the basketball team at Central,” said McGee. “They didn’t offer scholarships. I did make the debating team though.” 
McGee hasn’t any regrets.

“I loved my time as a high school coach and at college,” she said. “Look at all the friends I have.”

Pete Hovland.

■Hovland’s impact at OU: Pete Hovland’s “greatest influence in life,” Ernie Maglischo, will be there tonight.

So too Pat Rodda, his old high school swimming teammate, who flew into Detroit from California on Wednesday.

Hovland, the longtime Oakland University head swimming coach, will also have his mother and sister on hand when he is inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame this evening at the Max M. Fisher Music Center on Woodward Avenue.

“How about that?” said Hovland, 62, who joined the OU Golden Grizzlies swimming department in 1980 as an assistant men’s and head women’s coach and has been head of the wildly successful program since 2001. “I very excited and very humbled.”

Hovland will be inducted into the class of 2016 along with the likes of former Detroit Pistons Ben Wallace and John Long and Red Wings Brendan Shanahan and Chris Osgood.

“These guys are icons,” said Hovland, who was raised in Northern California and swam for Chico State, where Maglischo coached before joining OU in 1979 for two short but spectacular years. “I’m a huge Red Wings fan. I can’t wait to meet Ben and Chris.”

Hovland is thrilled that Maglischo will be at the Hall of Fame night.

“Ernie recruited me to Oakland University,” said Hovland on Thursday. “He’s coming to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony from Arizona, where he formally coached at Arizona State. Ernie is still my mentor and dear friend.”

In fact, Maglischo will put on a stroke clinic at OU while he’s in town, said Hovland.

“He brought me to Michigan,” said Hovland. “He’s meant so much in my life.”

Hovland’s OU teams have won dozens of conference titles and four national championships.

The work ethic of his swim teams have surprised even him.

“These athletes put in a tremendous amount of time in the pool, on the track running and in the weight room,” said Hovland. “Swimming is a lifestyle, a passion. Kids just don’t do it for kicks. I’m amazed by my swimmers and the work they put in.”

Hovland said he watched the Rio Olympics swimming last month closely.

He saw Michael Phelps go out in glory, and Ryan Lochte leave the Games amid controversy.

“Michael was as good as ever and as good as there will ever be,” said Hovland of Phelps, 31, who left Rio as the most decorated Olympian of all-time with a total of 28 medals. “His departure was picture perfect.”

Lochte, 32, was Wednesday banned from swimming through June 2017 after his role in the Rio gas station incident and for allegedly lying to local police and making a false statement.

“Ryan’s swan song, if it was, was a totally different one,” said Hovland. “He’s a real animal in the pool and loves his swimming. I know he must be disappointed with himself.

“Maybe he’ll use the ban and lesson he’s learned to grow as a man and come back bigger and better. I believe he’ll train for the Tokyo Olympics (in 2020) and clear his name.”

Pete Hovland.

Red Wings honoree Chris Osgood excited to meet Wallace, Jeter at HOF

Class of 2016 (plus two)

Tom Gage

Sports writer spent 39 years with the Detroit News, mainly

covering the Tigers; also a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Pete Hovland

37-year Oakland University men’s and women’s swimming and diving coach, 23-time conference coach of the year.

Derek Jeter (2015 inductee)

Kalamazoo Central shortstop became a five-time World Series champion with the New York Yankees. Had 3,465 career hits.

John Long

Pistons guard scored more than 12,000 points in the NBA. Romulus native also starred at the University of Detroit.

Bob Mann

First African-American player on the Lions, the U-M grad played two seasons here and led the NFL in receiving in 1949.

Kathy McGee

Flint Powers Catholic girls basketball coach for 31 years, won four state championships and had 599 career wins.

Mike Modano (2015 inductee)

Livonia native was the NHL’s No. 1 overall draft pick in 1988. Won one Stanley Cup and scored most points by a U.S.-born player.

Chris Osgood

Goaltender won three Stanley Cups with the Red Wings. Fourth all-time in NHL winning percentage.

Brendan Shanahan

Forward won three Stanley Cups with the Red Wings. He’s the only player with more than 600 goals and 2,000 penalty minutes.

Ben Wallace

Four-time NBA defensive player of the year won NBA title with Pistons in 2004. He’s the team’s all-time leader in blocked shots.

Basketball

Men’s basketball: Former longtime coach Eugene (Denny) Alexander died Tuesday at age 70, Xavier University of Louisiana announced. No cause was given. Alexander coached at Detroit East Catholic High and was an assistant coach at Central Michigan before heading to New Orleans to coach Xavier Louisiana. Alexander led the Gold Rush in 1978-90, amassing a program-record 212 victories. Xavier’s website describes the school as “Catholic and historically black.”

Men’s soccer: Host Michigan State opened its Big Ten season with a 4-0 win over Rutgers. Jimmy Hague made one save for his first career shutout for the Spartans (3-1).

Field hockey: Host Michigan State defeated Columbia, 7-2. Megan Fenton scored four goals, and Kendal Anderson had three assists for the Spartans (4-1). MSU outshot the Lions, 27-5, and generated 12 corner kicks while allowing one. Michigan State has won four straight after an opening loss. The Spartans host No. 8 Louisville on Sunday. Columbia (1-2) and CMU play in a neutral-site game earlier in the same venue.

Women’s tennis: Western Mchigan hired Nathan Robinson as an assistant coach. Robinson served as an assistant at Oklahoma State for the past two years. He helped lead the Cowgirls to a 29-5 record and second-place finish in the NCAA tournament last season.

Volleyball: Grand Valley State beat Davis & Elkins, 3-0, and Adelphi, 3-2, at the Vulcan Invitational in California, Pa. Staci Brower had 32 kills in the matches.

MHSAA logo

The Michigan High School Athletic Association says its unique sideline concussion-testing program for athletes in football and other sports is having a positive impact, though long-term funding is an issue as it heads into its second and final year.

Member schools in the pilot program removed players for possible concussions at a higher rate than schools that were not, executive director Jack Roberts said.

“They’re proving that they’re good, but people are going to have to respond with support locally,” Roberts said. “We cannot sustain this forever.”

His group today released results of its first head-injury survey of more than 750 member high schools from 2015-16 sports. It received data from nearly every school.

The association started the program last fall with 62 high schools. It includes baseline testing of athletes in football and other sports to help with concussion diagnosis.

The association spent $10,000 last school year to start the program. It expects to spend $30,000 this year but will have fewer schools — 34 — involved because of the expense and commitment. They also will concentrate on sports that have the highest incidence of head injury.

“I hope that we can demonstrate their value and encourage sponsorship, grant support,” Roberts said. “But it’s going to take, I think, some investment by the people in the communities. The moms and dads are going to have to think that this is important and worth contributing to to make the programs safer for their children.”

Here is some information on what’s happening in Michigan:

WHAT IS BASELINE TESTING

Baseline testing is a combination of memory, reaction time, attention and stress assessments. It is done in major pro sports because it is considered an objective and individualized tool to help decide whether to remove an athlete from a game. While all states have laws that address preventing concussions in youth sports, many are weak, and none require baseline testing.

WHY IT MATTERS

Michigan schools reported 4,452 head injuries in boys and girls sports, or 5.9 per school. Contact sports had the most head injuries. Ranking first was 11-player football, with 49 head injuries per 1,000 participants, followed by ice hockey, with 38, and 8-player football, with 34. Girls soccer had 30 injuries per 1,000 participants, and girls basketball ranked fifth, with 29 injuries per 1,000.

But that likely is only part of the picture. Health and safety advocates fear that concussions often go undetected in high schools because of inconsistent protocols at districts unwilling or unable to spend money for detection. It’s often on players to self-report concussions, or on coaches, who have many responsibilities and sometimes little training to recognize symptoms.

WHY NOT ALL SCHOOLS

Schools typically don’t argue with the benefit of testing, but cash-strapped districts often say that the cost of offering such programs is prohibitive.

PROGRAMS AVAILABLE

Many sideline concussion-testing programs are on the market. Michigan is testing the Illinois-based King-Devick Test affiliated with the Mayo Clinic and Maryland-based XLNTbrain Sport. The association provides them for free to the participating schools. Long term, Roberts says he thinks that the association could fund it, in part, with a $3 to $5 fee per student. But the association also is working to get grants.

HOW IT WORKS

Baselines with the XLNTbrain Sport are determined during 30-minute sessions by athletes at computers. The tests measure reaction time, attention, memory and stress by completing a series of exercises that involve such things as word recognition. Athletes suspected of a head injury undergo a sideline assessment done in about five minutes with an iPhone or tablet app. It assesses memory by providing words for the athlete to remember. It asks questions that require the athlete to recall the hit. The athletes also hold the phone as they stand for 20 seconds with eyes open and then closed to check balance. That assessment is compared with the athlete’s baseline data to help determine whether they can return to play.

WHAT’S NEXT IN MICHIGAN

Roberts hopes that universities, health care systems and the National Federation of State High School Associations will help analyze the data from last year and this year. The association plans specifically to work with Michigan State University’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports to explore possible changes and additions in coaches’ education.

Michigan schools try gold standard of concussion tests

Son of Swami

It was March 24, 2009, when former Free Press columnist Michael Rosenberg told the Son of Swami he needed to come up with a Plan B in case the newspaper business goes sideways.

It has taken SOS some time, but together with Mike Harrison, the former chief public relations and marketing officer for the University of Michigan Health Systems, SOS has a plan.

What do you think of Spousal Disposal?

It kind of sells itself, doesn’t it?

And SOS knows who would be the first customer: Lawrence John Ripple.

You might not remember his name, but he is the guy who robbed a bank in Kansas City last week and got $2,924. Instead of fleeing the scene when he got the cash, Ripple sat in the lobby and told a security guard he was the guy he was looking for. He was arrested when the police showed up.

When questioned by police, Ripple told them he had an argument with his wife and, in front of his wife, wrote the note demanding cash that he handed to the teller.

• Week 4 metro Detroit high school football schedule

The guy reportedly told his wife he would rather go to jail than live at home with her.

Ripple’s plan went south a few days later when the judge released Ripple on his own recognizance, leaving him wondering what it takes to get an extended stay in jail.

It reminds SOS of the time in the late 1980s when former Lions coach Darryl Rogers was informed that he was coming back for the next season and asked: “What’s it take to get fired around here anyhow?”

SOS wants to make it clear that after 41 years of marriage, which have been the three happiest years of SOS’s life, Mrs. SOS has nothing to worry about when it comes to Spousal Disposal.

Therefore, when SOS decides to stop predicting high school football and basketball games, he has his Plan B.

As SOS tried to figure out whatever happened to the esteemed Mr. Rosenberg and his Plan B, here are this week’s best games.

Macomb Dakota’s Jalen Hall catches a touchdown pass against Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Shermond Dabney last month in Macomb Township. The Son of Swami is picking Dakota to beat Mott this weekend.

■Negaunee(3-0) at Iron Mountain (3-0), 7, Friday. Iron Mountain’s Josh Tucker is a threat whenever he touches the ball, but Negaunee can’t forget about Gavin Wright, who can find the end zone if teams don’t pay attention to him. Negaunee has some dangerous backs of its own. Neal Violetta and Shane Ring are capable of gaining well over 100 yards and stopping Negaunee’s running game is the key to the shooting match. Izzo’s Mountain 28, Nagging 24.

■Grandville (3-0) at Hudsonville (3-0), 7, Friday. This is really the first time in 15 seasons that Grandville has started 3-0. The impressive thing is the Bulldogs have given up only 22 points in three one-sided wins. Hudsonville knows a thing or two about defense, but it also knows that when it is moving the ball on the ground, the other team’s offense is on the bench. QB Jack Mandryk does an excellent job running the offense. Hudsonville Ice Cream 21, Grand Villains 19.

■Temperance Bedford (3-0) at Saline (3-0), 7, Friday. It is no surprise that both teams are undefeated, but the surprise is both teams struggled to win close games last week. Saline’s defense could use a healthy Corey Gildersleeve Jr. this week, especially against Bedford’s effective option game. A good passing effort from Zach Schwartzenberger could go a long way in getting the Saline offense going. Sault Water 28, Bedford Falls 20.

■West Bloomfield (2-1) at Farmington Hills Harrison (2-1), 7, Friday. Bryce Veasley, a transfer from Southfield Lathrup, has done a fine job replacing Trishton Jackson at quarterback. He has a pair of solid receivers in Taj Mustapha and Garrett Winn. But to beat Harrison, the Lakers will need a good game from RB Davion Johnson. Harrison needs to balance its offense between the running of Brendann Brown and the passing of Jimmy O’Connor. Blooming Onion 31, Farmington Hills Herrington 24.

■Macomb Dakota (2-1) at Warren Mott (3-0), 7, Friday. This is where we start separating pretenders from contenders. Already with a MAC Red loss, Dakota needs QB Brett Droski to keep finding Jaylen Hall to keep the Cougars on the attack. Mott has a pretty good tandem of its own in QB Mike Pond, a dual-threat guy, and receiver Andre Chandler. Dakota Fanning 27, Mott’s Apple Sauce 19.

Lowell coach Noel Dean

This is the week Lowell’s Red Arrows become Pink Arrows.

For the ninth consecutive year, Lowell will host a Pink Arrow event, which raises money to help cancer victims and their families. Lowell football coach Noel Dean said money raised this year could help the nine-year total surpass $1.5 million.

This year’s event will hit home even more closely for the football team. Ten players on the team have a parent who has been a cancer patient.

“I knew there were a couple, but I didn’t realize how many,” Dean said. “It’s a heck of a message for people to really see what kids are going through. There’s just a lot going on here. We’re talking about specifically parents. That’s not even siblings or grandparents, aunts or uncles. It’s amazing.”

Lowell is believed to be the first program in the country to play a game in which the players wear pink jerseys. On the back of each jersey is the name of a person who has dealt with cancer.

This has turned into more than just a football game. At 3:30, the Lowell soccer team plays Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills and the volleyball team plays a match against Ottawa Hills on a sports court located at the track’s high-jump pit.

• McCabe: Lowell rolling under Kruse control

Local restaurants set up a food court, and the proceeds go to the Pink Arrow fund.

At 6:30, the football players are introduced along with either the person whose name is on the back of their jersey or a representative from that family before the game against Ottawa Hills.

Pink T-shirts are available at the gate for $15, and they serve as a ticket to the game. Regular admission is $5.

This has evolved into an event supported by more than just the football program.

“It’s unbelievable,” Dean said. “Our whole downtown is pink. They have banners hanging from everywhere. Everyone in this community will be wearing a pink shirt.”

Victory Day on Saturday

The South Lyon football field will be turned over to special members of the community Saturday when the football program hosts its Victory Day, a game-day experience for children 6 through 21 with cognitive and/or physical impairments. In addition to getting an opportunity to play football, children also can march with the school band and cheer with the cheerleaders. The event begins at 10:30 a.m.

Irish’s Kizer a shining multisport example

If you need another reason your kid should not specialize in one sport, meet Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer, who will play against Michigan State on Saturday night. In an opening 50-47 double-overtime loss to Texas, he completed 15 of 24 passes for 215 yards with five touchdowns and added 77 yards rushing on 13 carries. According to footballscoop.com, he had an efficiency rating of 206.5, the highest Week 1 rating for any quarterback facing a Power 5 team.

Kizer, who attended Toledo Central Catholic, is a terrific athlete who attributes that to playing football, basketball and baseball in high school.

“I think that was one of the best things that ever happened to me, to play three sports,” Kizer told footballscoop.com. “It allowed me, 1) to create athletic ability that it takes to be able to adjust on the fly when you’re playing at this high level. And 2) I’m learning more about the quarterback position every day than I ever have. To go through all three sports in high school, I never really locked into one, so there’s a lot of stuff I wasn’t able to learn in high school where people have preached it since they’ve been 8 years old.”

To end the debate on specialization, footballscoop.com pointed out that 224 of 256 players chosen in last year’s NFL draft were multisport athletes in high school.

Coach of the Week

Millington’s Roger Bearss is this week’s Detroit Lions/Farm Bureau Insurance Michigan High School Coach of the Week. Millington is 3-0 and ranked No. 1 in Division 6. This is Bearss’ seventh season at Millington, where he has a 59-12 record. He also has been a head coached at Bad Axe, Frankfort, Newberry and Frankenmuth. He is 128-79 in 21 years as a head coach.

Contact Mick McCabe: 313-223-4744 or mmccabe@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1.

Grand Rapids Christian big man Xavier Tillman

Jaren Jackson Jr. gave Michigan State a class of one for 2017.

Tom Izzo’s team has four more spots available, and the Spartans are on the hunt to add more.

Grand Rapids Christian big man Xavier Tillman — an AAU teammate of Jackson’s — visited East Lansing last weekend and said this week on WQTX 92.1-FM in Lansing that he will announce his college choice next Friday. MSU, Purdue and Marquette reportedly are finalists for the 6-foot-8, 270-pound power forward/center.

The four-star Tillman called his official visit to MSU “amazing” and said coach Tom Izzo talked about the need to add more big men.

“I caught a bond with every single player, from Tum Tum (Nairn) all the way to Kenny (Goins). They’re all just great guys,” Tillman said on “The Spartan Beat” show. “And Coach Izzo laid out the outline of what he thought I could do.”

Tillman is ranked the No. 1 player in the state, in part because one of Jackson’s prep school teammates left.

Brian Bowen, who plays alongside Jackson at La Lumiere School in La Porte, Ind., also has the Spartans high on his radar. The 6-7 wing from Saginaw also has offers from Michigan, Kentucky and Louisville, among others.

Shane Heirman, who coaches Bowen and Jackson at La Lumiere School, said the five-star Bowen spent this summer with Nike’s EYBL team that traveled to the Bahamas and played with that squad until school started.

“That all can kind of wear you down a bit,” Heirman said. “So, I think he’s kind of still just decompressing from the summer and just kind of regather himself, reorganize himself, and then look at the process again. I don’t think he’s in a hurry right now.”

The 6-10, 255-pound Jackson is a power forward/wing ranked No. 15 in the nation by Rivals.com, 26th by ESPN and 27th by 247Sports.com and Scout.com. He’s more of stretch-4 perimeter threat than Tillman, who said Izzo compared him to freshman Nick Ward as more of a low-block, near-the-basket player.

“I was so happy for Jaren to have committed to Michigan State,” Tillman said.

Izzo will have four scholarships available in 2017 after Jackson’s commitment.

MSU also is getting an official visit this weekend from 6-6 Nojel Eastern. The four-star, top-100 guard from Evanston, Ill., posted on Twitter that he will be in East Lansing for the MSU-Wisconsin game.

The Spartans will graduate Eron Harris, Gavin Schilling, Alvin Ellis III, Ben Carter and Matt Van Dyk after the upcoming season.

Izzo also received a 2018 commitment in August from Macomb Dakota High big man Thomas Kithier.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Download our Spartans Xtra app for free on  Apple and  Android devices!

Lowell QB Ryan Stevens looks to pass the ball against Detroit Martin Luther King in the second half of the Michigan High School Athletic Association football finals at Ford Field in Detroit on Friday, Nov. 27, 2015.

One of the most significant football victories in the history of New Boston Huron occurred last week when the Chiefs registered a 7-6 win.

It was momentous because it came against Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central, a team Huron beats about as often as the Lions win in Green Bay.

This was Huron’s first victory over St. Mary CC since 1986; before that, the last time Huron beat CC was … never.

The ironic thing about the win is that the guy who rebuilt the Huron program — Dan Kalbfleisch — no longer is the Huron coach. Coaching the Chiefs is his father, Jim Kalbfleisch.

Just before the season, Dan received an offer you can’t refuse to become athletic director at Gibraltar Carlson, which ended his coaching career. In stepped his father, who has been the team’s offensive and defensive line coach.

The elder Kalbfleisch, 68, began coaching in 1970 as an assistant to the great Bill McCartney, and has been the head coach at Lincoln Park.

Kalbfleisch already was the varsity boys basketball coach at Huron and ran the school’s daily sports tech class, so the transition was smooth.

The amazing part of the win over CC was that the powerful CC T-formation offense managed only one touchdown.

“Every year we’ve been tweaking and trying to stop the T,” Kalbfleisch said. “This year we tweaked one of the fronts we’ve been using. It gave them a lot of problems … we got on their quarterback real early on their boot passes.”

Detroit King star Ambry Thomas to play in Army All-American bowl

The younger Kalbfleisch did an amazing job in 11 years at Huron, making three playoff appearances in the past six years and two seasons ago advancing to the Division 3 semifinal before losing to eventual champ Orchard Lake St. Mary’s.

But last week’s win won’t soon be forgotten.

“It was fantastic,” Jim Kalbfleisch said. “The student body swarmed the field. The kids were as happy as they could be. It was really an exciting thing for them.”

Ristola a big kick for Churchill

Katherine Ristola is a junior back-up kicker and receiver/defensive back at Livonia Churchill who was profiled in last week’s Preps Extra. She had kicked only one extra point to that point, but last week Churchill’s starting kicker, Drew Alsobrooks, was injured.

Ristola stepped in and kicked a 27-yard field goal and six extra points in a 54-27 win over Plymouth.

“It was pretty cool,” she said. “I couldn’t get over the fact that I was actually out there. It was amazing. It was thrilling.”

A perfect fit: Walled Lake Western’s Rob Hudson and football

Don’t throw on St. Mary

The “No Fly Zone” at Gaylord St. Mary is still in effect.

Through four games, St. Mary has 14 interceptions, half coming in Week 2 against Bay City All Saints.

Most recently, the 4-0 Snowbirds picked off two passes in Week 3 against Indian River Inland Lakes, then had three picks last week against Mesick.

“We’re catching them at the end,” St. Mary coach Kevin O’Connell said. “We’re starting out slow, we’re putting points on in the third quarter and forcing offenses to go deep on us, and then we kind of cherry pick and catch them.”

The state record for interceptions in a season is 33, set by Warren Michigan Collegiate over 12 games in 2011.

Coach of the week

Dearborn Fordson’s Walker Zaban is this week’s Detroit Lions/Farm Bureau Insurance Michigan High School Coach of the Week.

Last week, Fordson defeated Garden City, 49-6, to improve to 4-0 and No. 4 in Division 1. This is Zaban’s 10th season as Fordson’s head coach, compiling a 76-26 record with nine state playoff appearances. Zaban spent 13 seasons as a Fordson assistant before becoming head coach.

Contact Mick McCabe: 313-223-4744 or mmccabe@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1.

Michigan quarterback commit Dylan McCaffrey attends U-M’s Aerial Assault camp June 18, 2016, in Ann Arbor.

Welcome to the debut of Sean Merriman’s recruiting mailbag at freep.com. Sean is a recruiting aficionado who used to work for rivals.com and the Big Ten Network and now is with Intersport. Look for his mailbag every other week (with some live chats sprinkled in, too). If you have a recruiting question for Sean, email him at merriman.sean@gmail.com or tweet him @BTNSean. 

Hi Sean! Personally, I think recruiting ranks and stars are overblown. Even being a Wolverine fan, I can acknowledge MSU as an example where they have had great success with 3 and 4 star athletes. In my opinion, it is much more important to get players that fit the team and philosophy of the coaches and the positions of need. Your thoughts? – JDDGoBlue

I agree with you, for the most part, @JDDGoBlue. When looking at the recent success of Michigan State’s football program, many of the Spartans’ standout players who have gone on to play in the NFL were two- and three-star players. Le’Veon Bell, Kirk Cousins, Trae Waynes and Jeremy Langford are NFL starters. Not one of them was a highly touted prospect coming out of high school. But as you said, Mark Dantonio and his staff viewed them as players who fit their system. However, take a look at some of the top-ranked Big Ten players in the 2016 recruiting class, and many of them already are making an impact as freshmen: Rashan Gary (five-star), Donnie Corley (four-star), Nick Bosa (five-star), Michael Jordan (four-star), etc. It goes both ways. But it’s hard not to be impressed with the job Dantonio and his staff have done at recruiting under-the-radar players.

Do you think Dylan McCaffery stays at QB once he arrives at UM, or is he an athlete who could play elsewhere for the Wolverines, like his brother at Stanford. It seems like UM, especially with Brandon Peters, is strong at the QB position already, and having either of those guys serve as a backup could be a waste of talent. – Dubyah

I agree with the fact that Michigan is loaded at the quarterback position. Wilton Speight will be a redshirt junior next season, while Peters likely will be a redshirt freshman. However, Dylan McCaffery is going to Michigan to play quarterback. If he didn’t think he was good enough to do so, I think he would have committed elsewhere. Now, could Harbaugh and his staff get creative and find a way to get him on the field? It’s possible. But my guess would be that Dylan McCaffery is Michigan’s starting quarterback in 2019.

What are Michigan’s chances with Nico Collins – david blue

Michigan remains the leader for four-star WR Nico Collins. In fact, he is expected to be on campus Saturday for the Wolverines’ game against Penn State (3:30 p.m., ABC). He already has taken two unofficial visits to Michigan, and all signs point to him eventually landing in Ann Arbor. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee, by any means. Collins is the top-ranked player in the state of Alabama and does have an offer from the Crimson Tide, so don’t think for a second that Nick Saban and Co. will give up easily on this kid. This is a recruiting battle that could come down to the wire, but ultimately, I see Collins playing his college ball in Ann Arbor.

Hey Sean—basketball question… who are MSU’s targets in the 2017 class, and where do they stand with consensus top 25 players like Gary Trent Jr. and Brian Bowen? – Sam

Tom Izzo already landed a megarecruit for the 2017 class in five-star PF Jaren Jackson Jr. Now the Spartans shift their focus toward other top-notch targets like Trent Jr. and Bowen, in addition to Xavier Tillman, Brandon McCoy and Nojel Eastern. All five of these players are Top 100 prospects, according to 247sports. Bowen, Tillman and Eastern all look like MSU leans, while Trent Jr.’s and McCoy’s recruitments appear to be more wide-open. Izzo recently visited both Trent Jr. and McCoy, and both came away impressed with the Spartans’ head coach. Tillman is expected to make his college announcement at the end of this month, and most believe he is going to pick MSU. Landing any three or four of these prospects would give the Spartans’ another top-five recruiting class.

Do you think playing all these freshmen will give Harbaugh a huge edge in recruiting? – MM

I don’t know if it gives Harbaugh an edge, but I know it doesn’t hurt. There are numerous factors that go into choosing a school, and early playing time is one of them. Others include facilities, proximity to home, comfort with current players and coaches, program history and NFL preparation. Harbaugh has been masterful as a recruiter so far at Michigan, so there really isn’t a ton of room to grow at this point. It’s about being consistent and landing top-10 national classes year after year. When recruits watch the Wolverines play and see guys like Rashan Gary, Chris Evans, Ben Bredeson and Devin Bush Jr. making an impact as true freshmen, that has to be attractive.

Why does MSU not compete with UM and OSU for recruits? They consistently have higher ranked recruiting classes. Sure MSU does a great job with underrated players, but how much better would they do with 4 and 5 star guys? – william

Actually, Michigan State does compete with Ohio State and Michigan for a good amount of recruits, and Mark Dantonio and Co. have won their fair share of recruiting battles against both. The Spartans beat out both Michigan and Ohio State for Donnie Corley and Justin Layne in 2016. They beat out Ohio State for LJ Scott and Michigan for Tyriq Thompson in 2015. Now, the Spartans are in a heated recruiting battle with both schools when it comes to five-star WR Donovan Peoples-Jones. Michigan State has a formula that works for its when it comes to evaluating recruits, and with the success this program has had as of late, why change it if it works?  

How is the D-Line shaping up for MSU’s 2017 class? They lost a lot of talent through graduation, dismissals, and transfers this past year and I expect McDowell to head to the NFL next season – dave

The Spartans have three 2017 commits on the D-line: Jacub Panasiuk, Lashawn Paulino-Bell and Donovan Winter. All three players are three-star prospects, according to 247sports. Keep an eye on Deron Irving-Bey, a four-star DE prospect from Flint. Many believe that MSU is his leader right now, but the Spartans will have to hold off the likes of Michigan and Tennessee.

Full list: Michigan’s recruits (with highlight videos)
Full list: Michigan State recruits (with highlights)

Mylan Hicks

Former Detroit Renaissance High and Michigan State football player Mylan Hicks was killed in Canada, according to reports.

Hicks, 23, was playing for the Calgary Stampede of the Canadian Football League. He played safety and linebacker for the Spartans from 2010-14.

“This is just tragic,” MSU coach Mark Dantonio said Sunday night. “It’s sort of rocked our Spartan football community.”

Hicks is the second member of MSU’s 2013 Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl team to die this year. Punter Mike Sadler was killed along with Nebraska punter Sam Foltz in an auto accident on July 23 near Waukesha, Wis.

• MSU honors Sadler with logo at Spartan Stadium

Dantonio said he heard about the shooting from a phone call around 9 a.m. Sunday. He said Hicks “went through everything with a great deal of excitement” in life.

“A very competitive person and just enjoyed playing football and being around our program…,” Dantonio said. “He went 100 miles an hour. No. 6 was a beautiful person. Like Mike Sadler in a lot of ways, he just lit a room up when he walked in.”

CBC News reported that Hicks was shot outside Marquee Beer Market nightclub in Calgary around 2:30 a.m. Calgary Police Insp. Don Coleman said at a news conference that the altercation began in the bar before moving outside where it escalated and ultimately led to Hicks being shot. Global News in Canada reported that there is no word yet on what prompted the shooting or whether Hicks was the intended victim.

Hicks reportedly was taken to Foothills hospital, where he later died from his injuries. Calgary police reportedly have three people of interest in custody, and it is being investigated by the homicide. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.

According to Globe News, Coleman said there were other football players at the bar with Hicks, but it’s unclear whether they were part of the altercation.

“Mylan was a respected young man throughout his collegiate and professional careers,” Brian Ramsey of the CFL Players’ Association told Globe News. “As a member of the Calgary Stampeders, he was just starting to establish himself amongst his teammates, coaches and fans in the city. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mylan’s family, friends, teammates and the Calgary Stampeders organization during this extremely difficult time.”

Stampeders mourn the death of Mylan Hicks → ow.ly/vYBO304xxMe https://t.co/e6b7DHkg7s

—
Calgary Stampeders (@calstampeders) September 25, 2016

Josh Bell, one of Hicks’ teammates in Calgary, told reporters he was with Hicks at the bar early Sunday morning to celebrate the Stampeders’ Saturday afternoon win over Winnipeg but did not see the shooting. Bell called Hicks “family” and said the team is hurting and shaken by his death.

“I lost my little brother today,” said Bell, who added that he would take Hicks to movies or dinner once a week. “I feel like to a degree I’m a father figure because I’m the old man on the team, so I lost a son today. Just in reflection, it kind of hits you. That could’ve been me last night, and I have a wife and a son and a little one on the way.”

Hicks had 27 tackles in 32 career games for MSU and earned his psychology degree in psychology in August 2014, before his final season. He received the team’s Biggie Munn Award that fall as the Spartans’ most inspirational defensive player and had a career-high four tackles in their 2015 Cotton Bowl Classic win over Baylor.

Darien Harris, one of Hicks’ former teammates and fellow linebackers at MSU, tweeted: “God I know you are all knowing & make no mistakes but please just help us to understand why. RIP to my brother Mylan @AlmightyLO6 #6Forever”

God I know you are all knowing & make no mistakes but please just help us to understand why. RIP to my brother Mylan @AlmightyLO6 #6Forever

—
Darien Harris (@DHarris_45) September 25, 2016

Hicks had 27 tackles in 32 career games for MSU and earned his psychology degree in psychology in August 2014, before his final season. He received the team’s Biggie Munn Award that fall as the Spartans’ most inspirational defensive player and had a career-high four tackles in their 2015 Cotton Bowl Classic win over Baylor.

A two-year starter for coach Antonio Watts at Renaissance, Hicks had 44 tackles and four interceptions as a senior in the fall of 2009. The 5-foot-11, 199-pound Hicks signed to the Stampeders’ practice squad in May after being released by the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL.

“The loss of this 23-year-old young man at this stage of his life and his career is an unfathomable tragedy,” Ken King, president and CEO of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation, said in the release. “Our sympathies to Mylan’s family and to the Stampeders family of players, coaches and staff.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@chrissolari. Download our Spartans Xtra app for free onAppleandAndroiddevices!

Several former Michigan State coaches and teammates tweeted after learning of Hicks’ death.

Rest peacefully to my brother @AlmightyLO6....watch over me bro. This hard for me right now man 😓

—
Lawrence Thomas (@LawrenceLThomas) September 25, 2016

I'm sick man...smh. RIP #6, we'll all miss you brotha @AlmightyLO6 😞

—
Matt Macksood (@MattMacksood) September 25, 2016

Sick of losing brothers 😔... love you big dawg @AlmightyLO6 #RIP6

—
Christopher Laneaux (@C_Laneaux14) September 25, 2016

Always tried to get @AlmightyLO6 to smile by calling him Smilin Mylan. No doubt he's above smiling down on us… twitter.com/i/web/status/7…

—
Mike Vorkapich (@CoachVork) September 25, 2016

Another Spartan Dawg gone way too soon man 😞 #RIP6 @AlmightyLO6

—
Tyriq Thompson (@TyriqThompson17) September 25, 2016

In this Sept. 27, 2014, photo, Michigan quarterback Shane Morris lays on the field after taking a hit. He was put back in the game and later determined to have a concussion.

The Michigan High School Athletic Association’s study of head-injury reports from the state’s member schools during the 2015-16 year unveiled some surprising statistics.

Executive director Jack Roberts released results of the MHSAA’s first head-injury survey of more than 750 high schools. It received data from nearly every school. Schools were required to designate if potential concussions occurred during competition or practice and at which level — varsity, junior varsity or freshman, and the survey includes baseline testing of athletes in football and other sports to help with concussion diagnosis.

Michigan schools reported 4,452 head injuries in boys and girls sports, or 5.9 per school. Contact sports had the most head injuries. Ranking first was 11-player football with 49 head injuries per 1,000 participants, followed by ice hockey with 38 and 8-player football with 34. Girls soccer had 30 injuries per 1,000 participants, and girls basketball ranked fifth with 29 injuries per 1,000.

Son of Swami’s week 6 high school football picks

“Soccer doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Betty Wroubel, Pontiac Notre Dame athletic director, girls volleyball and softball coach. “Basketball did. A lot of those kids … we have a lot more kids hitting the ground than we ever had in basketball for some reason.

“We’re just not as strong in our neck, and our head isn’t as strong to withstand jarring which is sometimes causing some of those concussions. … It’s not amazing to me, but it’s an educational tool we can use now to help us improve our programs even better.”

A startling disparity in the number of reported head injuries suffered by girls and boys playing the same sports was the most significant finding revealed by the report.

Boys soccer players reported only 18 head injuries per 1,000 participants. Boys basketball players reported 11. Softball players reported 11 head injuries per 1,000 participants, while baseball players reported four.

Dr. Jeffery Kutcher, one of the country’s leading experts in sports neurology and a board-certified neurologist, said there is some validity to boys’ necks being stronger than girls at that age.

“That trend of seeing a higher concussion rate in girls or young women playing sports as compared to boys in the same sports, we see that actually in data across the country,” Kutcher said. “We do think there are multiple reasons for that. One of them is likely to be neck strength. There may be others that have to do with style of play and nature of the game and those types of issues.”

Health and safety advocates fear concussions often go undetected because of inconsistent protocols at districts unable to spend money for detection. It’s often on players to self-report concussions, or on coaches, who have many responsibilities and sometimes little training, to recognize symptoms.

Brian Gordon, athletic director at Novi, was concerned that some of the numbers might be inaccurate because boys might hide injuries to stay on the field.

“I think it’s the first year where the MHSAA has required all those head-injury reports, where they started to collect the data,” Gordon said. “I think some schools did a really nice job of reporting that data, whereas other schools did not. It does require that we have to do that.

“I think where you see reports of a head injury doesn’t mean that guy was concussed. For instance, we had a head-injury report for soccer last week. The kid got stitches. There was no concussion.”

Total participation in MHSAA sports for 2015-16 was 284,227 — with students counted once for each sport he or she played — and only 1.6% of participants experienced a head injury. Boys experienced 3,003, or 67% of those injuries, although boys participation in sports, especially contact sports, was higher than girls.

More than half of head injuries (54%) were experienced by varsity athletes. A total of 2,973, or 67%, came in competition as opposed to practice. More than half took place during either the middle of practice or middle of competition as opposed to the start or end.

Nearly 56% of injuries were a result of person-to-person contact. The largest percentage of athletes — 28% — returned to activity after six to 10 days, while 20% of those who suffered head injuries returned after 11-15 days of rest, according to the report.

“As far as the physical contact of football, I still think we have to continue to teach kids and make sure that they’re aware of all the rules and regulations and how we’re supposed to tackle and not use the face mask or helmet,” said Greg Carter, Oak Park athletic director and football coach.

Reporting for the 2016-17 school year is underway, and Roberts hopes universities, health care systems and the National Federation of State High School Associations will help analyze the data from last year and this year.

The Associated Press contributed.

Contact Perry A. Farrell: 313-222-2555 or pafarrell@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @farrellperry.

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1. New England Patriots (2-0, last week: 1): Okay, now they have to win with Jacoby Brissett. Against the 2-0 Texans. You know they’re going to.

Hazel Park’s affiliation with the Oakland Activities Association could soon come to an end.

“We’re looking at other alternatives,” said Hazel Park athletic director Dave Muylaert.

This is a football decision – and the right decision. With only 852 students, coupled with the recent realignment in the OAA, the Vikings just don’t fit any longer.

“It’s the disparity between school’s sizes,” said Muylaert. “It’s a much better fit for us with some other conferences. In football, we can’t go up against a Troy or a Bloomfield and Rochester and expect to have a level playing field when they have three times the amount of students than us.”

To his credit, Muylaert is not claiming it is a safety issue. It is all about wins and losses, a recent struggle for Hazel Park.

Until winning their last two games, The Vikings had been 1-29 in their previous 30 games.

This year Rochester (1,632 students), Troy (2,092) and Bloomfield Hills (1,831) moved down to the OAA Blue. Only Rochester is on Hazel Park’s schedule this fall, but who knows what next season’s schedule would look like.

“I appreciate everything that our football committee does in the OAA,” Muylaert said. “They’re very professional people and they’ve been around awhile, but the decision to bring those three teams down into the Blue Division merely because their programs ‘haven’t been successful’ is not fair.”

Hazel Park is making a resurgence as a school district. Once faced with an $11-million deficit, it is getting its fiscal act together and has tremendous athletic facilities.

The Vikings will have a talented basketball team this season and have scheduled nonconference games against Clarkston, North Farmington and Toledo Scott.

But football is a different deal — and a successful football team can set a positive tone for the school year.

“We’re trying to rebuild the school district, not discourage our programs from being competitive,” Muylaert said. “There are some other conferences that have contacted us and we’ll look to see what’s the best fit for us. That’s not to say we’re not going to stay in OAA, we’re just exploring other options to see what might be a better fit for us.”

Week 6 Michigan high school football schedule

Ferndale plans to stay 

The only OAA school smaller than Hazel Park is Ferndale, which has only 674 students and has considered switching leagues as well, but is staying put – for now.

“No, we’re not (switching) this year,” said Ferndale athletic director Shawn Butler. “We were investigating it. Most of my coaches were neutral on it. In terms of the competition, wouldn’t have been much different other than the exception of football. The drive time for too many sports would have increased.”

With 10 schools pulling out of the KLAA after this school year, some schools may be growing weary of the mega conferences.

Butler, for one, would like to form a new league with local schools of similar enrollments.

“We’re always open,” Butler said. “I would still love to get something along our area and our size. We have enough schools, but there’s not enough interest from the other school to leave their league.”

MHSAA releases study of head injuries in Michigan schools

This week’s multisport NFL star

Still believe that the best way to get a college football scholarship is to drop every other sport you play and specialize in football, including 7-on-7 all-star teams? Take a look into the background of Jacoby Brissett, the rookie who quarterbacked New England to a victory over Houston last week in the first start of his career.

Brissett led Palm Beach Gardens (Fla.) Dwyer to a football state championship as a junior – and a basketball state title as a senior. He finished second to Austin Rivers in Florida’s Mr. Basketball voting.

The more sports you play, the better athlete you become and the more attractive you could be to college coaches.

Mick McCabe’s Week 5 high school football rankings

Coach of the Week

Frankfort’s Matt Stapleton is this week’s Detroit Lions/Farm Bureau Insurance Michigan High School Coach of the Week. Last week Frankfort defeated Johannesburg-Lewiston, 58-12, to improve to 5-0 and No. 3 in Division 8. This is Stapleton’s 23th year in coaching and 19th season at Frankfort, where he is 147-60 with 16 state playoff appearances.

Son of Swami’s week 6 high school football picks

Wisconsin offensive lineman David Moorman.

When David Moorman was in middle school at Northville Christian School, he was too big for the Northville football league, so he had to find something else to do.

Soccer had no weight limit, so he took his 6-foot-4, 210-pound frame and embraced it.

Placed at center-defense, he was a massive obstacle in the back end and mobile enough to force a few problems.

“Every once in awhile I would accidentally go for the ball and knock someone over,” Moorman said this week. “I got a few yellow cards, nothing too bad. I think it actually helped me improve athletically.”

Now that Moorman is a major-college offensive lineman for Wisconsin who faces Michigan on Saturday at Michigan Stadium, things turned out pretty well.

Seidel: Prototypical hard-nosed Wisconsin team on tap for Michigan

But his memory of the soccer days might be a little more sanitized than others recall.

“He got kicked out of many games at that point,” his father, Joe, said. “There’s no doubt about that. David was 6-4 in sixth grade. He was just so big.”

Even though Joe played football at Eastern Michigan in 1986-89, David didn’t jump at football or any sport immediately.

At 4 or 5 years old, Joe saw a beautiful day with the rest of the family gone and asked David to play basketball outside.

The response?

‘No, Dad, I’d rather stay in and play Batman theater.’

In second grade, that all changed when David attended his first Lions game. Something stirred within him and he was hooked.

As he grew physically, so did his interest in the game, given an inside look at big-time football through a family friendship with then-Lions quarterback Jon Kitna. That connection continued through the years, and Moorman grew comfortable on the line, becoming a Free Press Dream Teamer as a senior at Northville in the 2014 season.

But the University of Michigan, 20 minutes from his home, had some interest under coach Brady Hoke until that faded when Hoke was fired in December.

Jabrill Peppers rewrites Michigan play: ‘Darndest thing I’ve seen’

Michigan State, where many family members attended, never offered him a scholarship.

While his parents would have appreciated the proximity, the decision has worked out well.

“At the time, Wisconsin offered me, and I fell in love with the culture and the people and couldn’t be happier with my decision,” said Moorman, now 6-5, 288.

Though he committed to the Badgers under previous coach Gary Andersen, it was a major boost when Paul Chryst got the coaching job, continuing the focus of the dominant offensive lines and running game.

The staff’s deliberate and encouraging coaching style suited Moorman perfectly.

On the field, he has taken a little time, but he’s still enthused.

His freshman year was delayed by a preseason broken foot, and he had a rude awakening during scout-team practices trying to handle outside linebackers Vince Biegel and Joe Schobert.

But that helped him mature, and now that he’s playing on special teams this season, getting into all four games so far, he can feel the difference.

He’s playing on the field goal and extra-point units and in the blowout win over Akron even got on the field as a reserve lineman.

Moorman understands the hierarchy and patience to get snaps. So, as the only state of Michigan player on the Badgers, he’s appreciating the chance to play in East Lansing (in last week’s 30-6 blowout) and Ann Arbor on consecutive weeks.

That meant hitting up his teammates for 14 MSU game tickets, helping his group of nearly 30 people who came to watch.

Joe was among them, appreciating their son back home.

“When he ran through that tunnel at Michigan State onto that field, Pam, his mom, and I, we looked at each other and we had kind of tears,” Joe said. “It’s pretty special. It’ll be the same this week at the Big House.”

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How Harbaughs convinced Cali TE Devin Asiasi to come to Michigan

Grand Rapids Christian power forward/center Xavier Tillman wears an MSU hat after committing to the Spartans on Sept. 30, 2016.

GRAND RAPIDS – Xavier Tillman told his mother, his girlfriend and his trainer.

Even Tom Izzo had to wait and wonder where the Grand Rapids Christian senior would be heading for college.

Tillman, perhaps the best in-state senior in the class of 2017, chose Michigan State over Purdue and Marquette on Friday afternoon at a ceremony at his school with classmates and family watching.

“It’s just the easiest choice,” Tillman said of picking the Spartans. “They play the best competition, as well as they’re such great guys. And it’s close to home.”

Izzo continues to assemble a second straight high-profile recruiting class. The 6-foot-9, 270-pound Tillman, a four-star power forward/center, joins his AAU teammate Jaren Jackson Jr. as Izzo’s second recruit for 2017. Tillman is ranked the No. 75 player in the nation, according to ESPN.com. He’s ranked No. 85 by 247Sports.com, No. 86 by Rivals.com and unranked by Scout.com.

• Michigan State’s football and basketball recruits

Coaches can’t comment on specific high school targets until they sign a letter of intent. The early signing period is Nov. 9-16. Tillman planned to call Izzo after his announcement ceremony and media interviews.

It took Tillman until Sunday, he said, to pick MSU after being courted by Purdue’s Matt Painter and Marquette’s Steve Wojciechowski. The 17-year-old said it came down to Izzo’s family approach and the bond he saw between the Spartans when he made his visits to East Lansing.

• Tillman said last week he connected with Spartans

“I’m finally excited that he can rest easy and not have to worry about next year,” said Tanya Powell-May, Tillman’s mother. “We definitely looked at the family atmosphere, the kids and how they enjoy the program. I haven’t talked to any of the players’ moms, but you get to know the kids and you know they have a great support system, and they talk about their parents. The coaches, the alumni that comes back to practice and open gyms, you can see it’s really a great family atmosphere.”

Tillman played his first two years of high school basketball at Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central, where he averaged 15.5 points and 9.7 rebounds as a sophomore before transferring to Grand Rapids Christian before last season. He earned first-team Class A all-state honors last winter as a junior, averaging 16.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists for the Eagles.

Grand Rapids Christian coach Mark Warners called Tillman “one of the most unselfish really good players I’ve seen.”

“In all the college coaches I talked to, the thing that sets him apart is his vision and his passing,” Warners said. “And he’s a great decision-maker on the floor. I don’t know what his ceiling is. I don’t even know if he’s done growing – I mean, the guy’s got size 18 shoes. … He’s such a big, strong (power forward) that if he can knock down a 15-footer consistently, he’s a big problem.”

Tillman said he appreciates how Izzo pushes his players, like he has had in both high school and on the AAU circuit.

“That’s what I do. On the court, off the court, I work hard,” Tillman said. “That’s my values. I base that around everything, working hard. When I noticed that’s all (the Spartans) do and they have fun working hard, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is the spot I want to be at.’”

MSU already landed 6-10, 255-pound power forward/wing Jackson earlier. He is ranked No. 15 in the nation by Rivals, 26th by ESPN and 27th by both 247Sports and Scout. He’s more of stretch-4 perimeter threat than Tillman.

Michigan State commit Jaren Jackson Jr. a stretch-4 in mold of Bosh

Tillman averaged 11.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game this summer for the Spiece Indy Heat AAU team, for which he and Jackson teammates.

Tillman said Jackson’s commitment “shocked” him, saying the La Lumiere School senior had talked often about Maryland over the summer. Like Jackson, Tillman also pointed to MSU junior point guard Tum Tum Nairn as a central figure in

“It helps that I know those guys,” Tillman said. “So I already know coming in that I’m not competing for a spot, I’m competing for a championship.”

Izzo has three scholarship remaining for 2017 after Jackson’s commitment. The Spartans will graduate Eron Harris, Gavin Schilling, Alvin Ellis III, Ben Carter and Matt Van Dyk after this season, which began today.

Izzo held his first official practice with his highest-ranked freshman class: swingman Miles Bridges, shooting guard Joshua Langford, point guard Cassius Winston and forward/center Nick Ward.

Tillman, who took his official visit to MSU in mid-September, said he wanted to learn what a typical day was like for one of Izzo’s players before he made his choice.

“It wasn’t like a regular visit. I didn’t eat fancy food or anything like that,” Tillman said. “I went to classes with Miles and Nick and watched them practice and kind of lived the life they live.”

In less than a year, it will become Tillman’s normal routine as well.

Here are some Xavier Tillman highlights.

TrueScout – Xavier Tillman

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.

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Each day, the Son of Swami receives a reminder of how old he has become.

Sometimes it’s an e-mail where the writer flat-out tells SOS that he is old and decrepit and should retire before entirely losing control of his faculties. Others are more subtle.

One of those came this week from Craig Petersmark, whose son, Ben, is a linebacker at Rochester Adams. Petersmark mentioned that this week, his son’s team will be playing Birmingham Groves, which features safety Ryan Flaherty and is coached by his father, Brendan Flaherty.

Petersmark pointed out that he and Flaherty were teammates at Eastern Michigan back in 1987. That is significant because that was the greatest season in EMU history, in which it won the Mid-American Conference and the California Bowl.

That did not come as a surprise to SOS because the All-Knowing One also covered the MAC back then and had EMU as his preseason favorite to win the conference and go to Fresno.

Better yet, SOS was in Fresno when Eastern, a 171/2-point underdog, knocked off San Jose State in the biggest upset of that year’s bowl season.

SOS certainly remembers Petersmark and Flaherty, but he was under the impression that defensive tackle Donshell English, now the Detroit Mumford coach, made every single tackle in that bowl game and quarterback Ron Adams, now the Wyandotte coach, threw for 550 yards.

OK, maybe SOS’s memory is off a bit, but that is what English and Adams tell SOS every time he covers one of their games.

The game was terrific, but it took a back seat to the media basketball event the day before the game when sports information director Jim Streeter, who never met a shot he didn’t take, and SOS led the visiting media to victory, thanks in no small part to the incredible post play by EMU athletic director Gene Smith, who is reportedly working at Ohio State these days.

As SOS attempts to return to this century, here are this week’s top games.

Ishpeming (3-2) at Negaunee (6-0), 7 Friday. This is not the same Ishpeming team that has won three of the last four Division 7 state championships. But this is still a big hurdle for Negaunee, which has lost 10 of the last 11 games to the Hematites. Ishpeming better be prepared for a Negaunee’s physical running attack featuring Neal Violetta and Shane Ring. If the Miners continue to convert on fourth down, like they did five times in seven attempts last week, this won’t be close. Nagging 27, Ishtar 19.

Davison (6-0) at Lapeer (5-1), 7 Friday. For the Lapeer defense, stopping running back Tariq Reid is Job One. Reid has been so good this season, over 1,000 yards already, stopping him is also Job Two and Job Three. If someone is going to beat Lapeer, it has to be someone other than Reid. The Davison defense has a more difficult job. Not only needs it to shut down the running of Jalen Kirkland, but it better be sure quarterback Drew Rubick doesn’t get time in the pocket or he will pick it apart. Perrier 31, Davison Freeway 25.

Rochester Adams (5-1) at Birmingham Groves (6-0), 7 Friday. Groves is adjusting to life in the tougher OAA White just fine and can put a virtual lock on the title if the Falcons manage to beat Adams. That won’t be easy. QB Kyle Wood is a four-year starter for Adams and Mark Patritto is an asset at receiver and safety. The Adams offense just might want to keep an eye on where Ryan Flaherty lines up in the Groves secondary and throw the ball to the opposite side of the field, because he can ruin a passing game. Addams Family 21, Orange Groves 17.

Novi Detroit Catholic Central (6-0) at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (4-2), 7 Friday. The CC offense is predicated on the statement: “The Wham Never Loses Yardage.” The Wham is a play where the ball is handed to the fullback who plows is way through the line of scrimmage. It is nothing fancy, but most of the time it works, which is one of the reasons why CC is so good year after year. St. Mary’s is good year after year, too, and it also likes to run the ball a lot. If St. Mary’s is going to beat CC, it better be able to stop the Wham. The Vatican 21, St. Mary’s by the Lake 20.

Detroit King (5-1) at Detroit East English Village (4-2), noon Saturday. East English Village is likely the only thing standing between King and a Week 9 Cass-King rematch in the PSL championship game. Cass demolished East English, 58-18, three weeks ago, but the Bulldogs have played King remarkably tough the last few years. East English must buy QB Delvin Washington time to find Sammy Womack. King’s Ambry Thomas needs to play his usual spectacular game in the secondary and at receiver. King of Wishful Thinking 32, It takes a Village 21.

Week 7 Michigan high school football schedule

Detroit King’s high schools Kevin Willis runs the ball against Southfield A&T high school during first half action of the Prep Kickoff Classic game Saturday, August 27, 2016 at Wayne State University in Detroit MI. Kirthmon F. Dozier/Detroit Free Press

Son of Swami

Son of Swami

Rocky Lombardi made his first big plays at the varsity level long before he was a high schooler.

It was a summer day in suburban Chicago. His father, Tony, then the coach at Cedar Rapids Washington, brought his team for a 7-on-7 high school football tournament in 2010. Both of his sons tagged along.

In one game, the Warriors were down two scores with an injured quarterback. Tony looked around and spotted Rocky standing on the sideline, helmet in hand. Moments later, Rocky, all of 5-foot-8 at the time with short blonde hair, a baby face and a voice full of high-pitched squeaks, jogged out to play with the varsity team.

He’ll be fine, Tony told himself, more with hope than confidence.

Valley High School’s Rocky Lombardi is arguably the best high school quarterback in the state of Iowa, Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. He attributes it to his upbringing and relentless work ethic.

Rocky erased all doubt by orchestrating a brilliant comeback. He rifled passes in and around the defense, baiting players with pump fakes and poking holes in the zone. Tony stood stunned on the sidelines. The way he remembers it, “we went from down 15 to up 20” after Rocky entered the game.

One play in particular stood out that afternoon.

After getting the defense to press, Rocky uncorked a 40-yard bomb to Flynn Heald, who hauled in the pass, took three steps and dove toward the pylon for a touchdown. He then popped up and celebrated. Nearly six years removed from that afternoon, Tony still remembers the back-and-forth afterward between Heald and the defender.

“You got lucky,” the opposing defensive back told Heald, “scoring with your freshman quarterback.”

“Nah, dude,” Tony recalls Heald saying. “That guy’s in sixth grade.”

“At that point,” Tony says now, “I figured he had a chance to be pretty good.”

Valley quarterback Rocky Lombardi throw a pass downfield on Sept. 2 against Waukee.

On a Monday in mid-September, Rocky Lombardi sat at Valley Stadium, just three days removed from a 43-point blowout victory in which he accounted for more than half of his team’s total yards. He shrugged at the thought, his mind racing with other ideas.

Instead, Lombardi spoke of his mistakes, because “there were quite a few.”

“Just small mistakes,” the senior said. “It’s not always the picks or the fumbles that are the mistakes. It’s footwork and making the wrong read. Even when I complete the ball sometimes, maybe I made the wrong read and could’ve made a better pass.

“There was a lot of small stuff that not everybody picks up on. If you look deep into the film, you can see that kind of stuff.”

He’s always seen things a little differently, and has continually chased a perfection he knows he may never obtain. That mindset — established inside the walls of a football home and nurtured by a father who’s coached longer than Lombardi’s been alive — became the foundation for Iowa’s best quarterback prospect in the last half-decade, if not longer.

“First and foremost, he’s a big, strong kid that can do everything you want as a quarterback,” said Steve Wiltfong, the National Recruiting Director at 247Sports, which assigned the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Lombardi a composite score of .8641, the highest mark for an Iowa quarterback since City High’s AJ Derby (.8895) in 2010. He now plays tight end for the New England Patriots.

“He’s a top multi-sport athlete,” Wiltfong continued on Lombardi. “We have him as the No. 4 player in Iowa in what’s a pretty good year in Iowa. He’s a guy that, in addition to his physical tools, he’s going to bring that right demeanor that you need to play the quarterback position.”

For his career, Lombardi is 26-5 as a varsity starter and has thrown for 5,280 yards and 57 touchdowns to date. Under his guidance, Valley is in possession of a 6-0 record and the top spot in this season’s Register Super 10 rankings. Yet he’s never been satisfied by any of those accolades, always looking for something to improve on, be it a strength or a weakness.

“There are certain steps you need to take if you want to be great,” Lombardi said, “and in order for me to reach my goals, I have to be the best I can be. In every snap that I take. In every read that I make. I can’t let the little things slide.”

He can’t remember a time when he hasn’t been critical of a performance, a subtle comment offering insight into how his mind is wired. He is endlessly competitive, a scratch golfer who torments his buddies in video games, yet his coaches say he revels more in the team’s accomplishments than his own. He is the product of his daily habits, both on and off the field.

Recently, Lombardi took a personality quiz for a leadership class. His top trait advantage, he said, was context, meaning he researches the past to help him improve in the future. The result both stunned and fascinated him.

“I would say he’s pretty much a perfectionist,” said Beau, his younger brother by two years. “I see it all the time. We play so many different sports, and he’s good at all of them. We can try anything new, and he’s either already good at it, or he’ll work to become good at it.”

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Homecoming candidates Genny Wyckoff and Rocky Lombardi wave to fans on Sept. 22 during the Valley homecoming parade and party.

Tony Lombardi grew up on the sidelines with his dad, Bob, who pieced together a career worthy of the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Tony then played tailback for four years at Arizona State and jumped into coaching shortly after, with stops at Wisconsin, Mankato State, Eastern Michigan and, for a year, the short-lived XFL’s Chicago Enforcers.

Tony hoped his kids would take to football the same way he did. The names of his first four children all carry a football-related story. The inspiration behind his oldest son’s name comes from Rocky Bleier, a Notre Dame grad who lost part of his right foot in the Vietnam War. He returned and fought through rehab to become a starter for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and helped them win four Super Bowls in the 1970s.

Rocky appeared well on his way — he said his first word was “ball.” But one Sunday, while coaching for the Enforcers, Tony hugged Rocky in the doorway of their home and told him he’d see him on Friday.

“Why are you leaving again?” Tony remembers him asking, and he explained it was because of football. They’d grown used to this talk because Tony often traveled for recruiting purposes at each college gig. But on this day, a 4-year-old Rocky was in tears.

“I hate football,” Tony remembers him crying out.

Tony said he dropped his head and walked to his car. As he drove to work, he thought about his father and the memories that helped foster his love for football. The image of Rocky crying in the doorway was a nightmare come true. He decided he needed to change.

“I thought the coolest thing in the world would be to grow up with your father as the head coach,” Tony says now. “I loved everything about football, loved everything about my dad, loved everything about being around his players. But I hadn’t put two and two together.

“My dad was a high school coach, so he never recruited, never left town and was home after practice. I kind of realized that I was creating a negative association for football with him. I did not want my son to grow up hating this sport.”

The XFL folded after just one season in 2001, and Tony soon earned his teaching certificate. He took a coaching job at Homewood-Flossmoor in the Chicago suburbs, the same school where Bob coached when Tony walked the sidelines at the age of 5. In 2002, he led the Vikings to a 5-5 record and a playoff appearance, with Rocky by his side for all 10 games.

Growing up with a football coach for a parent sounds like pop quizzes on the weekends. As Rocky Lombardi and Tony watched football on Saturdays and Sundays, Tony would ask his son questions after plays unfolded in an attempt to pick his brain.

“We’d watch a play, and I’d turn to him and ask, ‘You know why that guy was open, don’t you?’” Tony said. “At first, he was like, ‘No,’ but now, he’ll come back with, ‘Yeah, because the safety jumped the shallow route, and that left a seam behind him for the immediate crossing route, so the quarterback just read the safety.’

“We watch the game from an analytical standpoint. We just like to watch good football or good schemes or good coaching or good techniques. It’s a different way to watch the game. People have a hard time understanding it.”

Tony began these conversations with Rocky in third grade, when he started playing tackle football. The tactic proved vital, a powerful force that shaped how Rocky consumed and digested the sport. He grew up not rooting for teams but reading Xs and Os.

Once he entered high school, he took his dad’s lessons and began studying specific quarterbacks, mining their film for the tendencies that make them great. He loves Tom Brady’s knack for reading defenses, Aaron Rodgers’ quick feet and Ben Roethlisberger’s ability to extend plays.

Watching games that way allowed Rocky to pick up football concepts faster. He took to the quarterback position naturally, Tony said, which allowed his strongest personality trait to shine through.

“I remember a pick I threw against Waukee my sophomore year on a smash concept,” Rocky said. “The corner baited me into throwing the hitch. I dropped back, and ended up throwing a pick in the red zone. This year, we ran that same concept. Complete pass.

“There’s some stuff you remember more vividly than others. I like to remember my mistakes. You don’t want to make the same mistake twice. That’s something that’s constant throughout my whole life.”

His preparation has been a dream for Valley coach Gary Swenson, but it’s irritated nearly everybody else. It’s partly why opposing coaches have so much trouble scheming against him. His five career losses have come to just three teams — Waukee and Dowling Catholic each twice, and then once to Ankeny Centennial last season.

“He’s got great athleticism and he’s got a lot of tools,” said Waukee coach Scott Carlson. “But I really like his competitiveness and his toughness. It’s one thing to have athletic ability, but it’s another thing to have that mental toughness and focus. You’ve really seen that emerge this year.

“Take that Dowling game for example. Just finding a way to make the play to win that game. That speaks volumes of where he’s at as a competitor, and that’s what’s going to make him so tough over these next few weeks, too.”

Rocky remembers those good plays, too, whether it’s the game-winning drive against Dowling this season, or any one of his 24 career multi-touchdown games. He can recite his stats from the few games he played in the 7-on-7 tournament near Chicago years ago: 35-for-50, eight touchdowns, one interception.

“I was just playing and having fun,” he said, “then my dad told me (the numbers), and I was like, ‘Huh, I guess I was doing better than I thought.’”

The older he got, the more important the small details became. When he reviews film, he watches himself almost as much as opposing defenses, making sure his footwork and arm technique are top-notch. When he runs sprints at the end of practices, he’ll often look toward his teammates as he crosses the finish line to see how far he was ahead. When he throws to warm up, he picks a target on his receivers’ face — nose, ear, eye — and tries to hit it each time.

“They don’t know I’m doing it,” he said and smiled.

Lombardi overcomes early miscues in win over Dowling

At 220lbs Valley’s Rocky Lombardi sprawls as Ames’ Harrison Townsend shoots in for a takedown on Thursday, December 10, 2015, during a wrestling meet held at Waukee High School.

A couple years ago, Lombardi and Braeden Heald — Flynn’s younger brother — were hanging out in Lombardi’s basement. After a couple of games of ping pong, Heald lined up in a receiver’s stance and challenged Lombardi to a quick one-on-one coverage battle.

Lombardi accepted, and he jammed Heald shoulder-first into a nearby wall. The drywall caved, and Heald careened straight through to the other side. Lombardi said the hole was so big that a picture frame wouldn’t have covered it.

“I said to him, ‘I bet you can’t cover me,’” Heald recalled. “Next thing you know, I’m inside the wall and we’re just looking at each other, like, ‘Oh God, what do we do?’ You could literally see through the wall.”

His insatiable desire to win is astounding. Lombardi started growing out his striking blonde hair three years ago, and only cuts it when the football team loses (or when wrestling season rolls around). But none of the stories are as intense as him throwing his favorite receiver through a wall.

“It was his own fault,” Lombardi said and laughed.

His friends say he has the uncanny ability to identify the best angle for victory and pursue it relentlessly. The contest matters not. When Lombardi plays the “NCAA Football” video game, he reads the virtual defenses the same way he does live ones. He and Heald played a few weeks ago. Lombardi won in a rout.

“I quit by half,” Heald said.

His will to win has long been visible. Lombardi used to attend Tony’s high school workouts over the summer, and always won the team-building games at the end. In elementary school, Lombardi entered the third period of a wrestling match down four points. He started on bottom, and on the whistle, he reversed his opponent to his back for the pin.

For all the success he’s had, Lombardi rarely accepts the credit publicly, often redirecting it to his teammates. His sophomore year, he compiled 196 total yards and four scores in a 56-0 win over Council Bluffs Lincoln. He returned home and sang the praises of then-senior Austin Hronich because “he caught his first touchdown pass (that night),” Tony said.

One of the biggest thrills he’s ever experienced, his coaches say, was in last year’s state wrestling duals. Lombardi spoke with coach Travis Young before the Class 3A finals, featuring Valley against national powerhouse Southeast Polk. For Valley to have the best chance at winning, Lombardi needed to win at heavyweight, rather than at his usual 220-pound class.

Without hesitation, Lombardi bumped up to wrestle second-ranked Daniel Ramirez. He won, 3-2, helping Valley to a state dual team title.

“He understood that it would happen, and was excited for the opportunity,” Young says. “He was taking on something that was harder, that’s for sure, but, you know, he hates to lose. When the lights are on, he’s as competitive as anybody we have.”

Perhaps most impressive is Lombardi’s ability as a scratch golfer. He learned the game when he still lived near Chicago and started playing it religiously when he moved to Iowa. (His family initially lived in Cedar Rapids, but then moved to West Des Moines before Lombardi’s freshman year after Tony resigned as the coach at Washington in 2013 amid verbal abuse allegations.)

He was a natural on the course, applying his attention to detail to a game that demands it. Beau, his brother, said he could golf all day — and there are times, in fact, when he does. Last summer, Lombardi bought a summer pass to a local course and said he golfed at least every other day. He once devoted an entire summer to putting.

“Now, I’m a pretty decent putter,” Lombardi said.

His competitive spirit surfaced again when he looked at colleges. After his junior year, Lombardi told Tony he wanted to play professionally, so he scanned all the NFL rosters to see where the majority of quarterbacks came from. He came away most impressed with Michigan State, and gave his verbal commitment to coach Mark Dantonio on April 3.

“They play in a pro-style offense, they have a great culture, and they have great coaches,” Wiltfong said. “What they ask their kids to do, it translates really well to the next level, from the offense to the terminology to the things they have to do and know pre-snap.

“Rocky will have to beat out some good players, but he’s plenty capable. We think he’s going to be a multi-year starter at Michigan State, and their last two multi-year starters were drafted. He fits that program. Just a hard-nosed, blue-collar type kid that they covet in East Lansing.”

Valley’s Rocky Lombardi is mobbed by teammates after running in for a touchdown during their game against Bettendorf at Valley Stadium on Friday, August 26, 2016 in West Des Moines.

About an hour before the varsity kickoff between Johnston and Valley last month, Lombardi and his teammates stood behind the south end zone and loosely warmed up. He threw passes to Beau and Jevon Mason, the latter of whom threw back and said, “Rocky,” in the same way someone might say “Kobe” when they throw a crumbled piece of paper into a trash can.

A slew of youth football teams lined up around the field, and a group of fifth-graders got front-row seats to watch Lombardi warm up. They all huddled together and marveled at his hair, his size and his throwing motion. To them, he was a celebrity standing just a few feet away. One kid asked his mom for her phone.

He took the phone and approached Lombardi, asking for a selfie. Lombardi smiled, and called his friends to gather in close. He snapped a few pictures and handed the phone back.

The kids bounced back to their spot in line, their smiles present the rest of the night.

Cody Goodwin covers high school sports and college basketball recruiting for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at (515) 783-4458, email him at  cgoodwin2@dmreg.com , or send him a Tweet at  @codygoodwin .

Valley High School’s Rocky Lombardi is arguably the best high school quarterback in the state of Iowa, Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. He attributes it to his upbringing and relentless work ethic.

Valley quarterback Rocky Lombardi was behind center the last time the Tigers beat Dowling Catholic during the 2014 season.

Shareef O’ Neal, left, plays basketball March 7, 2015.

Sean is a recruiting aficionado who used to work for rivals.com and the Big Ten Network and now is with Intersport. Look for his mailbag every other week (with some live chats sprinkled in, too). If you have a recruiting question for Sean, email him at merriman.sean@gmail.com or tweet him @merrimantweets. 

I know MSU has offered Isaiah Wilson, the No. 1 recruit in the country out of Brooklyn, NY. What are the chances we finally land a big-time recruit like Isaiah? – MSU’81

I think Michigan State’s chances of landing Wilson are slim to none. He has three official visits scheduled in the near future, to Michigan, Florida State and Alabama. At this point, it’s going to be awfully tough for the Spartans to compete with those behemoths. Now, that doesn’t mean MSU can’t and won’t land future five-star prospects. Remember, Malik McDowell was a five-star recruit MSU got just two seasons ago. Keep an eye on Donovan Peoples-Jones. He is a five-star Detroit product for whom MSU is certainly in the running in 2017.

Who are the Spartans’ basketball targets for 2018? They could sure use a great point guard in that class. – Jdub

The Spartans’ primary targets, at this point, include Shareef O’Neal (five-star PF), Brandon Johns (four-star SF), Trevion Williams (four-star PF), Joey Hauser (four-star PF) and Foster Loyer (three-star PG). They already have a verbal commitment from three-star PF Thomas Kithier from Macomb, MI. Loyer is the point guard they are after in this class. Remember, Cassius Winston is a pure point guard and a guy who I could see being a four-year player at Michigan State.

Is there any chance with Aubrey Solomon still for U of M, or is he going to Georgia? – Alpha Dawgs

I think this was a case of a kid committing too early and feeling like he wanted to see everything out there before making a final decision. There are rumors that Solomon’s recruitment could continue until National Signing Day or even longer. Auburn and Alabama also are in the mix here. I wouldn’t count out Michigan, but it looks like Georgia is the leader right now.

Aubrey Solomon decommits from Michigan after ‘heartbreaking’ note

What is your best guess on where Deron Irving Bey ends up? – jw32

I think he is going to stay in-state at either Michigan State or Michigan. I’ve pegged the Spartans as the leader here all along. However, Irving-Bey spoke very highly of his experience at Michigan last weekend. He is scheduled to visit Tennessee soon, as well.

Any chance State goes after Danny Clark or Blake Barnett? – Dark Mantonio

It looks like Kentucky is making a strong push for Clark after his decommitment from Ohio State, and he is expected to make a visit to Lexington this weekend. As for Barnett, this is really intriguing. No doubt, the Spartans would love to add a quarterback with the skill set of a Blake Barnett. But remember this: Mark Dantonio recruited Brian Lewerke and Messiah deWeaver to Michigan State because he felt they best fit his system. His coaching staff is grooming those two to be the future of Michigan State football. What kind of message does it send to those two — and 2017 recruit Rocky Lombardi — if you bring in a five-star quarterback to compete for a starting spot? Also keep in mind why Barnett transferred from Alabama in the first place. He wanted to be the man. With no guarantee that he would be “the man” in East Lansing, I’m not sure this would work.

Does MSU still have a fighting chance for Donovan Peoples-Jones? – At Work

Yes, it does. I think it’s fair to say that Peoples-Jones is a slight Michigan lean at this point, but Michigan State is very much still in the game. He is expected to visit Ohio State this weekend, but unless that visit goes absolutely flawlessly, I expect Peoples-Jones to stay in the state of Michigan and play for either the Wolverines or Spartans.

It is now clear that Spartan Football will need monster recruiting classes in 2017 and 2018. Can they finish off 2017 that way? Can they get some momentum going for the 2018 class? – Northern Spartan

The simple answer to your question is yes, Michigan State certainly can finish off  2017 with a bang. The Spartans are in good standing with several highly touted prospects, including KJ Hamler, Oliver Martin, Tyler Johnson, Lynn Bowden and Deron Irving-Bey. I expect Mark Dantonio and his staff to land at least two or three of those players, all of whom are four-star prospects. As for 2018, it’s still really early, and Michigan State isn’t traditionally a school that racks up big numbers at this point. The Spartans already have a verbal commitment from four-star athlete Xavier Henderson. The 2018 class is absolutely loaded in the state of Ohio, which Mark Dantonio and his staff have done an outstanding job recruiting.

Full list: Michigan State recruits (with highlights)

Full list: Michigan’s recruits (with highlight videos)

Photo gallery: Photos: Michigan’s 2017 football recruits

Antwan Reed is back in Muskegon.

The 6-foot-7, 285-pound junior tackle left Muskegon this summer and transferred to IMG Academy in Florida. But he returned last week and is eligible to play immediately.

Muskegon coach Shane Fairfield was surprised as anyone that the youngster is back and playing.

“I have no idea what happened,” Fairfield said. “I know he told me he really didn’t want to go. All I know is one day the kid said he was coming back. I haven’t really talked to him about it.”

The surprising thing is that, according to Michigan High School Athletic Association rules, Reed does not have to sit out a semester after the transfer.

“If a teen is living without a parent, they get one move back,” explained Fairfield. “He was living in a dorm. You have to move back in the residence where you were living before and you have to attend school in the district you were attending.”

Also transferring to IMG, a national sports academy, was KJ Hamler of Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, but he tore his ACL and is out for the season.

Muskegon is 5-1 and ranked No. 1 in Division 3. The Big Reds only loss was 38-35 to Lincolnshire Stevensville (Ill.), a school with 4,179 students, 3,100 more than Muskegon.

Fairfield said he has not pressed Reed on his time at IMG. Right now, Reed is coming off the bench for the Big Reds.

“I know he was very humbled,” Fairfield said. “He is very shy. It does make us better, but we’re trying to be very sensitive. The O-line had just started clicking and is playing very good. The last thing I want to do is just throw him in. We’re gradually working him in. As of right now he’s got to fight his butt off and earn his job.”

From tackle to QB?

Anthony Bradford, 6-5, 320, is the starting right tackle at Muskegon – but he is making a move on the backup quarterback spot.

“In practice he was throwing it 60-65 yards, effortlessly,” said Fairfield. “He was having a competition in pregame before the Reeths-Puffer game. He was standing on the (far) 40 and threw it into the end zone. He just chucked it.”

That earned Bradford one play in at quarterback in last week’s 69-0 win over Grand Rapids Union. He took the snap in shotgun formation and with a flick of the wrist passed to Mark Dowell.

“He said his first inkling was to run it,” Fairfield said. “He took a two-step drop and launched it 45 yards. It was a spiral. He just dropped it in.”

Fletcher picks Georgia Tech

Kierra Fletcher, who led Warren Cousino to the Class A state championship last season, has committed to Georgia Tech.

“I took my official visit there this past weekend and it was almost instantaneous,” she said. “Once I stepped foot on campus and saw everything, I got this gut feeling I wanted to be there.”

Fletcher, 5-11, also visited Michigan and Clemson before settling on Georgia Tech.

“It was honestly the total package,” she said. “The academics are great, the players are great players and they’re even better, new friends I should say, because they treated me as if I were already on the team.”

Last season, Fletcher averaged 24.9 points, 9.6 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 4.2 steals a game. She carried Cousino to the state title by averaging 27 points in the state tournament. In the semifinals and finals, she hit 23 of 33 shots and totaled 64 points.

Cousino returns 11 of 12 players and is favored to repeat as champ.

“I’m very excited just to see how much this team has progressed and what we can do this season,” Fletcher said. “I want to see how we can still get better over the course of the season.”

Coach of the Week 

Warren Mott’s Tom Milanov is this week’s Detroit Lions/Farm Bureau Insurance Michigan High School Coach of the Week. Last week Mott defeated Fraser, 40-6, to improve to 6-0 and No. 5 in Division 1. This is Milanov’s 20th year in coaching and his 17th as Mott’s head coach.

Warren Cousino’s Kierra Fletcher drives the ball on a fast break against Detroit Martin Luther King during the MHSAA girls basketball Class A finals at the Breslin Center in East Lansing on Saturday, March 19, 2016.

A football lays on the field in view of the end zone at a high school.

U-D Jesuit and Warren De La Salle had a thriller of a shoot-out Friday night at Hazel Park.

Tied at 35, the Cubs’ Yusuf Lewis Jr. recovered a fumble at the De La Salle 35. Cubs star quarterback and defensive back Scott Nelson then scored on a 16-yard TD run up the middle with 2:57 left, giving U-D the lead for good in a 49-35 victory.

Then the defense held the Pilots (3-4) on the next possession, forcing quarterback Ricardo Marble into a bad pass on fourth down.

• Friday’s Michigan high school football scores

It was the Cubs’ first win over De La Salle in 11 years.

“It’s a great feeling,’’ said Nelson. “I’m from the eastside, so De La Salle was always the rivalry that I hated most. So finally beating them after three years it was huge. It was huge for our program, and our team and me, personally it was just huge for us.’’

Nelson had 105 yards on the ground and 151 through the air. He added a 41-yard TD run to seal the victory as the Cubs improved to 5-1 despite not having their full starting lineup since the first quarter of the first game of the season.

Starting quarterback Michael Sims has hardly played after suffering a broken ankle. Nelson, a two-sport star with 20 scholarship offers, had played only two games entering the De La Salle contest.

“Next man up,’’ said U-D coach Oscar Olejniczak. “We haven’t been healthy all year. We’re extremely proud of and proud of our guys and how hard they played. We came out here with 32 guys. We lost another three during the game and our guys never, never quit. We’re in the playoffs. This game sealed it for us.’’

Elijah Collins, a two-sport star in football and basketball, took the opening kickoff 93 yards, untouched, to give the Cubs a 7-0 lead.

3 big plays let Novi Detroit CC pull away from Orchard Lake St. Mary’s

The Pilots finally got on the board with 7:51 left in the second quarter on a 59-yard burst by junior Semaj Shelton to trim the deficit to 14-6.

De La Salle took advantage of a fumbled punt by Nelson with 4:58 left in the third quarter. Allen Stritzinger hauled in a 35-yard pass, setting up Cordell Tanyhill’s 3-yard TD run, giving the Pilots a 19-14 lead.

It took the Cubs two plays to get the lead back.

Nelson hooked up with speedy Victor Hill for a 78-yard TD pass down the left sideline.

With time running out in the third, Collins raced 63 yards down the right sideline for a TD as the Cubs led, 28-27.

Stritzinger scored again on a 4-yard run, and Ryan Anderson caught the two-point conversion pass to make it 35-28.

Collins tied the game at 35 with his fourth score of the game, a 39-yard TD run with 8:52 left.

“We made some mistakes on special teams,’’ said first-year De La Salle coach Mike Giannone. “Right now we’re trying to learn how to win. We made a lot of mistakes.’’

McCabe: Higley dashes for late TD as Groves closes in on title