Column: East Jordan gave everyone a reason to be a fan in 2021, or at least smile – Petoskey News-Review

As a sports writer, its a general rule I cant have a rooting interest in a game or a season overall.

Its not like one of those unwritten rules of baseball, its more of a known fact of the trade. You just dont root for a team to score, to win and so on. Its bad taste generally.

The way I look at it, I have to write the story either way.

But, were not robots at the same time.

I might be able to type out a paragraph of thoughts while looking around a room, out the window or while watching a game, but thats just muscle memory and my brain is wired a bit differently.

Sports writers still feel the emotion of these games and seasons. We can still get caught in moments and smile when great things happen.

So on Friday night when I received the score that the East Jordan football team capped its first outright conference championship since 1986 and would likely qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2003, darn right I smiled.

I felt for that team. Actually, I always kind of have.

East Jordan has always been great to me. Theyve got one of the best Athletic Directors in the state in Phyllis Olszewski and you cant tell me differently.

Ive always had a lot of respect for head coach Greg Kitson, who took over for Allen Peterson in 2016. Kitson is an EJ guy through and through. Hes coached in about every level of the sport in the East Jordan community for over 20 years and hes an East Jordan grad. Theres no doubt he puts his heart into it.

Then the players, theyvealways been nice kids. I dont know what theyre like beyond four quarters of a football game and the moments afterward, but I walk a lot of sidelines and talk with a lot of kids and theyve always been standup young men.

That smile on Friday night was for everyone within that program, knowing how bad they wanted to have that moment on their home field with a conference title in hand.

I wanted those players, coaches, fans and everyone else there to feel that kind of joy. I remember it from back when I was playing.

And because of the new playoff point system by the MHSAA changed from a six-win qualification for playoffs before East Jordan almost didnt make it in at 7-2. They were the last team in the division to qualify.

See, most of the teams within their conference are Division 8 squads. Frankfort, Harbor Springs, Johannesburg-Lewiston and St. Ignace are all down a division, so the computer takes that into account and not as many playoff points are awarded for wins, or even opponent wins.

What it doesnt take into account is the fact that EJ is Division 7 by just nine students, the fourth smallest D7 school. Last year, they were actually Division 8.

What an absolute shame and highlight to a flaw in the system it would have been if the year after they change it from six-win qualification to point based, East Jordan doesnt get in at 7-2.

Theres been times over the years when I thought maybe, This was going to be the year East Jordan ends the drought. But they instead ended up being so close in so many moments.

Kitson hit the nail on the head with what he said following the win over Frankfort, that his team Learned how to win this season. Theres a learning process for everything, including stringing wins together. Its easyto get lazy after a win or two when you havent done it.

Over the last nearly 20 years since that playoff season in 2003, theres been five winless seasons and there was a stretch between 2009 and 2012 where the Red Devils went 1-35 over the span of those four seasons.

Still, players have put the pads on season after season trying to be the team that breaks the streak. That's some resiliency.

They came close in 2013, opening the season 3-0, before closing the year with a 5-4 record. They lost two games that year by a touchdown or less.

In 2016, Kitsons first with the program, it was another 5-4 season with a two-point loss late in the season crushing the hopes of a playoff birth.

Then in 2019, a 4-5 season came with a one-point loss to Harbor Springs to open the year I was there and remember the comeback then a one-score loss to Charlevoix as well.

This 2021 team will be remembered for some time within the program. The dedication by guys like Zander Johnecheck, Ethan Antaya, Devon Olstrom, Tommy Reid, Hayden Peck, Ben Reid, Lee Nemecek and so many others to name them all.

Its the first season with over six wins since 1999 and they allowed the fewest points in a season just 86 since that 1986 campaign (That coincidence deserves a smile). Even the two they lost, Mancelona and Charlevoix, came in games they were in the entire night.

Unfortunately they were two games I was at too, so maybe Im not welcome at Boswell anytime soon.

When they take the field Saturday for their playoff matchup at Ishpeming-Westwood, itll be a heck of an uphill battle against the Patriots.

I wont be rooting for East Jordan, or Westwood for that matter, but if I hear the Red Devils pull the upset Saturday, dont come after me if I take a quick moment to smile.

Contact Sports Editor Drew Kochanny at dkochanny@petoskeynews.com. Follow him on Twitter, @DrewKochanny,and Instagram, @drewkochanny

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Column: East Jordan gave everyone a reason to be a fan in 2021, or at least smile - Petoskey News-Review