Greg Wickliffe knows high school football inside and out.
From the inside, he was a star player on a state championship Muskegon Big Reds team in 2008. And now from the outside, he’s one of nine MLive sportswriters who are gearing up to cover the start of another football season in Michigan.
“I remember how exciting it was to put your helmet on and run out there with your teammates,” said Wickliffe, who covers Ann Arbor-area high school sports. “As a reporter now, it’s kind of living vicariously through the players – that feeling of excitement to cover the game now as opposed to playing.”
Muskegon High School is a powerhouse football program, having won six state championships and finishing as runner-up last year. That tradition of excellence deeply entwines the community to the team over generations, a relationship that was chronicled in 2019 when MLive was embedded with the team, its coaches and players over an entire season.
But that is not unique to Muskegon. High school sports create a passion across all the communities MLive covers.
“In college, (the players) go to a school for a few years,” Wickliffe said. “But you see these kids from 6, 7, 8 years old, and now they're in high school and they're carrying the pride for the community. When they win, the entire community wins, and that's something unique with high school sports.”
Monday marked the beginning of football practice in Michigan, and our writers fanned out to reconnect with coaches and players. Several season previews have already published, which you can see collected here.
Wickliffe on Monday visited Saline and Dexter, two schools with interesting storylines going into the year. Saline has been a top-tier Division 1 program for a long time, and is in the spotlight again this year in part due to quarterback CJ Carr, a senior who has committed to play football for Notre Dame.
Dexter, meanwhile, rewrote its narrative in a breakout 2022 season, coming up just short of reaching the Division 2 state championship game. This from a program that had four consecutive 0-9 seasons from 2014 to 2017.
“Dexter finally beat Chelsea last year for the first time in more than two decades, and Chelsea won the state championship two years ago,” Wickliffe said. “So when you get that good football team and you create that tradition, it just brings a different feeling to the community.”
Not every team will be a champion, and some will not make the playoffs. But the players who take the field for their schools are carrying on a tradition and building memories – of time with teammates, of rivalry games and of how a town comes together under the lights once a week every fall.
“I remember going to football games as a child, sitting in the stands and always imagining and dreaming of playing for Muskegon,” said Wickliffe. “And then to be able to play there and win a state championship and become an all-state player – it was like a dream come true.”
The dream continues Thursday, Aug. 24, when high school football kicks off in Michigan, and MLive will be on sidelines and press boxes across the state. Here are Wickliffe’s teammates and the communities they cover:
Lee Thompson – Bay City area
Hugh Bernreuter – Saginaw area
Brendan Savage – Flint area
Jared Purcell – Detroit metro area
Eric Ingles – Jackson area
Matthew Ehler – Kalamazoo area
Josh VanDyke – Muskegon area
Patrick Nothaft – Grand Rapids area
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John Hiner is the vice president of content for MLive Media Group. If you have questions you’d like him to answer, or topics to explore, share your thoughts at [email protected].
