Turnaround Special: Fighting Irish keeping focused during nine-game win streak
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
PONTIAC — Long losing streaks can create all sorts of problems for any team in any sport.
Players can start checking out, not giving their best effort in practice. That can lead to subpar efforts on the playing surface.
Bad habits can be made.
Bad examples can be left for younger players to emulate.
Those efforts and results can bleed down from graduating class to graduating class and can carry over into future seasons.
IN THE MIX: Pontiac Notre Dame Prep senior quarterback Dan Durkin maneuvers out from the scrum near the line of scrimmage. Courtesy Photo By www.fightingirishfootballwebs.com
Losing can really be like a disease. Its effects can sometimes be disastrous, like cancer spreading quickly throughout the body.
Yet at Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, that has not happened in any way, shape or form despite the Fighting Irish’s football team starting the 2010 football season with a 0-5 record. Instead of checking out, the seniors on last year kept leading. The rest of the players kept following and this year’s seniors have taken over.
NDP is off to a 5-0 start for the first time since the school changed names from Pontiac Oakland Catholic to Pontiac Notre Dame Prep in 1995. That was preceded by four wins to cap the 2010 season, good for a nine-game win streak overall.
The last team to start the year with five wins in a row was the 1984 squad, which finished 9-0 and then dropped a pre-regional game to Detroit DePorres (18-13). The longest streak over two seasons is 11, spanning the final two games of 1983 and all nine regular season games of 1984, both of which came under the Pontiac Catholic umbrella.
ON THE MOVE: Pontiac Notre Dame Prep Jacob Romeo runs for paydirt against Flint Northwestern. Courtesy Photo by www.fightingirish footballwebs.com
The school operated from 1967-1987 as Pontiac Catholic, then Oakland Catholic from 1987-1995 before new management changed the school name to Notre Dame Prep in 1995.
Still, the school has not seen a better turnaround than what has transpired in the past 12 months.
“Last year we were young, had a lot of injuries, and then we started 0-5,” recalled Kyle Zimmerman, Notre Dame Prep’s third-year head coach. “But the five teams we lost to were 34-1 last season (in the regular season). We lost to five very good playoff teams.”
In the dumps with that 0-5 start, the Irish were outscored 123-21 with three shutout losses. Even with defeats to St. Clair Shores Lakeview, Macomb Lutheran North, Detroit Loyola, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard and Dearborn Divine Child, a fire was still lit.
Notre Dame Prep’s players still kept showing up, going to work, digging deep in the trenches and have righted the ship instead of folding up the camp.
Kyle Zimmerman, Head Coach
“Last year’s seniors didn’t quit. They could have very easily quit, but they didn’t,” reminded Zimmerman. “They were good leaders. We knew the talent we had coming back this season that we could be very good. We just had to keep working.”
The results have been proven on the field. It all started with wins over Livonia Clarenceville (40-0), Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, (41-3) Pinconning (55-0) and Capac (41-16) to end last season.
This year the Fighting Irish have clipped St. Clair Shores Lakeview (14-0), Flint Northwestern (28-7), Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard (48-22), Clarenceville (41-0) and Madison Heights Bishop Foley (45-6), outscoring those five teams by a 176-35 margin with two shutouts.
The Irish are 2-0 in the CHSL AA Division and can clinch at least a tie for the league title Friday night with a win at Divine Child.
“We just take it one game at a time,” said running back Jake Romeo, one of 16 seniors on the roster and one of five players who have played varsity since their sophomore season. “Each week we go out there and continue to work hard. We’re not done yet.”
The chemistry on this year’s team is second to none, with most of the roster excelling in two or three sports. The players are used to competing with one another year-round and have collectively spent ample time in the weight room and conducting off-season workouts.
“The dedication has been phenomenal. Even in the winter when some of these guys were playing basketball or hockey, they were in the weight room Sunday nights, working out and getting stronger,” explained Zimmerman. “The guys that weren’t playing a sport were in here all the time. All of these guys have done the work to become better athletes and it shows. They (collectively) have a great work ethic. And the work ethic and the way these guys play is rubbing off on the younger kids.”
Still the patience of Job sprawled through the program last season, only to reap the benefits this season.
“The chemistry is there and it shows that hard work pays off,” said senior Shane Frakes. “One of our mottos is deciding what you want now to what you want most. We had to have a lot of patience last year and build for what we are trying to accomplish right now.”
The Irish want to continue success. Just a playoff berth and a league championship won’t be enough for this group. One more win and NDP will be in the postseason for the eighth time.
ROOM TO MOVE: Pontiac Notre Dame Prep running back Jeremiah Johnson rushes through open territory for the Fighting Irish, who are 5-0 on the season.Courtesy Photo by www.fightingirishfootballwebs.com
There is plenty of unfinished business with at least four games still left on the schedule.
“Last year was tough to keep going. We had to keep going through the same process, the same thing every day and eventually it started to pay off,” said senior wide receiver Troy Sassack. “Not having the success at first that we worked so hard for was tough. We had to keep it in the gut. We got those few wins at the end of last season and this year is a different year. We are starting to have more success game-after-game and we are getting the job done. It’s a lot more fun that way.”
The Irish can clinch a spot in the CHSL Prep Bowl with a win over Divine Child. NDP has a Week 7 league game with Lutheran North and a non-league game with Pinconning in Week 8 before the Week 9 Prep Bowl. An unbeaten season is possible, but the players are keeping it all in perspective.
“We start each game 0-0. We can’t get caught looking ahead,” reminded Frakes. “But we do want to win the league and get into the playoffs. But we can only worry about the upcoming game we have each week. If we get to the Prep Bowl, than we will try to win it. If we get to the (postseason), then we will do our best (to advance). We have a great group of seniors on this team that have worked so hard for this. We have a team that can go far.”
The Fighting Irish have come very far in 12 months, walking off the field with an 0-5 record last September to a team that is flying high with as nine-game win streak and plenty of ceiling above the field.
“We’re hoping this is our year,” offered Sassack. “We know that anything is possible.”
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