Catholic Central, Lumen Christi, Lutheran North and Everest expected to repeat
FARMINGTON HILLS – When football coaches guiding the teams predicted to finish first in their Catholic League divisions this fall head the outcome of the preseason poll, their reactions were generally muted.
“As much as I appreciate the respect, I know that it’s not going to win us any games,” said Catholic Central’s Justin Cessante, who admitted he penciled his team into the sixth slot.
“I don’t put a lot of stock in that. I’ve seen years where the (pre-season) last-place team takes first place and vice-versa,” Macomb Lutheran North’s Garrett Wenzelburger said. “I know there are great coaches in this conference, it’s going to be a battle night in, night out. It’s an honor to be voted to win – now we’ve got to actually go do it.”
“Everybody knows we play in the Catholic League, every week’s going to be a fight,” Cessante continued. “I know rankings and everything is coming out; we call it ‘rat poison’ at our place. I know it’s necessary, but don’t believe all the hype, but we try to earn it every single day.”
All four of the pre-season favorites align with the division winners from 2024: Catholic Central, Jackson Lumen Christi, Lutheran North and Clarkston Everest Collegiate. As fall practices get underway Aug. 11 (in Michigan), here’s a look at the front-runner in each division.
Central Division
COACHES POLL: 1) Detroit Catholic Central, 2) Toledo Central Catholic, 3) Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, 4) Warren De La Salle, 5) Birmingham Brother Rice, 6) Toledo St. John’s Jesuit.
Detroit Catholic Central ascended to the top rung of the CHSL after snapping Toledo Central Catholic’s 33-game winning streak, and the highlight wins kept coming after that. The Shamrocks ran the table against division opponents, defeated Detroit Public School League stronghold Detroit Martin Luther King in the Prep Bowl, and had a signature win over top-ranked Belleville in the regionals.
The Shamrocks fell short of the state title, though, defeated by eventual champ Detroit Cass Tech, 17-14, in the semifinals.
“I take that on my shoulders; as a head coach, that’s my fault,” Cessante said. “My fault that we didn’t get the job done, and we learned a lot from it, and we understand we either win or learn at Catholic Central; we don’t lose. That’s why our motto this year is ‘Finish what we started.’ We want to close the gap and get us back to a state championship-caliber football program.”
The Shamrocks may just do that this fall, with several players in the eyes of college recruiters.
“You can’t rest on talent; you need to rest on what got you your program and your tradition to where it’s been – that’s hard work, that’s effort, that’s playing for something bigger than yourself,” Cessante said. “Sometimes when you have all these Division I athletes you don’t know which way that’s going to go, and I’ve been very impressed by our group this year making the team first, and being committed to the bigger cause, and these guys wanting to get their (college) commitments out of the way first so they can focus on their high school season. It’s pretty impressive for these young men to want to do that.”
CC’s top players include a pair of brothers who play wide receiver and defensive back, Samson and Gideon Gash. Jack Janda, a tight end, and Ben Eziuka a two-way lineman, have committed to major colleges. Junior Duke Banta is a rising star at quarterback.
The Shamrocks have a rematch with Central Catholic early, at 7 p.m. on Sept. 5 at the Gallagher Sports Complex in Toledo.
AA Division
COACHES POLL: 1) Lumen Christi, 2) Dearborn Divine Child, 3) Toledo St. Francis de Sales, 4) University of Detroit Jesuit.
Although the smallest school by far among AA teams, Jackson Lumen Christi has been unstoppable since joining the Catholic League two seasons ago. Not only have the Titans ranked at the top of the AA both times, they went on to win state championships, with their current streak at three.
There will be plenty of new faces in the Lumen Christi lineup this fall, yet the team’s objectives remain the same.
“I think, realistically, you win three or four games you’re probably in (the post-season) with what we have,” veteran coach Herb Brogan said. “Our number one goal is to get in the playoffs every year. If you get in the playoffs great things can happen. If we can get ourselves in the playoffs, I think we have a chance to make some noise.”
How should the Titans shape up this fall?
“We’re a work in progress,” Brogan said. “Defensively, we’re going to be solid. Offensively, we graduated 10 out of 11 in all of the critical positions, including the tailback (Kadale Williams, now at University of Toledo) who was a great, great player. So there’s a lot of questions on that side of the ball.”
Top returning players include two-way lineman Antwon Baker, linebacker Sean Walicki, as well as receivers Paul Sattler, Jack Fitzpatrick and running backs Amarion Clay and Johnny Watters, who also comprise the defensive backfield. Benny Gaston is the new quarterback, and Brogan expects to have a “backfield by committee” carrying the ball.
If the Titans aren’t ready early, they will suffer growing pains with a demanding slate of games. Before getting into the Catholic League portion of the schedule, Lumen Christi will kick the season off against three teams who have won state titles in the past two years: Lombard (Ill.) Montini Catholic, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep and Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
Intersectional-1 Division
COACHES’ POLL: 1) Lutheran North, 2) Detroit Loyola, 3) Riverview Gabriel Richard, 4) Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard, 5) Grosse Pointe Woods University-Liggett, 6) Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook.
Lutheran North has been on a roll lately, playing the best stretch of football in the school’s history. The Mustangs had their first 10-win season last year, on the heels of nine wins in 2023. They won their first Prep Bowl last year and had two playoff wins in each year, reaching the regionals.
Although Coach Garrett Wenzelburger has to replace half of the lineup due to graduation, he says the expectations are in place on 24 Mile Road.
“As a school, I think we had two to three playoff wins in school history before these last two years, so what you have is a lot of kids who go into games every single night believing they’re the better team, believing they’re the better player, believing we’re going to win, not in the cocky sense but in the confidence sense,” he said.
Wenzelburger said five or six players on each side of the ball have graduated from last season’s squad, but that is a normal turnover from year-to-year for any given school.
“We lose some key players and bring back some key players. It will be up to those five, six new guys to try to step up,” he said. “There are teams from time to time that lose 10 or 11 seniors, we’re not that team this year. We lose some key players, but we return some solid guys. There are some backups and some JV players from last year are poised to have some great years.”
Cam Kubik returns as quarterback after winning 9 of 10 starts last season. Senior tight end/defensive end Tai Wargo and two-way lineman Will Newer will be four-year starters. Wenzelburger looks for junior receiver Adam Narr and senior lineman Jacob Hardy to have breakout years.
On the schedule, Lutheran North faces the same teams they played in 2024, in the same order, beginning with local rival Macomb L’Anse Creuse North (now lead by head coach Brent Widdows, formerly at Royal Oak Shrine). A potential divisional showdown game occurs Sept. 19 when the Mustangs host Detroit Loyola.
Intersectional-2 Division
COACHES’ POLL: 1) Everest Collegiate, 2) Allen Park Cabrini, 3) Royal Oak Shrine, 4) Marine City Cardinal Mooney, 5) Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes, 6) Madison Heights Bishop Foley.
Although coach Mike Pruchnicki didn’t offer any comments for this story, it’s safe to say that Everest has become firmly entrenched atop the mountain in Intersectional-2. Last year, the Mountaineers beat all five division opponents by a combined score of 228-9, winning each game by at least five touchdowns and shutting out three of their five foes. Everest hasn’t lost a league game since 2022.
Even though Everest graduated seven players who were named All-Catholic last fall, replacing them is just a matter of routine for Pruchnicki, who guides one of the smallest schools playing 11-man football statewide, and must reload on a regular basis.
Nolan Alban, Simon Engle, Andrew Gaglio and Cameron Tong are seniors who should be impact players for the Mountaineers this fall.
In addition, Everest hasn’t backed down from scheduling tough non-league opponents. The Mountaineers take on Warren Michigan Collegiate in the opening week, followed by Ubly and a crossover with Riverview Gabriel Richard. All three of those schools have appeared in the state finals since 2021, with Ubly claiming the 2023 state title. Everest and Cabrini square off in the first week of league play, Sept. 19 in Allen Park.
