Pellston Writing Unforgettable Story

November 1, 2019

By Chris Dobrowolski
Special for Second Half

PELLSTON — It’s a story that could easily derive from Hollywood.

Only, this script is being written in Pellston.

Leading up to the 2019 season, the narrative for the Pellston football team has been mostly a tale of woe.

Zero playoff appearances.

Twenty-three years without a winning season.

A .260 winning percentage since 1950.

This year, however, the plot has turned into a feel-good story as the Hornets have put together a season that’s only been dreamed about over the years, posting an 8-1 record and earning their first postseason berth.

“To go 8-1, it was great,” said Pellston head coach Jack Carter, a 1987 graduate of the school. “I knew we had some really good players, some great seniors. Strong leadership on that end. It all kind of came together for us, at least through the regular season. I don’t know if it’s being a miracle worker as much as we’re at the right place at the right time.”

Pellston quarterback Glenn Bonter is one of those seniors. Bonter moved to town two years ago from Grand Haven and immediately found his niche within the confines of the weight room. The other players who were there made him feel welcome, and they quickly became friends. They also filled him in on the school’s history in football.

“(I heard) that it was a struggle,” said Bonter. “That they hadn’t had a whole lot of success. That was something where we looked at it and all of us wanted it to change. Looking around in the weight room, I saw how much hard work and dedication kids were really putting into it. Pretty much the whole entire team would go to weight room in the summer. We would all go out to the field and just pass and do some running. I think it was a whole team thing. We were like, ‘You know what? We want to win, and we’re going to do it.’ We just kind of put our foot down and went for it.”

Carter is in just his third year leading the Hornets, though he is well-versed in how difficult it has been for the school to win on the football field having off-and-on been a part of the program in one capacity or another since 2001. He’s seen players and coaches come and go, working to get things heading in the right direction but often finding that to be an insurmountable hurdle.

“If you look at it strictly from wins and losses, it wouldn’t tell the complete story because we have not been that great,” said Carter. “But we’ve had, every single year, guys that went out there and worked so hard. Played with as much heart and emotion as you could expect. For me, I think that was the template, or the groundwork for us to build off.”

Pellston also laid some of the foundation for this season during last year’s 4-5 campaign. What might seem like a rebuilding year for some was a breakthrough for the Hornets. It was the most wins they had recorded in six years. Three of those wins came in succession, too — the first time the program had strung together consecutive victories since it opened the 2012 season with four straight victories.

That propelled the Hornets into the offseason with a ton of hunger. The team’s four seniors — Bonter, running back/defensive back Lakota Worthington, and linemen Evan Cameron and Joey Rizzardi — spearheaded the team’s participation in summer training. When the full squad met for the first time in August, it came in with good fitness, strength, talent and desire.

“We made sure to make the weight room a thing,” said Worthington. “We made sure to come in during the offseason and put in the work and made sure we worked on our routes.”

It didn’t take long for Pellston to reap the benefits of its hard work as it started the year with six wins in a row — the longest winning streak in school history. Among those victories were dramatic triumphs over Posen (42-38) and Au Gres-Sims (32-30) where the Hornets overcame halftime deficits of 16 and 18 points, respectively, to remain undefeated.

“Normally you just don’t come back from those type of deficits,” said Carter. “This group of guys, they just keep fighting. They keep believing, and they keep their heads up. Their positive outlook and attitude is first rate.”

“For us to rally back and win those games, it was unbelievable,” said Bonter.

Three games into his junior season, Bonter switched from running back to quarterback. He’s been dynamic in running the Hornets’ spread offense, accounting for 16 touchdowns rushing and 13 through the air. Junior David Jamroz, like Bonter, has rushed for more than 1,000 yards. Worthington joins them in a backfield that features a great deal of speed. He also provides electricity in the return game.

“(He’s a) special returner,” Carter said of Worthington, a four-year varsity player. “He’s been that sparkplug and that catalyst that we’ve been needing for quite a while. In 8-man football a lot of times teams choose not to really kick to guys who are like that. It seems like every time a ball did go to him, he made the most of it. If he didn’t get a touchdown out of it, he certainly flipped the field for us and gave us great starting position on offense.”

The Hornets have averaged 46 points per game. The only time they’ve been held under 30 points was a 38-14 loss to Hillman in the seventh week, a game where injuries hampered Pellston’s chances.

“I think we just had an off night,” said Bonter. “They’re a really good football team. A lot of respect to Hillman. They should go far; but yeah, that was a tough loss.”

“We learned that sometimes only going in with 11 players can get you in trouble,” said Carter. “We did get hit with some injuries that night. Secondly, Hillman was the first team that really came out and really played good, sound, hard-hitting football, especially on the defensive side. They have a history of being able to make the playoffs, and they’ve had success in football. They showed why they’re at where they’re at.”

The Hornets were able to rebound and finished the regular season with a pair of convincing wins over St. Helen Charlton Heston and Central Lake.

If the current football playoff system was in place in 1995, Pellston wouldn’t have had to wait until this season to gain its first postseason bid. That year the Hornets went 8-1 but did not qualify because they ultimately didn’t have enough playoff points.

Twenty-four years later Pellston finally buzzed its way into the postseason. It opens the MHSAA 8-player Division 1 tournament with a Pre-Regional on Friday against Gaylord St. Mary.

“I’m so ready. I’m ready today,” said Worthington. “I just want to go out there and show everybody what we can do. I know Gaylord (St. Mary) is pretty good, but I’m ready to get them.”

The Snowbirds come into the game with a 4-5 record, but four of their first six wins were forfeited for using an ineligible player.

“St. Mary is coming in with a really, really good football team,” said Carter. “I look at them as an 8-1 football team, and we have to look at them that way.”

As magical as this season has been for the Hornets, they feel like there is still more of the story to be told and are looking to add a few more chapters in the coming weeks as the playoff scenario unfolds.

“Hopefully we have a good Hollywood ending with it and keep it going into the playoffs,” said Carter.

Chris Dobrowolski has covered northern Lower Peninsula sports since 1999 at the Ogemaw County Herald, Alpena News, Traverse City Record-Eagle and currently as sports editor at the Antrim Kalkaska Review since 2016. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.

PHOTOS: (Top) Pellston’s David Jamroz (20) races through the Au Gres-Sims defense during a Week 3 win. (Middle) The Hornets stack the line during a Week 2 victory over Posen. (Photos courtesy of the Pellston athletic department.)

Robichaud 3-Sport Legend Wheatley Selected to National High School Hall of Fame

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

March 11, 2024

The playing career of 1991 Dearborn Heights Robichaud graduate Tyrone Wheatley remains one of the most storied in Michigan high school sports history. His prestige gained during that early stage of his athletic stardom has been recognized nationally as well, as Wheatley was one of 12 honorees announced today as this year’s inductees into the National High School Hall of Fame by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).

Wheatley – who grew up in Inkster and is currently the head football coach at Wayne State University – will be inducted as one of 11 honorees selected for the 41st Hall of Fame class at a ceremony during the NFHS summer meeting July 1 in Boston. The rest of the class is made up of three more athletes, four coaches, two former state association administrators and a game official. Wheatley was nominated by the Michigan High School Athletic Association.

Wheatley will become the Hall of Fame’s 10th inductee from Michigan, joining the MHSAA’s first full-time Executive Director Charles E. Forsythe (inducted 1983), River Rouge boys basketball coach Lofton Greene (1986), Warren Regina athletic director, softball and basketball coach Diane Laffey (2000), Fennville basketball and baseball standout Richie Jordan (2001), Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett boys and girls tennis coach Bob Wood (2005), Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook hockey standout Jim Johnson (2007), Owosso football, basketball and baseball all-stater Brad Van Pelt (2011); Vermontville Maple Valley baseball national record holder Ken Beardslee (2016) and retired MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts (2022).

To the greater public, Wheatley surely is best known as a star running back for University of Michigan who went on to play 10 seasons in the NFL for the New York Giants and Oakland Raiders. However, he is arguably most glorified in Michigan high school athletics for his accomplishments on the track, where as a junior in 1990 he became the first (of still only two) athletes to win four individual events at an MHSAA Lower Peninsula Finals – placing first in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, 110-meter hurdles and long jump. He led Robichaud to the Class B team title that day, scoring 40 of its 49 points. Wheatley completed his high school career in 1991 with three more Class B individual track & field championships and nine total over his final three seasons; he was injured in the 100 during that senior-year meet and could not run his final race to attempt another four-title day.

Wheatley’s meet records of 13.7 seconds in the 100 at the 1991 LP Class B Final and 23-10¾ in long jump in 1989 still stood when the four-Class track & field format was retired after the 1999 season. He also remains the only athlete to win the 100 three times at the prestigious Mehock Relays in Mansfield, Ohio, also finishing first in the 110 hurdles and 200 and runner-up in the long jump at that meet in 1991.

Wheatley was similarly accomplished on the high school football field, leading his team to a state championship in 1990 and earning a Parade All-America honor. Over three varsity seasons total he ran for a combined 4,257 yards and 67 touchdowns, including 2,010 yards and 33 scores on 208 carries as a senior in 1990 – the latter despite playing quarterback half of that season (and throwing five touchdown passes). He played quarterback, running back, defensive back, punter, kicker and returned kicks, and he scored 252 points over 13 games as a senior and 484 over 38 career games.

Wheatley also was a standout on the basketball court for Robichaud, averaging 14 points and 16 rebounds per game as a senior in earning all-state recognition in that sport as well.

“My city where I come from, Inkster, means the world to me. I grew up in an incredible era of sports in Michigan (with successful University of Michigan and Detroit pro teams) … but if you ask me who my idols were, they were the guys I grew up with playing on the playground,” Wheatley said. “After you come from a basketball game where you see Jarvis Walker drop 30, or Earl Jones running the last 200 of a race backwards … you hear people talk about them, you hear their reverence about them, and I just wanted to be put in the conversation of the best to come out of Inkster, forget the state. I can tell you this for sure: I’m not the best athlete to come out of Inkster, just the person who got the recognition. And my foundation was built watching, taking notes, preparing, working out and just trying to be one of the guys.

“(Robichaud was) the step. Because without Robichaud … Michigan, the NFL, me coming back to coach, it doesn’t happen,” Wheatley said. “Without the Robert Yaucks (his football coach at Robichaud), the Coach (Leit) Jones (his Robichaud track coach), the Coach (Mercer) Brysons, the (coach) Wade Cooks, the (coach Jeff) Flounorys, the Millie Hursins (his academic advisor) of the world, this doesn’t happen. Without my high school teammates, none of this happens. So it’s not just a step. What’s the saying – the first impression is the lasting and best impression? Robichaud was it.”

Wheatley returned to Robichaud as its varsity football coach in 2007 and led that team to a 9-2 record and the MHSAA Playoffs for the first time since 1994 – after Robichaud had finished 0-9 the previous season. He has served as an assistant football coach at four college programs including U-M and Syracuse, and with the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and Denver Broncos.

He also served as Morgan State University's head coach from 2019-21 and just completed his first season as head coach at Wayne State, which finished 3-8 – an improvement of two wins from 2022 and the program’s best record since 2019.

Wheatley graduated from University of Michigan in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. He and wife Kimberly have five children: Tyrone Jr., Terius, Tyrique, Tiana and Tamari. Tyrone Jr., an offensive tackle, played this past season for the New England Patriots.

“Many of us who grew up in Michigan grew up as fans of Tyrone Wheatley because of what he accomplished at the college level – but his legendary story begins at Dearborn Heights Robichaud, where his outsized athletic ability was on full display in every sport he played,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “Michigan has produced several professional athletes in a variety of sports and nearly 50 Olympians in track & field alone, and what Tyrone Wheatley achieved as a high school athlete remains a standard few have approached. We are ecstatic that he will deservedly take his place among the all-time elite high school athletes nationally as well.”

The National High School Hall of Fame was started in 1982 by the NFHS. The 11 individuals were chosen after a two-level selection process involving a screening committee composed of active high school state association administrators, coaches and officials, and a final selection committee composed of coaches, former athletes, state association officials, media representatives and educational leaders. Nominations were made through NFHS member associations. Also chosen for this class were athletes Joe Mauer (Minnesota), Takeo Spikes (Georgia) and Dot Ford Burrow (Mississippi); sport coaches Paula Kirkland (South Carolina), Gary Rankin (Tennessee), Roy Snyder (Pennsylvania) and Ronald Vincent (North Carolina); former state association administrators Mike Colbrese (Washington) and Marie Ishida (California), and baseball/football game official David Core (Oklahoma).

For more on this year’s Hall of Fame class, visit the NFHS Website.

PHOTO Tyrone Wheatley crosses the finish line first during one of his nine MHSAA Finals track & field championship victories. (MHSAA file photo.)