C.C. Thomas
Sports Scene
The Mount Pleasant football team made it through another regular season with an unblemished record.
That’s three straight for the Oilers.
In fact, Mount Pleasant has two impressive winning streaks going — winning 32 straight games in the Saginaw Valley Association and 35 straight regular season games.
Oilers coach Jason McIntyre says winning breeds winning.
“Once you start having success in the playoffs, you have two, three, four extra weeks to practice, and you have a lot junior varsity kids up at that time,” McIntyre said. “And once they see that intensity and excitement, it’s not hard to have a kid work hard in the off-season.
“And the other thing we’ve done here, we have systems offensively and defensively that are flexible,” he added. “You see other coaches with certain systems, and you may not have the personnel for that offense or defense. We will be versatile, but we don’t change our philosophy. We try to adapt to our personnel each year, and that’s really helped.”
Last year, McIntyre and his coaching staff had four extra weeks to work with the team, as the Oilers advanced to their first Division 3 state semifinal. But they did not have a fifth extra week, as five-time state champion East Grand Rapids beat Mount Pleasant 31-16.
McIntyre hopes to extend his team’s season one more week this year, but he knows that will be difficult with teams like East Grand Rapids and Grand Rapids Christian on the horizon.
“I think Division 3 may be one of the toughest in the state,” McIntyre said. “You have Orchard Lake St. Mary’s that beat Detroit Catholic Central, you have Christian that beat Lowell, which beat Rockford. And then you have five-time defending champ EGR. What it will take to beat teams like that is a little change in attitude in our program. We work hard in the off-season, but I think it’s a whole other level in those communities. They have tangibles that are little different in those programs.”
McIntyre did see a change in his team’s attitude last year when it competed with the Pioneers in the semifinal loss.
“I thought we took a big step last year in the way we played EGR,” McIntyre said. “We were competitive, even if the score didn’t show it.”
And that’s all McIntyre wants, a program that knows it can play with anybody.
“I’m happy with where our program has come from six or seven years ago,” McIntyre said. “Back then, if we made the playoffs, that was a big accomplishment. Now we expect that.
“I’m happy with how far we came,” he added. “Every year we have broken through a level, and it’s tough to break through them. Now we have to break through another.”
And if the Oilers do that, it’s a trip to Ford Field for the finals.