Ben Murphy
Sports Scene
New Breckenridge head coach Mel Skillman has been at it a long time. For what will be 56 years this fall, the 77 year old has been on the sidelines of either a high school or college football team.
“I don’t fish or play golf much,” Skillman said. “What I do is coach football.”
Skillman has had coaching stops at several high schools and colleges. Starting as a junior varsity coach at Beaverton, then on to Freeland, Saginaw MacArthur, Heritage, Merrill, Bridgeport, and Atlanta as a head coach, and Alma College, Arthur Hill, Hemlock and Saginaw Valley State Universtiy as an assistant.
“I have no idea [how much longer I’ll coach,]” Skillman said. “I interviewed for the Hemlock job when it was open a few years ago and they asked if I could guarantee them four years. I told them at my age I couldn’t guarantee anything.”
What he might have been able to guarantee them is a winning football program. Skillman has a 255-161-6 record as a high school head coach, has taken teams to the playoffs 10 times, and was twice a state runner up while at MacArthur (1975 and 1977).
“I think probably most of the [success] is I understand the kids and hire assistant coaches that care about the kids and not just care about yelling,” Skillman said. “We’re teachers every day, and on Friday we see them do what we taught.”
Even more incredible is that when Skillman graduated from Oscoda High School, the school didn’t even have a football team.
“I liked football a lot and my first teaching job at Beaverton, they asked me if I wanted to coach the junior varsity football team,” he said. “After one season, the varsity head coach left and they asked me if I wanted to take over the varsity and I said sure. After that, it just seemed to snowball along.”
Even though he has been around the game for almost six decades, Skillman is anything but old-school, as he has run the spread offense for several years now, a change he felt was necessary when blocking below the waist on the perimeter of the field became a penalty.
“For a very long time, my teams were a wishbone team,” he said. “But they changed the [blocking] rules a long time ago. When they changed the rules, it became a lot harder to run the triple option, because the little kids couldn’t block the bigger kids. Times change and you have to change with them.”
Skillman has been given recognition for his coaching achievements by being inducted into the Michigan High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame in 1981, and just this year by being inducted in the Saginaw County Sports Hall of Fame.
“It sure is an honor, but sometimes you don’t know if you’re really that good of a coach or not,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate to have some really good assistant coaches. A couple of them have gone on to be head coaches, and they’ve gone on to be successful. It’s important to have coaches who care about the kids and teach the kids to be successful.”
Breckenridge hasn’t had a winning season since going 5-4 in 1997 and hasn’t made it to the postseason since 1993. That doesn’t appear to distress the veteran coach.
“I’d like to make a run this year,” Skillman said. “We have a lot of kids who are working hard. [The spread] is a totally new learning experience for them. It takes a little time to get everything together, but we’re getting there. Our defense has been strong and our kicking game is ready. I’m looking forward to getting it going because we’ll be competitive.”
“I’ve been coaching a long time and I’ve never had any fun losing,” he added. “We’re going to learn how to play to win and we’re going to understand that we’re there to win. I talk to the team all the time about preparing to compete. I think more fun comes from winning than comes from losing, so lets prepare to win and go after it.”