A busy offseason for Montague’s football team got a boost when the Wildcats closed out a team camp at West Ottawa last week by winning a 7-on-7 tournament.
Coming away with a win was meaningful to coach Justin Dennett for two reasons. One was the strong level of competition, as the Wildcats were opposite strong programs from bigger schools like Grand Rapids Christian, Lowell and Reeths-Puffer, not to mention area rival Whitehall and the host Panthers, the latter of whom are led by former Montague coach Pat Collins. The second, from Dennett’s perspective, was that the style of 7-on-7 play the teams used was “more realistic” than the style seen at most specialized events of the type.
“Sometimes when you go to those 7-on-7 tournaments, they’re so focused on winning the 7-on-7, they don’t necessarily do things they’d normally do in an 11-on-11 game,” Dennett said. “Some of the defenses you see (sometimes) aren’t realistic to actual football, but at the West Ottawa camp, it was more of a camp that we just ended with a tournament. It was more structured to run your actual defense. You’re able to improve and coach up a little more.”
Another big reason Dennett was pleased with his team’s success at the 7-on-7 camp was that it is breaking in a new starting quarterback. Last year’s signal-caller, Mason Darke, transferred to Reeths-Puffer for the spring semester, and rising junior Eli Petersen, who competed with Darke and Kellan Francis for the position last offseason, is now entrenched as the quarterback. Petersen showed his teammates and coaches what he can do at the West Ottawa 7-on-7.
“I think it gives everyone more confidence knowing he’s the guy right now,” Dennett said of Petersen. “They’re able to trust him and get a lot of reps with him. We’ve got to develop some backups and find other guys to push him, but it’s nice to have him set in place to get him ready to go.”
Petersen is also working on chemistry with a largely new group of skill players. Key contributors Adam Baird, Paul Olson and Isaiah Atchison graduated this spring, so there will be a lot of new faces. Among those is Riley Mulder, who missed most of last season injured but has made waves this offseason by showing off his athleticism - he’s 6-5 and 215 pounds - at various camps. Mulder has earned a few collegiate offers, including from Division II Saginaw Valley State, and is poised to be a big part of what the Wildcats do this coming year.
“He’s really improved physically in the last couple seasons,” Dennett said of Mulder. “He’s one of our strongest guys and he still has good speed for his size. He got a lot of attention in the spring and summer. We’re looking forward to him being healthy and being able to utilize him this year.”
Montague does project to return four starters up front, which should ease the process for those new skill players. (So too will having Ryver Jarka back after leading the team in tackles; Dennett believes he’ll have a bigger role on offense this season.) The linemen, of course, were less able to show off their talents at the 7-on-7, but since they should be a strength of the team, that makes what Montague did even more impressive.
Like so many football programs, Montague has been at it throughout the off-season. Apart from MHSAA-mandated dead week around the July 4 holiday, where no organized activity is permitted, it’s been three weightlifting sessions a week and the occasional team camp. The summer is closing in on its end, with another week of limited activity scheduled for the last week prior to practices opening Aug. 12. The Wildcats are scheduled for a team camp at Muskegon next week before hosting a small camp of their own the week after. Then it’ll be getting ready for a challenging opener against Division 4 Forest Hills Eastern.
“It’s a busy three weeks,” Dennett said.
