Whitehall football's season of perseverance ends with regional defeat to South Christian

WHITEHALL — Whitehall coach Tony Sigmon invoked Duke basketball coaching legend Mike Krzyzewski Friday night, saying all a coach wants is for a season to end with either "tears of joy or tears of sadness," because it means his players were deeply invested and gave the season everything they had.

It would be hard to find a Viking team that has given more than the 2024 squad, whose season marked by injuries and a resulting perseverance came to a disappointing end in the regional championship game with a 28-21 heavyweight fight against Grand Rapids South Christian, followed by those tears of sadness.

"I am so incredibly proud of our football team," Sigmon said. "There were a lot of times that our kids, during the course of the season, could have folded up shop. They could have said, 'Oh gosh, we lost this kid. We lost that kid.' The only thing that this group did was get tighter and tighter and tighter as a group. It really goes to show you what value a strong football team can have.

"It didn't happen the way we wanted it, obviously, but I'm telling you right now, our kids played their hearts out tonight."

The Vikings (8-4) lost many key players to injury over the course of the season, including but not limited to two-way stars Ryan Goodrich and Parker Mott, as well as key pieces on the lines. Yet there Whitehall was, playing its first-ever regional home game Friday.

The final score was the same one as the teams' previous meeting, in the 2022 regional finals. That Sailor team went on to win the state championship, and this one could too.

That's in no small part due to their quarterback, Carson Vis, who like his counterpart, Camden Thompson, is headed to Western Michigan University next year to play basketball. Vis was the centerpiece of the Sailors' game plan, with an overwhelming amount of the offensive design being, effectively, snap it to Vis and let him keep the play alive long enough to make magic happen.

Vis did exactly that on two of the biggest plays of the game in the first half. He threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Chuck DeHaan on the first drive of the game on fourth-and-4, and on the last play of the first half, scrambled around long enough to find Tyler Brinks for a 20-yard score. Both were pinpoint passes that beat decent coverage by the Viking defense, one that hadn't had to deal with a passing threat like Vis all season but appeared up to the challenge most of Friday's game.

"We initially had very good coverage, but credit him and credit their skill kids because they do a wonderful job, and they've done it all year long, of extending the play and being at the right spot," Sigmon said. "That's well-coached and well-executed."

Thompson delivered his own impressive heroics during the game. He ran for two touchdowns, one in the first half and one in the second, and it was that second one, his final varsity touchdown, that summed his season up. The senior broke several tackles and maneuvered his way through traffic with sheer effort and athleticism to keep his team alive with 6:20 to go, making the score 28-21.

The Viking defense came up with the stop it needed to get one final shot with the ball, but after Thompson threw a near-perfect long bomb that was dropped, the drive went south, and Whitehall ended up falling short on a wild fourth-and-17 conversion attempt. The Sailors then ran out the clock.

A pivotal play came late in the third quarter after South Christian took a 21-14 lead (with help from another fourth-down conversion pass from Vis). The Sailor defense, already having intercepted a pass in the half, came up huge early in the Whitehall drive when Rowan DeKam ripped the ball away from the Vikings just before a play ended and took it back for the touchdown to make it a two-score game.

"It was an unfortunate play," Sigmon said. "I think some would argue that he was down, but I know the officials were in a very good position to see it. Obviously there was a big scrum there and they made a decision, and it was against us, and it was for them, and it is what it is."

Whitehall's best drive of the game was its first of the second half, as the Viking front line opened big holes for running back Gavin Craner, who took full advantage with several big gains. Craner finished off that drive, too, with a two-yard run that tied the score at 14 and seemed to snatch back the momentum after the Sailors had seized it with the end-of-half score.

That momentum seemed even more in Whitehall's favor after the Vikings got a defensive stop in the red zone - aided by a flying pass breakup from Thompson in the end zone. Unfortunately, the Sailors recorded an interception on the next possession, the only one thrown by either team.

"They made some crucial plays at the right times," Sigmon said. "Credit them. There's something to be said about being able to do that. You can scheme all that, but it's another thing to execute it, and they did a wonderful job doing it."

Regardless of outcome, the Vikings had a proud coaching staff Friday, and the staff wasted no time telling the team so after the issue was decided. For the second time in three years, the team brought home a district trophy, this one perhaps holding even more meaning because of all the Vikes overcame to get it.

"You hope that your kids are invested to play at a high level and to have each other's backs and to be coachable and to represent their community and their families the way that our kids did tonight," Sigmon said. "It doesn't always happen the way you want it at the end, but there is going to be a time for us to look back at this season and appreciate everything our kids gave us and to respect them and to honor them."