Every game was a championship game.
Every play felt like life and death. And an entire community held its breath during this wonderful fall march into history by the Howell football team. But all good things must come to an end. Every march runs into a roadblock. For the Highlanders (11-1) the emotions ran dry during a 35-6 Division I state quarterfinals loss to Hudsonville (11-1), a team it beat at the beginning of the season.
Afterwards, Howell players and coaches said the noble thing. Hudsonville came prepared and was the better team this day. That may be true. But 29 points better? I’m not totally buying that. Hudsonville was terrific, but on the other hand the Highlanders ran out of steam and ran out of emotions.
You can only play so many big games until the well runs dry. During this run the Highlanders beat their bitter rivals Brighton twice and edged number one rated Belleville for the KLAA championship.
We witnessed the greatness of running back Justin Jones, the power of defensive tackle Bobby Kanka and the emergence of sophomore running back Bryce Kish.
The team represented the community well and the good folks of Howell gave the boys every ounce of their hearts.
For me it was an opportunity to get to know a community with an unfair reputation. I wrote about the embrace of Howell, the kindness of Howell and the people of Howell.
One young lady reached out and said she might move to Howell because of my story.
The season is over, but I shall return. I vow to look up summer festivals and see what Howell has to offer. The Highlanders have a strong girls basketball team that WHMI will visit this winter. My hope is to visit Jan. 17 when the Highlanders face Hartland, a game that is always a joy to watch.
We can do it all over again when the Highlanders make a big march during March Madness.