Preps!
Detroit Delta Prep Academy for Social Justice made its football state playoff debut at Hudson last week, but it wasn’t a complete one.
The game was called by the officials with 4:40 left in the fourth quarter with Hudson ahead, 43-0.
“I didn’t want an issue,” said Delta coach Barak Holmes. “So I thought the morally responsible thing and professional thing to do was say, hey, let’s cut it here … I was protecting the image of the school.”
It might have been too late.
According to the Adrian Daily Telegram, Delta had “piled up 17 penalties for 152 yards. Six of those penalties were of the personal foul kind, with the last few coming rapidly before the officials saw no point in continuing.”
Holmes disputes the number of penalties.
“I’m not one to complain, we lost the game,” Holmes said. “But when penalties are 21-2, it gets a little rough.”
Told what the Telegram reported, Holmes insisted his team was penalized 21 times and said there were far more than six personal fouls called against his players.
“We had 10 personal fouls in the first half,” he said, “for hitting kids who were acting like they had the football.”
Hudson uses a full-house T-formation offense that is predicated on all three ball carriers, plus the quarterback, carrying out moves as if they are all carrying the ball.
“They run a T-formation so I told my kids all week you have to tackle everybody coming out of the backfield, because they’re faking like they’ve got the ball,” Holmes said. “They were giving us 15-yard personal fouls for tackling guys without the ball. My problem is the kid is acting like he has the ball. What are we going to do?”
Good point. You can tackle everyone pretending to have the ball — but that may not have been the problem in this game.
“I don’t remember any penalty being for tackling a guy that didn’t have the ball,” said Hudson coach Chris Luma. “Do you have to tackle them after they’ve scored a touchdown and they’re letting down because they’re almost to the back of the end zone and you come from behind and just wax them? That’s the kind of stuff they got penalized for.”
Delta players’ behavior was the subject of a few e-mails sent to the Free Press. Some said they had never seen anything like it before.
Hudson led, 28-0, at halftime, but Holmes chose to dwell on the officials calling penalties.
“It was 21-2; it’s not fair,” he said. “I expected it. I thought we went in with a good game plan, but when you’re playing 11-on-16 it makes it rough. I understand that my kids were very upset. They felt like they were being wronged.”
Delta Prep could have used 16 players and it may not have made a difference. Hopefully the Delta players will not believe they were cheated in the first playoff game in school history just because that is what their coach has said repeatedly.
They were cheated, but not by the officials. They were cheated by a coach who was unprepared to play one of the best programs in the state.
“I can see him defending his kids, obviously any coach is going to do that, but to not really realize you just got outmatched,” Luma said. “The sad thing that he’s not even going to take out of this is that he needs to have a better game plan and do things different, because if we’re going to play them 20 times, we’re going to have the same result.”
The ticker: Delta Prep reaches football playoffs in second year