Deacon Lynn Sanders , left, leads his group of participants in the Third New Hope Baptist Church 500-Man march in a moment of prayer before startng their walk in Detroit MI on Friday, May 14, 2010. Sanders, age 44, is a sergeant in the Michigan State Police and commissioner of the South East Michigan Pop Warner football league and had approximately 12 of his players in this group. The March was split up into groups under various church leaders to keep things organized. JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/Detroit Free Press
One of the season’s most remarkable coaching jobs ended in the Division 6 regional final last week when Detroit Central let a 20-0 lead slip away and lost to Millington, 22-20.
“We had that game, man, and my young boys, we handed it off to them,” said first-year Central coach Lynn Sanders. “We learned a lot from that experience.”
Sanders, 50, is a retired state police officer and a 1984 Central graduate who played for legendary coach Woody Thomas.
“When I was 18 years old,” he said, “and graduated from here, I told Coach Thomas: ‘One day I’m going to come back and replace you as head coach.’ ”
Better late than never.
The Trail Blazers beat Ann Arbor Richard, 20-15, in Week 1, then proceeded to lose the next four games, the final one 22-14 to Detroit Denby, before finishing the regular season with four straight wins to sneak into the state playoffs at 5-4.
“We had a brand new coaching staff with new kids and guys weren’t really jelling and hadn’t bought in to what we were trying to establish,” Sanders said. “It was that Denby game that kind of turned things around. We went up on them 14-0 at halftime. The kids knew they we could play with them if we played together. But we kind of fell apart and they came back and won. It was after that game the light bulb kind of clicked on.”
Making Sanders’ rebuilding job easier was tgar the school had some kids transfer in when Detroit Allen Academy closed and quarterback El Julian Jordan transferred from King.
“To be honest with you, my No. 1 objective was to help change the culture here,” Sanders said. “I figured it would take a couple of years to build a program.”
The building process may not be complete, but playoff wins over Byron and Warren Michigan Collegiate helped turn the Central players into believers. It was only the second time in school history that the Trail Blazers won two state playoff games.
This is a different Central than the one Sanders graduated from over 30 years ago. Back then the school’s enrollment was about 2,500, while today there are fewer than 400 students.
But it is still home to Sanders, who is trying to reestablish the once proud program.
“The neighborhood is totally different,” he said. “There’s a lot of blight over here, but I tell people the kids are still the same. They still just want somebody to believe in them. There’s a little bit more challenges than what I experienced, but at the end of the day they’re kids. When you set some standards and tell them what the expectations are they’ll reach up to them.”
Catholic League changes
The Detroit Catholic League has realigned again for the 2017 football season and U-D Jesuit is now officially in the Double A. However, the Cubs will play one more Central Division opponent than it did last season when it was a member of the Central Division.
Next fall, the Cubs will play Novi Detroit Catholic Central, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and Birmingham Brother Rice from the Central. Dearborn Divine Child, which won the Double-A title game in the Prep Bowl, will play Warren De La Salle and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook in crossover games.
Also, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, which was suspended from the league in all sports for the 2016-17 school year for refusing to play a crossover football game against a Central Division school, will still be out of the Catholic League for next year. But league officials did lift the ban of league members playing ND Prep in nonleague games.