Blue Devils Football Anticipate Strong Fall Schedule

The Sault High Varsity Football Team, coming off of a 6-3 season in 2022, is looking forward to some big changes this fall. The team is now in the revamped Big North Conference, which includes Escanaba, Marquette, Petoskey, Gaylord and Alpena. Head Coach Scott Menard shared, “With the new conference, we have strengthened our schedule with a number of larger schools, which should help our playoff points. We are Division 4, but we play five Division 3 teams this year, which is up from only playing two of them last year.”

The team graduated 17 seniors last year, but still have a decent sized squad for this season. Menard noted there are 14 seniors and several returning juniors that are providing leadership for the team. Callen Campbell, Kaydin Lujan, Evan Arbic, Chris Kiekhaefer, Joey Gravelle, and Ryver Ryckeghem are seniors who have all been on the varsity team for three or more years. This year there are a number of underclassmen that have been pulled up to strengthen the team as well.

The varsity coaching staff members alongside Menard are Gordi Campbell, Brad Boven, Matt Johnson, Brendin Cryderman, Jake Clark, and Jim Casey.

The Junior Varsity team, under Head Coach Herb Maloney, will have the same schedule as the varsity team. A “balanced squad”, the JV team has a number of strong players returning this year, showing leadership to incoming freshman, and a few new sophomores that are trying the game for the first time this season. Maloney is anticipating good things from returning sophomores Marc DeWildt, Brady Ditmyer, Mason Dufresne, Dominic Fritts, Caleb Klier, Michael Morse, Isaac Niebuhr, and Wyatt Peabody. Noting that a number of sophomores and one freshman have been pulled up to the Varsity team, Maloney shared that this is a function of a quality program. “It would be easier to just keep them all, but that’s just not how this works.”

Coaching staff joining Maloney this season include John Burke, Dan Bartley, Arnie Hallai, Mo Young, and Mike Mariuzza. Maloney wanted to tip his hat to Jr Blue Devils Coach Ryan Wollan for doing a great job with the 7/8 grade teams, preparing them for high school football.

Both teams traveled to Boyne City earlier this week for a series of scrimmages against Boyne City, McBain, Gaylord, and East Jordan. The scrimmages went as well as the teams hoped, but also highlighted what they need to focus on this coming week. The season will open at home with a double header against St Clair Shores Lakeshore on Friday August 25, with the JV game starting at 4:00pm, and Varsity to follow at 7:00pm.