Fairy Tale Ending for Ross' Eaglets Career

The accolades, the records, the scholarship offers — all of them would have been a little less sweet for Orchard Lake St. Mary's star senior linebacker James Ross had he not finished his career with a championship.

But as a leading tackler for an Eaglets squad which, for three years went to Ford Field in Detroit to try and win the state championship and walked away empty-handed the first two, Ross can finally say that he got "over the schnide."

"It’s crazy, honestly, it hasn’t hit me yet. It’ll probably hit me when I see the pictures of the runner-ups, because we have them in the weight room. It’s amazing and I owe it all to these guys," Ross said.

Playing at Ford Field hasn't been all it's cracked up to be for Ross. "He's played here at Ford Field eight times and only won twice ... the only time he's won here, he was 12, so he needed to get off the schnide," laughed father James Sr. of Southfield.

Ross is a former member of the Westside Cubs in the Detroit Police Athletic League, where he played from boyhood through middle school with some of the finest talent in the Metro Detroit area. The Cubs play their championship games at Ford Field, which are also the home games for the Prep Bowl — the Catholic League championship game, which St. Mary's has fallen in the past three years.

'No doubt' from Ross and the team

Kidding aside, James Jr. said that he never wavered in his confidence through the years that he would walk away from St. Mary's with his head held high as a champion. Perhaps better than anyone else on the current team, Ross knows about the turnover on the team through the past three years that he has been a starter, but said that even after losing to East Grand Rapids last season, he knew where the team would be at the end of this season.

"I knew what we had and I knew what we were capable of, and I had no doubt we’d be back in the same place we finished last year," said Ross, who will take his talents to the University of Michigan next season. "We kept it positive and just played St. Mary's football."

"You've had a lot of other great players come through, but this sets him apart," said James Sr.

Mother Chantel Ross of Southfield offered that James never would have been completely comfortable leaving had the Eaglets not beaten Mt. Pleasant. "I think this is probably one of the milestone goals he set in his lifetime. He really wanted this," she said.

The losses in the previous two seasons' state championship games just made the victory sweeter. "It seemed like when we were going to the state championship, we were just happy to be here," Ross said. "You’d love to have those state championships, but for us to come back and win, we put a lot of work in it. I think we’re well-deserving."

That sense of hard work is no surprise from two people who have seen James grow throughout the program. "I think the school has helped him become more mature," Chantel said.

"I've seen the growth over the years, from a boy, to a young man. He's making decisions on his own."