Ron Bellamy Putting Stamp On Program in Second Season

The West Bloomfield High School varsity football team hasn’t made the playoffs in back-to-back years since the early 1980’s. Head coach Ron Bellamy is hoping to change that.

He is going into his second year with playoff expectations, but his vision and goals for the Lakers go beyond that. Bellamy wants to do for West Bloomfield what coach John Herrington did for Harrison.

“That’s the blueprint,” Bellamy said.

Contending every year doesn’t just happen overnight, especially when some of the most talented football players living in West Bloomfield don’t go to the sole public high school in the township, instead, choosing to play for more-established teams at nearby private schools.

“We are in the center of a bowl, surrounded by Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, (Birmingham) Brother Rice, (Birmingham Detroit) Country Day, (Novi) Detroit Catholic Central and we’re in the middle,” Bellamy said. “If you are talented in middle school you are pushed towards Catholic schools. I understand the appeal, but my goal is to build a fence around our school.”

Not literally of course, but Bellamy’s goal is to bring the number of kids living in West Bloomfield playing football at other schools down to zero. Some of the biggest changes he’s making to the football program are aimed at reaching that goal.

Bellamy helped start the West Bloomfield Panthers, a youth football program, for kids seven to 14. He’s also making sure the younger players get to see the high school players working at practice.

The start time of middle school practice was moved to coincide with the end of the Lakers practice. Bellamy wants those younger players to get a feel for how the older students work and changing the practice time was a simple way for them to get that exposure.

In his first year he lost 13 kids to Catholic schools. That number was down to two this past year. He called the drop an encouraging sign.

Another asset he’s counting on to help him keep promising athletes in the area is his own background.

Bellamy played wide receiver at the University of Michigan and was an undrafted free agent signee in the NFL. He knows what the journey is like from being a student athlete in high school to playing football on Saturdays for a major Division 1 program.

He’s made it clear to his players that they should use him as a resource.

Cortez Hardrick is one of the players benefiting from his coach’s experience this season. The wide receiver is being recruited by schools from the Mid-American Conference and Division 2 schools like Grand Valley and relying on his coach to help him navigate the difficult process.

“Bellamy has talked to a lot of coaches for me, he’s really helped me with that and he’s really talked me through the recruiting process,” Hardrick said. “He helped me walk through the steps and understand everything.”

The West Bloomfield coach certainly has a passion for his new profession. And that can only mean good things for Lakers fans hoping the school can become a perennial contender.