Brathwaite, McInnis, Briggs Among Top Recruits

West Bloomfield and Orchard Lake St. Mary's, among many local schools, hosted events for athletes to announce post-secondary plans.

West Bloomfield High School varsity football may have struggled this past season, but head coach Ron Bellamy said he believes they won't be among the bottom of the standings for much longer. The reason, actually, is because of four departing seniors — Kyle Croskey, Patrick Russell, C.J. Brathwaite, and Chauncey Briggs — who signed their letters of intent to play at university level in the media center Wednesday. "These guys set the foundation, wins and losses aside. These were some of the guys who worked the hardest, and you can see that in where they're headed. Guys we still have want to emulate these guys, who are going to great schools," Bellamy said. Brathwaite in particular was reported to be the apple in the eyes of Pacific-12 …

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LIVE Signing Day Coverage: High School Athletes Commit to Colleges

Football stars from Brother Rice, Orchard Lake St. Mary's, Detroit Country Day, Groves, West Bloomfield, and Athens signed their National Letters of Intent on Wednesday.

National Signing Day is today and Patch is covering local events throughout the afternoon. Check back for photos and live coverage of the top Oakland County football stars signing their National Letters of Intent (NLI). 6 p.m.: Mitch Robinson admitted this afternoon his first experience with Northwood University football was, in a word, "ugly." The Avondale High School senior quarterback said he attended his first game last fall and left at halftime when the score was 34-7. "I said on the way home that I didn't want to go there. I didn't want to be a part of that." But then Robinson grew to know the coaches and the school's reputation for academics. The combination of the two helped wipe away the bad memories of his first impression. On …

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Eaglets LB Ross: 'Size Benefits Me'

The blue-chip University of Michigan recruit from Orchard Lake St. Mary's may be shorter than the average elite linebacker, but he vows not to let it stop him on the field.

Eaglets' Ross Headed to U.S. Army Bowl

The senior middle linebacker will represent the state of Michigan at the high school all-star game Jan. 7 with one other player from Detroit Cass Tech.

James Ross, who helped lead Orchard Lake St. Mary's to a state football championship two weeks ago, was selected to participate in the 2012 U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, TX, in January. “This means so much to me, I can barely explain how I feel in words,” Ross told a small gathering of family, friends and press on Thursday at the True Rock Church in Detroit, according to a report by the Oakland Press. The Eaglets leading tackler, who for three years went to Ford Field in Detroit to try and win the state championship and walked away empty-handed the first two, said after the championship:  "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.  A former …

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Fairy Tale Ending for Ross' Eaglets Career

Parents James and Chantel agreed that the star, senior captain, linebacker and tight end wanted nothing more than to win the championship at Orchard Lake St. Mary's.

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 …

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St. Mary's to Return to Ford Field for Football Finals After 14-10 Win Over Harper Creek

Grant Niemiec led the way for Orchard Lake St. Mary's, scoring both of the team's touchdowns on runs.

JACKSON – Orchard Lake St. Mary's beat Battle Creek Harper Creek 14-10 on Saturday to move on to the state championship against Mount Pleasant at Ford Field next weekend. The star: Junior fullback Grant Niemiec put the team on his back with 129 yards rushing and two touchdowns, including the game-winning score from 11 yards out with less than a minute left in the game, to give St. Mary's the lead for good. The turning point: St. Mary's faced a difficult path to win the game — on the Eaglets' last offensive drive, they had to go 80 yards in about three minutes. After Niemiec converted a fourth-and-1 run, and quarterback Dan Clements ran for a 10-yard gain to set up the score, Niemiec punched it in from 11 yards out with a run on the left …

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St. Mary's Outlasts Brother Rice in Overtime, 10-9

Eaglets head coach George Porritt scores win No. 199, delays Al Fracassa's 400th with a homecoming victory.

The score: Birmingham Brother Rice 9, Orchard Lake St. Mary's 10 (OT) The star: St. Mary's senior wide receiver Christopher Woolen scored the game's winning touchdown in overtime off of a pass from Dan Clements, and senior kicker Nathan Parry booted the game-winning extra point. However, senior linebacker James Ross made it all possible with several key tackles that held Brother Rice to only nine points. The turning point: Down 9-3 in overtime, on third-and-goal from the 17 in a downpour, Clements threw from the shotgun and hit Woolen at the 7-yard-line on a curl route. Woolen broke three tackles on his way to the end zone to tie the game, and Parry clinched it with the extra point. The quote: "I caught it and turned around and saw a seam…

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The Big Game: St. Mary's Homecoming vs. Brother Rice

Birmingham Brother Rice head coach Al Fracassa will try for his 400th win against a stout Orchard Lake St. Mary's team.

When Orchard Lake St. Mary's kicks off against Birmingham Brother Rice on Friday at Msgr. Milewski Field, it will mean more than Brother Rice head coach Al Fracassa's first attempt at win No. 400 in a storied career. It will also mean the first chance at win No. 199 for Eaglets head coach George Porritt. Perhaps most importantly, the winner will gain crucial favor in the tight Catholic Central Division standings. Fracassa already has more victories than any other high school football coach in state history and seven state titles to his credit, but the Warriors' head coach is modest as he heads into Friday's 7 p.m. kickoff. "It would be kind of nice," Fracassa told mLive.com in a story published Thursday. "But I'm just trying to see what I …

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Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Football Impressive in Scrimmage

The Eaglets' running game and defense were the stars in the red-and-white scrimmage Saturday night.

ORCHARD LAKE VILLAGE — The Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Preparatory School varsity football team wasn’t in midseason form just yet, but it still gave fans watching its team scrimmage on Saturday plenty of highlights. The Eaglets were split into two squads for a full-contact scrimmage on the team’s practice field. "Red" played "White" in front of a nice-sized crowd of family and friends. Senior running back Spencer McInnis didn’t wait long to give the crowd something to cheer about. The team’s co-captain broke into a huge 70-yard touchdown run on the first drive for the red team. “Running the ball, we’re doing great,” McInnis said. He was a starter on varsity last year along with Grant Niemiec and Keith Stonestreet. All three runners are back …

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