Two-a-days: Leslie, Springport eager to build off 2024 playoff success

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – Monday marked the first day high school football teams across the state can officially practice for the upcoming season.

Which means the return of the 6 Sports Two-a-days coverage, where 20 teams will be featured in ten days, and Leslie was the first stop on the tour around mid-Michigan.

The Blackhawks got the fun started right away by holding a practice at midnight on Monday. It’s something the program has done for the last three years under head coach Tim McCann.

Last year, Leslie went 10-2, won the Cascades Conference, and captured the program’s first playoff win in 13 years. The best part about it for McCann and company is that there are a lot of returners from the 2024 squad.

Altogether, the Blackhawks return seven starters on offense and up to nine starters on defense, and they entered the offseason motivated.

“It’s funny because the success we had almost showed us how much harder we had to work,” McCann said. “We didn’t reach our ultimate goal of winning the state championship. So where we fell short in the regional final game, it showed us where we needed to improve on, and those kids bought into it and they worked all summer long.”

Junior quarterback Joel Cranmore said, “Growing up watching Leslie football, there wasn’t much success. So there wasn’t much drive for those kids, I don’t think, but now we have something to build off and keep getting better every single day to strive for those goals.”

Cranmore is one of the returning starters on offense and has taken a big step in the mental part of the game this offseason.

“I trained a lot this offseason,” Cranmore said. “I just took a step in getting into the classroom, understanding the game from that aspect, and then just throwing every chance I could get.”

Leslie will begin the season on Thursday, August 28, at home against Stockbridge.

Meanwhile, the Springport Spartans are preparing for the most anticipated season the school has had in quite some time.

The Spartans went 8-3 in 2024 and defeated Addison 38-14 in the district semifinals to earn the first playoff win in school history.

They return many key players from that team, including all-state safety Stone Overweg and starting quarterback Gibson Overweg, who threw for about 1,300 yards last fall.

Their success came under a new head coach in Ben Pack.

Pack has been coaching football since the 1970s, with head coaching stops at Parma Western, Jackson, and Manchester.

“My joy in coaching is watching kids grow and do things that they never thought they could do,” said Pack. “When that happens that’s really what coaching is all about for me and if you do that time and time again, you focus on the now, okay? The success and the outcomes will take care of themselves.”

Springport players said Pack’s attention to detail and daily improvement have helped them focus since he took over the program.

“We’ve got to go one play at a time,” said Stone Overweg. “That’s his big thing is you can’t just, it doesn’t just happen overnight. You’ve got to get better every day. What can you do right now to get better?”

“I like his “‘Thousand-Rep Club,'” added senior wingback and outside linebacker Cade Nordland. “That’s a thing we work toward the whole season. Once we get to a thousand reps is when we kind of decide ‘yep, we know the plays now.’ But up until that point, it’s as hard as you can every rep.”

Nordland said one of the coaches has a clicker to keep track of how many reps they’ve completed.

Between the 2024 success and the program-wide commitment to detail, the Spartans head into 2025 with a much stronger sense of confidence than they had a season ago.

“Confidence builds enthusiasm,” said Pack. “You know what to do, know what’s expected. You’re going to go pretty fast and you’re going to have fun doing it. There’s no fear about it, no fear of the unknown.”

“It’s all about the mindset,” added Stone Overweg. “You come in and you have a team that was 0-9 and you think ‘oh, we’re going to be just like them.’ Or you have a team that was successful, that won a playoff game, first playoff game in school history. It’s kind of like a new shift. Everyone’s more excited to come into practice.”

“We are doing a lot more stuff that elite teams are doing, you know?” said Nordland. “We’re not just taking practice as a whatever kind of thing. It’s serious. Every rep is important.”

The Spartans host Dansville in the season opener on Thursday, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m.

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