LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – The 6 Sports two-a-days tour rolls into the Jackson area with a look at the seasons ahead for the Jackson Lumen Christi Titans and Parma Western Panthers. Jackson Lumen Christi moved up from Div. 7 to Div. 6 in 2024 and still won the state championship for a third straight season. […]
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – The 6 Sports two-a-days tour rolls into the Jackson area with a look at the seasons ahead for the Jackson Lumen Christi Titans and Parma Western Panthers.
Jackson Lumen Christi moved up from Div. 7 to Div. 6 in 2024 and still won the state championship for a third straight season. The championship was the program’s 14th all-time, breaking the MHSAA record.
It’ll be a much different Titans team taking the field this fall. Lumen Christi has to replace 10 of 11 starters on offense, with senior offensive lineman Antwon Baker the only returner.
Junior Ben Gaston will take over at quarterback and Amarion Clay will lead a stable of running backs looking to fill the shoes of Kadale Williams, who is continuing his football career at Toledo after running wild for the Titans the last few seasons.
Despite the litany of new faces, there is still plenty of talent on the Lumen Christi roster and a deep sense of buy-in to the culture head coach Herb Brogan has created.
Brogan has been the Titans head coach since 1980 and his 421 career wins are the third most in state history.
One example of the buy-in amongst the players is the sight of shaved heads all around the practice field. While not a requirement, most Lumen Christi players have taken to the tradition of shaving their heads the night before the first practice.
“We got 99 percent of kids out there have got the shaved heads which has just been a thing ever since my dad went here,” said senior linebacker and fullback Sean Walicki. “Obviously, no one prefers to have a shaved head but if everyone’s there together it just shows that we’re a team.”
“I think culture’s the key word,” he said. “I mean they come in here, they understand what needs to be done to get the job done. They’ve worked really hard in the offseason. We’ve had a great summer and so, you know, I think regardless of what the record ends up, I think we’re going to be confident that we’re going to play hard and that we’re going to have a good group of kids this year.”
Lumen Christi’s dominance in recent seasons has made filling out a schedule of willing opponents more challenging.
This year, the Titans will open up against Lombard Montini, a team from Illinois that also won a state championship last fall.
Lumen Christi will face Pontiac Notre Dame Prep in week two, the team that won the Div. 5 State Championship in 2024 and handed Lumen Christi its only loss in the regular season.
“We don’t get a warm-up,” said Walicki. “We have to be ready right from the jump and they’re teams that’ll be as good or even better than the teams we’ll see in playoffs. That’ll just make playoffs that much easier for us.”
In week three, a matchup with perennial power Grand Rapids Catholic Central awaits before the Titans jump into Catholic High School League – AA play.
Their other non-conference games later in the season include a battle with a team from Canada in Newmarket Huron Heights and matchups with Traverse City St. Francis and Center Line.
“It’s a real gauntlet but I think unlike some programs we welcome the challenge,” said Brogan. “If we’re successful that’s great. If not, we’re going to give our kids a chance to do something great.”
Across town, the Parma Western Panthers enter 2025 with a new head coach in Cody Bentley.
Bentley had been the defensive coordinator under previous head coach Nick Rulewicz for the last four seasons.
He brings a ton of passion and energy to his practices and wants his players to appreciate the blessing of each day they get to play.
“Energy, that’s the big thing around here,” said senior cornerback and wide receiver Jack Barnes. “He loves the high energy and he loves being loud and I think we respond well to that and I think it’s just like a perfect match.”
Bentley’s gratitude and passion for the game were reinforced two years ago when he continued to coach with the Panthers after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
“I think it would’ve been a lot harder to give up football, you know?” Bentley said looking back on the 2023 season. “We had a great group coming back, kids that were here when I first got here. I didn’t want to let them down and so I learned a lot about myself and what I could accomplish through that. But I also learned a lot about leaning on other people. The community was great to me. The players were great to me. We had a great experience, won a district championship. Those are times I’ll never give back and I’m in remission two years, so things are still going pretty good.”
Barnes and some of the other seniors on this year’s roster were on the 2023 team and remember rallying around Bentley in his cancer battle.
“It’s bigger than just a team thing,” said Barnes. “Football is like a family thing and he relied on us to do what he wanted and we relied on him. It really showed us how close a football team can get when something goes bad.”
Bentley inherits a program that has reached the postseason every year since 2017 and has won three district titles in that stretch.
Only a handful of starters return on either side of the ball, but that was also the case last season, and the Panthers still posted a 6-4 record.
“A lot of new guys, a lot of opportunity,” said Bentley. “With opportunity breeds hunger and with hunger breeds our version of football. We know we’re going to have guys that are flying around, playing fast, playing violent and doing the right things. That’s what I’m excited about. They want to learn. They’re hungry for it. I always want to create opportunity within a program because that’s how we get teams that are built on competition.”
Parma Western opens the 2025 season at home against Jackson on Aug. 28 at 7 p.m.
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Category: General Sports
