ROW 1: Manager Scott Dolan, Dan
Ayre, Luke Turchi, John Candy,
Carl Martel, Paul LaBrecque, John
Haley, Brad DePottey, Mike Ayre,
and Manager Kevin Shelton
ROW 2:
Manager Mark Turchi, Jeff Fray, Joe
Arnes, Joe Simon, Jerry Crist, Mark
Schaffer, Tony Kroska, Ron Fray,
Tim Stiglich, and Jeff Weygandt
ROW 3: Coach Bill Herrmann,
Dave Berta, Eric LaBrecque, Jim
O Connor, Mike McFarland, Dan
Lehoux, Joe Pastor, and Assistant
Coach Dennis Corbin.
Not pictured: Assistant Coach
Ken Garner.
Holy Rosary High was really hurting after its first two trips to the state football playoffs.
On their third trip, the Wolverines made Crystal Falls Forest Park feel the pain.
After two straight losses to the same team in the first two years of the state playoff format, the Wolverines put a hurt on the Trojans in the 1977
Class D final and came home with a 21-20 victory for the first state football championship in Flint-area history.
Motivated by a 50-0 loss to Crystal Falls in the 1975 final at Western Michigan University’s Waldo Stadium and a 14-6 heartbreaker in the first
high school game ever at the Pontiac Silverdome in 1976, Rosary vented its frustration on the Trojans in 1977 with a hard-hitting defense and
opportunistic offense to finally topple the U.P. powerhouse.
“Ordinary kids do extraordinary things,” said Al LaBrecque, the defensive coordinator along with Ken Garner under head coach Bill Herrmann.
“We got to know Crystal Falls, and the fear factor was no longer there after the 50-0 beatdown in 1975. We should have beaten them in 1976. We
had them.”
“In our mind, we should have won that game,” agreed Mike Ayre, a senior running back and cornerback. “We played really well in ’76, and
to come away losing like that was really frustrating. In a lot of respects, that ’77 team didn’t have as much talent as ’76 and ’75. We were small in
stature and small in numbers, but we hit like a train wreck.”
Rosary was a 23-man team from a small Catholic school built near Kearsley High. The school had only two hallways, according to Eric
LaBrecque, and students spent half their day taking classes at Kearsley.
But Rosary had enough athletes to produce seven state championships in football, volleyball, softball and girls basketball, as well as two boys
basketball state finalists, from 1972-77.
The football team was led by Ayre, a 1,000-yard tailback and All-State cornerback, quarterback Ron Fray, nose guard and All-State center Tim
Stiglich, and tight end/cornerback Dan Lehoux. The rest of the offensive line had Jerry Crist and Tony Kroska at guard and Mike McFarland and Jim
O’Connor at tackle. Jeff Fray was a junior split end, Dan Ayre a junior flanker. Mark Schaffer, Paul LeBrecque and Joe Simon alternated at fullback.
On defense, Kroska and Paul LaBrecque played linebacker, John Candy and Joe Arnes were defensive backs, Schaffer, O’Connor, McFarland
and Dave Berta were on the line, and Dan Ayre was at safety. Jeff Fray alternated at defensive end and tackle with Berta. John Haley was the
placekicker, good from 45 yards in.
Bill Herrmann was a strict but creative head coach who conditioned the team at a preseason camp in West Branch and installed a new gimmick
play every week. He was also a master motivator who played down his teams as underdogs while firing them up with the theme music from “Rocky”
throughout the ’77 playoffs.
The Class D Wolverines played all B and C schools in their Mid-Eastern Eight Conference, and that’s what gave them enough bonus points to
make the playoffs at a time when only eight teams qualified in each class. Rosary wasn’t even unbeaten in 1977, suffering a loss to Goodrich in
week eight that made week nine a virtual playoff game.
