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Almont, Marine City highlight area in postseason football awards

The Michigan High School Football Coaches Association announced its final awards last week with its 2022 First-Team All-State honors, and two local seniors were named to the list.


Twenty-three other athletes joined them in earning All-Region honors, and 28 more earned Academic All-State honors. North Branch head coach Jeremy Ferman earned the Division 4 Region 3 Coach of the Year award.

Marine City senior Brock Osterland (#34) earned First-Team All-State honors this season.

After missing his junior season due to injury, Marine City senior linebacker Brock Osterland made it his mission to finish his career strong, and he did exactly that with 101 total tackles in 11 games this fall. He helped the Mariners to an 8-3 overall record and their fourth consecutive MAC-Silver title. His 38 solo tackles (12 for loss) and two sacks earned him a spot on the Division 5 First-Team All-State list.


“It'a great for him. It’s a tremendous accomplishment,” Marine City head coach Daryn Letson said. “It was a rough two years for Brock. Obviously it was for everyone with the Covid year in 2020, and then last year, it wasn’t even a football injury, he tore his ACL in gym class.”


Letson said more than just the physical injury, Osterland had to stay mentally tough along his road to recovery. By week 2 when he had eight tackles against Clawson, however, he knew this could be a special season.


“He really had a nice senior year and is able to go off and graduate and just have those memories and that sense of gratification that he did everything he could to have a good senior year,” he said. “I’m really proud of him.


“When I talk to future players and teams about Brock, I’ll say he’s a testament to what it’s like to persevere and be resilient and just work through things. When something happens, he’s a perfect example of how to handle it and get yourself right and back because he did a great job with that.”


Joining Osterland on the All-State team is Almont senior linebacker Tyler Filinger, who managed 96 tackles (29 solo, 14 for loss, and five sacks) on the season and helped Almont to a 6-4 overall record.


“Tyler was one of those downhill, hard-nosed kids that just had a knack for finding the football. That’s the way to sum it up,” head coach James Leusby said. “I remember coaching him in eighth-grade basketball…and he played basketball just like he played football. He ran people over and was physical and I'm like, ‘That kid’s got to play football.’”


Leusby said it took a bit of convincing, but halfway through the season of his freshman year, Filinger finally took to the field for the first time.


Although Filinger made his career on defense, Leusby said the game that sticks out the most to him was in week 6 against Croswell-Lexington when Almont won 37-26 on the road. The Raiders’ starting fullback Bryce Ferman was out with an injury, leaving them to make an adjustment.


“We put Tyler in at fullback. He’d never really played that before, we put him in a couple of times at practice. We weren’t moving the ball well, so we decided to move him over to the offensive side,” Leusby said. “He scored two touchdowns that game. That was just him coming out of his shell. We always knew he could probably play offense too.”


He rushed for 120 yards on 11 carries that night, scoring two touchdowns and sneaking in a 2-point conversion. Leusby said he credits Filinger’s character for his success on both sides of the ball and off the field.


“I think it’s his work ethic,” he said. “When he puts his mind to something, he works at it and wants to be the best at it, so his work ethic and his competitiveness sets him apart.”

Other area honorees:


Division 4 All-Region

Cros-Lex

Bentio Mendoza ’23 OL

Trevor Soule ’23 WR

Gabriel Groppi ’24 RB

Gavin Espinoza ’24 QB

Landon Bulter ’23 DL


North Branch

Dylan Schmidt ’23 OL

Ryan Henne ’23 RB

William Damaska ’23 QB

Griffin Mabery ’23 DB


St. Clair

Logan Ellis ’23 DB


Division 5 Region 3

Marine City

Conner Mason ’23 OL

Will Stier ’24 OL

Zach Tetler ’23 RB

Jeremy Westrick ’23 DL

Brock Osterland ’23 LB


Armada

Dylan Watson ’23 OL

Lukas Sleboda ’23 LB

Vinny Fodale ’23 DB

Kyle Coenen ’23 RB


Richmond

Matthew Misch ’24 OL

Trey Graham ’25 WR

Noah Harris ’23 DB


Yale

Kaden Proctor ’23 LB


Division 6 Region 3

Almont

Tyler Filinger ’23 LB

Bryce Ferman ’23 RB


Academic All-State Teams

Yale - Division 5


Academic All-State Honorable Mention Teams

Cros-Lex - Division 4

North Branch - Division 4


Academic All-State Individuals

Brendan Cynowa, Almont

Bryce Ferman, Almont

Tyler Filinger, Almont

William Kalmar, Almont

Andrew VanDyke, Almont

Brandon Bittner, Cros-Lex

Landon Butler, Cros-Lex

Zach Tetler, Marine City

Derek Gurne, Marysville

Anthony Koza, Marysville

Mason Masters, Marysville

Austin Meier, Marysville

Tyler Simpson, Marysville

Ben Sylvia, Marysville

Braden Turner, Marysville

Austin Goulding, Port Huron

Ashford Jaiden, Port Huron

Jared Goulding, Port Huron

Nate Oriel, Port Huron

Konner Rock, Port Huron

Caden Rogers, Port Huron

Conner Rosenau, Port Huron

Braeden Bruyneel, Richmond

Seth Stricker, Richmond

Jack Hoppe, Yale

Timothy McCelland, Yale

Alex McMillin, Yale

James Taylor-Bahr, Yale


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