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.
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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