BOYNE CITY — It’s maybe not “championship or bust” at Boyne City, but the aspirations are certainly there.
“Just the state championship,” Boyne City senior running back Owen Hewitt said. “Yep, that’s it. That’s what I want. That’s the goal.”
Hewitt accounted for 1,082 yards and 15 touchdowns last year as part of the Ramblers’ thunder-and-lightning duo with Record-Eagle football Player of the Year Ryan Spate, who graduated.
Boyne produced a 10-3 record, a win total exceeded only twice in program history (2001, 2014). The Ramblers won three postseason games before a 34-22 setback against Lansing Catholic in the state semifinals.
“It’s really tough when you make it that far and fall short,” senior guard and linebacker Thomas Ager said. “We were back in that weight room the next day, me and my brother (Tristan) and Carter Van Horn. We we wanted it so bad. We were in there all winter, just day in, day out, grinding. We just want it. We want to go right back there.”
Traverse City St. Francis moved up to Division 6 by just a few students, making D6 potentially one of the most loaded playoff fields in northern Lower Michigan. Kingsley, Manistee and Reed City could join TCSF and Boyne for a district and regional packed with ranked teams.
“It’s always tough, but it’s definitely going to be a little bit tougher this year,” Hewitt said. “And then there’s always the underdog team that always comes in. We have to push through.”
The Ramblers return six starters on offense and seven on defense.
“We have a really good senior squad,” Hewitt said. “All of us have been best friends from literally second grade, so we’ve played together forever, and we have that chemistry.”
Tim Payton (6-0, 235) is back at center, with the Ager brothers — Thomas (6-0, 230) and Tristan (6-0, 225) flanking him at guard. New starters i junior Hyker McKenny (5-11, 215) and sophomore Syris Jenkins (5-11, 190) complete the line.
“The rest of our O-line, we’re a bunch of veterans, so we’re ready to go play some smash mouth football,” Thomas Ager said. “We’ll have a lot of time for Drew this year to get that ball off, and we have a lot of very good wide receivers.”
Hewitt is back at running back, with Drew Neer at quarterback and junior receiver Ben Stanek.
“Obviously you want to run the ball to throw it,” Ramblers head coach Dave Suttle said. “But we’ll be a little bit more balanced this year. We were probably 85% run last year. It’ll probably be more 60/40 this year.”
Neer has six games of playoff experience under his belt. He threw for 1,148 yards and 14 touchdowns last season, with only three interceptions in 89 attempts and a 64% completion rate.
“Whenever you need a big play, he makes it,” Suttle said. “You can go down the list of games, he really helped us out in the in the Grayling game last year. Obviously the Traverse City game, he made some big plays down the stretch. Reed City, he bailed us out of a hole. We trust him to throw on first, second, third or fourth down.”
Senior Jack VanZee steps into a receiver spot, with Tanner Kelley and Camden Johnecheck in the backfield.
“We’ve been taking reps with the varsity squad since we were in seventh, eighth grade,” Hewitt said of himself and Neer. “We’ve gotten the experience for sure. We had six sophomores start when we when we were sophomores and we’ve continued to start both ways, offense and defense. So we’ve got a lot in experience from when we were younger, and then we have a couple younger kids who are doing the same thing this year.”
On defense, Stanek and Van Horn return to start at cornerback, along with Hewitt at outside linebacker and McKenney and Thomas Ager at inside linebacker.
Tristan Ager and senior Kaiden Schoolcraft are back on the defensive line, with sophomore Bruyn Hauger moving into the lineup at outside linebacker.
“Definitely our O-line and our D-line, too,” Hewitt said when asked about the team’s strengths. “We’ve got some big boys that are strong. They’ve been working hard in the weight room for sure. And our linebackers, too, with both of the Agers playing. We have one Ager playing backer, and the other one can play ‘backer, but he’s on D-line right now.”
Hewitt added another dimension to his game last year — vertical.
He’d literally jump over the mass of bodies in the trenches in short-yardage situations, even when teams figured it was coming.
“It can be a game plan thing, but sometimes it’s also just in the moment,” Hewitt said. “If it’s 4th-and-1, it’s kind of planned. If there’s no opening, go over, make an opening. And then sometimes I just do it, if my body feels like doing it. My body reacts and I go with it.”
This year, the speedy 170-pounder will mainly be employed as a running back, but will be used as a weapon all over the field.
“We just have some kids that really want it,” Thomas Ager said. “They really want to go far, and they are going to do anything on that field to make it and never give up. That’s what we have this year.”
Boyne opens the season Friday at Alpena, a matchup with a much bigger Division 2 program that’s struggled mightily in recent years, but has some optimism with the addition of former Gaylord head coach D.J. Szymoniak.
“That’s a really unique matchup for us,” Suttle said. “It’s a school of 1,000 kids and a new coach and all kinds of excitement over there. We have a pretty good program, so it’s not like they’re going to expect that we’re underdogs or anything, and they’re looking for their first win in a long time. I know we’ve seen Gaylord play. I know you know, DJ doesn’t did a good job there, and so that’s going to be it’s a very interesting opener for us.”
You have to go back to 2019 for the last time Alpena won a game by more than a touchdown, and that was Gaylord before Szymoniak took over. The Wildcats have lost 17 in a row since a 34-33 win over Flint Powers to open the 2023 season and haven’t won more than two games in a year since 2019.
Then the Ramblers host Elk Rapids (Sept. 5), visit Cheboygan (Sept. 12), host Kingsley (Sept. 19) and Grayling (Sept. 26), head Oct. 3 to Thirlby Field to take on TC St. Francis and close out the season hosting Morley Stanwood (Oct. 10), at Charlevoix (Oct. 17) and home against Kalkaska (Oct. 24).