The new football season brings some changes to the Lenawee County football landscape. Here is an overview of the changes:
Hudson is Division 7
The Tigers won a Division 8 state title in 2021, moved up to Division 7 in 2022 and were back in Division 8 last season. They will be in Division 7 this year and will likely remain so going forward as a new MHSAA policy takes effect in 2025.
Starting in 2025, the MHSAA’s enrollment limit for Division 8 is 250 students. Hudson has never had fewer than 250 students in decades, if ever.
What does this mean for Hudson this season?
“We moved up, Whiteford moved up, New Lothrop moved up, so, yeah, it’s going to be a great division,” Hudson coach Dan Rogers said. “It’s definitely going to be a gauntlet. Once the teams make the playoffs, there won’t be weeks off.”
Hudson is ranked No. 1 in at least one national preseason ranking.
“Our kids are embracing the expectations,” Rogers said. “But right now, everything is still potential.”
New opponents
Several district schools will compete against new opponents this year.
Hudson opens the season against Fowler, a team with great tradition, and then plays Dowagiac in Week 2, two teams the Tigers have never played before.
New conference for BD, LCS and Morenci
The Southern Central Athletic Association has a new division – and three teams from Lenawee County make up the majority of it.
Britton Deerfield, Lenawee Christian and Morenci will be joined by Concord in the SCAA’s new division, which now has three 8-player football divisions. BD and Morenci were part of the now-defunct Tri-River Conference.
“I don’t know if the kids understand the whole change to the conference, but they are excited to play against some new teams in the program,” said BD coach Erik Johnson.
New conference for Sand Creek
The Aggies will join the Big 8 for the 2024 season after playing 49 seasons in the Tri-County Conference.
Sand Creek will begin league play in Week 2.
No school has won more TCC football championships than Sand Creek – 15.
No TCC in Lenawee County
For the first time in 51 years, Lenawee County will not host Tri-County Conference games.
Of the 11-member TCC football team, only three Monroe County schools remain – Whiteford, Erie Mason and Summerfield.
The league was founded in 1973 and has included at least one school from Lenawee County in every season of its history until this season.
New game in the county
In Week 2, Blissfield and Tecumseh will play for the first time since 1972.
The teams have met 20 times since 1950. Both teams have recorded nine wins in the series and there were two draws.
The last time the two teams faced each other was actually a league game. Both schools played in the Huron League at the time.
New trainers
Since last season, Lenawee County has had three new head coaches.
Josh Powers takes the reins at defending state champion Lenawee Christian, Ryan Love has returned as head coach at Blissfield after a five-year hiatus, and Harry Bailey is in his first year at Addison.
Bailey was one of two head coaches at Adrian College last season — and both are coaching at a school in Lenawee County this fall. Jim Deere began the season as Adrian College’s head coach, but resigned after seven games. Bailey served as interim coach for the remainder of the season.
Bailey took the head coaching job at Addison after Joshua Lindeman (now at Manchester) resigned and Deere joined the staff at Madison.
