LAWTON, Mich. -- Lawton has a history of winning football teams.
The season the Blue Devils have added to that with a perfect regular season, and they have done it with a new head coach.
Wade Waldrup took over this season after serving as defensive coordinator at Mattawan, where he is a teacher.
"He brings a different scheme offensively and defensively that I think match the program that we have now," senior running back and linebacker Harrison Maynard said. "He has a totally different attitude towards football. It is a lot of scheme time that he puts into it."
Lawton came from behind to beat Saugatuck to claim an outright conference championship, and last week they beat Comstock to finish the regular season at 9-0.
"We had a really good culture built in place. He kind of just came in and he molded it a little bit and changed it a little bit," senior quarterback and linebacker Dustin Noble said. "A lot of the same foundations of fast, physical football, and we are just having a lot of fun this year."
Waldrup credits Tony and Kyle Karsen, who led the program to 10 winning seasons and eight playoff berths from 2006 to 2018, for the culture that existed before he arrived.
He points to the team camaraderie as a big reason for on-the-field success.
"If you were to come in our locker room, you can't tell who the seniors are and who the sophomores are. They are like one big family," Waldrup noted. "They love each other. Every week after the game -- it is not an organized thing -- they just all go out to eat together. They do everything together. When you've got that, the winning just kind of happens."
The Blue Devils will host Centreville (6-3) Friday night in the opening round of the Division 7 playoffs.
