MARTIN, Mich. — People in Martin celebrated their high school’s first football state championship since the 1980s on Tuesday.
After losses in the semifinals the past two years, the Clippers dominated Merrill over the weekend in a 74-24 victory for the 8-player Division 1 title.
“Just a lot of hard work in the offseason,” said Brad Blauvelt, head coach. “Our seniors are a special group. There’s 10 of them. We’re a small school, so that’s a lot of seniors. They all love football, and just years of experience. They’ve played in semifinal games year after year, so all that experience kind of transitioned into a great year.”
Martin’s quarterback says it means a lot not only for the team, but the entire community.
“This year you could really sense the buzz around our team,” said JR Hildebrand, senior. “Then, we went up north and saw the crowd that we had and we really knew that the community really wanted this just as much as we did.”
He added, “It was a pretty big team effort and every thing because our D-line did a great job controlling their offensive line and our o-line did a great job controlling their defensive line, which allowed our athletes to get out in space and do what they needed to do.”
The win brought him closer to his father too.
In 1987, Tracey Hildebrand played on Martin’s last championship-caliber team.
“We were the underdogs in the playoffs and were able to pull off upsets every week,” said Tracey Hildebrand.
In an interview with FOX 17, he said he found it hard to watch this time around, but now that it’s over, he loves that he can share this with his son.
“I was pacing and all up tight [at Saturday’s game],” said Tracey Hildebrand. “When we won it, I was excited and everything and then for him to go through that, as the clock was ticking down, I knew exactly what he was going to be feeling, the joy and everything.”
According to the district, the Martin community raised $21,000 to help send the team to states.
“It’s a really exciting moment to be able to share with the whole community and my teammates,” said JR Hildebrand.
