Milan football's historic season comes to disappointing end, but coach proud of turnaround
The Milan High School football team scored at will all season long, but could only manage six points on Friday night.
It was a season low and more than 30 points below its regular season scoring average.
Arthur Dukes, above, and the other seniors on the Milan football team were disappointed Friday, but ultimately made program history with their turnaround. (Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com)
It was a season high, and more than double the amount Milan allowed on average in its first 10 games.
Scoring a season low and giving up a season high is not exactly a recipe for success, so it’s no surprise Milan’s undefeated season came to an end in a 26-6 loss to Tecumseh on Friday.
That the team wasn’t playing its best football when that first loss finally came will only add to the sting.
“Tomorrow tonight or whenever we look at this, we’re going to say we made too many mistakes to win the football game,” Milan coach Jesse Hoskins said.
But the disappointment didn’t take away from the pride Hoskins felt in the senior group that had its bid at perfection dashed on Friday.
The group endured a 1-8 season as juniors - the program’s worst record in 28 years in Hoskins' first year as head coach - but followed it up by winning ten games, as many as any Milan team has ever won.
The nine-win upswing is the largest turnaround in program history. The previous high was a five-win improvement.
“These seniors are a very special group,” Hoskins said. “I’ve never been around a group of kids that have more heart that have invested more than they have. I really feel like they got what they deserved this year.”
Losing on Friday hurt, but Hoskins was glad the players that endured that tough first season with him as head coach have something to hang their hats on.
“Winning ten straight games, finishing the season 10-1 puts them right up there with the best Milan teams of all time and they deserve that,” he said.
Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com, follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.
Comments
dugster
Sun, Nov 4, 2012 : 4:17 p.m.
Great job to the Milan Big Reds and Jessie and his coaching staff. The team has nothing to hang it's head about. You all did well as a team. Being a Milan resident and alumni I think I can speak for the rest of the town and say that we're proud of the job you did.