Petosky football enters new BNC era under first-year coach Jim Webb
PETOSKEY — Well, it’s about that time.
August is here, which means football season is knocking on the door.
Seems wild, doesn’t it? But, it happens every year like this.
Next week marks the official start of fall practices and the first games will begin later this month, so it’s probably time to examine how the schedules lay out for area teams.
First up: Petoskey.
Once again this season, the Northmen will be breaking in a new head coach in former Cadillac coach Jim Webb, a Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee.
That’s not the only obvious change coming Petoskey’s way, as for the first time in 22 years, Traverse City West and Central are out of the Big North and off the schedule.
We’ll have to see how that shakes out and if it results in a more competitive schedule for Petoskey, as they look to snap a stretch of three or fewer wins in five of the last six years.
Here’s the main parts that jump out for the 2022 Petoskey schedule:
New Big North
It’s kind of hard to call a four-team league a conference, but it’ll have to do for now.
The Big North is now condensed into Gaylord, Alpena, Cadillac and Petoskey, with the Northmen having split success against all three teams last season – outside of a 35-0 loss to the Vikings a year ago.
The league games this year are sandwiched right in the heart of the schedule, so Petoskey will have some time before turning focus to rival Gaylord on Sept. 16.
That’s the game that comes circled every year and never seems to disappoint. While it was a 10-7 game a year ago in Gaylord’s favor, it was still a heck of a battle in every area and came with some controversy as well with the field goal that wasn’t a field goal for Petoskey (hard to say either way).
Petoskey will then follow Gaylord with Alpena, then Cadillac to wrap up September, which is when the BNC champ will be crowned.
Interesting Openers
The Traverse City programs had to be replaced with someone and it looks like the first two games of the season are those teams.
Petoskey will open with Ludington at home on Thursday, Aug. 25, then bring in Bay City Western on Friday, Sept. 1.
While it was never a conference game, Ludington used to regularly be on Petoskey’s schedule in the 70s and 90s, with 18 previous matchups between the two.
They’re a division below Petoskey and have mixed success over recent years, going 3-6 a year ago after back-to-back 7-3 campaigns in 2019 and 2018.
The opener is almost always a tossup and with no recent history between these two, this one is definitely a tossup.
The one that should really intrigue some people is the matchup with Bay City Western, a team out of the Saginaw Valley League.
One thing you’ll always hear Western labeled with (and I know having played in the SVL) is they’re a bunch of big farm boys. That’s not far from the truth either. Western has always been big and tough, even in down years.
Last season wasn’t one of those down years, having gone 8-3 before losing to TC Central in the district final.
The Warriors still racked up 380 yards rushing against the Trojans and had an offense that averaged 43 points a game, though they lose their top two running backs in Joe Wiedyk and Logan O’Hare.
It’s hard to say if the first couple weeks of the season will provide insight into who this PHS team is, but they’re an intriguing couple weeks nonetheless.
Good Balance
I’m sure you’re sitting there, scratching your head about what good balance is, right?
Well, one thing I always look at – especially with the schedules around this area and some of the travel – is when the home and away games are, how the long road trips are spread out and so forth.
It would be a heck of a drain if Petoskey had back-to-back weeks of Alpena and Marquette road trips.
This 2022 schedule for the Northmen includes some long Upper Peninsula trips, but it’s really not bad.
It includes more home games than road games, so that’s a check in the plus category and there are no long stretches where they’re on the road for weeks, then home for weeks, which can be tough for a team to find a groove.
They’ll get the first two at home, head to the U.P. (Escanaba), then back home for Gaylord. That’s a solid four-week opening stretch.
The schedule then closes with home games back to back and then U.P. road trips back to back, with the first being only to the Sault.
Years back, in 2018, Petoskey had a stretch of five straight away games. That’s just a grind.
So, when you look at the 2022 schedule, you’ll see good balance and little area for complaint.
Complete Schedule
Aug. 25 (Thur.) vs. Ludington (6 p.m.)
Sept. 1 (Thur.) vs. Bay City Western
Sept. 9 at Escanaba
Sept. 16 vs. Gaylord
Sept. 23 at Alpena
Sept. 30 vs. Cadillac
Oct. 7 vs. Kingsford
Oct. 14 at Sault Ste. Marie
Oct. 21 at Marquette
NOTE: Look for breakdowns on more area teams throughout the week and into next week.
Contact Sports Editor Drew Kochanny at dkochanny@petoskeynews.com. Follow him on Twitter, @DrewKochanny, and Instagram, @drewkochanny
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Petosky football enters new BNC era under first-year coach Jim Webb
