HARBOR SPRINGS- The Harbor Springs Varsity football team had lost 26 consecutive games dating back to 2021.
But in his first game as head coach, Eric Slifka and the Rams brought an end to that streak last night with an 18-16 win over Morley Stanwood.
Slifka was an assistant for Harbor Springs on the last team to make the playoffs in 2019, and coached the JV team during the three winless seasons, meaning it’s a group he’s familiar with and had the utmost confidence in.
Numbers for the team are up this year, the Rams had just 15 players in 11-man football and now have 23. They decided this year would be different long before the first snap.
“I think I didn’t have to do that as much as them wanting to do that.
You know, it’s really on them and the work that they put in this offseason getting stronger, getting faster. You know, the coaches all bought into the system, the kids bought into the system.
And, just the overall offseason work, you know, we got faster, we got stronger. We just got better. And, you know, that was a result of it last night. Just a huge effort all the way around. So everything kind of came together. And it was a great night, awesome to see for the community, for the school, for the kids, especially. It was great" (Erik Slifka, head coach).
Jake Warner is in his fourth year on varsity. He spoke about the feeling of getting win number one.
“I played football for years here at Harbor. I have not won one yet. So it’s it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before. It was, it was a struggle for a long time, but, yeah, we got one here.
You know, our guys got a taste of a win. And we haven’t had that taste yet. So now that we got that, I’d say our guys are working a lot harder. We’re pushing for it. We like that feeling. We’re going to keep working for that" (Jake Warner, senior RB/LB).
They’ll look for win number two on the road against Mancelona next week.