Coloma Press Box

Coloma Football wraps up comeback varsity season with awards night

Last Wednesday evening, Nov. 8, the Coloma Comet varsity and junior varsity football coaches, parents and players, gathered in the High School Library to celebrate their recently completed seasons. While both groups ended with records that featured more losses than wins at the conclusion of festivities, there was still plenty to celebrate.

The evening began with head coach, Brian Klee addressing the audience in attendance and thanking everyone for taking time out of their evening to recognize the contributions the players made as student-athletes during the past season. In his opening words, he started by thanking those who have done plenty behind the scenes to help the program restart varsity competition. Those included his wife and daughters, assistant coaches Josh Sodeborg, Phil Hickmon, Josh Groendyk, Fischer Smith and Chad Case, administrators Dave Ehlers (superintendent), Craig Fisher (principal), Mike Churchill (assistant principal) and Wendy Goodline (athletic director).

Coach Klee also took time to thank the Coloma Athletic Boosters, led by April Gagliardo, Brenda Crisenbery, Melissa Walter and Heidi Starnes, the game night crews (including the numerous individuals who filmed throughout the season), but most importantly, he thanked parents for providing rides, outstanding pre-game meals and everything they did to support the program.

Then, he turned to address the 2023 Coloma football team. Coach Klee commented that he feels there is momentum building right now; not just in the football program, but in the entire sports program at Coloma, thanks to these young men working to “Better Their Best.” In his words, this group showed growth, became more reliable, played with elite effort, and at times, executed precisely. In addition, they figured out how to keep a positive attitude in the face of adversity and demonstrated the toughness required to eventually be successful on the field, in the classroom and in life.

Coach Klee also listed some of the team accomplishments from the 2023 season. He was impressed by how the group of Comets stuck together, despite a challenging start, in the face of what amounted to the tenth toughest schedule in the state in Division 7. He also made mention of the first varsity victory for Coloma since Oct. 16, 2020, the best scoring defense since 2017 and being truly just a few plays away from qualifying for the playoffs.

Following his comments, players on the junior varsity and varsity squad were called up by their coaching staff to receive their awards, which included letters, pins and chevrons. The writer of this column was in attendance, and I can say that I’m quite happy to see the youth building up in the program. The junior varsity squad was made up of mostly freshman, while the varsity squad was heavily focused on a large group of sophomores, who will be determined to make their mark (along with their teammates) over the next couple of years.

In terms of team statistics for the season, the Comets totaled 1,632 yards of total offense, which included 545 passing yards and 1,087 rushing yards. The team had fifteen total touchdowns (three passing, twelve rushing) and recorded 80 first downs. On defense, the team finished with 461 total tackles, which included five sacks and 26 tackles-for-a-loss. In terms of specialty defense, they made eight interceptions, forced six fumbles, recovered six fumbles and had two defensive scores.

Just as a reminder, the Coloma varsity program finished with a record of 3-6. As we’ve mentioned before, the team will only graduate a handful of seniors; a senior group that served as amazing leaders for this young squad. The hope will be that the youth of the program will sustain the positive vibes into the coming offseason, with the hope to return to winning records and postseason berths in the years ahead. Congratulations to Coach Klee, the coaching staff and the players on their accomplishments this season!

Coloma winter sports on the

horizon – but we’ll also honor

fall athletes!

Recently, as we know, with a loss by the volleyball team in the district semifinals and a final run on the cross-country trail at the state meet, the fall sports season has officially ended in Coloma. It seems like just yesterday that our newspaper was talking about upcoming games, matches and meets and just like that, it went by in the blink of an eye. Each year, time flashes by faster-and-faster, making us wonder what could’ve happened differently throughout the fall.

However, as I mentioned last week in the Hartford Press Box, the one thing we all realize is that we can’t go back in time. We can’t score any more touchdowns or put away that spike to win the fifth set tiebreaker. The moments that were created are sealed in time for us to look back at for days, months and years to come. But what we can do is honor the student-athletes who performed well on the court, field and trail this fall and give them the proper accolades they all deserve.

So, that’s what we plan to do in the coming weeks, as we currently sit between sports seasons. Our newspaper will be working with the Coloma Athletic Department to acquire all-conference lists, as well as potential postseason recognition (including all-district) that were picked up by student-athletes. So, we encourage our loyal readers to stay tuned to this column, as we spend some time talking about all the accomplishments that our Comets / Lady Comets achieved over the past couple months!

As always, GO GREEN! GO GOLD!