Speaking of Sports Column Archive

Speaking
of
Sports

by
Bernie
Fratto

Déjà vu all over again

10/22/07

When the Novi Wildcats tee it up Friday night against visiting Livonia Churchill, they’ll be back where they belong… Hosting a District playoff football game and proving to Southeastern Michigan that they are clearly one of the top programs in the State.

My colleague Tom Markowski sort of alluded to this a few weeks back, but only after realizing that his pre-season prediction that Milford was #5 in the state couldn’t possibly be true. He praised Novi for being well-coached and sound, but tempered his compliments by saying that Novi really didn’t wow anybody.

Respectfully, I couldn’t disagree more. Novi might not have any legitimate D1 prospects that will go onto stardom at the next level. But they have qualities far more important than that, and those qualities have made them one of the more interesting stories this season in the MHSAA.

They’ve proven they can handle the physical and mental duress of a tough KVC, winning on the road at places like Howell, Hartland, Brighton and Pinckney. Going undefeated on the road is pretty difficult, I don’t care who you’re playing.

They’ve proven they could prevail in the individual battles as they had to win literally every week, or surrender their perch on top of their conference.

And they proved they could re-group after technically starting out 0-2. They caught a break but they were resourceful enough to take advantage of it and as a result they haven’t lost a game since August!

It doesn’t take D1 players to win in High School, it takes a team. In the past few years the Cats have seen the likes of D1 talent like Kelly Baraka, Joey Sarantos, Will Johnson, Roger Allison, Jim Presley and Kellen Davis, just to name a few. And along the way Portage Northern, Lake Orion , Milford and Adrian were all sent packing by determined, well-coached Novi teams.

They will beat Livonia Churchill on Friday, and when they travel to Livonia Stevenson on Nov 2nd, don’t be surprised if they do what they’ve done all year; Win on the road.

This team knows how to win, and some of us managed to figure it out earlier than others.

…It’s déjà vu all over again. Let the games begin.

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Bernie Fratto is a freelance writer, radio personality, and motivational speaker. His passion for sports comes in part from his experience as a former Cincinnati Red farm- hand. "Behind every sports story lies the hearts and minds of real human beings" said Fratto. "These athletic endeavors often serve as a metaphor for the game we call life."

Bernie is also on the broadcast team at Live 97.1FM talk-radio, and is a frequent co-host on the popular "Parker & The Man Show," a nightly sportstalk show which airs Monday-Friday from 7-11pm.