Lakeland names Jim Calhoun new football coach

Lakeland stayed in-house and hired assistant Jim Calhoun as the school’s new football coach last week. He replaces his former boss, Joe Woodruff.

After leading the Eagles to an undefeated regular season and an LVC championship in 2020, Woodruff left for the head-coaching position at Zeeland East in January. Calhoun was Woodruff’s defensive line coach the past four years.

Bolstering Calhoun’s prospects for his first season at the helm of the team will be the return of AllLVC quarterback Tate Farquhar, a master of the RPO game and one of the most exciting players in the area to watch compete on both the football field and the baseball diamond. Farquhar is committed to play baseball at Michigan State.

Nails-tough running backs Reed Jabiro and Evan Percin both return as well and are at Farquhar’s disposal in the lethal weapon department. Jabiro and Percin can chug it between the tackles and catch the ball out of the backfield from Farquhar on rollouts. Linemen Dillon Gacki and Tristin Sharp are back to anchor the Lakeland protection unit up front in the trenches.

“Jabiro and Percin are warriors,” said Woodruff last year. “Those are two guys you want to go into battle with. They play football the right way. They’re both competitors who know how to rise to the moment.”

A pair of Eastern promises

Eastern Michigan dipped into Oakland County in recent weeks and snagged a pair of sleepers for its Class of 2021 in late-signees Ky’Shaun Jackson, a 6-2, 180-pound cornerback from Oak Park and Carter Gilbert, a 6-4, 295-pound defensive end from Oxford.

Jackson’s emergence late in the 2020 season, switching over from wide receiver to the secondary, was a big factor in Oak Park’s miracle run into the Division 2 final four. Gilbert is a gritty pass rusher with prototypical Oxford intangibles.

“Ky’Shaun was pretty remarkable for us in that home stretch where we put it all together, he made some very big plays in the postseason and immediately popped up on everybody’s radar,” Oak Park head coach Greg Carter said.

Tweet of the Week

“Man, I love my team, win, loss or whatever, I know my guys will grind to the end,” Rochester Adams boys basketball coach Jaret Thomas.