West Bloomfield promotes Tyrice Grice to be next football coach

The new leader of the L-Boys is Tyrice Grice, known for his success scheming on the defensive side of the football.

West Bloomfield recently hired Grice, the Lakers defensive coordinator on its 2020-2021 Division 1 state championship club, to take over the program from Ron Bellamy, who left for an assistant coaching job at his alma mater, University of Michigan, in January. The defensive unit at West Bloomfield was one of the best in the state in Grice’s time at the helm, which included two trips to the state finals.

“I am very excited to become the next head coach at West Bloomfield,” Grice said. “It will be a challenge to live up to the legacy of Coach Bellamy. But as the new head coach, I plan to continue on that legacy and take the program to another level of excellence. We will be keeping the same coaching staff and system in place that Coach Bellamy had, and the goal is to defend our state title. We will

be a very young team, but we are talented and will be ready to fight to defend what’s ours.”

Under Bellamy, the West Bloomfield program rose to meteoric heights both on the field in terms of wins and off the field in terms of the amount of players earning Division I college scholarships.

Bellamy’s players began calling themselves the “LBoys,” and they dubbed

the Lakers home field, the Swamp.

For the past eight years, Grice has worked on Bellamy’s staff as associate head coach, linebackers coach and defensive coordinator. He was a head coach in the Detroit PSL at Detroit Renaissance for 2010 and 2011 campaigns.

Grice prepped at Detroit Pershing in the 1980s and played in college at Western Michigan.

“Throughout the interview process, it was abundantly clear that Coach Grice possesses the leadership and interpersonal

skills to run a high-profile football program,” said West Bloomfield athletic director Eric Pierce. “Coach Grice has been an integral part of the rise in success of the program under Coach Bellamy. He was instrumental in the creation of the familial culture that exists within the program and he’s invested in seeing it continue.”

While West Bloomfield graduates quite a bit from its starting lineup, Blue Chippers like Dillon Tatum (RB-CB), Michael Williams (LB-TE), Kari Jackson (LB), Amir Herring (OL) and

Brandon Davis-Swain (DE) return for the repeat effort. Tatum and Williams will be seniors. Jackson and DavisSwain will be sophomores and Herring, a junior. Semaj Morgan is a fast-rising wide receiver recruit in the Class of 2023.

And there’s been a buzz growing about ninth-grader Reqez Nance, (the program’s junior varsity quarterback) and his slippery playmaking ability since he first stepped on campus late last summer. Expect Nance to emerge as the Lakers starting signal caller on the varsity for 2021.