Meet the family making championships at Ford Field a second home
The Marry family doesn’t have to assemble at someone’s house for holiday family gatherings — Ford Field is becoming its second home.
Not only did senior Bronson Marry and his sophomore brother, Austin, suit up for Hudson on Friday, the family has a whole line of studentathletes who played in the Tigers’ prior state championship games (2003, 2009-10) or wrestled at the individual state finals, also at Ford Field.
Bronson — who rushed for 49 yards, punted twice, returned a kick and had a 28-yard interception return — tried to list them all.
“There’s Scooter Marry, who’s the head wrestling coach, and then there’s Eric who’s the assistant, and my cousin Joel played football and wrestled here, Derrik played football and wrestled here, Devan played football and wrestled here, Grant played football and wrestled here, Kyle played football and wrestled here, Cole and I played football here and I wrestled here, uh, and then there’s a whole bunch more uncles and cousins who wrestled here.”
Bronson Marry said wrestling at Ford Field helped him and several teammates take the right approach to playing for a championship on a big stage.
“I feel I can bring the mental part, and just try and keep them calm, not making it bigger than what it needs to be,” he said. “In wrestling, I just try to keep my mindset the same; I just try to lower theirs. Obviously, that’s just individual, but team, we just try to keep everybody positive and keep moving forward, keep going.”
Perhaps the Hudson city limit signs doesn’t need to list the Tigers’ state championships — it could just say, “Home of the Marrys.”
“Yeah, that’s what people call it,” Marry said.
Pilots fly high again
Dan Rohn guided Grand Rapids West Catholic to state championships in 2010 and 2013-15, but he described the Michigan high school football Division 2 title he won Friday for Warren De La Salle — 41-14 over Traverse City Central — as “a little different.”
“When you take a little time off, you’re not sure if you’re going to be back in the game, and then you get an opportunity at a school like De La Salle. Last year hurt, but we knew we were still building something. This one meant a lot. I really felt the pressure of wanting to get this one for our school, for our community. To complete the job and take it to another level.”
Rohn walked away from West Catholic in 2015 to become an assistant at Ferris State, but came to realize he missed the high school game. De La Salle hired him to succeed Mike Giannone early last year, after De La Salle had won two state championships but withdrew from the 2019 playoffs when a hazing scandal came to light at the school.
Despite the issues before his hire, Rohn said there wasn’t much to fix with X’s and O’s, and there was a lot of talent on the roster.
As a result, it didn’t take De La Salle long to meet high expectations again. The Pilots reached the Division 2 final last season, losing to Muskegon Mona Shores in January. This year, De La Salle was ranked No. 1 all season, completing its first undefeated campaign in school history.
“I think it’s important that we stay humble and we stay focused, and we get back to work and get in the weight room and do those little things,” he said. “Right now, we’ve got tremendous support and this thing’s going in the right direction, and we just want to keep the lid on it and not be satisfied with just one.”