The Dakota Cougars Varsity Football team unfortunately had their final battle on November 11, 2022 against Cass Tech. The Cougars went undefeated in the regular season, won the MAC red championship, won districts, and made it to round three of playoffs. The boys had unstoppable and emotional season, with nobody even coming close to them in the regular season. Cass Tech vs Dakota was an emotional night for our seniors, #1 Owen Colpaert, #4 Joe Cacevic, #5 Blake Garbarino, #6 Ethan Hamby, #7 Calvin Watson, #8 Tyler Harper, #9 Alan Rosales, #11 Lorenzo Alfred, #14 Alan Browning, #18 Domenic Celestini, #19 Dylan King, #21 Jacob Leija, #26 Quest Williams, #31 Wyatt Davis, #32 Chris Fulford, #50 Michael Pittiglio, #51 Sam Battaglia, #54 Bo Wheeler, #55 Joey Pruchnic, #59 Bryce King, #72 Aaron Hoder, #74 Brian Hoerauf, #78 Kaden Whitfield, #80 Diandre Lawerence Jr, #85 Aldin Durakovic, #86 Elijah Butler, #93 Dylan Smith, and #95 Anthony Coleman. Dakota has 28 seniors in total and the end of season was bittersweet with not a dry eye out on the field.

     The season began on August 28, 2022 winning against Brother Rice 21-7, then to Utica winning 42-0, and another blowout game 31-7 against Anchor Bay High School. The Cougars got there redemption against Stevenson high school beating them 38-3, then going against our rivals Chippewa Valley High School, arguably one the biggest games in the state beating them 28-17. Romeo High School came up short to the Cougars 21-14 and Ike couldn’t keep up with Dakota beating them 31-7. To finish out the regular season Dakota had two blowouts with Utica Ford and Mumford losing 58-14 and 42-0. The Playoffs began on October 21, 2022 going head to head once against Eisenhower High School beating them 28-0, With a tough lose Chippewa Valley lost to Romeo in first round but Romeo would not advance as the Cougar swept the floor with the bulldogs winning 17-0 and taking home the district championship. In round three Dakota lost 35-21 to Cass Tech who did advanced to play Belleville, the raining state champions. However Cass Tech came up short to Belleville in round 4 sending Belleville all the way to States.

       Seven of our own Dakota Cougars made All Macomb County, QB Ethan Hamby, RB Joe Cacevic, OL Bo Wheeler, LB Tyler Harper, DE Anthony Coleman, WR Owen Colpaert, and K Dom Celestini. Team 27, which is called that because it is Coach Baur’s (Division 1 Regional Coach of the year) 27th year coaching, was one of the best teams Dakota has had in awhile and it’s only up from here. Dakotas JV football team has proved themselves indispensable as they outscored any other JV team. They have been undefeated both their freshman year and sophomore year and have great prospect for the following years of  the Dakota Football Program. Team 27’s Coaches that helped this season run and set these boys up for success we’re Head Coach Greg Baur, and  Assistant Coaches Angelo Plouffe, Jason Baur, Justin Taurence, Matt Carley, Mike Benavides, Sean Koski, and Steven Goralski. For the seniors it was a lot of their last times stepping out on the field but a handful of the boys are getting offer to play College Football at the nest level. The season was nothing short of incredible and everyone is sad to see it end.

Pictures from the Cass Tech vs Dakota game: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Un9B4svVxyXEANCx9