Imlay City senior Austin DeRocher remembers coach Brian Tresnak laying out the team’s path to the state playoffs last week, and it revolved around five teams ahead of the Spartans in points.
DeRocher gave it a quick glance; he didn’t think much of it because Imlay City needed to beat Capac to have any hope of claiming a playoff spot.
But when the Spartans did win, he recalled the five teams ahead of the Spartans.
“Five teams had to lose and they were all predicted to lose,” he said. “I thought all those teams lost and then I remembered the Chandler Park thing. I looked into it.”
Ah yes, the Harper Woods Chandler Park thing.
Like Imlay City, Chandler Park was 4-4, but football coach and athletic director John Jergovich ran the numbers and realized the Eagles would make the playoffs with that record. They refused to play their Week 9 game against Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook (5-3).
Jergovich asserted — correctly — that there was no written contract with Cranbrook, but he didn’t have one with Week 3 opponent Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, either (that game did take place).
He even tried to claim he intentionally scheduled only an eight-game season.
