Caledonia Season Recap

The Fighting Scots really flew under the radar this season, with most of the OK-Red attention being directed toward Rockford. Well, let it be known that Caledonia was championship caliber, whether that be in the OK-Red, or all of Division 2. Here’s a view of how Caledonia’s season played out. 41-14 W vs Holt 35-0 W vs Lowell 24-14 W vs Grandville 35-9 W vs East Kentwood 42-13 W vs Grand Haven 45-22 W vs West Ottawa 7-14 L vs Rockford 42-7 W vs Jenison 26-19 W vs Hudsonville 28-14 W vs Byron Center (Pre-Districts) 49-12 W vs Mona Shores (Districts) 14-42 L vs Traverse City Central (Regionals) <strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">A Season to Remember</span></strong> Caledonia went 10-2 on the year and finished 2nd in the highly competitive OK-Red. After going 4-5 last season and finishing 6th in the OK-Red, this season was a massive accomplishment and a leap forward. In fact, this is their 1st winning season since 2014 and their best season since 2008. They played incredibly impressive football this season with many blowout wins, including defending state champion Mona Shores, and they had a very close loss against Rockford, the #1 ranked team in D1. This performance is of course thanks to the grand-slam first-year (formerly at Zeeland East) coach Derek Pennington, and the talent of the athletes on the field. Now, let’s dive deeper into the coaching <strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Coaching</span></strong> Pennington came into this job with plenty of experience- 13 years at Zeeland East. He was successful with the Chix as he led the team to 2 district titles, and 1 regional title, with 88 total wins with them. Players have praised his coaching style, which apparently is very different from former coach Tom Burrill. For starters, the offense has drastically changed switching over from the wishbone offense to a West-coast throw first offense. The defense looks schematically similar to last year, but they’ve significantly improved having gone from 31PAPG in 2020, to 15.25PAPG this season. Let’s now look at the difference-making athletes! <span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Standout Athletes</strong></span> <strong>G <a href="https://www.hudl.com/profile/11230858/Andrew-DeVries">[player_tooltip player_id="30184" first="Andrew" last="DeVries"]</a></strong> The Ferris State commit was a great anchor for the offense showing tremendous strength and leverage. DeVries earned 1st team all-region honors and has extensive experience blocking under different schemes, which will really help him during his next step at Ferris. <strong>DT <a class="uni-link--implied" href="https://www.hudl.com/profile/12235692">Caleb Paarlberg</a></strong> Continuing with the trenches, Paarlberg was a force on both sides of the ball. Strength was the name of the game as his 6’2 260lb frame was plenty to outmuscle most offensive and defensive linemen. Paarlberg earned all-state and all-region honors this season. <strong>QB <a class="uni-link--implied" href="https://www.hudl.com/profile/12946393">Mason McKenzie</a> </strong> McKenzie took the new spread-out offense and ran with it, having an awesome year at QB with his senior year still to come. His deep-throw accuracy was sensational, and he remained very composed in the pocket even when pressure was in his face. McKenzie also showed the ability to scramble, with a few designed runs, making him a good dual-threat. <strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Looking Ahead</span></strong> There’s not much of a case for regression, but not much of a case for progression in 2022. Caledonia will sorely miss their 2 monsters in the trenches, but the 2nd year with this coaching staff may make this team even better. It was really unfortunate that their game against Traverse City Central was a blizzard, as the weather did not fare well with the spread offense, but did fare well with the TC run it down your throat offense. I still expect this team to be very competitive in the OK-Red, and I do think they will continue to improve under this coaching staff.