Houghton football hungry for more success

ISHPEMING – If there was a team that came out of nowhere a season ago, it was the guys from the Copper Country that wear orange and black. The Houghton Gremlins had one of the most successful seasons in school history a year ago. Houghton won six games and made the playoffs for the first time since 2001.

Now that they’ve had a taste of the MHSAA playoffs, the Gremlins want nothing more than to get back to the postseason for a second straight year. That hasn’t happened in nearly 14 years. A big part of Houghton’s success last season was their ability to win tight ball games. The Gremlins won four of their six games by six points are less.

“We were very, very fortunate last year,” said head coach Karl Borree. We had a number of games that could have went either way. It helped the kids get a bit of confidence. When you get against teams that are really good and well coached really gives all of us coaches and players a good understanding where the bar is and how far we have to go to try and get up to their level. Basically I want us to get better every game, try to win as many games as possible, and keep the games close so we have an opportunity,” Borree went on to say.

“We just have to get better as a team,” said Gremlins senior wide receiver Sam Bethancourt. “We can’t look back, that’s all gone. It’s not going to change now. We just have to get better and go farther in the playoffs. That’s my goal.”

“We have a little more experience this year,” said senior Ben Collaer, the Gremlins starting quarterback. “We have to move forward and bring that to next season and win as many ball games as we can. I think we had a good season last year and I would like to keep that going.”

Houghton scrimmaged Kingsford, Ishpeming and Gwinn today. The Gremlins begin the season on the road at L’Anse on Thursday, Aug. 28.