Former Hematites put on a show at MTU Spring Game

HOUGHTON — This past weekend, the Michigan Tech football team held their annual Spring Game at Sherman Field where the White Team beat the Black Team 10–7 on a last–second field goal.

“I think it was a great day to be a Husky. Our kids came out. They played hard. They competed. Obviously, you can see the excitement at the end of the game that it meant something to them. I was very happy with the way it went,” head coach Steve Olson said.

It was the first spring game as head coach for Steve Olson, who is taking over for Tom Kearly.

“It was fun. I got a chance to get around and see some things from a different perspective. Obviously next fall, I’ll be much more in the mix as far as making decisions and all those types of things. But it was fun just to walk around and see some emotion on the kids and some of the coaches,” said Olson.

It was also a special game for two former Ishpeming football players. Ozzy Corp was an all–state quarterback for the Hematites and was recruited by MTU to be a defensive back. But on Saturday, he was under center, completing his first five passes of the game. However, don’t expect Corp to make the switch back to QB.

“Typically what we do with our spring game is we’re going to chop up reps. He was going to get a chance to get about 50–50 on reps. I thought he did a nice job,” Olson said.

“A little rusty at first in the spring, getting back to throwing and doing some full work stuff. Just getting back and actually throwing it, it feels really nice,” said Corp.

It was a great game for Eric Kostreva who scored a touchdown in the game and had some good plays in the open field.

“I did take some good hits today. I try to get as many yards as I can on every run. Usually if there’s open field where I’m not going to get as much yardage, and if there’s some people over here where I’m going to get more yards, then I’m going to go try to get more yards,” Kosterva said.

“Eric has had a pretty good spring for us. We pulled back on a couple of other running backs that didn’t play in the game. But I thought Eric did pretty well,” said Olson.

Both players say they are enjoying their experience at Tech and hope to be contributing members of the team in 2017.

“It’s hard to play football and go to school at Michigan Tech. You have to be a tough person. It weeds out the weak is what Coach Kearly always used to say,” Kostreva said.

“The atmosphere is just really competitive during practice, and then you got to get it done during the school year. Just all the competitiveness,” said Corp.

The Huskies will open the season at home on August 31st against Truman State.