sports
Slobin, Harrison Begin
Final Football Season
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
B
illy Slobin has been the strength
and conditioning coach for the
Farmington Hills Harrison High
School football team since 1986.
He hasn’t been paid a cent for
32 years. He’s a volunteer. He said
he’s done the job to give back to the
Harrison football program, which had
a significant positive impact on his life
when he played for the Hawks from
1977-1979.
There’s an enormous elephant on
the gridiron at Harrison this month as
the Hawks prepare to begin practice
for the 2018 season.
This will be the final season of
Harrison football. The last chapter in
the history of one of the state’s most
storied high school football programs
will be written.
It’s all because of a March 16, 2016,
decision by the Farmington Public
Schools Board of Education to close
Harrison after the 2018-2019 school
year because of declining enrollment
and financial pressures in the district.
Farmington and North Farmington,
the other two high schools in the dis-
trict, will remain open.
Harrison has won a record 13 state
championships in football. The first
was in 1981. The last was in 2010. The
Hawks made it to the Division 3 state
title game last year before losing 28-10
to powerhouse Muskegon at Ford
Field, finishing 10-4 after a slow start.
John Herrington, the only football
coach at Harrison since the high
school opened in 1970, has 435 career
wins, the most in Michigan high
school football history.
Harrison’s football field is named in
his honor.
Legacies and a school closing aren’t
on the minds of Harrison coaches as
August dawns. Just ask Slobin.
“We don’t care about anything
other than the 2018 Harrison Hawks
season,” he said. “We have another
chance to do something we all love,
and we want to win another state
championship. We’ll start worrying
about the future Dec. 1.”
Only about 50 players are in the
Harrison football program. Many have
left. The ones who have stayed will get
the full attention of Harrison coaches.
Slobin’s connection to Harrison
runs deep.
He works across the street from the
high school as a senior mortgage loan
officer for Mortgage One. He calls his
memorabilia-filled office a shrine to
Harrison football.
His sons Stephen, 25, and Jake, 23,
Jake Slobin, Billy Slobin and Stephen Slobin
both played football for Harrison, won
a state championship on an unde-
feated Hawks team in 2010, and went
on to play college football.
Stephen played one collegiate sea-
son at Siena Heights University before
ending his football career and trans-
ferring to Michigan State. Jake was
an All-State high school player who
played four years at Grand Valley State
University.
Each was named the Jewish News
Male High School Athlete of the
Year following his senior season at
Harrison.
Their father is far more than the
Harrison football team’s strength
and conditioning coach. He’s turned
the job into a year-round focus that
encompasses areas like nutrition, the
importance of academics and becom-
ing a well-rounded individual.
“I’ve helped many young men who
were having a tough time grow up,” he
said. “I’d say weight training is 30 per-
cent of the job now.
“When I first started the job, my
goal was to help us win state cham-
pionships. Now, my goal is to teach
these kids how to become the best
young men possible.”
One way he does that has been to
arrange for Harrison football players
to read to elementary school students
in the district and talk to students
about responsibility and treating oth-
ers with respect.
“Our players don’t know it, but I’ve
been giving them public speaking les-
sons,” Slobin, 55, said.
They also may not know, Slobin
said, that years from now, the wins
and losses on the football field will
become simply a line item on their life
resume.
“The ride will become more impor-
tant,” he said. “The hard work, the
friendships made, the memories.” •
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August 2 • 2018
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