DECEMBER 17 • 2020 | 43

NORTH FARMINGTON’S HISTORIC FOOTBALL 
SEASON STOPPED BY PANDEMIC

It’s been a memorable season 

for the North Farmington High 

School football team. The 

memories are both good and 

bad.

The Raiders won their first 

playoff game and first district 

championship since 1978 and 

have advanced to the Division 

2 quarterfinals.

But their already-shortened 

season has come to a 

screeching halt because of the 

COVID-19 pandemic.

North Farmington was 

supposed to resume practice 

Dec. 8 after a three-week 

“pause” on high school 

sports called by the Michigan 

Department 

of Health and 

Human Services 

and play at 

Traverse City 

Central on Dec. 

15, but the pause 

has been extended until at 

least Dec. 20.

It isn’t known when or if the 

playoffs will resume.

“Our kids have been 

awesome this season. They’ve 

made the best of it. They’ve 

been compliant. They’ve 

followed all the rules. We 

haven’t had one positive 

COVID test,” said Billy Slobin, 

North Farmington’s strength 

and conditioning coach.

“If our season is over, we at 

least got to play nine games, 

we had three postseason wins 

[one by forfeit against South 

Lyon in the district finals] and 

our seniors have game film 

they can use if they want to go 

further in their football career,” 

Slobin said.

The Raiders are 6-3. 

They were 9-1 last season, 

the first in which several 

coaches, including Slobin 

and the legendary John 

Herrington from now-shuttered 

Farmington Hills Harrison 

High School, went to North 

Farmington.

“We had a much tougher 

regular-season schedule this 

season, and we moved up 

from the Blue Division to the 

White Division in the OAA,” 

Slobin said.

North Farmington beat 

Waterford Kettering 44-7 and 

Flint Metro League champion 

Fenton 44-28 in its first two 

postseason games this year 

before getting the forfeit win 

over South Lyon.

Slobin, who played 

football at Harrison, became 

the Hawks’ strength and 

conditioning coach in 1986. He 

hasn’t missed a season since 

then.

Billy Slobin

BILLY SLOBIN

HUNDREDS OF TEAMS INVITED 
TO TRAVEL TO MOTOR CITY CLASSIC

Josh Birnberg and 

Matt Sandles 

have given travel 

baseball teams 

something to 

look forward to 

next summer.

The friends 

have organized 

the inaugural 

Motor City 

Classic. If the 

initial response 

to the July 21-25 

competition is any 

indication, the tournament 

with 13U, 14U, 15U and 

17U/18U divisions will be a 

home run.

“Our original goal was 200 

teams. In less than three 

weeks, we signed up 115 

teams,” said Birnberg, the 

West Bloomfield High School 

baseball coach and coach of 

the 18U DBacks Elite travel 

baseball team.

Only one Canadian team, 

from Ontario, had registered 

as of Dec. 8, most likely 

because of the COVID-19 

ban on nonessential travel 

between the U.S. and Canada.

Teams from Michigan, Ohio, 

Illinois, Pennsylvania and West 

Virginia have registered.

“Our expectations have 

been blown out of the water,” 

said Sandles, who was the 

coach of the 18U Michigan 

Jets travel baseball team 

for five years and has been 

organizing travel baseball 

tournaments for seven years.

From 25 to 30 fields in 

Oakland, Macomb and Wayne 

counties will be used for the 

Motor City Classic. Seven 

fields have been confirmed 

already, including diamonds at 

Oakland University, Northville 

High School and West 

Bloomfield High School.

“It’s best to have one 

field for every six teams in a 

tournament,” Birnberg said.

Birnberg is a West 

Bloomfield resident. Sandles 

lives in Novi.

“We’ve been talking about 

putting together a tournament 

like this for a few years,” 

Birnberg said. “We have 

some extra time on our hands 

because of the pandemic, so 

we thought we’d make good 

use of it.”

There’s a five-game 

guarantee (weather permitting) 

for each division of the Motor 

City Classic except 13U, which 

has a three-game guarantee 

(weather permitting).

Schedules and rosters will 

be sent to college baseball 

coaches and pro baseball 

scouts. The champion and 

runner-up in each division will 

receive individual and team 

awards.

Fee is $575 per team 

for the 13U division. It’s 

$1,250 per team for the 

other divisions, with a $250 

discount for early signups with 

a $50 deposit by Jan. 1.

Birnberg can be reached 

at (248) 303-6732 or 

CoachJoshBirnberg@

gmail.com. Sandles can be 

reached at (248) 752-8185 or 

Novisandles@aol.com.

Matt Sandles

ELIJAH SCOTT

Josh 

Birnberg

WENDY BIRNBERG

quick hits
BY STEVE STEIN 
continued from page 41