OT - Green and White Never Looked So Good

Submitted by J.W. Wells Co. on

Alpena High School debuted some new football helmets last night, along with a new Winged T offense that called to mind Fritz Crisler and the Mad Magicians.  The result wasn't the same on the scoreboard, but it's a work in progress with a new head coach and a new system.

Bottom line: green and white never looked so good.

Alpena High for years has used "Varsity" as its fight song (duly substituting "Alpena" for "Michigan" and "green and white" for "maize and blue"), and last night the band played a scaled-down arrangement of "Temptation" as its first on-field number before the game, and on defensive stops.

Alpena players also ran under a banner between a tunnel of band members before the game.

It appears they're trying to make both sides of a fairly evenly split town (which has been trending toward MSU the last several years because obvs) pretty happy.

A big boost for U-M in town however: the locally owned hospital was just bought by MidMichigan Health, which is a U-M affiliate.  There's now maize and blue and the Block M all over the hospital, which is the biggest employer in town.

Hail To The Blue

August 26th, 2016 at 1:03 PM ^

My alma mater! I was at the game and, uh, not a fan of the helmets. Last year they had the all white helmets with a green A, and they looked as good as green and white can. You can see from the picture (#12 and #68) that the spacing of the wings was inconsistent from helmet to helmet and that drove me up a wall.

Team lost 24-8 to Escanaba, fumbled 3 times and gave up several long drives to Esky, including one drive of 11 and TWO drives of 16(!) plays, one in the 3rd quarter that took 9 and a half minutes of the 12 minute quarter. Also got called for a personal foul (leaping) on a blocked Escanaba field goal that gave Escanaba a first down on 4th and 21.

J.W. Wells Co.

August 26th, 2016 at 1:08 PM ^

I actually thought they looked pretty good; it's a classic and classy helmet design, after all.  The uses I don't like are the tri-color version, with base color 1, wings color 2, and stripes color 3.

Game was more competitive than the score indicated.  Running an entirely new system, some fundamentals were forgotten.  The Winged T offense moved the ball pretty well in stretches.

Hail To The Blue

August 26th, 2016 at 1:11 PM ^

Agree to disagree on the helmets.

Regarding the game, yeah, definitly closer than the score indicated. Defensively they couldn't stop the Esky rushing attack, but if they don't fumble at the 2 and just give them the field goal instead of taking the personal foul it's a very different game. Just need to sew a handle on the football. The offense did move the ball fairly well .

BursleyHall82

August 26th, 2016 at 1:14 PM ^

Speaking of high schools, Brighton High School - which gave us Drew Henson and Clint Copenhaver, among others - has the Ohio State fight song as its fight song. I've never been able to forgive them for that. Ever.

A Fan In Fargo

August 26th, 2016 at 1:21 PM ^

Red-white, green-white and red(scarlet)-grey are all so boring and just yuck. How many teams are white and some shade of red? Too damn many. When I was younger I didn't even know the teams and would just flip past the games. Hated the colors. I remember the first time watching Sparty and I believe they had that lighter shade of green. I thought to myself, man I cant even watch this puke, makes me sick. I have a serious problem with colors. Cant watch cartoons either. Too many pinks, neons and light blues. 

Hobo5589

August 26th, 2016 at 1:47 PM ^

My friend is the band director at Alpena High School and is a huge Michigan fan.  Will have to ask him what the deal is with incorporating tempation into the music.

FieldingBLUE

August 26th, 2016 at 3:13 PM ^

Everything from the colors (maize and blue) to playing The Victors to entering the field touching the banner, is very M related. Parts of it is due to Elliot Uzelac's influence and carried from his protege Gandalf Church.

John HarBo

August 26th, 2016 at 3:39 PM ^

This is my alma mater as well (Class of '98).  I always hated being associated with Green and White.  I agree that its tough seeing those colors with the helmet, but its at least a start.