James Rogers named head coach at Madison High School

Submitted by Maize.Blue Wagner on

Congratulations to James Rogers who was just announced as the head football coach at Madison High School. Interestingly, he will bring Devin Gardner and Cam Gordon along as assistant coaches. Hopefully this will be of great benefit to their program and will create another strong connection to a local high school for the 'M' football program. All the best to them!

(I suppose we could also add in a good-natured joke about how well qualified Rogers is to coach both sides of the ball.)

aflapan

December 14th, 2015 at 7:48 PM ^

wikipedia page says he's a receiver in the Canadian Football League. 



Also, every time I think of Devin Gardner I get sad. He was such a great guy and such a talented player. If only Harbaugh had a few years with him... :(



EDIT: Nevermind, he was a cornerback for us back when I was a freshman. I don't remember him very well. 

alum96

December 14th, 2015 at 7:52 PM ^

Rogers is a Madison Heights Lamphere and University of Michigan graduate who went on to play in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs. He played his youth football with the Madison Heights Wolverines, a club many of the Eagle players move up from.

Rogers, currently an education student specialist at Madison High, used his connections with the University of Michigan to bring in an all-star staff – which includes former Wolverines teammates Devin Gardner and Cam Gordon, who also saw stints in the NFL this past year.

MGOTokyo

December 14th, 2015 at 9:09 PM ^

Very commendable effort by James. But, as a former Lamphere Ram and football captain (and Michigan grad), I'd rather opt for a different school or the unemployment line. It would be like having Harbough take the coaching job at OSU.
I don't get to follow HS football nowadays, but nonetheless, good luck with little bro', James!

Xman

December 16th, 2015 at 8:17 AM ^

James was definitely a Lamphere kid. Madison is on the verge of closing and this is a get some kids in here tactic. Watch the kid grow up, so I have to wish him well. Never heard a bad thing about him. Actually let him date my daughter. Madison is using the poor young man. Like you said, I would opt out for the unemployment line than take a job in the worst school district in the state. He, Devin and Cam needs to still be working on NFL careers, not falling for this help us bring in kids from the city tactic. Maybe that UofM degree is overrated! By the way, they are set up to fail. Coach Drake Wilkins is a stand up guy who had a great connection with the kids and much success on the field. I don't think Madison has never missed the playoffs under him. Other than this year he won districts every year he was there. But a YES man he failed to be. There for he was forced out. The only way to cover up the wrong doings to coach Drake was to override it with this hiring. Have you noticed, no ones asking why was there a vacancy? What I want for Xmas is for Madison Heights Lamphere to hire Coach Drake Wilkins as head coach, so he could show these young bucks what leadership is all about. A bunch of 24-25 year olds coaching 18-19 year olds. This ain't West Bloomfield. You barely have 300 kids in the whole school. I think they're a joke to their former UofM teammates.

Mr. Owl

December 14th, 2015 at 8:02 PM ^

I grad'ed from MH Lamphere, the same school as Rogers (though my heart was down at Pershing) so I know the area pretty well.

Across the street from Madison High school is Wolverine Street.  Wolverine St. only runs for a half-mile and there are few intersecting streets, but there is one short dead-end that is appropriately named by someone with an obvious keen sense of humor.

 

 

Qmatic

December 14th, 2015 at 8:12 PM ^

Madison has been loaded for the last decade. Deandre Johnson and Valdez Showers are a couple athletes they've produced. For such a small school, they are successful at football.

They do a good job of capitalizing on school of choice

wolverinebutt

December 14th, 2015 at 8:16 PM ^

My Son played against James in football and basketball.  Yes, going all the way back to the Madison youth Wolverines football.  James was always a nice kid.       

BlueWing

December 14th, 2015 at 11:35 PM ^

Did anything ever come out about why the former coach was let go?

Early in the week before their playoff game (district final? vs. Clinton), it was announced he was suspended for the game. Subsequently, he was let go at some point. I believe he was a teacher at the high school as well. Does anyone know if he still is? I coach at a school that played them and the kids seemed well behaved, good sports.

Not to speculate BUT: Several weeks after we played each other, our school received a phone call from the Madison Heights athletic director saying they had to forfeit the game because they had played with ineligible players. Maybe it was something to do with that.

Edit: Coach Drake Wilkins was suspended for district final vs. Clinton, and the next Monday his resignation from teaching and coaching became official. He was investigated for "possible unprofessional conduct" by the school. 

Either way, congratulations Rogers, Gardner, and Gordon! On MHSAA.com, James Rogers is listed as Madison's Assistant Athletic Director too.

Xman

December 16th, 2015 at 6:28 PM ^

These suburban schools needs to take note of the recent success of the schools in Detroit. Although we win more State HS championships. It's Detroit MLK, Cass Tech, East English Village and Detroit Loyola whose putting out 80% of their squad to D1 colleges. As a parent, which would you want? This State title pin I'm holding that's the size of a nickel or Free college? The whole fact of the matter is, we have more schools than kids now. Just think, their actually having a vote to close Farmington Hills Harrison. Madison Heights Lamphere, who's always been a closed district is now open to all of Oakland county, which means your Madison Heights residential kids can now attend regardless of which side of 12 mile you live. Neighboring Royal Oak has suffered for a long time. Desperate times cause for desperate measures. With all these kids scattering the way they are you better believe there will be some free tuition offers from the Catholic League. Did I witness State semi finals without a Brother Rice, Novi Catholic Central or Warren De la salle? You haven't seen anything yet. Now would be a good time to be bringing up a monster athlete. This isn't a Madison Heights issue, this is a State of Michigan issue. Stop buying condoms! So we can keep our schools open.