MUSKEGON TWP. - The 2025 Reeths-Puffer football season has been a learning exercise, with a heavy emphasis on fundamental improvement and far less concern about winning.
But that has changed this week, heading into Friday’s season finale at home against Forest Hills Eastern, and there’s a good reason for that.
While the team’s focus has been increasingly on the big group of sophomores who represent the future, the coaches know that this year’s seniors want to go out with a better record than last year’s 2-7 mark.
R-P is currently 2-6, so the message this week has been about playing for a win.
R-P's JaMichael Williams (4) tries to escape Big Red tacklers. Photo/Jeremy Clark
“I think the conversations we’ve been having behind the scenes has been about how we can go into this game and help the seniors go out victorious on the scoreboard,” said head coach Cody Kater. “One of their goals was to be better than last year, they thought it was really important, so for us it’s been a conversation about what’s important to them.”
Kater said the 15 seniors deserve a lot of credit, and their teammates’ respect, for the way they have gone about their business and the example they have set for the younger players.
That’s one big reason why it would be great to see them off with one more victory.
“When it comes to how they should be living, staying out of trouble, and doing the things that matter, I would say the seniors have done a great job of leading,” he said. “Hopefully the younger guys have learned from them, and understand how all of that contributes to overall success.”
A long and trying season
It’s been a long and trying season for the Rockets, who have had some good moments, to be sure, but have also endured some really painful losses.
They opened with a close 18-12 loss to Forest Hills Central, then followed with the first really lobsided loss of the season, 56-21 to Caledonia.
Week 3 brought a very exciting 35-28 victory over Spring Lake, followed by a 48-7 loss to Mona Shores. In Week 5 the Rockets got up off the mat and won again, routing Grand Rapids Union 37-6.
R-P's Hudson Roberts (90) and Cal Millis (22) go for a tackle. Photo/Jeremy Clark
Since then there have been three straight losses. One was competitive - 40-27 to Forest Hills Northern – but the last two weeks have been extremely tough, with painful losses to Byron Center (42-7) and Muskegon (61-7) last Friday
Senior Mason Darke provided the one big highlight moment against the Big Reds with an 84-yard touchdown on a kickoff return.
Quarterback Braylon Swain had a decent night through the air, completing 10 of 19 passes for 61 yards, while senior Cal Millis led the defense with seven tackles, including three for losses.
“We are young and have been really beaten up,” Kater said. “We were put into some situations that were really difficult for us. Now we have all of our focus on the simple things and the fundamentals that we haven’t taken care of all season, so we can put them into play on Friday.”
Preparing for a competitive season finale
The good news is that the Rockets have a chance to regroup and display what they’ve learned against an opponent that’s not quite so daunting.
Forest Hills Eastern is 3-5 on the season. The Hawks got off to a good start with a 3-1 record through four weeks, but have lost their last four games, to Grand Rapids Christian (44-20), Hamilton (27-14), Spring Lake (57-43) and Grand Rapids West Catholic (31-21).
Of course that means the Rockets will be playing a team with a similar motivation – to take advantage of one final chance to gain a rare victory – but the matchup should be competitive and potentially winnable for R-P.
It was a very good matchup last year, and the Rockets played tough before finally losing to the Hawks 35-28.
R-P's Cole Piper fights for yardage. Photo/Jeremy Clark
Kater said the recent blowout losses against Byron Center and Muskegon have not come close to killing the Rockets’ spirit, and after a good week of final practices, they are eager to go out and give it one final shot.
They will be bolstered by the return of several injured players, including seniors Andrew Corradin and Connor Anderson and junior Brendan Guikema.
“It’s been good,” the coach said about practice this week. “We have figured out how to practice and the expectations for practice over the last three weeks, and the players have held up. Our practices have been lighter than usual, more of a focus on our connection with each other than physicality, because want to keep the kids fresh.
“We’ll see how it works out on Friday.”