MUSKEGON TWP. - For the past two seasons, when asked about wins and losses, Reeths-Puffer head football coach Cody Kater stressed the importance of his players focusing on “the process,” and not worrying about the scoreboard or the team’s record.
There was a good reason for that. Both years the Rockets fielded a very inexperienced varsity lineup against a very tough schedule, and there was little doubt that losses were going to pile up.
The idea was the get the players’ feet wet at the varsity level, let them learn and grow on a day-to-day basis, and wait for the positive results to roll around down the road.
The Rockets finished 2-7 in both 2024 and 2025.
“Two years ago nobody on the offensive squad had scored a touchdown the year before,” said Kater, whose team will open the 2026 season on Thursday at home against Greenville. “Last year nobody on offense was playing the same position as the year before.”
Heading into Thursday's opener, however, Kater says the time has come for the Rockets to start reaping the benefits of all the development..
They have eight starters or regular contributors back on both offense and defense. They have a lot of skilled players returning at key offensive positions, like quarterback, running back and wide receiver, and much more experience along the offensive and defensive lines.
Kater believes he has a team that can be much more competitive throughout the season, and experience more success.
“At some point in time you have to push all your chips on to the table,” said Kater, who is starting his fifth season at R-P. “The last two years have been difficult, but those types of things have to happen to build a program.
"The last two years we have been kind of building, now we feel like we have made it out to sea. A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. It’s kind of time to start putting it to the test and see what we’re made of.”
The Rockets actually showed a lot of pluck in the first half of the 2025 season.
They rallied for two late touchdowns in the season opener against Forest Hills Central and lost by a close 18-12 score. The next week brought a letdown in an 56-21 loss to Caledonia.
R-P bounced back with a big offensive performance in a 35-28 win over Spring Lake, then suffered a tough 48-7 loss to rival Mona Shores.
The last victory of the season came in Week 5, when the Rockets beat Grand Rapids Union 37-6.
They finished the season with four straight losses - 40-27 to Forest Hills Northern, 42-7 to Byron Center, 61-7 to Muskegon and 37-22 to Forest Hills Eastern.
“You hope to see the guys grow and get better over the course of the season, but sometimes their bodies are not ready for a full nine-week season,” Kater said. “There were some things in there that we just could not work through.”
The last loss, to Forest Hills Eastern, was particularly tough. R-P was flagged for 145 yards in penalties, had three turnovers and squandered a halftime lead. But the game also left a lasting impression that could motivate and benefit this year’s team, according to Kater.
“It was such an ugly loss, and our seniors did not get to walk off the field for the last time victorious,” the coach said. “This year’s seniors saw that, and they don’t want that to happen to them. That was a game that left a really bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
“I know it stuck with the guys. There were a lot of conversations about it in the offseason, and it showed back up around bonfires (at a recent team camp). They know they may not have been taking things seriously enough, and they don’t want that.
“It seems like Week 9 had to happen for the kids to understand the content that we’ve been pushing. It finally hit the breaking point. More of them believe now in what we’ve been coaching, when before they maybe wanted to do it on their own. We didn’t want that game to happen the way it did, but maybe it was a gift to us.”
One big factor last season was the invasion of a big sophomore class that had a lot of potential, but was not quite ready to thrive at the varsity level.
By midseason 12 sophomores were on the roster and nine were starters, including two on both sides of the ball.
This year those players are juniors, they have learned the lessons that the tough losses had to offer, they are bigger and smarter, and they have improved, according to Kater.
“Most of them are back and most of them are better,” he said about the sophomores specifically, and the team in general. “I think the most development has probably occurred in the last month and a half.
"In the weight room they have done a good job of preparing their bodies for the fall. And they are understanding the game much more. We did a lot more stuff in the offseason in terms of just teaching the game.
“I was getting a little nervous for a while. They weren’t moving the needle as fast as I would have wanted. But in July, and particularly in the last five practices, we have seen a lot of development.”
Offense, defense and a fresh schedule
The participation numbers are good for the Rockets this year, with a total of 44 players listed on the early varsity roster. That number includes 10 seniors, 15 juniors, and an unusually high number of 19 sophomores, because R-P will not be fielding a junior varsity s squad this season.
At this point it’s hard to tell exactly who might settle in at some of the positions, but R-P will have a lot of guys back in the same spots as last year, as well as some very promising newcomers.
The Rockets’ optimism for the coming season begins at the quarterback position, where senior Braylon Swain returns after taking the vast majority of the snaps last season.
Swain was pretty good last year, passing for 1,262 yards and 16 touchdowns. He pushed himself hard in the offseason, particularly in special quarterback tutoring sessions with Kater that convened three times a week, January through May
Now Kater is very excited to see what Swain can accomplish in his final year of high school football.
“He has doubled down on what it takes to be great,” the coach said about Swain. “He has done a good job of becoming much more of a leader. He has put on 12 pounds of muscle. His strength is that he knows where to go with the ball. We won a couple of 7-on-7’s this summer because he can throw the ball.
“He and I put on some miles since January, He didn’t miss a single day of training with the quarterbacks, three days a week since January, then we went out there over the summer and continued to grow.”
Swain should have some good targets to throw to.
Junior wideout Jamichael Williams returns after displaying some explosiveness and making some great catches last season. Senior Connor McManus is back as a tall and talented third-year varsity receiver, and senior Brendan Guikema will lend a lot of speed to the position after missing significant time with injuries last year.
Junior Paul Smith, who showed some promise as a tight end last year, is also returning to the lineup.
“All three wideouts have qualities you can call explosive,” Kater said. “McManus catches the ball inside and outside and he can run after the catch. Guikema is probably the fastest guy going north and south, and Jamichael has range and great tracking skills.”
The running back spot should be a real plus with the addition of senior Ke’Ondre Sanders, a transfer from Orchard View who will lend an exciting element to the offense, according to Kater.
Junior Garrison Niklasch will also get some carries.
“He’s an explosive guy who can run between the tackles and get out in space,” Kater said about Sanders. “He’s a special talent who can open up our offense a little bit.”
Last year the Rockets’ offensive line was a bit of an issue, with a lot of inexperienced first-year varsity players up front. This year four guys who played a lot are back and far more prepared for the job.
Seniors Owen Moore and James Helferich and junior Troy Swingley are back on the line as returning starters, while 6-foot-5, 300 pound junior Sereka Walker also returns after getting some playing time last year. Several other players are still working their way into the mix on the line.
“Those guys are the ones we are counting on,” Kater said. “In can say from July on, we have seen consistent improvement from three of the four of them. Every single day they have been a little better. They are 100 percent more experienced. Last year two of them had only been playing football for a year.”
The defense will also be manned by a lot of players who gained valuable experience on that side of the ball last season.
Smith and Helferich both return along the line, joining Logan Sharpe, a big junior newcomer.
Returning linebackers are Niklasch in the middle, with senior Lyric Stewart and juniors Hunter Adams and Wyatt Gardner working around him. One promising newcomer is sophomore Ty Ross, the brother of former Rocket standouts Brady Ross and Bryce Ross, who Kater describes as a big, strong kid.
The secondary will feature four guys who are all back from last year – Guikema and McManus at safety, along with senior Bobby Gamble and junior Travis Henderson at cornerback.
Other players will become factors in the lineup as the season goes on and they show what they can do against opponents.
The Rockets will see a lot of new opponents this year, because their non-conference schedule has completely changed.
Gone are Caledonia, Spring Lake, Forest Hills Central and Forest Hills Eastern. In their place are Greenville, Grand Haven, Grand Rapids Northview (the first three opponents of the season, in that order), along with Whitehall in Week 9.
While the Rockets are certainly not looking past any opponents, the fact is that none of the new ones were great last season. Greenville and Grand Haven were both 2-7, Northview was 5-4 and Whitehall was 6-5 after sneaking into the playoffs.
Kater sees an opportunity for the Rockets to snag some victories and gain some confidence against the new non-conference opponents, before turning their attention to the very tough O-K Green conference, which includes perennial powers Muskegon, Mona Shores and Byron Center.
“It’s important to have the guys thinking they are tough and they are good, and that was difficult to do when we we had the schedule we had before,” the coach said. “If they get to the point where they believe they can do it, there’s a high chance they will.
"Gaining some confidence in the first few weeks of the season would be huge.”
