MUSKEGON TWP. - Like the rest of his teammates, senior Lyric Stewart was pretty upset when he walked off the field at Rocket Stadium last Thursday night.
His Reeths-Puffer football team had just lost a close game to Grand Haven, 17-14, and a few big mistakes at key moments played a big role in the outcome.
Stewart had a general feeling that he played well personally, but didn’t really know until he saw his mom after the game.
“No,” Stewart said, when he was asked on Tuesday if he knew about his statistics from the game. “My mom just said she heard my name announced a lot, so I must have had a good game. I was just trying to stop their offense, but we came up short. I just really wanted to beat Grand Haven.”
The fact is that Stewart had a very good game, recording nine tackles and six assists to lead the R-P defense from his linebacker position.
R-P's Lyric Stewart
It was easily the best statistical performance of his high school career, and he managed to make all those tackles in the extreme heat and humidity, which was causing other players to cramp up.
“I was feeling pretty good,” Stewart said. “I wasn’t really focused on the heat.”
R-P head coach Cody Kater said Stewart made a big difference by focusing on the challenge in front of him.
“Their quarterback was rushing a ton, which was maybe not something we were prepared for, but Lyric was kind of mirroring him the whole game, which gave him the chance to make some open-field tackles," Kater said. "Because of his ability to play physical, he finds a way to bring guys down.”
'It feels good to be back out there'
It was the type of performance Stewart was hoping to have this season, after skipping his junior year of football.
Stewart had played the sport every year since he was very young, and had a very promising future with the Rockets, after being called up to varsity for the playoffs as a freshman and seeing a lot of playing time as a sophomore.
Last year, however, he was hanging out with a group of friends who had other priorities, and he let their influence steer him away from the rigorous schedule of football.
"It was just from being around the group of friends I was hanging out with,” Stewart said. “I think it was a bad case of FMO – fear of missing out. I think it hit me pretty hard last year.”
Stewart (10) closes in on a tackle. Photo/Joe Lane
It didn’t take long for Stewart to regret his decision.
“I came out and watched the first game, and I knew I was letting my team and my community down,” he said. “I had a bunch of parents text me, asking why I was not playing and saying how the team needed me. That kind of stuff.
“It feels good to be back out there.”
Stewart’s comeback was stalled for a period of time during summer conditioning by a hamstring injury, followed by some sort of illness that kept him in bed for a week.
He was fully healthy for preseason camp, however, and really started to impress the coaches with his play, according to Kater.
Stewart (10) and teammates pursue a Grand Haven ball-carrier. Photo/Joe Lane
“Lyric has really been improving the last three or four weeks,” Kater said. “He always played with a lot of physicality, and now he’s really starting to understand what we are trying to do defensively and what his job is.
“He’s a wrestler, so he understands leverage, and he’s a kid who doesn’t have a whole lot of quit in him. He wants to find ways to get his hands on the ball-carrier. He’s been in the weight room and he’s up around 200 pounds now, which allows him to be even more physical than he was in the past.
“I think he is even better than what he has shown. I think he has even more to offer. He and Garrison Niklasch (at linebacker) are two guys who are constantly getting to the ball and understanding situations. (Assistant coach) Matt Kemp has done a great job with those guys, and the entire unit.”
Not intimidated by anyone
The really impressive part about Stewart is that he gets it done on defense despite his size. At 5-foot-8 and about 190 pounds, he goes up against a lot of much bigger opponents, and it doesn't bother him at all.
“I’m really not intimidated by anyone,” he said. “They are all human, too.”
Stewart knows that being shorter can actually be an advantage, because he can go lower to get past blockers, wrap up ball-carriers and bring them down.
“Especially against linemen, because they don’t like to bend over,” Stewart said about the advantage of being shorter.
Stewart is super focused on having a great senior season, and for him that would mean enough victories for the Rockets to qualify for the state playoffs, like they did in his freshman year.
Stewart dives to make an ankle tackle against Grand Haven. Photo/Jeremy Clark
“I think that was only the first or second time we made it since 1992,” Stewart said. “It was a pretty cool experience. It really motivated me to get better, too.”
Last week’s loss to Grand Haven was not helpful for a team with big goals, and Stewart said it was painful to deal with - regardless of how many tackles he made.
“I got really emotional,” Stewart said about the loss. “Everyone on defense worked their butts off and we still came up short.”
The loss made this Friday’s game at Grand Rapids Northview even more important, Stewart said.
“It’s pretty much a must-win game,” he said. “We can’t lose too many more or we won’t be able top get into the playoffs. We have Muskegon and Mona Shores coming up, too.”
