REED CITY – After the MHSAA Selection Sunday show ended last weekend, Chippewas head coach Troy Bytwork addressed his team in the back room of The Bungalow, a local restaurant in Manistee, and provided a message filled with hope and togetherness.
Only one team raises a state championship banner each year and acknowledging that reality isn't easy, especially for seniors, who want nothing more than to leave high school on top of the world and be remembered as winners.
Unfortunately for Manistee's senior class, the Chips are headed home early following a 36-14 loss to Reed City on Friday night.
"It's never easy, you see every team in its own little capsule ... you see those individual teams as their own entity, and that's the most difficult part when a season comes to an end," said Bytwork. "Only eight teams are celebrating at the end ... and it's challenging to know as a coach you will never coach that team again. Of course, you will coach some of the same kids again, but that particular team is done.
"From an emotional standpoint, that's always a difficult position, but the most beneficial part of this job is you get to look back on the memories you have of those kids when they were young and when those kids got a little older; you are allowed a special place in their existence for a short amount of time and that obviously all comes to a head."
The results weren't there tonight, and that happens, but the Chippewas hung tough and weren't outmatched. Manistee proved its ability to play up to their competition seven days ago against Tri-County, and they had plenty of opportunities to keep it close in round one.
"This is the most physical group I've coached ... Reed City's coach and I talked about it after the game," Bytwork said. "This was as hard of a hitting group as he saw all year, and it's probably the hardest hitting group we saw too. When I first got here, there were so many instances where we'd be outmanned as soon as it started, and that wasn't the case with this group in any situation. So even if we go back to Muskegon Catholic, we weren't outmanned from a physical standpoint, and that's been a long road trying to build ourselves into a program that has size, strength, and can go into these games and battle.
"And we did; it's an odd year because we end up 5-5, but it just doesn't feel like a 5-5 team."
The Chippewas were a talented football team attempting to establish its identity through the year; in the process, Manistee discovered who they were, but the lack of week-to-week consistency played a role in Manistee's missteps.
"We had an unbelievable comeback against Shepherd, but then we give away a game against Tri-County," said Bytwork. "We take care of our rival; it was an up and down year."
Bytwork continued, "But eventually, they figured a lot of things out. As I told the kids, anybody would say I was insane to say we were playing our best football at the end of the year because we lost more games at the end than we did in the beginning, but ... we just played quality football, and this is a tough-minded physical group. They are a fun football team to coach, and the difficult thing about this job is you know you are always closer to the end than you are the beginning. So, quite honestly, when Monday comes around, I'll miss coaching these kids."
The coming days will be a time for reflection; players and coaches alike are going to think back about what could have gone differently.
It's only natural.
But in the moment, it's about something more significant entirely.
"I was proud of them; that's the key to it all," Bytwork explained. "I talked to them all week about surviving or surrendering, and I didn't see a surrender at any point, not in our body language or anything of that nature. We fought hard to the bitter end. In the end, it's probably the last time I'll have all of those kids together at the same time. From my perspective, I wanted to let them know I love them; I demand a lot of them, and I demand a lot of them in the offseason. We do more than a lot of teams I know."
Yet, it's hard not to be disappointed.
"I wanted to take this team to the next level," said Bytwork. "We won a playoff game last year, and the next step is a district championship, and I was hoping we can take that step as a program."
However, now isn't the time for anyone within the Manistee locker room to hang their heads.
The Chippewas have earned a postseason berth in three out of the last four seasons, raised a conference title banner for the first time in about 70 years, captured the school's first playoff win in 2020, and helped create a place where kids can be successful.
That's why these seniors will never be forgotten.
"When I first took the job in June 2013, I can remember going up to the weight room and thinking, 'This is going to be a long road,'" Bytwork said. "I tried to instill in them ... you have to get stronger. These seniors were nine or ten years old when that took place. But little by little, we got stronger ... then it just grew from there. That pushed us into a place when we started to make the playoffs ... we tried establishing a team that expected success. And more than ever, this team expected success, and at times, that was tricky because if you got down, it was different than before when maybe you expected to be down.
"This team expected to win. We stubbed our toe a couple of times in games that we shouldn't have, but the hope was to build something that was looked at as perennially successful. Part of that tonight was to take that next step, but it doesn't take away from what this group did simply because we lost a game tonight ... they are all striving to turn Manistee into a winner, and they've done that in a lot of ways."
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