EAST JORDAN — The East Jordan Red Devils had a heck of a 2023 season, and they are hoping to build on top of it in 2024. Varsity football head coach Adam Grybauskas can’t wait to start the season at home against Manistique on Aug. 29.
The Red Devils were back on the gridiron Wednesday with the third day of practices that come with a lot of high hopes for the season. “We have a great group of guys,” Grybauskas said. “When you’ve done this for a long time with the group of guys and you know how they get along and their character, sometimes that’s more important than you even know how they are as athletes.
They are fun to be around each day.” Grybauskas enjoys the practices more than the Friday nights at Boswell Stadium, but he wouldn’t go too far to put it against Friday nights in Boswell Stadium when the leaves change colors, adding it’s one of the best football stadiums in all of Michigan. East Jordan is the fourth stop for the veteran head coach who has been coaching for more than 20 years.
He’s been in a ton of football of stadiums throughout his time and said nothing compares to when the leaves that surround Boswell Stadium change colors in the fall. “I have a good friend who coached at the neighboring schools, but he is downstate now, and he told me, ‘Man ,you got the best stadium around,’” Grybauskas said with a smile. “It’s beautiful today, but when the colors change, it’s hard to beat.
” East Jordan was a hard team to defeat in 2023, despite losing 20-6 in the first round of the playoffs against Ishpeming. The Red Devils finished the season 8-2 for the first time since 1994. They began the season red hot with three straight wins against Manistique, Johannesburg-Lewiston and Kalkaska before running in a 50-3 buzzsaw against rival Charlevoix.
They capped off the regular season with five straight wins to round out to 8-1, which included a miracle 38-36 win over Frankfort in front of the Red Devils’ faithful for the Northern Michigan Football Conference-Legacy title. A couple of East Jordan players have some games on the schedule for this season they’re keeping tabs on, but for Grybauskas his only focus is Week One at home against Manistique. The high-powered offense hits the road for Week Two and Week Three with games against Johannesburg-Lewiston on Sept.
6 and Kalkaska on Sept. 13. They return to East Jordan in Week Four and Week Five against the rival Rayders followed by Glen Lake.
They travel to Mancelona in Week Six before returning for senior night against Harbor Springs on Oct. 11. The Red Devils end the season with two straight road games — Frankfort on Oct.
18 and Elk Rapids on Oct. 25. The games the players have on their radar are Frankfort and Charlevoix.
Grybauskas calls those types of games ‘Red Letter Games’ but said it’s all about who the current opponent is for the week. He understands why some of his players said they’re looking forward to playing Charlevoix and Frankfort after overhearing their responses. He knows why Charlevoix is on their minds because of the rivalry aspect.
It’s also been 11 years since the Red Devils won against the Rayders. Frankfort is being highlighted because of the battles they’ve had with the Panthers over the last eight meetings. The Red Devils have built a small rivalry with the Panthers with both teams collecting four wins each.
In the past three meetings, the Red Devils are 2-1 with wins in the first round of playoffs in 2022 — being their first playoff win since 1999 — and last season. “That last 36 seconds against Frankfort last year for the conference title is still embedded into my mind,” senior wide receiver Ryder Malpass said. The Red Devils have several key players returning on both sides of the ball for their senior season, including quarterback Korbyn Russell, who committed to Michigan State University in the summer for baseball, running back Logan Shooks and Malpass.
The Red Devils offense remains loaded with tons of talent with players who are set to take it to the next level. Russell has been stamped as a Week One starter after capping off his junior season with Madden-like numbers. He went 78 of 120 attempts for 1,429 yards.
He threw for 20 touchdowns and only two interceptions. His domination on the field earned him first-team all-conference and the NMFC-Legacy’s Offensive MVP. For Russell, after completing a stellar junior baseball season, diving into football in the summer has been a normal transition for the lefthander.
“Football gives me consistency,” Russell said. “Three years into the program, I know what I’m doing every year, and I feel I know what we are doing as a team — and it’s growing.” Shooks carried the rock effortlessly his junior year by racking 954 yards with an 8.
5 average and 11 touchdowns, which earned him MHSFCA all-region. Shooks said football has been a big part of his life since he was little and seeing his dad coaching on the sidelines. The one thing Shooks wants to do before hanging the cleats up in East Jordan is to bring home a district title.
“To be the first team to do it would put us on top,” Shooks said. “When teams come through in the future — the legacy part of it — they are saying, ‘Oh, that team did it. We can do it, too.
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