ZEELAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – The lights at Zeeland Stadium will be off on Thursday night.
In a post on its web page, officials of Zeeland East High announced that the scheduled Sept. 5 varsity football game between the Chix and visiting Detroit Fredrick Douglass Academy for Young Men has been canceled. “We’ve received word from Detroit Douglass that they are canceling their football season due to a lack of numbers,” the online statement said. “This means that our game this Thursday (Sept. 5th) will result in a forfeit. Although disappointing, staff and players will now focus their attention to a week 3 home game vs. Grand Rapids Catholic Central (9/13).”
The MHSAA already has posted two forfeit losses for the Hurricanes this season, including the contest with the Chix and the scheduled August 30th match with visiting Detroit Community which was to be the “Hurricane Classic.” In a season preview article published in the August 18th editions of The Detroit News, it was written, “Nothing is official, but there’s a significant chance there will not be a football team at Douglass this year, coach and athletic director Shaheed Saleem said. The program was rocked by the unexpected death of Blanton Day, a key assistant coach, earlier this month.”
This hasn’t been the only time the varsity football program at Detroit Douglass has been troubled. During the 2011 season, the team’s locker room had been burglarized, with over 20 sets of full player equipment taken, and the Hurricanes were facing a forfeit of its homecoming game as a result. Ndamukong Suh and Javid Best of the NFL Detroit Lions led a group of varied entities in staging emergency fundraising efforts to replace the stolen equipment in time for the contest.
Zeeland East began its season with a 49-14 triumph over Windsor (ON) Holy Names last Thursday at a neutral site in the Detroit suburb of Hazel Park.
The forfeit means that there will be just one high school football broadcast on 99 7 and 1450 WHTC this week, which is the Watervliet at Saugatuck contest on Friday evening at 6:40 PM. That coverage was moved from Saugatuck’s usual carrier of the Lakeshore’s 92 7 The Van due to a schedule conflict with Hope College, as the Flying Dutchmen begin their season at the same time on Friday night at Millikin (IL).
