Blankenship steps down in Frankenmuth

Another HOF coach retires
I noticed a post regarding Frankenmuth football on the MLIVE forums yesterday that caught my attention. And then today, I saw this posting on the Frankenmuth Schools Website.

Varsity Head Football Coach - If interested, please contact High School Principal JoLynn Clark no later than Friday, July 24, 2009. You may contact JoLynn at the following address: jlclark@frankenmuth.k12.mi.us

SO....it would appear that the rumors are true. On Monday, Frankenmuth varsity football coach John Blankenship announced to his team his intention to retire immediately as the head coach of the Eagles. This comes as a little bit of a surprise given that the official beginning of high school football practices is less than three weeks away. But, Blankenship has always been unpredictable and, I can only speculate, perhaps he is just ready to retire.
Frankenmuth is third high school in the Mid-Michigan area where Blankenship has been a head varsity football coach. Blankenship was the head coach in Millington for one season back in 1977, having led the Cardinals to a 6-3 record in his one year at the helm. After the school year, Blankenship left for Houghton Lake and was succeeded in Millington by current coach, Tim Furno.
Blankenship was the coach at Houghton Lake from 1978-1991. In his time in charge of the Bobcats, Blankenship led his team to a 91-36-2 overall record; won the championship in the Jack Pine Conference six different seasons; had one undefeated season in 1984; and led Houghton Lake to the playoffs three times.
After Ralph Munger left Frankenmuth for Rockford following the 1991 season, Blankenship took over the Eagles program in the 1992 season and picked up right where he left off in Houghton Lake. In two different stints in charge in Frankenmuth (1992-2000, 2006-08), Blankenship compiled a 92-29 overall record. He led the Eagles to six Tri-Valley East titles (1995, 96, 97, 99, 2000, 07), made the playoffs seven different times and won two Regional titles (1995, 97).
Blankenship retired from Frankenmuth once before, after the 2000 season and for a while was a coach for the Northwood University program. He returned the Little Bavaria in 2006 and won the TVC-East title in 2007.
In his 27 years as a head coach, Blankenship only had one losing season (4-5 in 2008). And it looks like that will be his last one in Frankenmuth as well.
This makes the second MHSFCA Hall of Fame varsity football coach to step down this summer. Last month, the Tuscola County Advertiser's Chad Wingert reported that Kingston's Mike Rea was retiring as the football coach there. Add Blankenship to the list of great coaches that the Tuscola County area is losing.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Wow. Coaches are leaving 'Muth at an alarming rate. Not just any coaches, very good coaches. The timing is very poor for the kids, you have to feel bad for them.
Jul 16, 2009, 12:31:00 PM
Anonymous said…
Yes, but they are leaving for very different reasons. The two that left last year resigned due to their dislike for the "new" rules that were being added to the athletic handbook. JB isn't leaving for those reasons. He's probably leaving as a result of all the garbage he had to put up with over the last year because of the previous two coaches leaving. I think that this last year weighed very heavy on him.

Bottom line in all of these resignations, though, is timing. Come on...don't leave the kids high and dry, thinking that no one wants to coach them. That just stinks!
Jul 16, 2009, 2:26:00 PM
Anonymous said…
A little off topic, Guys... I have a question. Last week I played around this site:
[url=http://www.rivalspot.com]Rivalspot.com - Ps3 Live Tournaments[/url]
They say you can play online Fight Night game tournaments on any console for cash... had anyone tried that before? Looks like a cool idea...
Are there any other sites where you can play sports games for real moneys? I Googled and found only Bringit.com and Worldgaming.com but it looks these guys don't specialize in sport gamez. Any suggestions?
Dec 2, 2009, 11:16:00 AM
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