Detroit Free Press October 24, 2005
MICK McCABE: Plymouth gets 1st playoff berth in 2nd season
One by one, they entered The Block to witness history.
The Plymouth High football players arrived at the teen center on Michigan Avenue on Sunday to watch the playoff selection show and prepare for their first playoff game in school history.
This is only the fourth year of existence for Plymouth, the youngest of the three Canton high schools that share the same campus.
Three seasons ago Jay Blaylock was just another coach with a vision. He left Salem, where he had been an assistant for 11 seasons, to begin a program from scratch.
With only a freshman class in the fall of 2002, Plymouth played as a freshman team and was 6-2-1. The next season, with freshmen and sophomores, the Wildcats were a junior varsity team with an 8-0-1 record.
A year ago Plymouth, without a senior in the school, played its first varsity schedule and managed a 2-7 season.
And now? The Wildcats are 7-2 and headed for the Division 1 playoffs, which is why the players and friends watched with great interest Sunday for their school name to pop on the screen when the pairings were revealed.
"We planned on this happening," Blaylock said. "We told the kids that when they were seniors we'd be in the playoffs."
They were right. His Wildcats will host Detroit Cody in the first round of the playoffs this week.
"This really is a tribute to the kids," Blaylock said. "They bought into everything we told them. This was a real good situation for me, not taking over a program from someone else. We didn't have to undo a bunch of things they had been taught. We got to start from square one."
Over the last three years Blaylock put his fingerprints on every aspect of the program.
"I got to coach my coaches as we added teams," he said. "The kids didn't know anything better than what we had told them."
Defensive coordinator Mike Sawchuk instituted a school-wide weightlifting program for athletes from every sport. Blaylock says that boosted his football program.
"We really sold the kids on the weight room," Blaylock said. "We lift five days a week year-round. Physically, we have kids who compete out there. All of our athletes do the same things. It's built around explosive movement. We don't want the big, bulky guys. We want more athletic kids."
The Wildcats' overtime victory over Walled Lake Western in Week 5 gave them a 4-1 record. It was a good sign they would reach the six victories needed to guarantee a spot in the playoffs.
But Blaylock became a believer a year ago after surviving the 2-7 season.
"We won two games with just juniors and in two other games we were really close," Blaylock said. "That's when I believed this would happen."
Contact MICK McCABE at 313-223-4744 or mccabe@freepress.com.
