Houghton football coach Tim Driscoll meets his new players Monday during a meeting in the library at Houghton High School. (Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — After three years building the football program at Houghton High School, head coach Micah Stipech is ready for a new challenge, and he will have it this Winter when he takes over the hockey program. On Monday, the Gremlins announced his replacement for the football team, and it is a name that local football fans know well, Tim Driscoll.

Driscoll served as the defensive coordinator at Michigan Tech from 2004-13 before moving over to start the Finlandia Lions football program from 2014-17. With Finlandia closing its doors this Spring, he is the only coach in school history to earn wins with the Lions.

In a meeting Monday afternoon, Driscoll introduced himself to the Gremlins in his fast-paced style.

“I cannot tell you how exciting it is to be able to take over a great program,” Driscoll said as he met the players. “Coach Stipech did a great job getting you guys turned around, getting you guys winning some football games, getting you guys in the weight room.

“I know you guys are dedicated. I was so impressed when I heard about what you guys were doing, even when I was around here (for the interview), talking with Mr. (John) Sanregret about how many guys are coming in the mornings to lift, how many guys are committed to not just football, to all their sports, to their athletics.”

For Sanregret, who serves as the athletic director at Houghton, landing a coach with a pedigree like Driscoll’s shows that Houghton is interested in continuing to build on what Stipech built.

“I think, immediately, it brings credibility to the program,” said Sanregret. “We certainly felt that, over the last few years, we’ve taken some more strides forward with Coach Stipech and all of our assistant coaches.

“What Tim brings is just another level of expertise. I think it’s obvious listening to him and his enthusiasm. I think it’s just going to be a great next step for our program.”

Unlike at schools like Calumet, Houghton has traditionally struggled to field a competitive team year in and year out when it comes to football. Since 1984, the Gremlins have only had nine winning seasons, and two of those have been in the last two years.

Sanregret and Stipech looked at ways to combat that struggle over the last three seasons, and have started to find success, going 5-4 in 2021 and 6-4 in 2022, making the playoffs in the process this past season.

Where Stipech has been most effective has been in getting his players to commit to a weight training program that has helped build strength, not just for football, but any other sport a student athlete wants to play.

“We continue to emphasize multi sport participation, so that is the focus of the athletic program,” said Sanregret. “We want to encourage all of our athletes to get involved in as many sports as they are able to.

“The second thing is we’ve really made a focal point of trying to get kids in the weight room and make that a priority for all of our sports teams, male and female. We want our athletes to be prepared physically and it requires a 12-month commitment. So, as we continue to have those common goals in place for all our student athletes, I think there’s a much greater likelihood that all of our athletes are going to get involved in football or whatever other Fall sport they want, and not try to specialize in a Winter sport or a Spring sport.

Stipech will continue to be an assistant coach for football, which Sanregret feels is important.

“Having Coach Stipech as a coach, not only in football but in hockey, I think that also generates a whole lot of enthusiasm,” Sanregret said. “Hockey players are going to come out for football, and he’s going to support and encourage that. He’s still on our football coaching staff, so he’s fully invested, not only in football and hockey, but in all of our athletic programs, especially the weight program.”

Driscoll, who coached at North Carolina-Pembroke in 2018-19, wanted to get back to the Copper Country, since his family stayed locally while he coached several states away. With Houghton interested in bringing him in, he felt the opportunity was too good to pass up.

“A few years back when we came back up, I was coaching down in North Carolina,” said Driscoll. “I was away from my family. We made the decision as a family not to move down there and live in North Carolina. That’s college football. It’s moving around, place to place to place, to stay relevant. You can take a look at what Northern (Michigan) and Tech just went through, a change, and now there’s new coaches moving from all over in different places.”

While he has spent the majority of his career coaching at the Division III and the Division II levels of college football, he is excited about the challenge of coaching high school football. For him, the chance to return to the field was too good to pass up.

“High school coaching gives you more stability,” he said. “I’ve been out of coaching now for about three years. I’ve been working for NCSA, so I’ve been working in football, and college recruiting, and helping kids out that way.

“But, I really miss coaching. I really miss being able to coach and being out there on the field. I got a little taste of it last Fall. One of the Michigan Tech coaches was down with COVID, and I got to coach a little bit there, help out. It was just something I have. That desire in me to coach football.”

That desire got the better of him.

“I knew I wanted to coach football, and be able to coach football in the Fall,” said Driscoll. “I just didn’t know where or how or when I was going to do it.

“With Coach Stipech giving me a call and just telling me about the situation here, I had no idea that they wanted a change. I knew that he was the head hockey coach, and he wanted to step back a little bit from football. So, it was one of those phone calls where it’s the perfect situation. I was excited to get it, and I was excited to hear it. When I talked to John, things just seemed to work out. So, I’m really excited to be here.”

Driscoll feels that he wants to continue building upon what Stipech has spent the last three years creating.

“The development is going on here at Houghton, to take the next step is to build off of the success and try and do it better than it’s been done,” he said. “That’s what I want to be able to do. That’s what we want to be able to do.

“It seems like the buy-in is already here for the kids, and that’s the No. 1 thing that you need. Then you can coach the kids, and you can make the program better. I believe the buy-in is here, and we’re just going to continue with that, continue building off of the positive things that have been set forth already.”