Houghton quarterback Jay Halonen (10) celebrates a touchdown with two of his teammates during last season’s Copper Bowl game at McAfee Field in Hancock. The Gremlins won Copper Bowl for just the 26th time in school history. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — Growing up a Houghton-Portage Township schools kid, current Houghton Gremlins hockey coach Micah Stipech learned of the rivalry between his beloved Gremlins and the Hancock Bulldogs in high school football at a young age. By the time he was in high school, he could not wait for his opportunity to play a part in the annual clash.

Not only did Stipech get to play in the game twice, he also had the chance to coach the Gremlins in the game twice.

“It’s something that you look forward to and dream of playing in,” he said. “I think it’s one of the great things about a youth sports experience in small towns that you look forward to playing for your high school team and in a rivalry game. The kids on the other side of the bridge are doing the same thing.

“So, those are special moments when you’re a young guy growing up. Then being able to be a part of it as a coach was fun as well.”

For Stipech, getting to coach the game was actually more nerve-wracking than playing in it.

“I felt more pressure as a coach than a player,” he said. “I did, because you want to do your best for the players. You have such an impact on the game. You want to do it for the parents and alumni. You feel like you want to put your best foot forward and give them a chance to succeed.”

In Stipech’s opinion, when you are the athlete playing in the game, the focus is more on simply playing the game, or making the big play, as opposed to the outside concerns you might have as a coach.

“When you’re a player, you’re dreaming about making the big play,” he said. “You’re dreaming about what you did on the playground, in the backyard. You’re like, ‘I want to be the guy.’ At least for me, that’s what it was.”

If he had to sum up his experiences in the Copper Bowl over the years, Stipech feels that he has seen a lot of the spectrum.

“If I could sum up, I was thinking about this, my Copper Bowl experience, as a player and a coach, it would be highs and lows and horrible weather,” he said. “Some of my biggest highs were when things went well for your team, and your biggest lows as a player, and a coach, is when they didn’t. That’s also what I think makes rivalry great, are those highs and lows.”

The Copper Bowl has traditionally been played as the last game of the regular season for both schools, in late October, so a playoff appearance could be on the line. However with that date comes a wide range of weather conditions.

A rainstorm just two seasons ago comes to mind for Stipech, whose team was on the verge of one of the best seasons in school history, only to struggle to control the football in a game that saw as many Gremlins turnovers as there were raindrops in the air.

“There’s truth to all the cliches,” he said. “Kids will have their best performances, some other kids will make big mistakes, all the things that keep you on the edge of your seat. So, we’ve seen that two years ago. We turned the ball over nine times in a rainstorm. That was a low for me, and it was a high for the Hancock players.”

The loss cost the Gremlins a playoff spot. It was the type of experience that keeps a coach up at night for days after.

“So as a coach, that one, man, that’s just such a tough memory,” he said. “It was so disappointing, so disappointing. I just remember waking up in the middle of the night thinking, ‘What could you have done differently?’ What is the difference between coaching and playing as a kid? The next day you go and hang out with your buddies, or a girlfriend. Coaches, they don’t sleep for two weeks.”

While that rainstorm was hard to deal with, Stipech remembers some even worse weather when he was a junior and a senior at Houghton High School, playing on the varsity team.

“When I was in high school, our junior year, they had talked about playing it in the dome,” he said. “It probably should have been. Kids were getting hypothermia. We kicked an extra point and it came back and landed behind the kicker on our field in Houghton. It was that cold. That was just (about) surviving the elements.”

Growing up and attending Copper Bowl games as a child, Stipech remembers some of the best moments he saw included when Brady Schaefer broke the state rushing record in 1985. In 1989, the game went to overtime, and the two teams played possessions from the 10 yard line to try to find a winner.

When he finally had his chance to play in his junior year, he was so excited to play, but the weather was so awful, he was disappointed that they could not fill the stands at home due to the cold and rain.

“I didn’t get the chance as a sophomore,” he said. “I really wanted to. So, when my junior year finally got there, it was really exciting. I remember it never matches up to what you dreamed of as a kid. It was so cold, nobody could even be in the stands.

“(There were) like three people on the stands, the sleet was going sideways, and (you were) just freezing your butt off. We won that game. That was a blast.”

The next season the two teams met in the snow at Condon Field in Hancock, and Hancock won 10-0. The feeling after that game was devastating for Stipech.

“I remember feeling so defeated, like, ‘I don’t think I ever want to play again. I’m done with football,’ kind of a thing,” he said. “The bus ride back from Hancock after losing 10-0, you’re devastated.”

While his career, unlike many of his teammates and friends, did not end that day, the Copper Bowl often has been the final game in the careers of Gremlins and Bulldogs alike.

“I ended up going to Northern, as a freshman, to play football the next year, but at that moment in time, I just did not even want anything to do with football, because it was just such a letdown,” he said. “You put so much into it, and it was the end of, now that it’s back on Week Nine, it’s also the end of high school careers for kids. The last time, you don’t ever get 11 buddies together and play tackle football again. So, that’s part of it too, being the last game, is that there’s a bunch of kids that aren’t going to get to play again.”

In recent years, the Copper Bowl has been played as early as Week Five, and the biggest positive about that date, according to Stipech, was the weather. This year, it was originally set as the first week of the season, but after much discussion, a lot of which included Stipech before he stepped down as Houghton’s coach to take the same position for hockey, the game was returned to Week Nine.

“Anywhere between weeks Five and Nine, I think, would be good,” he said. “There is something special about playing at Week Nine though, and I think the nostalgia piece for people is there like Michigan/Ohio State, it’s just part of it. It’s probably where it belongs.”

Having the game at the end of the season makes those special moments even greater, because those memories are the ones that burned in for life.

“Is it also hard, because you grew up with these kids even though they’re Hancock, you’re Houghton, you grew up together, you play hockey together, all of these different things,” he said.

“Then, to have to either deal with having beaten them, or having lost them in that last game of the season, that has to be a little frustrating before you get to hockey season, or something else, where you got a chance to kind of redeem yourself a little bit.

“Those bragging rights are for life. There’s points where you look back and say, ‘Oh, that’s silly.’ But, actually, that’s what makes it great, those rivalries. I hope we never lose that. I hope it’s always bragging rights for life. I hope that there’s people that will rub it in and say, ‘We beat you,’ because you’re a part of something.”

Moments like 2022’s game will stick with Stipech forever.

“(The 2022) memory would definitely be Gabrik Carlson,” said Stipech. “He stole the show last year, and so I think anybody walking away from that game (in 2022) was talking about him.

“You’ll see some individual performances over the years that I think have been pretty special.”

For Stipech, the highs and lows and the weather all make Copper Bowl something truly special.

“I just remember having frostbite on my hands, frostbite on my hands, and I remember just a lot of the elements piece of that,” he said. “Everybody hits a little bit harder, and there’s just a little bit more involved. You had the highs, lows and the horrible weather are my biggest memories.”