Football found its identity at Milford during the 2011 season. Stands were packed every Friday night waiting for the opening kickoff.

Fans and students of Milford stood the entire game waiting for the next exciting play or cheering their team on at the end of each quarter. Football was the talk of Milfor this fall because of the success that the team had under the new era of Coach Pat Fox.

This is Fox’s first year back with the Mavericks ever since the departure of former head coach Jeff Hill. Fox commented on how it feels to be coaching football again,

“It’s a little stressful at times. Right now, coaching seems a bit dry, but it feels good to be back,” Fox said.

Fox has been a successful coach of Milford three years before, going 50-29 during his eight years with the program and leading the team to the state playoffs several times, including a Regional Final appearance in 2006.

In his first year back, the team got off to a fast start, winning their first two games by a combined score of 97-13. The Mavs split the next four games before an important Homecoming game against Pinckney.

On Oct 7, Milford took on Pinckney on Homecoming night and won 45-0. With only two games left to go in the season the Mavs were feeling pretty confident about their playoff chances.

“We have two games left that we feel confident about going down the stretch. But we’ll see where the playoff route takes us,” Fox said.

After a 5-2 start to the season, Senior Gavin Long expressed his thoughts about how the season had gone so far. “I expect us to keep playing at a high level.” Long said.” I think we are really coming together well as a team. We work well together, and we really are a band of brothers. If we keep playing the way we are we should win the rest of our games and go into the playoffs on a roll going strong.”

Milford has faced tough tasks this season battling with injuries. Some of Milford’s key players like Billy Schoenle and Danny Wallace have both suffered season-ending injuries, but still Milford has found ways to make wins possible and keep playoff hopes alive.

“The biggest challenge this season has been overcoming injuries,” Senior Chris Orr said. “We’ve had a lot of starters get season ending injuries, but a lot of guys have stepped up.” He also went on to say the thing that he can improve as a player is being more efficient on tackling and communicating more on defense.

“We need to develop depth on our varsity team and get the younger kids ready to go.” Fox said. Milford could have clinched a playoff spot for the first time in four years in their school history. It was a hard fought game against Walled Lake Northern, but it wasn’t enough to clinch a playoff birth. Milford lost by a touchdown after tying the game up 28 to 28. The Mavs would have one last chance against rival Lakeland the following week to make the playoffs.