West, meanwhile, went 7-2 right out of the gate – and had winning seasons every year until 2009 – but didn’t make the playoffs until 2002.
Finally, in 2003, Central made the playoffs, marking the school’s first postseason since Ooley’s exit. The Trojans went 0-9 that 1997 season, and 3-6 for each of the next five years. We had one returning letterman at Central.” “The year the school split, we had 36 returning lettermen,” Sonneman tells The Ticker. According to John Sonneman, a former TC Central athletic director and the announcer for Trojan athletic events since 1966, the split meant West had to build a football program from the ground up Central, meanwhile, had to start over. West’s Titans have never played in a state championship game – nor, until now, have the Trojans done so under the Central name. Traverse City Senior High become Central High School, and across town, West Senior High opened its doors. In 1997, Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) split the schools due to overcrowding. Traverse City Senior High School never returned to the state finals after Ooley’s tenure. He died in November 2005 at the age of 77. Ooley started teaching at Traverse City Senior High in 1953, became head football coach in 1967, and retired after the 1991 season with a career record of 179-60-4. Jim Ooley, who coached that 1978 team, remains the only person to lead the Trojans to a state title. Traverse City lost that game to Livonia Franklin 21-7, but was back in the championship game just three years later to beat North Farmington 20-14. The Trojans’ first trip to the state finals corresponded with the first year there were state finals: 1975, when the MHSAA first began contesting proper playoff tournaments for high school football. In the 1970s and 1980s, Traverse City Senior High was a veritable football powerhouse. It’s the latest chapter in a decades-spanning history of glory and disappointment for Traverse City’s high school football teams. Starting with a 1pm kickoff at Ford Field in Detroit, the Trojans will battle Warren De La Salle for a Division 2 Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) championship. This afternoon (Friday), Traverse City Central will look to end the 33-year state title drought.
The last time Traverse City Central played for a state football championship, Ronald Reagan was president, Russia was still the Soviet Union, and Central still went by the name of “Traverse City Senior High School.” That game, played on Novemagainst Detroit Catholic Central, saw the Trojans prevail 24-14 at the now-demolished Pontiac Silverdome. Touchdown Traverse: A Brief History Of Local High School Football Glory By Craig Manning