Metro Detroit

Wayne State football players from local schools reflect on march to D-II title game

By Jason Carmel Davis
C & G Sports Writer

» Click on image to view full size « Photo by Jason Clark/WSU Athletics Wayne State University senior running back Josh Renel, a graduate of Rochester Adams High School, looks for a hole to run through during one of the team’s five NCAA Division II playoff games. The Warriors made it all the way to the finals before falling 35-21. The appearance in the title game was the first in program history. Photo by Jason Clark/WSU Athletics Wayne State University senior running back Josh Renel, a graduate of Rochester Adams High School, looks for a hole to run through during one of the team’s five NCAA Division II playoff games. The Warriors made it all the way to the finals before falling 35-21. The appearance in the title game was the first in program history.

It didn’t end the way they would have liked, but players from the Wayne State University football team are calling their run to the NCAA Division II National Championship game “a dream come true.”

“It’s what every athlete comes to college to do one day, and being the first ones to ever reach that level at our university is something that will make this team remembered all throughout the university,” said senior running back Josh Renel, a graduate of Rochester Adams who this season rushed for 1,407 yards and 14 touchdowns.

“For those few weeks, we felt on top of the world. This truly was the best time of my life.”

Kansas-based Pittsburg State University downed the Warriors in the final 35-21. The title-game appearance was the first in the 90-plus year history of Wayne State’s football program. During the regular season, the Warriors finished second in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference South Division at 7-3.

On its way to the title game, played Dec. 17 in Florence, Ala., Wayne State battled through four tough opponents, all on the road.

The Warriors won in hostile environments in Nebraska, North Carolina and in Minnesota on two separate occasions.

On its march to the final, Wayne State knocked off defending D-II national champ University of Minnesota-Duluth and previously unbeaten Winston-Salem State University. Players and coaches before and after each game received phone calls and text messages from family and friends in support of their efforts.

“Our championship run did more for this university than any of us would’ve imagined,” said Renel, who in the title game returned the opening kickoff for a score. “Students all over campus are now recognizing our accomplishments and paying more attention to all of our athletic teams, and the program will only continue to grow.”

Wayne State sophomore kicker Stefan Terleckyj, a Warren Mott grad, said maintaining focus wasn’t difficult, adding everyone on the roster just lived in the moment and concentrated on what was in front of them.

“It was awesome to travel to all of the different states and colleges,” said redshirt sophomore strong safety Antwon Robinson, a Southfield High alum who finished second on the team with five interceptions. “I felt like I was on a college tour with my teammates.

“Even though the team lost, we’re still a tight group. We win and lose together, and we never lose faith in one another.”

The past season’s success was enough to keep head coach Paul Winters in Detroit. Winters decided Dec. 19 to remain at Wayne State for five more seasons, keeping him with the squad until 2016.

“I am very excited about what we have accomplished, and I am even more excited about the future,” Winters said in a prepared statement. “The immediate future means bringing in another great recruiting class.”

Terleckyj and Robinson should be key contributors to next year’s squad, and both believe the Warriors have as good a shot as any team to make it back to the big game.

Robinson said getting home-field advantage would be key, while Terleckyj doesn’t believe the squad has to change much.

“With Coach Winters returning, we have a great chance to make it back to (the national championship game),” the sophomore kicker said. “We don’t have to change much of what we do. We just have to work on perfecting how we do it.”

Renel has played his last down for Wayne State, but the senior sees good things for the school’s football program going forward.

“I think this will help get the word out on how great our football program really is,” he said. “In order for it to continue to get better, that will all rest on the players’ attitudes, and they must realize it will be harder now that teams will always be aiming for them.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better senior year.”

You can reach C & G Sports Writer Jason Carmel Davis at jdavis@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1107.