North Farmington takes the field against rival Farmington in 2024.
By: Scott Bentley | C&G Newspapers | Published August 20, 2025
OAKLAND COUNTY — Summer is coming to a close and that means that high school football teams across Michigan are preparing for the 2025 season.
In 2023, the Oakland Activities Association produced two state champions in Harper Woods at the Division 4 level and Southfield A&T at the Division 1 level. That season, Southfield A&T won the title by defeating a Belleville team at Ford Field that had five-star recruit, and now NIL-record-setting quarterback, Bryce Underwood under center.
However, 2024 was a different story for the conference. The OAA didn’t have a team in any of the eight state title games last fall, and its two reigning champs took steps back with Harper Woods finishing 9-4 and Southfield A&T going 2-7 with an 0-4 record against OAA White teams.
This season, there is a lot of excitement surrounding what the OAA could be and the amount of talent that is prevalent from top to bottom. Looking at each division, there are plenty of storylines to watch heading into opening night.
OAA-White preseason coaches poll (1st place votes)
1. Harper Woods: 9-4 last season (2).
2. Rochester Hills Stoney Creek: 5-5.
3. Birmingham Groves: 12-1.
4. Rochester: 4-5.
5. Southfield A&T: 2-7.
Harper Woods made the Division 4 state semifinals last year before losing to eventual state champion Goodrich by a score of 28-14. The team will return a whopping 37 players with some sort of varsity playing experience, including a rare four-year starting quarterback in Nate Rocheleau. Harper Woods will also boast one of the best wide receiver rooms in the state with star wideout Dakota Guerrant returning as a junior this year and Deandre Bidden entering his sophomore season. Both already listed as four-star recruits, Guerrant is ranked as the top high school player in the state for the 2027 recruiting class, while Bidden is ranked as the top player in Michigan for the 2028 recruiting class.
This will be year two of Rick Powell leading Stoney Creek’s football team, and there is a lot of potential in Rochester Hills. Not only is last year’s 5-5 team returning 12 total starters, but the reinforcements coming to fill holes in the roster will come from a junior varsity team that went 9-0 last season and an 8-1 freshman team. Jack Fredenberg and Jake Lantzy will be key players on both sides of the ball, and quarterback Brandon Gergics returns as well.
Last year, Birmingham Groves recorded an undefeated regular season and made the Division 2 state semifinal. The Falcons lost the game in overtime by a score of 28-27 against Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, and OLSM went on to win the state title by 16 points. Groves is set to have 10 returners starting from last year’s squad (five on each side of the ball) and yet the coaches predict a step back for the team in Brendan Flaherty’s 25th season on the sidelines. Four-star offensive lineman Avery Gach is among the notable losses, as the former top-five recruit in the state is a freshman at the University of Michigan this season.
Erik Vernon enters year 17 as Rochester High School football’s head coach, and the team is optimistic about this season. Big-name senior Marcus Aidem will be a fixture in the trenches on both sides of the ball, and running back Devin Grabke will look to build on his impressive 2024. Matt Dyki returns at quarterback as a sophomore.
After a state title in 2023, head coach Aaron Marshall was hired away from A&T by Brother Rice, spelling a new era for Southfield A&T football. Year two for head coach Keith McKenzie will likely be an uphill battle, but there’s still talent on the roster. The defense will return an athletic secondary with players like Kenny Brooks, Mark Reid, Aden Dyer and Taurean Davis, while the offense that struggled last season will look to take a step forward behind quarterback Jeremy Porter.
OAA - Red preseason coaches poll (1st place votes)
1. Clarkston: 7-4 last season (4).
2. Lake Orion: 6-4.
3. West Bloomfield: 5-6.
4. Rochester Adams: 10-3.
5. Oxford: 7-4.
Despite a third-place finish a year ago, Clarkston received the most first-place votes out of any team in the OAA heading into 2025. After a 7-4 finish last year, Clarkston returns 11 starters, including four of the team’s six offensive lineman from last season. Griffin and Lukas Boman will be impact players on both sides of the ball, and quarterback Alex Waszczenko will return as well.
Lake Orion sports a 15-4 combined record over the last two seasons; however, it has lost to Clarkston in the district playoffs in each of those years. This year, the team will look to get over the hump thanks to size and athleticism up front. The group of returning starters is led by senior three-star tight end and Western Michigan commit Ryan Rocheleau.
West Bloomfield had one of the most talented teams in the state in 2023 and made the semifinal before losing to eventual champion Southfield A&T. Last year, the program took a step back after losing a lot of the team’s best players to college, but this year looks to rebound. Three-star recruit seniors Travis Robertson (committed to Bowling Green) and Jeremiah Benson (Committed to Minnesota) are both set to be impact players for a team on the rise. The team will start five players who are three-year starters.
Adams lost in the state semifinal to Hudsonville a year ago and also lost a very talented senior class, including Saginaw Valley State University commit Liam Kania (edge). The team will bring back nine starters total, including playmaker Nolan Farris, but will need the program’s talented youth to step up in 2025.
Oxford finds itself in last in the coaches poll despite its 3-1 OAA Red record leading the team to a division title last year. The team is returning some size up front and impressive three-year starting quarterback Jack Hendrix, which should help the offense stay competitive. The concerns lie in the fact that only three starters on offense and defense from 2024 are set to start in 2025, and right now the team is planning on replacing a whopping 16 starting positions.
OAA - Blue preseason coaches poll (1st place votes)
1. North Farmington: 6-4 last season (3).
2. Birmingham Seaholm: 7-4.
3. Farmington: 7-4.
4. Oak Park: 3-6.
5. Troy Athens: 3-6.
6. Bloomfield Hills: 1-8.
7. Troy: 4-5.
North Farmington won the OAA Blue a year ago despite going winless out of conference, thanks to a 6-0 OAA Blue record. The team will be relatively young and inexperienced, but it still brings back key contributors such as Terrance Jones, Owen Vara, Noah Kornspan and Gabe Jankowski.
Head coach Jim DeWald will enter year 14 at Seaholm with a young but hungry team. The program will bring back senior quarterback Patrick Hughes as well as slotback seniors Conrad Swanson and Casey Goetz. Outside of that, Birmingham only returns two other starters from last year, so a lot of inexperienced players will fill starting roles.
Farmington went from a 2-7 team to a 7-4 team in just one season and will look to keep that momentum going this year. The team returns 13 starters from a team that won a first round playoff game last year before losing to eventual state champion Orchard Lake St. Mary’s.
Since the program’s magical postseason run in 2020, Oak Park has not returned to postseason play. This year, the hope is to change that behind a group of 15 returning starters, highlighted by William Reed, Jaedan Randolph and Cardelle Carrington.
A 3-6 record may not jump off the page, but Athens started the season 1-5 and ended on a high note. The team looks to carry that over this year behind 10 returning starters. Some of the notable players are Grayson Conrad, Andrew Dunlap, Cainan Hanbury and Nathan Piggott.
One of the biggest storylines in the entire state of Michigan will be how new head coach Scott Merchant will do in year one. Merchant is a Chippewa Valley legend, going 103-53 with a state title over the span of 15 years. He also coached at Lawrence Tech University a year ago, and will now look to take a rebuilding Bloomfield Hills team back to the top. The team is 2-16 combined over the last two seasons, and according to Merchant, the team is “starting from scratch” with all positions on the field up for grabs.
Troy went 3-3 against OAA Blue competition last year and barely missed a postseason appearance. The uphill battle for the program this season is that it only has six returning starters from last year’s team, and it is filling those holes via a JV team that went 0-9 a year ago. Senior offensive linemen Mike Helinski and Connor Gillespie will look to lead an inexperienced group.
OAA - Gold preseason coaches poll (1st place votes)
1. Ferndale: 6-4 last season (3).
2. Auburn Hills Avondale: 7-4.
3. Berkley: 2-7.
4. Royal Oak: 3-6.
5. Pontiac: 1-8.
Ferndale finished last year second in the OAA Gold and played a playoff game after a 6-3 regular season. The big question at Ferndale will be how the team handles the transition to a new head coach, as Ferndale alum Donovan Jackson will take over this year.
Last year’s OAA Gold winners come in as the projected runner-up from the coaches this year. Avondale won a playoff game before losing to Walled Lake Western. The program is also under new coaching as Jim Carlisle will take over on the sidelines this year. This may be a rebuilding season, thanks to an astonishing zero starters from last year returning this season. A new era of Avondale football begins.
Berkley returns a solid number of seniors from last year’s team and will also add more from a solid 4-5 JV squad a year ago. The depth that the team showcases should help across the board. Key returners include Lucas Schwenn, Eli Khoury, Collin Richardson and Jack Rittenberry.
Royal Oak won two of its last three games to end 2024 and looks to carry that over to 2025. While returners Liam Flemming, Gage Orzel, Caden Scott and Javien Johnson look to impact both sides of the ball again this year, the team does lack size and will have to address that to compete in a difficult OAA.
Pontiac High School has only won more than one game in a season once since the team’s 6-4 2011 season, and that was a 3-6 year in 2023. Last year, the program went back to a 1-8 record and wants to make sure that doesn’t become a trend again. Pontiac will return 10 starters including Deandre Johnson, Bryce Brown and Dionte Jones, but questions surrounding depth will remain.