(WXMI) — Thomas Cook sits down with Bret Bakita and first-year Forest Hills Central head coach Dave Fortino to preview the Rangers season.
FHC won the Division 3 state championship last year. Long-time football coach Tim Rogers retired after last season.
"It's kind of like drinking water out of a fire hose a little bit," Fortino said. "I've been very, very lucky that we have an amazing senior class and great leadership that has really helped out this summer. It's made it for a much smoother transition."
Fortino was the offensive line coach on last year's team that won it all at Ford Field.
"No doubt it was a special group. The thing about that group is they were great athletes and great competitors but they are great people off the field. They were a very inclusive group. They tried to pull anyone with them that was willing to come along and you don't get that very often," Fortino said.
Forest Hills Central loses key pieces from last year's team like Ty Hudkins who is now at Purdue and Max Richardson who's at Stanford.
"Honestly we haven't talked too much about the losses that we have had, we've talked more about who we have left. Our seniors have done a really good job doing the 'here and now' talking about what we have and what we need to do to move on to the future," Fortino said.
Forest Hills Central will start the season hosting Reeths-Puffer on Thursday, August 29th at 7:00 p.m.
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