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During lunch Monday, Gladwin High School junior Treyton Siegert said he had been interviewed seven or eight times about his last-second, game-winning 21-yard field goal at Ford Field in Detroit, when Gladwin defeated Frankenmuth 10-7 to capture the Division 5 state championship.
That’s the kind of attention you get when you kick the ball through the uprights to seal the first high school football state championship in school history for a town of just over 3,000 people located 160 miles from Detroit.
“Getting on the sidelines for an interview; it was quite a surprise. It’s a pretty cool feeling right now,” Siegert said.
The 17-year-old with a big smile said he was actually talking to some teammates in their hotel room the night before the game about how cool it would be for him to kick a game-winning field goal .
“My dream came true,” said Siegert, who also works the team’s kickoffs and punts.
How nerve-racking for this young kicker to have the Flying G’s championship hopes resting on his shoulders when the ball was snapped in the holder with five seconds left in a tie game? And at Ford Field, no less, an NFL stadium where the Detroit Lions played two days ago.
“I just tried to focus on making it like another kick,” Siegert said, “and it worked,”
When it comes to confidence, he’s more than ready for his Ford Field moment.
“You can never doubt yourself,” said Siegert, who routinely claps his hands before each kick. “Being new to football last year, I didn’t have a lot of confidence and I missed a few (field goals).
“This year, I’m tired of focusing on having all the confidence in the world and hoping it gets me where I need to go. It’s great to have the confidence that I know I can make (the game-winning field goal on Saturday) .”
If the Flying G’s lacked confidence, the impressive presence of approximately 5,000 Gladwin fans in the stands at Ford Field certainly boosted the players in royal blue and white. (Gladwin also has supporters from the neighboring communities of Beaverton, Clare and West Branch.) The Gladwin-Frankenmuth game reportedly had the highest attendance of any of the eight state championship games at Ford Field on Friday and Saturday .
“To have the community rally behind us and show big at Ford Field, that’s huge,” Siegert said, noting Gladwin’s climb from a 1-8 record in 2019 to a 14-0 season in This person has undoubtedly won the hearts of many fans. “Other teams have been there and done that. For us, everyone was all in. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Gladwin’s fan base was back in full force around 11:30 Saturday night, when the team’s charter bus arrived back into town and was met by a police and fire escort at the high school, where several hundred jubilant fans joined the team for at a celebration. rally at Brokoff Field.
Siegert said he and his teammates ran through a human “tunnel” onto the field.
“We went to the field and saw hundreds of people lined up, cheering us on,” he said. “It’s surreal.”
On Monday morning, the Gladwin football team was led in a parade through the school halls by the marching band, playing the school fight song.
This Saturday, one week after that memorable victory, the Flying G’s will be part of the annual Gladwin Christmas parade.
Keep the celebration going.
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