BLOOMINGDALE, MI –– The Bloomingdale football team won one game last year.

In fact, it was Bloomingale’s first win in seven years.

According to head coach Jason Hayes, it was a cold and rainy game with about five fans in attendance, and it was not close.

“It was a direct hit. We got away with it, so to speak,” Hayes said.

Fortunately, culture change is not a new concept for the third-year coach.

Been there before

“I’m optimistic about the rebuilding because I did that before I came from Comstock. My first year there, we ended a 40-game losing streak and turned it around before I left there,” Hayes said.

When Hayes arrived in Bloomingdale three years ago, there was no youth program; the middle school program consisted of six kids, and seven kids showed up on the first day of varsity practice.

Since his arrival, Hayes has helped get the youth and middle school football programs back on track and create a full summer schedule of offseason workouts and strength training for his high school athletes.

“Our youth program and our middle school program have been successful, and we are now seeing that with a large class of freshmen,” Hayes said.

Hayes is experiencing a similar development to that during his time at Comstock.

Last year, the middle school and youth programs won four of six games and participation was higher at all levels.

“We’ve got a lot of momentum in football, and before that it was pretty dead. We haven’t had a winning team in 20 years,” Hayes said. “We’re starting to do the right things, the things that good programs do. It’s a culture change… 20 years of bad football is culture… it takes some time.”

Hayes focuses not so much on wins and losses but rather on class size, on retaining players year after year and developing strong young men.

He says those goals will eventually translate into records and playoff trips, but right now his focus is on culture.

But Hayes believes these kids already know what hard work means. It’s just a matter of translating the results into reality on the field.

“Bloomingdale is a very poor, rural community with a lot of farmers. Blueberry farming is a big thing in our community, so a lot of our kids, when they’re not in school or playing sports, are picking blueberries or apples,” Hayes said. “We have a lot of hardworking kids who work 12-hour days in the summer.”

“So if we just take the kids who already have that in them from their families, then that’s a perfect football team…”

Bloomingdale football is made up of quiet workers and tough hitters.

“I can work with that,” Hayes said. “I can shape it.”

One family, one future

There is no greater testament to the culture change at Bloomingdale’s than junior Terrance Payne.

The self-proclaimed all-round athlete was his team’s best tackle last year.

He wears a pacifier as a mouth guard, has Imagine Dragons, Fall Out Boy and Katy Perry on his playlist and is very interested in football in Bloomingdale.

“I look at them and see them as a future program,” Payne said of the growing freshman class. “I like to take freshmen and sophomores under my wing and teach them work ethic… I keep telling them that hard work pays off.”

Payne places a lot of importance on the young players because he remembers who he was back then.

Although Payne’s family is entirely from Bloomingdale and photos of his mother hang in the school’s hallways, his freshman year was his first at this school.

Before Bloomingdale, Payne went to Hartford. When his mother left an abusive relationship and turned to drugs and alcohol, Payne’s life was destroyed.

“Child Services got involved and we were kicked out of our house,” Payne said. “I was homeless for about two years. We found a home and my mom started drinking and doing drugs… I’m about 14 and trying to figure out what’s going on, then she gets hospitalized for the last time.”

Payne moved in with his grandmother and immediately joined the football team.

“I started my freshman year off horribly. I was depressed. I was into football and the culture that was shown to me… all the juniors and seniors… they pushed me to be better,” Payne said. “I decided to make a change and push myself. I lost 50 pounds that year.”

“The school and all the people there have shown me so much love. I look at the graduation posters and there’s my mom from her graduation in 2001. I can see team photos. It reminds me that not everything is bad.”

During his three years playing for the Bloomingdale football team, where he won one game, Payne overcame the adversities he faced with the help of his coaches and teammates.

Now he pours the love he feels from his mother into every game he plays and every teammate he interacts with.

“Every time, rivalry games, first games or last games, I say a prayer in the corner, ‘Ma, give me strength,’ and then I go out there and play my best for them because that’s all I can do,” Payne said. “You have to do your best for the people you love and that’s kind of my motto.”

Payne, a true captain of his team, has embraced and grown into Hayes’ established culture.

The goal for Bloomingdale this year is clear: to be better players and better people than the year before.

Division: 8-man Division 2

Conference: Southwest Michigan 8-Man Football League Red

Head coach: Jason Hayes, 3rd year

Years of coaching team: 3rd year at Bloomingdale (18th year as coach overall)

Record 2023: 1-7

Important returnees*: Terrance Payne (So. TE/LB), Daniel Hodgman (So. OL/DL)

Top new arrivals*: Mavrick Atkinson (Fr. RB/LB), Mason Bishop (Fr. QB/LB), Collin Lewis (Fr. C/DT), Abel Gonzalez (Fr. OL/DT)

Important departures*: Tyler Clemmons (Senior WR/DB), Terrelle Pittsley (Senior DB/WR), Austin Slater (Senior WR/DB)

Attack pattern: No Huddle Spread – Wing-T Tendencies

Defense scheme: Four-man front

Schedule 2024:

September 20: against New Buffalo

September 25: against Bridgman

27 September: in Bangor

October 4: in Fennville

October 11: against Calvin Christian