Broncos and Spartans set to clash

Posted Thursday, June 19, 2008

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By Lisa Paine
VIEW Sports Editor

NORTH BRANCH — Practices are underway and the rosters are being finalized for the third annual North Branch vs. Imlay City alumni football game that will be hosted by North Branch July 26. Kick-off is slated for 7 p.m.
Imlay City will actually get an extra game in before they crash heads with their crosstown rivals, when they suit up to battle Capac as part of Capac Days on July 18. Rick Lee of Imlay City said that they added the extra game with the Chiefs because they weren’t sure North Branch was going to play this year.
“So, we’re going to get out there and bust ourselves up for two weekends in a row,” Lee said.
Lee didn’t use the “busting up” remark lightly as he suffered a bruised lung in last year’s contest. North Branch organizer and player Daniel Deshetsky took a hard hit to his leg, and in past years other broken bones, ACL injuries and bumps and bruises were part of the action. Imlay City grads Matt Topie, currently coaching football at Waterford Kettering, and Pat Brown, the Spartans’ former coach, now its dean of students, had joked about the possibility of having to start their seasons on crutches with the hard-hitting action, and John Lee had to watch from the sidelines in the inaugural contest when he actually suffered a broken leg in practice.
Others joked about wives demanding a rider on the old insurance policy for disability, but that has all just been part of the fun rivalry as decades-old players took their hits along with the more-recent grads that were still in fine football shape.
The annual game that draws roughly 2,500 fans from the two schools is a fundraiser for both football programs. The gate receipts are split and the home team gets to keep the concession take. Proceeds of nearly $11,000 were split and the extra $1,000 in concession sales and 50/50 raffle money went back to Imlay City’s football and athletic programs last year. Players have to have graduated from high school for five years to become eligible, and the overflow crowds at the first two games saw players dating back to the 1960s to early 2000s grind it out.
North Branch won the initial contest, 21-18, in 2006, but host Imlay City evened the series last year at 1-1 after trouncing North Branch, 20-6.