Despite youthful roster, unbeaten Coopersville football team looking and playing like seasoned group

BY SCOTT DECAMP

For Michigan Sports Radio

COOPERSVILLE – On the offensive and defensive units combined, Coopersville’s varsity football team started nine sophomores in last week’s wild 42-33 homecoming win over Cedar Springs.

The Broncos’ 50-player game day roster consists of a whopping 25 sophomores, 13 juniors, eight seniors, and four freshmen.

That may lead some to say, “The future looks very bright,” and they very well could be right. Based on early results, however, the future is now.

Coopersville carries an unbeaten record (4-0 overall, 1-0 River Cities Alliance) into tonight’s big league matchup at Lowell (3-1, 2-0). The Broncos, ranked No. 7 in the latest Associated Press Division 3 poll, are seeking their first 5-0 start to a season since 2021.

“I think we’ve been doubted. I think we’re showing people who we are and proving them wrong,” junior slot and safety Wyatt Kloosterhouse said.

This Coopersville squad may have a chip on its shoulder, but that will carry a team only so far.

Team unity is a big deal for the Broncos, as is embracing the program’s rich tradition, working hard, and executing to a standard.

“I always tell people this is a great place and people make the place, right? I think that there was a lot of tradition here for years,” said Coopersville coach Ed Kaman, who is in his 10th season at the helm.

“Everything we do, we just try to do first class, do the best thing we can do for kids, put them in a position to be successful. Just hard work, showing up every day, being coachable. And then just doing everything you can to represent our school and our program the right way. I think the bottom line is, when you give kids a goal and you push them to work hard, they want that structure, they want to work.”

Kaman’s first Coopersville team in 2017 qualified for the playoffs, ending an eight-year postseason drought. He said that the 6-4 Broncos squad still holds a special place in his heart.

Coopersville endured a few rough seasons from 2018 to 2020, when it went a combined 6-20, but since that stretch has been a consistently competitive program. The Broncos finished 5-6 last season, avenging a 34-31 league loss to Kenowa Hills with a 42-7 first-round playoff win over the Knights before falling to East Grand Rapids (17-0) in the Division 3 district finals.

Coopersville lost 22 seniors from the 2025 group. With a much smaller senior class this fall, the Broncos appear to be way more inexperienced on paper but that is not the case.

Excluding the 2020 season – the COVID year when every MHSAA team made the football playoffs – Coopersville has qualified the postseason five straight years. Each of the last four years, the Broncos have played 11 total games. That translates to a lot of extra practice time.

According to Kaman, underclassmen aren’t referred to by teammates as “freshmen or sophomores,” they are all Broncos.

Seniority is not based upon class standing.

“I loved playing but I love coaching way more because I love teaching kids the game and letting them go out there and make decisions,” said Kaman, a 2001 Kenowa Hills alumnus, who walked on at Grand Valley State University and played for Brian Kelly. “We give kids a ton of freedom … In turn, it puts more on those kids but they like that. They love that freedom and they love that responsibility. And, with that, they do a good job of coaching up the young kids. 

“I can’t tell you how many times we have older kids step up and say, ‘I’ve got it, Coach,’ and they’ll take this kid and go show them a technique or talk to them. It tells you a lot about how well the kids know our system. I think part of that is continuity with me being here 10 years.”

That type of culture does not happen overnight.

The Broncos work at it. They are intentional about team bonding.

As a group, they’re reading and discussing “The Twin Thieves,” a book by Steve Jones and Lucas Jadin which examines invisible thieves being fear of failure and fear of judgment.

“I think with all the team bonding stuff we do, we’re all pretty close. All the grade levels, sophomores to seniors, we all hang out outside of practice,” Coopersville senior linebacker Ben Skinner said. 

“If you know it’s your friend that you’re trusting, it helps even more.”

Tradition is another component that Kaman embraces. He said that photos of Coopersville’s state runner-up squads from 1991, 2000, and 2006 — coached by late Hall of Famer Jim Meerman — grace the team room. Kaman reminds his players each week to not only respect the program’s tradition, but to try and build upon it.

Fans follow suit, too. They show up to games in large numbers, too, notably the packed house last week.

“It’s awesome,” Kloosterhouse said. “It’s like an adrenaline rush to me. It’s great.”

Coopersville has been getting some great performances and winning all types of ways.

Kloosterhouse had a monster game against Cedar Springs. He ran 15 times for 251 yards for an average of 16.7 per carry, caught four passes for 25 yards, and scored four touchdowns en route to being voted WZZM 13 On Your Sidelines Week 4 MVP.

In a 20-17 overtime victory at Petoskey in Week 3, Kloosterhouse set a single-game school record with 15 catches resulting in 139 yards and a TD on the way to being voted the MLive Grand Rapids Player of the Week.

Meanwhile, sophomore quarterback Champ Kelly has been lights-out in the passing game. The second-year starter has completed 52 of 78 attempts for 664 yards with 12 TDs and only one interception.

Coopersville opened the season with a 39-8 road victory over a Ludington team that has not lost since that game. The next week. Coopersville blitzed reigning Division 5 state champion and perennial power Grand Rapids West Catholic, 41-21, on the Broncos’ home field.

“I think it’s great for the team (to play close games) because if you blow a team out, it’s not going to make anyone better,” said 6-foot-4, 260-pound senior lineman Hunter Hankamp, a Central Michigan University commit. “For example, like that Petoskey game, we had to win in overtime. That’s a great learning experience for everyone. We have to experience something like that again so we can be prepared (for the big games).”

Featured photo at the top: Coopersville sophomore quarterback Champ Kelly calls the signals during practice Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, at Coopersville High School. (Photo | Scott DeCamp)