Coach’s suspension ‘non-issue’ for Kenowa Hills football team with state title aspirations

BY SCOTT DECAMP

For Michigan Sports Radio

GRAND RAPIDS – Since Don Fellows was hired in January 2024 to reverse the fortunes of Kenowa Hills’ football program, the Knights have been pointing toward this season.

Prior to Fellows’ arrival as coach, Kenowa Hills had not finished with a winning season since 2014 and had won three or fewer games in each of the 2018-2023 seasons.

Year one in 2024, the Knights went 6-4. Year two in 2025, they improved to 8-2 and captured the River Cities Alliance championship.

They’re going for it all this season. With 18 returning starters, including the core leadership group of seniors, the Knights have the talent and experience to chase their ultimate goal.

“State championship. Nothing less,” said Kenowa Hills senior captain Zander Yost, the defensive leader at middle linebacker and one of the faces of the team.

Kenowa Hills had been competing in Division 3 of the MHSAA playoffs in recent seasons, but the Knights are Division 4 this fall and they feel good about their chances.

Kenowa Hills lost the season opener to reigning Division 3 state champion DeWitt but rebounding for two blowout wins in a row. 

The Knights have tried to stay focused in spite of any potential distractions with the two-game suspension of coach Fellows for alleged MHSAA rule violations associated with the high school’s strength and conditioning class.

“We have played great the last two weeks. It’s been the best we have played,” Fellows, who has been able to attend practices in Weeks 2 and 3 but not coach in those games, told Scott DeCamp this week. “Kids have been focused at practice. The suspension has been a non-issue for our team. We’re not allowing it to distract us.”

After a 59-21 loss to DeWitt in the season opener at Wayne State – a game which got away from Kenowa Hills – runaway victories followed over Big Rapids (45-7) and Greenville (48-6).

Kenowa Hills (2-1 overall, 1-0 RCA) continues conference play this Friday at home against Sparta (2-1, 0-1). 

Sure, the Knights would love to win the conference title again, but after first-round playoff exits each of the last two years, they’re looking for much more.

“I think that the lights were a little too bright,” Yost said about early playoff exits the last two years. “I don’t think we were ready for that. We know we’ve been there and everything.”

For Fellows, it’s way more than hoisting a state championship trophy, which would be the first MHSAA team title in Kenowa Hills athletics history. 

He tells his players that while it may sound cliche, enjoy the journey.

“Especially for me – it’s my son’s senior year, so I’m trying to enjoy every single day,” said Fellows, whose son Grayson is a standout quarterback and one of the team leaders. 

“I think everybody talks (about) us that if we stay healthy, we have a chance to win a state championship. There’s a lot of things that have got to happen. It’s exciting when you come to practice in camp and you know you have a team that can compete pretty much at that (state championship level). My message to them is, like, ‘When you’re my age, one day you’ll be looking back at this. You want to go all-in. You don’t want to leave anything on the table.’”

Kenowa Hills has the puzzle pieces, it would appear. Start with the aforementioned leadership group:

Senior running back Lundon Hampton is a Michigan commit, who is averaging 7.4 yards per carry through his first three games: 43 carries, 315 yards, five touchdowns.

Quarterback Grayson Fellows is a Michigan Tech commit, who is 45-of-62 passing for 710 yards with eight TDs and two interceptions. He’s passed for 5,893 yards in his career and is in position to reach the 6,000-yard milestone this Friday.

Senior receiver Will Fussman is a Central Michigan commit and multi-sport star, who has hauled in 14 passes for 252 yards and five TDs.

Yost nearly set the single-season Kenowa Hills tackles record in 2015 with 133 total stops. Through three games this season, he’s made 22 tackles, three of them for lost yardage.

Coach Fellows is a fan of each of those players, but he was effusive in his praise for Fussman.

“I think Will’s a Big Ten football player. I think he was really under the radar. Central Michigan saw it right away and he was like one of their No. 1 prospects,” Fellows said. “He reminds me a lot of Drake Harris. He’s long, he’s rangy. … He is dynamic with the ball in his hands. He’s very competitive, athletic – can do a lot of things. But he’s tough, you know.”

Harris was an all-state receiver at Grand Rapids Christian when Fellows guided the Eagles to the state championship. Harris went on to play at Michigan and Western Michigan.

Fussman is an all-state baseball player, who led Kenowa Hills to the brink of a state championship in June before suffering an extra-innings loss to perennial power Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in the Division 2 title game.

Fussman believes that success in baseball and other sports (he also plays basketball) can help with a winning mindset in football. The senior group also feels a sense of urgency because it’s the last hurrah.

“We take a lot of the little stuff more seriously now because we know as seniors it’s our last chance to do this,” said Fussman, who stressed the importance of being in the moment and blocking out “the noise.”

“You don’t look past the next day or next practice. You stay where you are and you’re never really out of these games. We were trailing about every game we played in the (baseball) playoffs and we came back.”

The Knights’ leaders have a strong connection with each other and their teammates. 

They’re looking to make history. But, again, the feelings go deeper than a piece of championship hardware.

“I’m going to miss, like, all the team-bonding stuff: Going out to dinner, going to coach’s house on the lake,” Hampton said. “Just spending time with the guys.”

On the field, they have their chance to make a statement.

“When we first got here, our goal was to make the playoffs, which we did. Then our second goal was my junior year winning the RCA, which we did,” Grayson Fellows said. “But if you have those goals and you (achieve them), you’re like, ‘Our season’s done.’ 

“We’re really focusing on our goal: To win a state championship. Who cares about winning a playoff game? Who cares about the conference championship? (State title) is our goal in our head.”

Featured photo at the top: Kenowa Hills senior quarterback Grayson Fellows fires a pass during practice Tuesday, Aug. 11, at Kenowa Hills High School in Grand Rapids, Mich. (Photo | Scott DeCamp)