BLOOMFIELD HILLS — Any talk about Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice football’s state championships is sure to include reference to retired coaching great Al Fracassa, who brought home nine trophies to the Lahser Road campus.
Now, the Warriors have a new coach with a championship pedigree in Aaron Marshall — and he understands those associations are inevitable.
“That’s never going to stop,” Marshall said. “To be compared to Coach Fracassa, to have to jump in those big shoes, I think it is an honor. We talk, we’ve had lunch … so the relationship is close. He set the bar, so we strive to get to the standard that he set, and I’m excited to try to get there.”
Marshall actually is a step ahead of the coaches who have come and gone since Fracassa hung up his whistle 11 seasons ago — he guided Southfield A&T to the Division 1 state title last fall.
But soon after, he departed to move four miles up Lahser and guide a different band of Warriors.
It might seem unfathomable that a coach would move from a program that finished with a 13-1 record to take over one that was 0-9 — suffering through its first winless season since 1963 (the school’s second year of varsity football, and before Fracassa’s tenure).
However, the bonds for Marshall are strong.
“It’s a great opportunity; that’s the way I look at it,” Marshall said. “To join such a powerhouse tradition like Brother Rice, from being a student there to now coaching there, I’m excited about the opportunity. We have a long road ahead of us, but again, the coaching staff and the players are all bought-in. We have to take it one day at a time; you can’t get it all back at once. I’m very proud of the work ethic right now and the things we’re doing. We’ll see how the season goes, but as of right now, I’m very excited.”
The youngest of four siblings, Marshall has two older brothers who graduated from Brother Rice, and he attended the school for two years before moving to Chicago, where he quarterbacked Mount Carmel (another all-boys Catholic school) to a pair of state championships.
“I’d been going to Coach Fracassa’s quarterback camp ever since sixth grade, and then I moved to Mount Carmel and played for Frank Lenti — he’s like the Al Fracassa of Illinois (with an Illinois state-record 11 championships, and the school has won 15 titles), so I’ve been able to learn from two iconic head coaches in high school. They poured into me so much, and I’ve been able to put that on display and bring that out to my teams.”
Marshall, who’s also the associate athletic director, said there’s one thing Brother Rice had that Southfield didn’t.
“I would say the tradition, and that matters,” he said. “When you talk about culture and winning traditions, that’s something that Southfield did not have — but they have it now.”
Marshall was upbeat after his first official practice session Monday afternoon.
“The energy was high for today,” he said. “I love where we are right now. We started our practice with a great pace offensively and defensively. A lot of competing early, too, which I love. I think that’s the formula — to compete at a high level as much as possible.”
Marshall understands that the program needs to take small steps to get back to the level everyone expects from Brother Rice football.
“They’re learning,” he said. “A lot of teaching was happening, which will continue. I expect them to know things like the back of their hand pretty soon here, and then we’ll get rolling the way I want. Right now I can tell they’re thinking a little bit, but they’re still trying to play fast, which I love.”
Throughout the opening week two-a-day sessions, the Warriors are emphasizing offense during midday practices at the school. In the evening, the players take the field at Lawrence Tech University and concentrate on defensive schemes.
The time in between is devoted to eating lunch, studying film, resting and recovering while the 82 players are sequestered in a local hotel.
“I take their cellphones and get rid of all the distractions,” Marshall said. “It’s football-football-football, and building bonds and that brotherhood. They can’t talk on their phones; they can only talk to each other.”
The regular season begins during the final weekend of August, and like every season, Brother Rice will face a challenging slate.
“The game schedule is rough — we’re in the Central Division. It doesn’t get any tougher,” Marshall said. “Again we open up with Roseville, and then we get right into Catholic League play. We’ve got them all — all the big Toledo schools, we’ve got Catholic Central, we’ve got Orchard Lake, we’ve got De La Salle, and our cross-overs are Roseville and River Rouge. But again, I wouldn’t want it any other way. We want to be playoff-ready. As much as we respect the regular season, we want to be prepared for November.”
Regardless of whatever happens between now and then, Marshall said the Warriors are content to dwell in the present and put the recent past behind them.
“The talent’s always been there at Rice,” Marshall said. “It’s really important to keep the kids healthy, and we’ve got to continue to grow — mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. If we take it one day at a time, I think we’ll have some success.
“I’m just blessed and excited to be here right now, and I think we’ll do some good things.”
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