Hometown Life sportswriter Brandon Folsom breaks down HTL’s five teams in the Oakland Activities Association ahead of the 2025 season.
WATCH: Previewing Bloomfield Hills football at 2025 OAA Media Day
Bloomfield Hills football coach Scott Merchant previews the upcoming season on Friday, Aug. 8, 2025.
After winning the 2022 state championship, the Bloomfield Hills girls soccer team modeled its rings after the 2018 Chippewa Valley football team’s.
Which made sense at the time because one of the Black Hawks’ seniors was Emma Merchant, whose father, Scott, had led the Big Reds to that state title.
Now, the football team is modeling its rebuild after Chippewa.
During the offseason, the Black Hawks hired Merchant to replace Dan Loria, the only coach they’ve had since the school opened its doors 10 years ago.
Merchant stepped down at Chippewa in 2023, after winning two Macomb Area Conference-Red championships and making 13 playoff appearances in 15 seasons, to try his hand at coaching at Lawrence Tech.
While the Blue Devils won only two games, Merchant was starting to build something that prospective recruits in the metro Detroit area wanted to join.
But then he heard Loria was quitting.
“It was a great opportunity to do the college thing, but I found out really quickly that I like being in high school,” he said during Oakland Activities Association Media Day on Aug. 8 at Rochester High School. “I like being a counselor. I like being in a school. I like being part of a community and a district.
“God works in mysterious ways. My wife (Amy) is a teacher at Bloomfield. My daughter graduated from Bloomfield. My son (Will) will be a junior and played on the varsity last year. So, for me, there was a football opening, there was a counseling opening and I live 4 miles away. It was divine intervention.”
And it’ll take Noah’s level of foresight to right the ark at Bloomfield, which has had two consecutive one-win seasons despite being three years removed from a 9-0 regular season that saw the Black Hawks win the OAA-Blue convincingly.
Fortunately for them, Merchant has experience quickly turning around teams.
When Detroit U-D Jesuit hired him in 1998, the Cubs had never qualified for the playoffs. By his second season, they played in the state semifinals.
After the Big Reds missed the postseason in two of Merchant’s first three seasons, they were never left out of the playoffs again, routinely playing for district and regional titles before finally breaking through in 2018 to win their second state championship in school history.
“My first year at U of D, we had 25 kids on the varsity team playing in the (Catholic League) Central, and we played CC (Detroit Catholic Central), and they had 71 kids that year,” Merchant recalled. “We suited up 21 that night. So, I’ve been there before, and there’s no reason we can’t be competitive in the OAA.”
Merchant has wasted no time in getting to work.
He has already made inroads at the flag football, youth and middle school levels, ensuring that each sub-varsity program aligns with his vision.
He’s also changed how the offseason is handled.
“We got our helmets the first week of summer,” returning senior lineman Nolan Metts said. “Before, we really felt like we weren’t doing a whole lot — just lifting and going home. We started installing plays really early, where we used to never do that stuff until late July or early August. We worked a lot harder this offseason.”
Added senior linebacker Cam Harst: “There’s been a big culture change. A lot more guys have bought in this year than they did last year. A lot of it’s the different coaching style, and they’ve done a lot to really connect with us players.”
While the Black Hawks are back in the Blue for another season, two divisions down from the prestigious OAA-Red, that doesn’t mean winning will come easily.
They’re still playing against Farmington, North Farmington and Birmingham Seaholm, all teams that have won the Blue in the past three years.
It’s a division filled with future college players and four or five playoff contenders.
Merchant’s done his best this summer to make his players believe that they belong in the conversation with those same recruits and teams.
“We’ve had a really bad past couple of years, and I think people are tired of losing,” said senior running back and linebacker Bryant Snyder, a captain. “With the new coaching staff, they’re getting everybody together. Everybody’s excited, and people are working a lot harder.”
Maybe not this year. Maybe not next year. But if Merchant stays at Bloomfield for the long haul, it should become a state power. Or, at the very least, a really good OAA team. Considering the league has had seven state champions since 2010, that’s not bad company to be amongst.
The Black Hawks will be one of the toughest rebuilds of 2025, but he’s excited to be the one leading them through it.
“When I look at jobs, I don’t look where I can win the most games,” Merchant said. “It’s about the best fit for me and my family. I think we have that here. We have a lot of good kids and players at Bloomfield. So it’s our job to coach those kids up and try to make them better and, hopefully, make them realize they can compete in the OAA.”
Here comes Herschel
Almost every season, Farmington has that one standout who, without a doubt, is usually the best player on the field, regardless of opponent.
Under fifth-year coach Jason Albrecht, that’s been quarterback Dom Pesci (Robert Morris), running back Cam Pettaway (Bowling Green) and, last season, tailback and linebacker Trenton Darden (Lawrence Tech).
Who will it be in 2025?
“We’ll find out,” Albrecht said. “We have a lot of kids with big-play potential who now have a better understanding of what we’re doing, scheme-wise. I think being able to know that stuff will allow them to play faster and more aggressively. That could be any handful of kids who could be able to do that for us this year.”
It’ll likely end up being Herschel McCormack-Reamer, whose sprinter speed makes him a threat to score from anywhere on the field, whether that’s him carrying the ball on end-arounds, intercepting a pass or returning a punt.
As a junior, he finished with 922 yards of total offense and scored 15 touchdowns, recorded 33 tackles, one interception and five pass breakups on defense and earned All-OAA first-team honors.
He also helped Farmington’s 400- and 800-meter relay teams qualify for the Division 1 state championship in the spring.
During the offseason, the 5-foot-11, 170-pound receiver and defensive back received an offer from Ferris State and was invited to Grand Valley’s camp.
He’s poised for an even bigger season as a senior.
“He’s still the same type of kid, but he’s been in the weight room more, so he’s got more strength to him now,” Albrecht said. “But he’s still like a video game, where he’s going to bounce back and forth and hit the juke stick.”
Reminder: HTL covers teams in Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Canton, Commerce Twp., Farmington, Farmington Hills, Garden City, Livonia, Milford, Northville, Novi, Plymouth, Redford, South Lyon, Wayne, Westland, White Lake and Wixom.
Bloomfield Hills
2024 record: 1-8, 0-6
Highlights: Beat Pontiac in an OAA crossover matchup
Season opener: vs. Troy, 7 p.m. Aug. 28 (at Bloomfield Hills Andover)
Offensive returners: 4
Defensive returners: 5
Key returners: WR/FS Jad Almsaddi, OL Grant Main, OL Nolan Metts, RB/LB Bryant Snyder, RB/LB Cam Harst, DB Eddie Hruska, FB/DL Averi Lewis and TE/LS Isaac Kaplan
Challenge ahead: Restarting the program with a state champion-winning coaching staff
Coach Scott Merchant’s comment: “I’ve been in the MAC, and I’ve been in the Catholic League, and now, in the OAA, I feel like I’ve been in the top three leagues in the state. I’m excited to be in the OAA with a lot of great teams, a lot of great schools and outstanding coaches and players.”
Birmingham Groves
2024 record: 12-1, 4-0
Highlights: Won OAA-White, Division 2 district and regional titles and lost to eventual state champion Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in the semifinal
Season opener: vs. Detroit U-D Jesuit, 7 p.m. Aug. 28
Offensive returners: 5
Defensive returners: 5
Key returners: QB LeVelle Shannon, RB/MLB Carter Hladski, WR/DB Rylee Armbrustmacher, TE/LB Ian Belew, RB/OLB Carter Anderson, RB/MLB Jeremiah Whitley, TE/DE Josh Hammonds, TE Jackson Tipton, DE/OLB Judah Scobie, OL Henry Roberts, WR/CB Jordan Thomas, WR/CB Blake Riggins, WR Adrian Bryant, OL Leeland Swanson, OL Mattia Andriano, OL/DL Ezra Brown, RB Khamari Earley, OLB Dominic Taylor and LB Landon Lewis
Challenge ahead: Replacing veterans such as four-star OL Avery Gach (Michigan), Hometown Life’s Co-Player of the Year, three-star RB Noah Sanders (Toledo), RB Mario Campoy-LoVasco and QB Ryan Counts (Wittenberg), among others
Coach Brendan Flaherty’s comment: “In this league, I don’t care what division it is, you’ve got to work your tail off to have a chance. You’ve got to work your butt off throughout the summer and all that stuff just to have a chance to win. … It’s a challenge, and you’ve got to bring it every Friday night.”
Birmingham Seaholm
2024 record: 7-4, 5-1
Highlights: Qualified for the postseason for a third year in a row after placing second in the OAA-Blue
Season opener: at Troy Athens, 7 p.m. Aug. 28
Offensive returners: 4
Defensive returners: 1
Key returners: QB Patrick Hughes, SB Casey Goetz, SB Conrad Swanson, OL/DL Max Kruger OL Brendan Corbett, OL Brady Chandler and DB Rocco Kulpa
Challenge ahead: Having Patrick Hughes take complete control of the offense after sharing QB duties with Finn Rouland as a junior, while finding a replacement for RB Penn Roberts
Coach Jim DeWald’s comment: “We’ve had a lot of guys to replace. We have five returning starters from last year’s team, but a lot of the guys we’ll replace with seniors who have a lot of experience with our system, so we’re excited about that.”
Farmington
2024 record: 7-4, 4-2
Highlights: Beat White Lake Lakeland in the playoffs to earn a berth in the district championship against eventual state champion Orchard Lake St. Mary’s
Season opener: at Oak Park, 6 p.m. Aug. 29
Offensive returners: 7
Defensive returners: 6
Key returners: WR/DB Anthony Bailey, RB/OLB Antoine Bailey, OL Ashwin Sureshbabbu, WR/FS Herschel McCormack-Reamer, OLB Jon Howell, DE/TE Myles Smith and DB Jaylin Marshall.
Challenge ahead: Building off beating White Lake Lakeland in the playoffs and competing against eventual state champion Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in the district championship.
Coach Jason Albrecht’s comment: “This year, we’re looking forward to respond to what we did last year, in 2024, winning a playoff game and trying to build upon it. We have a great group of kids coming back.”
North Farmington
2024 record: 6-4, 6-0
Highlights: Won the OAA-Blue and qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2020
Season opener: vs. Livonia Stevenson, 7 p.m. Aug. 28.
Offensive returners: 6
Defensive returners: 6
Key returners: WR/DB Terrance James, OL/DL Owen Varva, OL/DL Gabe Jankowski, TE/DL Jonathan Majcher, FB/MLB Noah Kornspan, RB/MLB David Minisee, RB/OLB Christian Green, K Jade Fade and WR/SS Trae Woods
Challenge ahead: Moving star QB Terrance James to WR to create a more balanced offensive attack
Assistant Derrick Parker’s comment: “These guys have been working very hard this offseason to build off of last year’s success.”
The votes are in! Here’s how the coaches expect the final division standings to shake out this fall:
OAA-RedClarkston (4 first-place votes)Lake OrionWest BloomfieldRochester AdamsOxfordOAA-WhiteHarper Woods (2)Rochester Hills Stoney CreekBirmingham GrovesRochesterSouthfield A&TOAA-BlueNorth Farmington (3)Birmingham SeaholmFarmingtonOak ParkTroy AthensBloomfield HillsTroyOAA-GoldFerndale (3)Auburn Hills AvondaleBerkleyRoyal OakPontiac
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on his new X.com account at @folsomwrites.