Coon to fill in as color commentator for Cheboygan-TC St. Francis game

CHEBOYGAN – Jack Coon will be back with Cheboygan Football on Friday night.  

Only this time, he'll be in the booth as a commentator.

Coon – the head coach of the Chiefs from 1988-2014 – will provide color commentary for the Chiefs, who will host the undefeated and Division 7, No. 1-ranked Traverse City St. Francis Gladiators at Western Avenue Field at 7 p.m.

Coon joins Nate King, who will take over play-by-play duties for longtime WCBY announcer Mike Grisdale, who will be out of town for a wedding event.  

“From what I understand, Mike Grisdale, the voice of the Cheboygan Chiefs, is headed downstate, and Nate (King) called me and said, ‘Hey, I need somebody to do some color for the Chiefs on Friday,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll throw my hat in the ring,’” said Coon. “I’ve done (commentary) with (Grisdale) a couple times before, I’ve done it with Nate (King) a couple of times over the years, but not recently.” 

Friday's commentary will be the first time in a while for the former Cheboygan coach, who now resides in Muskegon with his wife, Erin.  

While Coon hasn’t coached for almost a decade now, he’s still kept himself up to date on the high school football scene, at least from where he’s located now.  

“I've followed a lot of west Michigan football this year so far, I’ve gone to some practices and scrimmages and games, but for the most part, first off, the view (from the booth), you get a nice view (of the action) as opposed to leaning on the fence,” Coon said. “It’s just a different perspective of the game that you’re trying to get across to someone who may not quite fully understand the intricacies of what’s going on or what’s happened or what the intent is.  

“It’s just to explain a little bit so people get a little better understanding of how it all goes.” 

Talking about the Chiefs  

As for the current Chiefs, Coon said he tries to keep up as much as he possibly can.  

“Off and on a little bit, we’ve been traveling quite a bit, my wife and I,” Coon said. “Whenever we get an opportunity, we try to get it on the link (to the website) and listen to the game, because we’re mostly downstate now. We’ve been out of Cheboygan for over a year now. We moved to Petoskey for one year while (Erin) finished her career in education in Petoskey. We’ve been doing a lot of traveling, and whenever we can, we tune in and see how the Chiefs are doing.” 

When asked if he misses coaching, Coon admitted there were certain aspects he loved when he was in charge.  

At the same time, there’s also things he doesn’t miss.  

“I miss the Sunday (coaching) staff getting together, I miss the locker room environment, that kind of thing, obviously the Friday night excitement is well and good," Coon said. "What you really don’t miss, and I’ve talked to a lot of coaches about this, is that it’s quite a burden, it's quite a responsibility, is fundraising and going through that process of helping to finance your program. As great as our community was and as supportive as it was, it was always difficult and time consuming to do the fundraising that kind of took you away from the time you had with kids, creating those relationships and doing the special things now that you’re allowed to do, whether it’s 7-on-7 or camps or whatever. It always seemed to be like a year-round job. If you’re young and you’ve got the enthusiasm and passion and purpose – which I was fortunate enough to have for the years I was here – it’s OK, but it gets to a point where it weighs on you and has an impact on your family life, too.” 

Former coach, player teaming up  

On Friday, Coon teams up with King, a former Cheboygan defensive back who played under Coon during the late 1990s. Both have built a tremendous friendship over the years.

As for working in the booth together, Coon can’t wait.  

“He’s a natural,” Coon said of King. “Being a former football player and former Cheboygan player, he knows it well, he knows the kids well. Of course, he’s engaged with them throughout the course of the week as far as classes are concerned, so he follows it very well. He’s going to lead me through the whole thing, but I just want to make sure that I don’t say anything stupid or inappropriate, but he’ll keep me on a straightened arrow.” 

King has plenty of commentating experience going all the way back to his days as a broadcasting major at Central Michigan University. During that time, King worked for a public radio station and called Jack Pine Conference high school football games. Currently, King works as the public address announcer for Cheboygan High School junior varsity football games. 

“It’s great,” said King. “It’s kind of a second nature thing to me, and it’s cool to get back into it. I was excited when Mike Grisdale asked me to replace a legend like Joe Kwiatkowski, who’s now passed on. Joe did such a great job, so it’s nice to keep that going.” 

Being in the booth with his former coach, King said Friday’s broadcast will be exciting and unique.   

“It’s going to be fun – a couple CMU grads,” King said. “He (Coon) took some broadcasting classes and that’s what I went through, initially. We know each other well, we kind of know each other’s sentences sometimes, so it’ll be cool to have him back. I think people are going to like having him on the air here. It’ll be fun.  

“I never thought it would happen, but when it all came together, I know it’s going to be really interesting, because we like to play trivia together. We know how each of us ticks, and we’ve got to complete each other’s sentences, so it’s going to be nice having his knowledge, what he’s seeing on the field and things like that.” 

Back in town for the action  

No longer a Cheboygan resident, Coon is looking forward to being back at Western Avenue Field for a big night of football.

And even though the Chiefs have a daunting task on their hands, he believes anything can happen under the Friday night lights.  

“I’m looking forward to it, seeing people and just saying hi,” Coon said. “We’re hoping for good weather for the game on Friday. I think the forecast is supposed to be pretty good. I know it’s a big challenge for the Chiefs, but (getting upset) can happen to anybody at any time, at any level. You can get that big win at any moment, whether you’re Marshall going into Notre Dame Stadium or you’re Appalachian State going into College Station and taking on Texas A&M.” 

How to listen 

The 7 p.m. Cheboygan-TC St. Francis contest can be heard on WCBY AM 1240 and 101.7 FM. King and Coon will be on the air with pregame coverage at about 6:40 p.m. on Friday. You can also visit www.bigcountrygold.com to listen to the matchup as well.