Canton coach ready to lead All-Star East team

Canton Coach Tim Baechler was nominated and chosen by fellow coaches to lead the East Team in the 26th Annual All-Star Football Game. Photo by Andy Rubenstein

There’s no doubt that Tim Baechler has had a tremendous career as the head football coach at Canton High School.

The list of his accomplishments goes beyond just being a good guy and good coach, though.

He has melded himself into a pillar of the community (even being named the 2005 Sports Newsmaker of the Year by this paper) and has solidified his place in high school football history by accepting the nomination to coach the All Star East football team—an honor for which he was nominated by and voted for by his peers of the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association.

“It’s a tremendous honor,” he said. “There’s a lot of good guys that finished behind me that are pretty good coaches. A lot of people don’t know that coaches from around the state and (athletic) directors vote on it, so it’s quite a big honor. ”

There’s no question as to why he was chosen.

His Canton Chiefs finished the season 10-2 in 2005, winning the Western Lakes conference for third straight year, capturing the district crown for the second time in three years and attaining the regional title for the first time in the school’s history before heading to the big stage for the state championship game.

Unfortunately Baechler and company’s stellar season ended at Ford Field in the state finale. He and his Chiefs didn’t win but that doesn’t matter—just making it to the big game is a testament to how good his program is.

The road to coach in the All Star game at East Lansing—the site of the 2006 game (see side story for game details)—had several stops along the way.

Baechler, who has a 99-43 record in his eight-year tenure as head of the Canton Chiefs, attended White Pigeon High School where he graduated in 1985 as a Chief.

Next was a stint at Adrian College, where he graduated with a degree in English in 1990. He then went on to receive a Masters in Educational Leadership from Eastern Michigan University.

As far as coaching goes, he started at Onsted High School. He spent two years as the offensive coordinator there before he moved back to his hometown in 1991 and became a Chief again as the offensive coordinator for White Pigeon. The plan was to take over the head coaching position there, but life events—he met his wife-to-be Julie and got married—sent him to this side of the state looking for coaching jobs. He spent five years as the head coach at Hudson and then commuted to Dexter for a year as the head coach while living in Canton.

Baechler inevitably became a Chief again in the spring of 1998 when the Canton head-coaching job became available.

It wasn’t easy, but he turned the 1-8 Chiefs around. His team won the district championship in his third year. For the next four years he and his crew would not go without winning a conference, district or regional crown.

Now he hopes to restore an East team that has lost the last two years.

“I know we’re there to showcase the kids’ talents,” he said, “but we’re also there to compete and we want the win.”

He will have a lot of help on the field and along the sidelines to make that happen.

The Staff

Baechler will run his mighty Wing-T offense in the All Star game with first assistant Ron Adams (Wyandotte Roosevelt) running his defense. Baechler and Adams were each able to choose one person from their coaching staff to bring with them. Baechler chose long-time assistant Jake Houser.

“Jake played for me at Hudson and has been coaching with me the longest,” he said. “He knows the offense the best and has been the Junior varsity head coach for me but most of all he’s been my assistant the longest.”

Adams brought Jason Carpenter on to the staff. The other two assistant coaches for the East team were voted on. Respected Salem defensive coordinator Tom Garrett was elected on to the staff along with Donshell English from Detroit Southeastern.

“Garrett just happened to get put on as an assistant,” Baechler said.

He said with the new coaching staff at Salem he asked Garrett to join the ranks of the Canton staff for the 2006-07 season.

“So I have two of my guys with me for the All Star game,” Baechler said.

The Players

The first challenge was to weed through the hundreds of nominated players, which included rumaging through paperwork and consuming film on just about every player.

“It’s a painstaking process,” Baechler said. “This is an honor to get to coach but it’s a job you only want to do once. There’s a lot of work that goes into it.”

Of the 44 lucky participants, three of the players are from the Journal News area.

Baechler chose tackle Ryan Jonik from his Canton squad.

“He deserves to be in the game,” Baechler said. “He’s a fantastic kid and good student. He’s very respectful; a class act kid. He’s going to play at Wayne State on a scholarship so I knew he would be in shape.

“It will be fun to have another week with him,” he added. “He’s a lineman and (I’ve) had a special place in my heart for him.”

Salem’s Kevin Bradley also made the roster. He was chosen for his unmatched athleticism.

“He was chosen because he is an athlete,” Baechler said. “He was selected as an at large player that we can play where we need him. He can play quarterback, defensive back, tight end; we can play him anywhere.”

Kevin Smith, a wide receiver/defensive back from Romulus also made the team.

“He had a great year and did everything we asked him to do,” said former Romulus Coach Wade Cook. “He’s one of those guys that you can give him something to go on and he will run with it. There were times that we had him defend against the top wideouts on opposing teams and he would keep up with them, shutting down, probably, 40 percent of their offense.”

Baechler said he is also looking forward to coaching other 2005-06 standouts like Jacob Ball, quarterback for Rochester Adams; Dany Stiefel, quarterback for Sterling Heights Stevenson; and Birmingham Brother Rice tailback John Goebel.

Baechler is ready to push the paperwork and film to the side and hit the field.

“I’m ready to get on the practice field,” he said. “That’s what I love about coaching; working with the kids and putting it all together.”

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Copyright © 2006 Journal Newspapers. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2006 Journal Newspapers. All rights reserved.