A family affair

ISHPEMING – For the fourth straight season and the fifth time in six years, the Ishpeming High School football team will be heading to the state finals in Detroit this weekend.

Each of those years, some member of the Olson family has been involved.

Ishpeming head coach Jeff Olson has gone to Ford Field with two sons, his older one, the late Daniel Olson in 2010, and now in 2015 with running back Isaac Olson.

As is the case with siblings, the two brothers were similar, but also very different. At least that’s how Isaac sees it.

“I’d say we were pretty different, but I’m not sure,” he said with a laugh. “From what I remember, we were different, but similar at the same time.”

Jeff Olson summed things up that way as well, but with a little more detail.

“Daniel was very athletic, but he wasn’t very big,” Olson said. “He was only 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, but he was tough as nails, too.

“He got the most out of his athletic ability, but he was a different type of player than Isaac. Daniel was more shifty and side to side, whereas Isaac is more of a straight-ahead runner.

“Daniel could throw and do a lot of things,” the coach added. “He had the ball in his hands all of the time.

“Isaac is more of a secret weapon on offense. I don’t even call him a tailback. I call him a weapon because he’s coming from different positions. He’s a fast power runner and he’s got some strength to him.

“He’s not the real shifty one like Daniel was that will make the spectacular cuts and make people miss. But he’s going to be just as effective because he’s going to run through tackles. He’s very important to what we do. He’s just been blossoming the whole year, getting better each game.”

“Isaac also isn’t his brother,” Jeff Olson added. “He’s just as successful as his brother, but he does different things. He’s his own person, but he’s achieved a lot of success like his brother has. Now he’s going to try to do one more thing better than his brother.”

As quarterback of the 2010 team, Daniel helped end a long drought for the Hematites getting to Detroit. It was their first time back since 1979, the second of two championships won by Ishpeming teams of that era.

The 2010 Hematites came up two points shy of the title to Hudson, 28-26, when Daniel’s two-point conversion pass in the final minute fell short.

The whole experience was a great time for Jeff as he got to spend it with his son, who had played such a vital part of the team’s big season.

“Going with Daniel, that was the first time that we went there and that was a great experience,” Olson said. “For him to be so involved with our team from the quarterback position, he had to make plays. He had to make plays running the ball and make plays throwing the ball, blocking, whatever.

“So it was very cool that the first time I got to experience it with my son.”

The interesting thing with Daniel was that according to Jeff, he didn’t want to be a quarterback and had to be convinced it was a good fit for him.

“He wanted to play for me, but he didn’t want to play quarterback,” the coach chuckled. “We had to talk him into it and he just wanted to be a receiver or running back.

“When Daniel was a quarterback, that’s when we started going into a shotgun offense. That’s how we sold it to him. You get to run the ball, too, because you’re in the shotgun offense.

“It wasn’t his passion to be a quarterback, that’s for sure, but he did it because that’s where we thought he’d do the best,” Jeff Olson added. “After he did, he embraced it and I know his junior and senior year, he worked in the summer at it and got good at it.

“That’s the mark of a good football player and a good athlete that’s going to get the most out of his ability.”

After Daniel graduated from Ishpeming, tragedy struck as the former quarterback took his life the following summer after battling anxiety and depression. Some coaches turn away from the sport they love as a way to grieve, but Jeff saw football as a way to cope with the loss he and his family suffered.

“It was more therapeutic to do it because that’s what he (Daniel) loved and I felt close to him there,” he said. “There was never any doubt that I would coach. It made you forget and put things on the back burner a couple of hours during the day even though we thought about him during practice. It was very therapeutic to do that.

“When we went back to the states (in 2012), people wanted to win it for me and wanted to win it for Daniel. I think Daniel had a little bit to do with that, too.”

It became part of the “Do It For Daniel” movement that is still remembered fondly today in Ishpeming.

As the big day for the state championship game approaches on Saturday, Isaac is ready to go after being on the sideline the previous years as a ball boy and as a member of the Hematites’ junior varsity team.

“It means a lot to me getting to play in this game,” he said. “It’s been my goal ever since he (Daniel) went. I think it’s going to be a lot of more fun getting to play through it than being on the sidelines. It’s a lot harder, but more fun.”

When asked if the experience was going to be different this time around with coaching a different son, Jeff said no.

“It’s probably going to be the same,” he said. “You want your sons to succeed. You want your family to succeed. If we win, I’ll be happier for him than I will for me.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 246. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.