Lenawee Christian's Bill Wilharms named Lenawee County co-Coach of the Year
ADRIAN — Lenawee Christian lost three football games in 2022.
In Week 4 the Cougars dropped their first-ever 8-Player football game to Colon, a team that would finish 10-1. In Week 8, Climax-Scotts got the best of the Cougars. And in the playoffs, eventual state champion Martin beat LCS 56-14.
It was a successful 8-3 season, but not on par with the dominance Lenawee Christian had become accustomed to. Coach Bill Wilharms went back to the chalkboard.
What he drew up was an even better version of LCS football than ever before. The Cougars went 13-0, set a school record for points and won by an average of 40 points a game. Every win was double digits, the closest being a Week 9 regular season victory against Kingston at 14 points.
LCS won the 8-Player, Division 2 state championship with an offensive juggernaut and a bend-but-not-break defense and Wilharms has been named Lenawee County co-Coach of the Year with Joshua Lindeman of Addison.
“This team has a lot of similarities to both the first state championship (2020) and the second (2021),” Wilharms said. “It compares to the first because of their will to win and the expectations the group sets for itself and how hard they work at practice.
“I believe it remind me of the second team because of the fact that they are a fun-loving group who can have fun, but then turn it on when they need to in games.”
No team can quite turn it on like the Cougars.
Led by the 8-Player Associated Press Player of the Year Sam Lutz, the offense averaged 420 yards a game. Lutz himself was a 2,000-yard passer and 1,000-yard rusher.
Wilharms isn’t afraid to be unconventional with the offense, even draw plays up in the dirt. In the regional final against Climax-Scotts he noticed how the defense was playing against Lutz and called him over to the sidelines. The two came up with something that led to a touchdown.
“We drew it up standing there,” he said. “I said, ‘OK, if they are going to play you like that, then do this.’ I’m not sure we ever practiced that, but it worked.”
On the first play from scrimmage in the hat game, Lutz lined up at wide receiver.
“That felt a little strange,” Lutz said. “It was interesting to hear someone else call the cadence.”
It’s all part of Wilharm’s plan to get a variety of people involved in the offense. LCS scored 678 points this season, 39 more than the previous school record of 639.
“Ever since I’ve got here, we’ve had athletes,” Wilharms said. “We want to get them in space. You can’t key on one guy because everyone can hurt you.”
In addition to becoming the first county coach with three state championships, it was also a milestone season for Wilharms. He picked up career victory No. 100 against Camden-Frontier in the playoffs. He won 12 games while head coach at Madison and now is 91-27 in his 11 years at LCS. That gives him 103 career wins as a head coach.
Wilharms is a native of northern Wisconsin who came to Adrian, where his wife, Carmen, is from. The two met at Valparaiso University in Indiana. He has taught at Madison since 1995 and is the strength and conditioning coach at both LCS and Madison.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Lenawee Christian's Bill Wilharms named Lenawee County co-Coach of the Year
