Livingston County Defensive Player of the Year may flip from lacrosse to football

HARTLAND — Jacob Ross had an epiphany while standing on the field following his final home football game at Hartland.

The Eagles had one game remaining at Livonia Stevenson, but Ross wasn’t sure he’d be able to play after injuring his hamstring.

And that’s when it dawned on him.

He wasn’t ready to give up football.

Ross verbally committed to play lacrosse at Northwood University in early August, so he assumed he was about to prepare for his final season of football.

A few months later, everything changed.

“It really hit me after our last home game versus Canton, because that’s when I hurt my hamstring,” Ross said. “I thought, ‘This is the last time I’ll be able to play with these guys. It’s going to be a sad thing to move on. I just want to play some more football.’”

Ross certainly showed he can play football at the next level, leading Livingston County in tackles with 96 to earn the Livingston Daily’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Now Ross has a decision to make. He could attempt to play football and lacrosse at Northwood or another college or commit fully to football.

He’s been playing football since he was 6 years old. He began playing lacrosse in sixth grade.

“I love lacrosse, don’t get me wrong, but there’s nothing like football,” Ross said. “It’s the best team sport ever. If one of 11 players isn’t doing his job, everything falls apart. You need everyone buying in at once.

“I’m a lot closer with my lacrosse boys. I’ve known them since I was really little. A lot of them played football, too, but their thing is more lacrosse. I thought that’s what mine was; it kind of still is. If we’re talking about the sport itself, football is the way I have to go.”

In lacrosse, Ross was a defender on Hartland’s 2022 state Division 1 championship team. He didn’t score a point that season, but moved to attack as a junior and was the Eagles’ second-leading scorer with 44 goals and 49 assists. He earned third-team all-state after helping Hartland reach the state semifinals.

He made the opposite switch in football, moving from quarterback to linebacker his junior year. Ross and classmate James Butzier battled for the starting quarterback job in 2022. When Butzier won the job, the Eagles didn’t want to waste Ross’ athletic ability, so they moved him to linebacker.

It took time for Ross to adjust, both physically and mentally.

“I love scoring touchdowns,” he said. “Like lacrosse, I like being an offensive threat. It was a fun time battling it out with James. We did that for two years in high school. It was hard to go away from it. Then I realized defense is kind of my home. I really like taking charge of the defense.”

He also enjoyed being the hammer instead of the nail.

“When you see that hole open and see that running back come through, you know you’ve got to rock him pretty much,” Ross said.

Ross made one of the biggest defensive plays of the season in Livingston County. After falling behind 28-6, Howell had the ball on the Hartland 2-yard line with a chance to make it a one-possession game. On a quarterback keeper by freshman Palmer VanDeven, Ross stripped the ball and recovered the fumble with 10:25 left in the game.

“I’d say that was one of my best plays this season, for sure,” Ross said. “We had to get a stop. Someone had to do it. The quarterback just hit the hole and I just took it out of his hand and I got it. It was too fast to realize what happened.”

Ross it the latest in a long line of outstanding middle linebackers at Hartland. He learned the position playing alongside 2023 graduate Chase Kern, who had a school-record 315 tackles during his three-year career.

“Chase taught me a lot,” Ross said. “He taught me to be patient in the box and wait until your reads develop. It was great to learn from him. He’s a great linebacker, a fundamental linebacker, a hard-nosed guy.”

Ross isn’t a flashy linebacker who is going to terrorize the quarterback or intercept a bunch of passes. He fit perfectly into what Hartland expects from the position.

“He really understood that his job wasn’t to make every play,” Hartland coach Thomas Stevenson said. “His job was to do what we were asking him to do. They get really good when they understand we play a team brand of defense and to rely on your teammates, empower them and carry them along. It’s going to make your job easier.

“After the Plymouth game (in Week 3), he really took ownership of the defense where he was trying to make everybody else around him better, vocally, in the classroom, from an emotional standpoint. That, in turn, helped him have the year he had.”

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Hartland's Jacob Ross named top defensive player in Livingston County