10/09/2026
Week 7
Friday, October 9, 2026
Mona Shores Sailors (5-1, 3-0)
At Muskegon Big Reds (3-3, 2-1)
Historic Hackley Stadium 80 W. Southern Ave., Muskegon, MI 49441
Tickets: Available at the Stadium Ticket Office starting at 3:00 pm with gates opening at 6:00. General admission $5.00 and reserved $7.00. Students admitted for $3.00 with ID.
Radio: Live coverage on WUGM 106.1 FM and www.m106fm.com presented by Family Financial Credit Union and Hamburger Mikey beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Watch: Video streaming on the NFHS Network here https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/events/muskegon-high-school-muskegon-mi/gamdacd600b7e
The Big Reds will play their final home game of the regular season tonight when the cross-town rival Sailors pay a visit to Historic Hackley Stadium. The O-K Green conference showdown features the two programs that have won or shared the last 13 league titles. A win by the Big Reds would potentially create a three-way tie atop the league standings with one week remaining on the conference schedule.
Muskegon and Mona Shores first met in 1965, during what was the fledgling Sailors’ third full season of varsity football (and the Big Reds’ 71st campaign). Muskegon won that initial contest 26-0 and would go on to win 13 of the first 15 meetings. That run included the Big Reds winning 9 of 10 league meetings in the old Lake Michigan Athletic Conference.
Mona Shores would find their footing briefly in the neighborhood scuffle from 1980-82, winning three straight years, the only time they have done that in the 47 meetings between the two schools that are located just 5.3 miles from each other. Since ’83, the Big Reds have won 25 of the 29 meetings.
The largest gap between get-togethers was a 9-year hiatus between 1994-2002. After the LMAC broke up following the ’84 season, the Sailors joined the O-K Red, but Muskegon opted to go independent. They still scheduled each other 6 straight times as non-conference foes from 1988-93, but Muskegon won all six games by a combined score of 162-7, so it makes sense that they took nine years off after those lopsided results.
The rivalry was renewed in 2003 when Muskegon ended their 18 years or roaming without a league affiliation and joined the O-K conference’s newly-formed Red-Lakeshore division. Mona Shores was also placed in this league after their 18-year run in the O-K Red. This lasted two years (Big Red wins of 42-14 and 56-0), followed by two years together in the newly-formed O-K Green (Big Red wins of 42-0 and 35-14) in 2005-06.
From 2007-11, the Big Reds and Sailors went their separate ways, as Mona Shores stayed in the Green and Muskegon was moved to the Red. Ironically, it was also during this period that the current head coaches now opposing each other were on the same staff, as both served as assistant coaches to Tony Annese in 2008 before Matt Koziak took over the Big Red program for one season in ’09 when Annese departed for Grand Rapids Community College. A year later, Koziak stepped down after a 7-4 campaign, and Shane Fairfield was hired to replace him in 2010.
In 2012, another realignment of the 49-member schools in the Ottawa-Kent Conference anchored (pun intended) the Sailors and Big Reds together yet again, first in the O-K Black (2012-19) and currently the Green (2020-present). Since 2012, Fairfield’s Big Reds have bested Koziak’s Sailors in 13 of 17 meetings, including all three MHSAA playoff matchups in ’15, ’23 and ’25.
Although Koziak hasn’t been able to significantly improve the Sailors’ fortunes in this head-to-head battle (he has won 24% versus 17% prior to his hiring), there is no question he has completely elevated the Mona Shores football program from inconsequential to perennial contenders. From their very first game in 1962 (a 12-7 loss to Fruitport) through the last game of the 2010 season (a 20-14 loss to Reeths-Puffer), the Sailors were 174-254-5 (.402) with zero playoff appearances. That’s right, not a single post season game in the first 36 years of the MHSAA tournament. Koziak went 1-8 in his initial season in 2011, but two years later, the Sailors made waves with a 7-2 record and a ticket to the big dance. They lost that first-ever playoff game to Lowell (34-24), but a year later they were playing at Ford Field in the 2015 D2 title game (a 44-8 loss to Warren De La Salle). Another run to the state championship game in 2018 (again falling to DLS 29-16) proved that first run wasn’t just a fluke or success tied to a specific group of players.
The once listless program now had an energized fanbase that expected to win every Friday, and in 2019 Mona Shores did the unthinkable, winning a football title against a legitimate powerhouse program in Detroit Martin Luther King. The 35-26 victory over the Crusaders was even more remarkable when you consider that in Week 8 that season, the Sailors were crushed 53-0 at home by the Big Reds. Now in his 16th season, Koziak (125-47) has proven he has the knowledge, the talent and the motivational tools to keep his alma mater sailing on the high seas. The next win for Mona Shores will be number 300 in program history.
But…as USA hockey coach Herb Brooks said right before his Olympians took the ice against the vaunted Russians in the movie Miracle, “Not tonight!” At least that’s what the Big Red faithful hopes to be saying at game’s end.
And leading Muskegon’s troops into battle will be Fairfield, who has more than proven his mettle guiding a program that has never had to suffer through a decades-long dry spell or seek out uncharted territory. Over a century of gridiron glory preceded Fairfield, with 17 state championships and more wins than any other prep football program in Michigan.
Yet Fairfield has etched his own legacy, achieving never-before-seen consistency in an age where the pressure to win championships, not just games, is greater than ever. Dave Taylor coached MHS to a pair of Class A titles (1986 and 1989) during his 17 seasons (1983-99) and Annese brought the big trophy home to 80 W. Southern three times (2004, 2006 and 2008) in his 9-year reign (2000-2008).
Fairfield was the first, however, to win back-to-back District titles at Muskegon. And he didn’t stop at two…or three…or even four. He won nine straight MHSAA District mitten trophies from 2012-20. Nine in a row! Taylor and Annese reached the State Final a combined 5 times in their 26 seasons in charge (19%) and never in consecutive seasons, but Fairfield has made it to Detroit 9 times in 16 years (56%), including four straight trips from 2016-19. His two state titles were epic in their own right, besting Michigan’s winningest ever coach John Herrington and his serial playoff winners Farmington Hills Harrison (28-10 in 2017) and a comeback for the ages over De La Salle in 2023 (winning 33-21 after trailing 21-7 in the second half).
When your program is writing its 132nd chapter, it’s difficult to achieve ‘firsts’, yet Fairfield continues to find new ways to keep the nation’s seventh winningest program on top. With names like Bob Zuppke (who would go on to win national titles at Illinois), C. Leo “Tiny” Redmond (7 pre-playoff era titles in 22 seasons) and Annese (multiple national titles at GRCC and Ferris State) on the Muskegon coaching legends roll call, it’s Fairfield’s name that tops the school’s all-time wins list with 167 and counting.
Whether you are an alum or fan of the Big Reds or Sailors, I hope you realize just how good you have it with these two coaches leading their respective programs. Don’t wait til the ride comes to an end to reflect back on the journey…take time to enjoy every step of it along the way! As the English poet Robert Herrick once wrote, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may…”
We are incredibly blessed once again to have very generous support from the following area businesses! Without their partnership with the BRRN and M106, these broadcasts would not be possible! Please check out the links below to learn more about our wonderful sponsors!
2026 BRRN Presenting Sponsors
Family Financial Credit Union https://www.ff-cu.org/
Hamburger Mikey https://hamburgermikey.net/
2026 BRRN Sponsors
Belasco Electric https://belascoelectric.com/
Benson Drug https://sav-mor.com/benson-drug
Clock Funeral Home https://www.clockfuneralhome.com/
House of Hobbies Muskegon https://www.houseofhobbiesmuskegon.com/
Lakeside Cafe https://lakesidetogo.com/
Lange Flooring Center https://www.langeflooringcenter.com/
Muskegon Big Red Athletic Foundation https://bigredathleticfoundation.org/
Muskegon Inspired https://www.facebook.com/MuskegonInspired/
