They’ve promised their fantasy football draft won’t be awkward.
After 35 years of coaching, Bob Meyer retired following a 2024 season in which he led Auburn Hills Avondale to an Oakland Activities Association Gold championship and a Division 3 district final appearance.
Then Waterford Kettering called about its coaching vacancy this past offseason.
Meyer politely declined. He was enjoying retirement and the extra time with his wife.
But the Captains called again. And again. And again.
“After telling them no that last time, I told my wife that the Kettering kids deserve to have someone who can provide them an incredible experience just like I’ve given to my other teams,” Meyer said during OAA football media day on Aug. 7 at Rochester High School.
“I still live in Kettering territory, so they’re technically my neighborhood kids. I told her that it’s time for me to pay back my alma mater and accepted the job.”
Meyer might not have said yes if he had looked at the schedule first.
No, it’s not because the Captains play a bunch of juggernauts. It’s because two of their opponents are the other teams he’s coached this decade.
Kettering opens Aug. 27 at Livonia Clarenceville, where Meyer coached from 2019 to 2022. Then, on Oct. 2, the Captains visit Avondale, where he coached in 2023 and 2024.
And that Week 1 game should be especially interesting.
Leading the Trojans is Marty Castellon, Meyer’s longtime friend and former assistant.
The two learned their coaching chops together in the 1990s under Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame coach Chuck Apap at Walled Lake Western.
Years later, when Meyer left Walled Lake Central after leading the Vikings for 14 seasons to take over Clarenceville, he brought Castellon with him as one of his top assistants. Their staff took the Trojans from a winless season the year before they arrived to back-to-back district championships in 2021 and 2022, including an 8-1 regular season in 2021.
Castellon planned to leave with Meyer for Avondale in 2023, but Clarenceville promoted him to head coach. He’s been with the Trojans ever since and has had some of Meyer’s other assistants on his staff.
“He’s been a great guy, a great friend and a great mentor for me throughout my career,” Castellon said. “He’s always been a phone call away when I need his help with a life situation or just want to hang out for lunch or dinner. He’s someone I’m always excited to be around outside of football.”
And that’s the rub.
Because they’re such close friends, they’ve played in the same fantasy football league for more than a decade.
They call it “The Big House Fantasy Football League,” and Meyer’s other close friends and assistants are in it, too.
They hold their draft in person every year the weekend after the Week 1 high school football games, usually during Michigan State’s season opener.
So, about 24 hours after Meyer and Castellon’s teams meet at Shaw Stadium, the close friends will be sitting next to each other drafting their fantasy teams.
“There’s 10 of us who have all coached together, so it’s a great opportunity for us to break bread and spend time together before the season really gets going,” Castellon said. “It’s not going to be awkward after our game, it’s just life, and it’s something that I’m excited to teach my kids. Sometimes things like this happen, and you’ve just got to be respectful about it, shake hands and move on from it.”
As for that Week 1 game, it should be a toss-up.
Kettering’s enrollment is almost double Clarenceville’s, but the Captains haven’t had a winning season since 2014. They’ve had four one-win seasons over the past 12 years, including another eight-loss season last year.
Meyer isn’t interested in repeating that.
During his media day speech, he vowed, “We’ll never be 1-8 again.”
So while Castellon’s team might look better on paper, Meyer believes his players will be ready.
“When I took over the Clarenceville program, that previous year they had forfeited four games and didn’t win a game,” Meyer said. “We got them to 5-4 and just missed out on the playoffs by doing very simple things, like having a system that complements your players, making sure the kids are coached up on the little things like techniques and fundamentals, sticking to the plan and getting your kids to buy in.”
That’s easier said than done in Week 1.
But it should be different by the time the Captains face Avondale in Week 6, a matchup created when Kettering and Waterford Mott left the Lakes Valley Conference after last season to join the OAA.
Meyer has a different relationship with the Yellowjackets’ players than he does with Castellon. But he did coach and develop some of them. It’s likely a few players who stand out against Kettering will be guys Meyer once empowered to be great.
“They’re my former players, so I know they’re really good kids,” Meyer said. “And I’m rooting for them every week up until we match up. Truly, I’m rooting for them. When [new Avondale coach Isaiah Gourdine] got hired there after I got hired at Kettering, I offered to help him with anything, and he’s offered the same to me.”
Fortunately for Meyer, he won’t have to follow up that homecoming with another fantasy football draft with Gourdine.
While Meyer never intended to return to coaching after retiring, he’s embracing the opportunity to turn around Kettering. Even if it’s a little awkward facing his two former teams.
“It’s great, though, because I’m going into this season with a lot of familiarity,” Meyer said. “Some of the former Clarenceville staff members were all former coaches with me, so we grew up in the ranks together, especially Marty, who I grew up coaching with. He’s going to do a great job of having his kids prepared, and that familiarity is great motivation for us to have our kids doing the same thing.”
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports for the Detroit Free Press. Follow him on X at @folsomwrites.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: New Waterford Kettering coach faces his fantasy football opponent
