The newest staple of the Madison Heights Lamphere football program looms behind them across the street as the Rams practice.
Every Monday, regardless of the previous Friday's result, Lamphere players cross into the Madison Heights Civic Center Park. The team convenes at the bottom of the sledding hill, about equal in height to the Lamphere school building.
Rams players then do 14 sprints up the hill, sometimes more. But the minimum will always be 14 thigh-burning runs to the summit.
"We run 14 in a row because that's how many weeks you play to win the state playoffs," said senior linebacker Chase Dort on Tuesday, Oct. 6. "So, coaches give us the 14. We are like, alright, we've got the 14. We know it sucks. There are no breaks. Then they give us more
and no one cries about it. We've all come together and realized, if you want to beat the teams we have to beat to go as far as we want to go, then you've got to do the extra runs."
The Monday runs were one of the few new things added by first-year coach Hannibal Roda. Previously an assistant on staff, Roda took over as Lamphere's coach when Ray Ostrowski moved to St. Clair Shores Lakeview as an assistant.
He didn't want to alter a formula that has proven to be effective, with Lamphere finishing with seven or more wins in every season since 2019. But he wanted to add a weekly physical reminder of what it will take to get over the hump. During their strong regular season stretch of the 2020s, Lamphere has not advanced past the district round of the playoffs.
"The outcome you are seeing now, in most ways, is related to what Ray built," Roda said. "The only real spin I added was the hill. We needed an identity, so we put that in."
The Rams (5-1) have won five straight since a Week 1 loss to a Ferndale team that has been good in their own right at 5-1. That stretch includes a 38-point win over a Marysville team that beat them last year and an eight-point win over Grosse Pointe North after rallying from an 18-point deficit in a critical MAC Gold matchup.
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Those wins put Lamphere in position to clinch the MAC Gold conference title outright with a win over Warren Fitzgerald on Friday.
"We gotta go win the Gold, baby," said senior quarterback Braylon Cox, a dual-threat option who has thrown for over 1,300 yards in the first six games.
That is one of two goals for Lamphere, along with bringing home a district title for the first time in program history. The Rams believe their best ball still lies ahead of them.
"We want to get hot at the right time," Roda said. "I don't feel like we have gotten hot yet, which is good. The seniors set some lofty goals this year, and we want to see if we can get those to translate into wins on Fridays."
The offense, led by Cox, has put up 50 or more points in three straight conference games. He has taken a big step forward as a passer in his second year starting, and has had a strong connection with 6-foot-5 receiver Keegan Burton.
Defensively, Dort and his twin brother Austin lead the defense as the Rams' middle linebackers. The Dorts may not have the same size as some other linebackers you will see on Friday nights, but they fly around and play with a grit they picked up as wrestlers.
The brothers have embraced their leadership roles and spend hours each week studying film so they can coach up their teammates. Chase said they embrace film as a "challenge," seeing how much they can prepare each week.
"We send each other clips of each other sometimes, correcting each other," Austin Dort said. "Tough love, basically. It works pretty well."
Playing side-by-side in the middle of the Lamphere defense, they work in tandem like synchronized swimmers. And since their communication is innate, they know exactly where the other will be without too much talking.
"It is almost like we are connected," Austin Dort said. "I know he's going to do his job, so I don't worry."
"It is an unbreakable bond," Chase Dort said. "If one of us messes up, the other picks up the slack. And we are workhorses."
The twin connection is noticeable on the outside.
"If one makes a mistake on a run fit, the other is right there to clean it up," Roda said. "They are students of the game."
From film to Monday's runs, the Rams are trying to position themselves to make the climb when the time comes.
"We came in the locker room [after the Ferndale loss] and said we could either break or we can respond to the adversity," Chase Dort said. "We hit the hill pretty hard on that Monday and ever since then it's been lights out."
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Jared Ramsey covers high school sports for theDetroit Free Press. Contact him at jramsey@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why Madison Heights Lamphere has twin telepathy to thank for hot start
