At the start of high school practice on Aug. 10, Ecorse's football team loaded a bus and drove over 80 miles north into Michigan's thumb.
Once Ecorse reached Camp Stapleton in Lexington, coach Larry Johnson
collected every player's cell phone before they left the bus. They spent three days sharing cabins, enjoying a different landscape and running nonstop.
"We have dawn patrol, so we would get up between 4:30 and 4:45 and work until the sun rises," Johnson said on Monday, Sept. 14. "So it was probably an hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes. Just running them and, really, trying to break them, to be honest. We want to see how far they can go to know what it will take throughout the season."
The off-grid trip is a new tradition for Ecorse under Johnson, who is in his second year in charge after coaching at River Rouge from 2012-24.
Ecorse players look back on the trip as a key to hitting the ground running with a 3-0 start – featuring one win by forfeit due to Detroit Old Redford closing – even if the no-phones policy wasn't popular. That has carried over to the classroom, where Ecorse players and students across Michigan are barred from using cell phones in class under a new state law.
"We came back stronger than ever," said sophomore receiver Rakari Crocker. "I am really thankful for it even if I didn't like it."
"We didn't have a choice but to bond," said senior running back Chrishaun Massey, who transferred from Detroit King last year. "That created something real special.
"So when you have somebody that was like a stranger to you before, now he's telling you that you need to pick it up."
On that Wednesday, Ecorse drove back to the city and immediately went to the school. The Raiders went from the bus into the locker room and onto the field for their first padded practice.
Along with becoming tight in the locker room, Ecorse hopes the early-morning conditioning sessions will pay dividends later this season. The 2025 season started with five straight wins before going 3-3 over the final six weeks, including a 28-6 loss to Ida in the Division 6 district finals.
"Last year, once we got to the end of the season, our bodies started to break down," Johnson said. "We didn't have as good of an offseason as we wanted to have, with it being the first year here. So having that full offseason, starting in January when basketball is still going on, that is real vital."
Ecorse has put a solid product on the field thus far. They have pitched two defensive shutouts while scoring 44 and 28 points in wins over Whitmore Lake and Detroit Voyageur.
In the 28-0 win over Voyageur at the Corner Ballpark on Saturday, the defense swarmed Voyageur's option offense. On offense, the Raiders leaned on Massey and senior standout Rishon Langford-Smith, who finished with three rushing touchdowns.
Coming off a triple-digit tackle campaign, Langford-Smith has been a key leader for the offense and defense. The 6-foot-1, 210-pound senior is a handful to tackle, especially against smaller-division schools that comprise Ecorse's schedule. Defensively, Langford-Smith fired downhill to make plays in the backfield all night.
"When he gets on the football field, you can see he turns on the switch," Johnson said postgame Saturday. "He's letting all his anger or whatever is built up in him out on the field."
Langford-Smith has taken big personal leaps under the new coaching staff. The last two seasons have rewired how he approaches football and the effort he puts into it.
"The person in front of me, I've got to dominate," Langford-Smith said. "That's my mindset. It is either going to be me or you, and I am going to pick me every time."
Langford-Smith and Massey behind a stout line give Ecorse's offense a solid baseline. The Raiders are excited about the offense's ceiling because of their new quarterback, freshman Thomas Burgess II.
In 2025, Ecorse won eight games without a set quarterback. It had to squeeze water from a stone at times and lean on its defense, averaging 20.5 points per game with only three games above 22 points. Ecorse has already topped 22 points in both games and has a more balanced attack.
"He's coming out and making defenses be honest," Johnson said.
With more firepower and a defense that has picked up where it left off, Ecorse is trending up. They want this level of play and standards to become synonymous with the program.
"I want to have a football program where people want to come back," Johnson said. "Where people want to come and be here because they see the stuff that we are doing on the field as well as what we are doing off the field."
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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: No cell phones, no problem for ascending Ecorse football program
