The Ypsilanti Community HIgh School football team had its first ever football practice on Monday, August 12.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
Having two? Well, that’s usually not even possible, let alone preferable.
But that’s exactly what Ypsilanti Community High School coach Rufus Pipkins has on his hands. With the merger of Willow Run and Ypsilanti’s districts, Pipkins has not one, but two returning starting quarterbacks.
Marquis Smith started for Pipkins last year at Willow Run as a freshman and impressed with his legs and arm while Mike Caldwell started for Ypsilanti and is looking to do the same as a senior. Ypsilanti won only one game last year and Willow Run won just two, so neither has the spot in the bag and will push each other for the spot.
“We’ve got a healthy competition at quarterback, they’re really competing in a good way,” Pipkins said.
Caldwell is the senior and has faced superior competition in the Southeastern Conference, but he said there is no entitlement on his part. Caldwell said he and Smith are just competing hard and will see where the chips fall eventually.
He said the most important thing they try to keep in mind is that the end goal is the team winning.
“Me and Marquis, we push each other to the limit,” Caldwell said. “I mess up, Marquis messes up, but at the end of the day we both help each other out.”
If I’m in and I mess up, he’s going to correct me and I do the same for him,” Caldwell added. “We both want to win.”