Chris Schrauben to enter High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame

Portland’s Chris Schrauben has been selected to enter the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Shrauben currently coaches the Portland High School JV football squad.

To be eligible for this honor, coaches must have a minimum of 20 years of high school coaching in Michigan and/or 100 head coaching wins.

Schrauben told the Beacon, “This is a nice honor. A lot of great coaches are in there, some I can’t even hold a candle to.

Schrauben has 41 years of combined coaching experience, with 38 of them with football.

After serving as varsity football coach at Ionia for four years, Schrauben has spent the last 10 years in the Portland program between the Jr. Raiders and most recently at PHS JV coach. He returned to Portland to coach his son.

Other football coaching runs for Schrauben include:

· St Pats 16 years head varsity coach (State Champions 1992, runner-up in 1991 and 1997)

· St Pats JV 1988-1990

· St Pats JV 1981-1984

· St Pats Junior High 1980

After the 1984 season he took a break from coaching football while he served as the Athletic Director at Sacred Heart in Mount Pleasant.

Schrauben retired from the Michigan Department of Corrections eight years ago. He was a school principal for MDOC for the last 15 years of that time.

He currently serves as a full-time substitute for the Portland Public Schools.

Of his selection, Schrauben said, “This is a cumulative honor for all the coaches that I played for and coached with, especially for all of the players.”

He added, “The better players you have, the better coach you are. I have had some outstanding players and worked with a lot of outstanding coaches. In this town especially. We are really blessed. We have some top-notch coaches leading our local football programs in John Novara and Pat Russman. And not just football, Jason Haid, Al Schrauben, Brian Scheurer, and several others. We are pretty lucky here!”

Schrauben also said, “Any honor you get as a coach is a reflection of the community as a whole.”

PHS coach John Novara told the Beacon, “Chris has been a very valuable asset since joining our program. His knowledge and dedication has helped to strengthen our program so much. It is incredibly valuable to have a state champion head coach and a hall of fame member on your staff. We have been blessed to have quality assistant coaches, like Chris, in our program. I believe the committee has selected a coach that puts kids first and gives credit to others before himself.”

The MHSFCA induction ceremony is normally help in June, but will not be held in person this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Other members of the 2021 Hall of Fame class are:

Rick Applin - Boyne City

Jeff Bisel - Bay City All Saints

Tony Blankenship - Detroit Denby

George Gardy - Elkton Pigeon Bayport

Andre Harlan - Detroit Western

Dave Lawrence - AA Gabriel Richard

David Marsh - Brighton

Bob Ondrovick - Ottawa Lake Whiteford

Daniel Ristau - Clifford Smart MS

Bill Santilli - Crystal Falls Forest Park

Dave Schwartz - Essexville Garber

Robert Snell - Redford Thurston

Tom Walentowski – Ida

About the MHSFCA:

The Michigan High School Football Coaches Association (MHSFCA) has been devoted to the promotion of high school football since it’s inception in March of 1972. Because of the MHSFCA’s prompting, Michigan instituted a high school playoff system in 1975. We continue to work with the MHSAA to refine the playoffs. For more information visit http://www.mhsfca.com/about-mhsfca/