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His team's nickname is still the Eagles only this time around, the school has a different name.

Heritage Christian Academy of North Branch, which opened in 2007 after North Branch Wesleyan closed the doors of its high school in the fall of 2006, recently announced that they are going to have a football team this fall. Heritage Christian will participate in the newly founded Christian Football League of Michigan (CFL-MI), which promises on its website to provide high school-level football to Christian schools and home-schooled students beginning this fall.

Heritage Christian Academy will participate in an eight-game regular season, followed by playoffs and a championship/all-star game doubleheader to end the season.

And when the school announced that it would be a part of the new league, the coach who was hired to guide the new team was a man who was familiar with the tradition that was North Branch Wesleyan Academy.

"We are the Heritage Christian Academy Eagles," Jenkins said. "We have around 22 players who come from different areas in and around the county, such as Lapeer, Dryden, North Branch, Brown City, Marlette and Mayville.

"We are conditioning now and we start practice on Wednesday, August 13."
North Branch Wesleyan accumulated a 91-97 overall record in 21 years (1985-2005) and qualified for the state playoffs seven different times. The Eagles best season was the 2002 campaign. That year, Wesleyan went 9-3, losing in the MHSAA State Quarterfinals, just one game short of the Division 8 State Finals by a score of 15-12 to eventual D-8 State Champion Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes.

The goal of the CFL-MI, as stated on the organizations website, is to use athletics to build character in young men that will eventually help them find success later in life. The league does not require all participants to the Christian, but rather places an emphasis on playing sports in a way that honors God.

The league will also allow home-schooled children to participate in its athletic program, which is something that the MHSAA does not allow.

"We are not joining the MHSAA," Jenkins said. "Those teams cannot have home-schooled students on their sports rosters unless they spend a minimum amount of time at the school they attend.

"It's unlikely that we will play a team from the MHSAA."
Some of the other squads that'll help make up the rest of the 11-team CFL-MI include Flint, Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Brighton, Downriver, Lansing, Muskegon, Plymouth- Canton, Troy and West Michigan.

"The league is providing equipment with a fee of $150 per player," Jenkins said.

"We're very excited, as this is the first league we know of in Michigan where home schooled athletes will get the chance to participate in football."