By Wendi Reardon Price
Clarkston News Sports Writer

ANN ARBOR — It was a season fans and University of Michigan will not forget as the Wolverines finished with their third consecutive Big Ten title, won the Rose Bowl, and then won the College Football Playoff national championship by defeating Washington 34-13 on Jan. 8 at NRG Stadium in Houston, Tex.
For a pack of Wolves from Clarkston High School, including Josh Luther and Logan Forbes, players on the football team, Cameron Brosky on the U of M Cheer team. and Cameron Hempton, Henry Sprague, and Amanda Scott with the Michigan Marching Band, it was as surreal as it gets.
“It was special,” said Luther, a 2019 graduate of CHS and finishing his last year at Michigan, about being at the national championship. “But also weird knowing it was going to be my last game. It was weird because you are preparing for the biggest game of your life and a chance to write history, but also the same time it’s the last couple days of my football career. I’m just trying to cherish it and enjoy the moment before it passed so that was awesome. And, then just the game itself – that was pretty sweet. Those crowds are always in the best because being 50/50 no matter what happens it’s going to be loud there. It was just so surreal after the game and the confetti coming down knowing everything we had set out to accomplish we were able to. You just couldn’t write a better ending to my career as a football player.”
Luther shared a little over a year ago he was faced with the decision of pursuing a master’s degree and play football for another year or be done.
“I thought, with especially the unique beginning to my Michigan football career being a walk on and starting my sophomore year during the COVID year, I would come back for one more year to have four years on the team,” he said. “I came back to be part of the team for one more year and get to learn not only in terms of my physical abilities but my mental toughness and mental strength. Also, trying to form better relationships with the guys and be around them one more year. I was really coming back just to be part of the team and be a part of something greater than myself. This fall, I was just trying to take every moment in, Of course, every big game, especially towards the end of the season, we won was pretty special.”
“It was awesome,” added Forbes, a sophomore at Michigan and former Clarkston student who went to the high school until middle of his senior year. “It’s everything you dream of as a kid. It still hasn’t sunk in. It is a pretty surreal feeling. It was crazy.”
Forbes said this season was different for him because he was injured.
“It’s a lot different not being able get out there and play,” he said. “But just being out there with the guys being able to just suit up, experience it with them and be down the sideline it’s almost indescribable. It’s just surreal. It’s been amazing.”
Forbes added it was a blessing to be part of the 2023 season.
“Just being here, I’d say, at the perfect time experiencing greatness with so many great people not just the players, but the staff, the coaches, the people who make everything happen,” he said. “It reminds me a lot of Clarkston just a lot of people working with the same common goal and to see it all kind of unfold even with all this things we’ve been through as a team and you know, them taking our coach away and things like that and then being able to get through that and win a championship it’s been great.”
Both shared being at the Rose Bowl and the win over Alabama was special.
“It’s a huge game,” Forbes said. “The game has a lot of culture behind it and history. We wanted to be a part of that and be winners of that game and to make it to the national championship which we’ve been talking about since we’ve got here.”
“I can’t begin to describe how awesome the Rose Bowl was,” Luther said. “Growing up I remember watching the game. It’s donned as the grand daddy of them all and there’s a reason for that, it was just absolutely beautiful. Starting the game, sunny, 65 degrees – absolutely gorgeous. I think the biggest thing, too, is the lack of press boxes all the way around. It’s such a classic feel. You feel like you’re playing in someone’s backyard. It just felt like people were there for the football. It was just an awesome venue and be playing against historic program like Alabama to end the way it did.”
Luther shared when he looks back to this season and being part of three consecutive Big Ten titles, he will remember the brotherhood. He added through the off season workouts, conditioning drills, practices and games you are leaning on your brothers and getting through it together.
“The outcome is so special itself. What makes it special is the journey and not the destination,” he said.
Forbes will always remember the Rose Bowl game.
“I won’t forget just because of the history behind it. just running out there,” he said. “You think of like the vintage ‘97 team winning it and you want to be that next great team to win it. It’s one big thing. Another big thing is just the family culture of this team and you know how we came together with one common goal. We didn’t listen to anyone or what they had to say about us. We closed our ears, put our heads down and kept working.
“Obviously paid off for us. I’ll never forget it.”
Forbes explained that this season will help him prepare for the 2024 season.
“It makes me a lot hungrier,” he said. “Just from my experience not being able to play this year but after you win that game it makes you like we did it once, can we do it again? It makes me want to be the best player I can be for the next season. Personally, I’m going push myself and make sure I’m ready for next season. So anything I can to help this team to hopefully make it back and win again.”
Brosky, a 2023 Clarkston grad, shared that freshmen do not travel with the team during the season.
“However, I was able to cheer on the team at some amazing games at the Big House including the remarkable Ohio State game,” she shared. “I will never forget (Rod) Moore’s game-winning interception because it happened right in front of me on the field. It was amazing to be able to follow this incredible team throughout the season.
“Since first arriving on campus this past summer for preseason I knew this year was going to be so special,” she added. “Seeing how far this team has come has made me realize how lucky and grateful I am to have been able to cheer them on from the best seats in the house.”
Brosky shared her journey with the program has been more fun than she could have ever imagined.
“My teammates had told me there is no experience like Michigan game days and after running out of the tunnel for the first time, I knew they were exactly right,” she said. “It is also crazy to say I have never experienced a Michigan Football loss.”
She shared she will remember everything the program and university went through when she remembers the 2023 season.
“The fact that we were able to prove everyone wrong in the end. I will also never forget the feeling in Ann Arbor after beating OSU to go to the Big Ten Championship,” she said.
Hempton, a 2021 Clarkston graduate, plays tenor saxophone in the Michigan Marching Band and has had the privilege of serving as rank leader for the tenors.
“Having the opportunity to travel with the band to the national championship and the Rose Bowl was completely surreal,” Hempton shared. “The Rose Bowl is of course ‘the granddaddy of them all” for college football, but it is also one of the best opportunities for college bands to travel to. It was a very busy trip between practicing and gigs, but one that I will never forget. Marching in the Rose Parade felt like a perfect culmination of all the time I have spent in marching band through high school and college, performing live in front of an in-person audience of about one million people and many more on TV. Over and over I kept having to tell myself to just soak in the moment. These have been once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that I will be able to tell stories about for the rest of my life.
“Being a part of the band this season has been as perfect as anyone could have imagined. This year’s Michigan Marching Band, number 126, is the first MMB to experience 15 back to back wins,” Hempton said. “It is incredible to say I don’t even know what it looks like to see a loss in the Big House through my undergraduate career. Running out of the tunnel for pregame into the blinding lights and looking around at the sea of Maize and Blue never gets old.”
All Wolves shared a thank you to the Clarkston community.
“Thanks to everyone at Clarkston. I am so proud to represent the Clarkston and I hope that I made everyone back in Clarkston proud,” said Luther. “I had so many people back from my playing days in Clarkston – coaches and players that reached out to me after the game congratulating me and what I’d accomplished.”
Luther added he appreciates everyone who has been there his high school days for all sports and showing support.
“It’s been awesome. I’ve had such a blessed childhood playing for Clarkston from youth to high school. I think they’re the ones that helped me accomplish what I was able to accomplish mainly walking onto the football team. We worked your tails off, we believed in each other, and we played for each other, Because of that, we were able to accomplish great things.”
Forbes shared a thank you to his family and mostly his dad who never missed a game and is his rock. He said the support from the Clarkston community has been great.
“Thank you for the support through everything,” he said. “I transferred to another school senior year, but there’s been nothing but support, especially after the game. I’ve gotten texts from former coaches, former teammates, and everything like that. There was nothing but supportive through everything not just for me but I know for Josh and everybody that’s been through Clarkston, It’s just one big family and I’m nothing but thankful for that. I hope they continue to follow everything that we do and I’m happy to say I am a Clarkston Wolf.”
“I want to thank the Clarkston community for all of their support and Go Blue,” said Brosky.
“I would like to thank the Clarkston community for all the support it gives to all of the students of performing arts,” Hempton said. “Throughout my entire Clarkston education every concert, every musical, every football game I performed at was packed with families supporting the community’s students in all their artistic endeavors. The incredible volunteer work and support from CSIMA and the band boosters was integral in providing me with an incredible high school band experience that paved the way to these incredible experiences at the University of Michigan.”