Eighteen years ago, Doug Drenth sensed the emotional tug of his hometown and moved back to Charlevoix, Michigan.
Among his final acts in Indiana was coaching the Franklin boys cross country team to a state championship.
The Grizzly Cubs, led by the senior trio of Ryan Warrenburg, Colin Riessen and Jeff Powers, scored 91 points to capture the 2001 title at the Indiana University cross country course.
Runner-up Columbus North (106 points) and third-place Carmel (114) were close enough to plant seeds of doubt during those tense minutes after the race.
“We didn’t know we won,” remembered Drenth, 56, who retired from teaching three years ago, but continues to coach boys and girls cross country at Charlevoix High School, his alma mater. “We were so nervous after the race that we ran to go cool down.
“We found out then, and the look of excitement on the runners’ faces, it was one of those things in life that was pretty incredible.”
Warrenburg took fourth individually with a time of 15 minutes, 48.2 seconds. Riessen, who a week earlier finished 20th in the semistate at Southeastway Park — Columbus North edged the Cubs for the team title there, 77-81 — bounced back strong to finish eighth in 15:53.7.
It was Franklin’s first team state title since the 1938 Grizzly Cubs boys golf squad, coached by legendary Fuzzy Vandivier, tied South Bend Riley for top honors at Speedway Golf Course.
The 2000 Grizzly Cubs boys cross country squad placed fourth at state, providing the confidence and incentive necessary to reach the summit the following season.
Sophomore Brandon Griffin, one of the Cubs’ runners in 2000, moved to Minnesota that spring, opening the door for others to step into the lineup.
“We were pretty confident going in, even with Brandon moving. I still felt like we had had the five best guys in the state,” said Warrenburg, 36, who ran cross country and track at Arizona State University and now resides in Boone, North Carolina, with his wife Emily and their 11-month-old son Jude.
“The culture on that team was so good, and coach Drenth had a lot to do with that. Just the love of the sport he instilled in that team.”
The euphoria of a state championship was the ideal way for Drenth to conclude his 12-year stint in Franklin as a teacher and coach. It was a stark contrast from the sorrow he went through shortly after arriving in July 1989.
Living in an upstairs apartment downtown and not knowing a single person in town, he received a phone call six weeks later letting him know that his parents, Bob and Maxine, had died in a car accident in Michigan caused by a drunk driver.
“That year was a really rough year,” Drenth said.
In time, the coach’s enthusiasm took hold, helping the Grizzly Cubs advance to three consecutive state meets from 1995-97 and finishing 19th, 15th and 15th, respectively, in the team standings.
In 2001, Franklin reached the top.
Powers was the 29th runner to finish at that state meet, sophomore Bradley Wheeler was 31st and another 10th-grader, Jared Campbell, placed 72nd.
“We really focused on working hard every day,” said Drenth, who lives in Charlevoix with his wife, Tricia, and their sons, Maxwell, 11, and Oliver, 8. “What helped us out a lot is that we had depth. It helped us train because we had so many guys who could run similar workouts.”
Sophomore Galen DeKemper and freshman Brandon Smith were two of the athletes that helped push Franklin’s first five.
Another six years would pass until the Grizzly Cubs made it back to state, the 2007 team finishing fifth. Franklin made it back again in 2018 with an 11th-place showing.
However, it’s Drenth’s final go-round at Franklin that remains the yardstick.
“The thing that stands out to me is how focused we all were on the same goal,” said Powers, who teaches sophomore English at Franklin. “When we didn’t win semistate, there were about five minutes we were disappointed. For as young as we were, we were pretty emotionally mature.”
