"I've played football at Albion longer than most of my teammates have been driving a car."

That joke by senior defensive end Mitch Arendsen encompasses how he and eight fellow fifth year seniors on the Albion College football team feel about this season. After the pandemic led to a shortened spring season, Albion worked its way to a MIAA Championship. With only three games on the docket in the spring, the NCAA granted all fall and winter athletes an extra year of eligibility. Nine seniors on the Albion roster opted to use their extra year, and that decision has paid dividends on the success and culture of Briton football. 

Arendsen, David Aukema, Jack Bush, Kolby Canfield, Jacob Clark, Levi Ladd, Drew Shafer, Kyle Thomas and Jacob Tietsema have been through it all -- together. Between a coaching change, the evident whirlwind of 2020 and now one final year to make some history, these athletes, along with head coach Dustin Beurer -- whom they affectionately call Coach B -- sat down to share their story. 

When most of these athletes stepped foot on campus in the fall of 2017, they came to play for legendary coach Craig Rundle. Following their sophomore seasons, Rundle retired as the winningest coach in Albion history. However, the retirement of Rundle left a hole in the head coaching role. The official word about Beurer taking the reigns was not yet out, but most of the player had a good guess at who their next head coach may be.

"We figured it would be Coach B when he was the head coach in JV games," said Thomas. 

"I had him as a position coach, so I felt like I was going to be more comfortable with the switch after knowing him for two years," said Tietsema.

The previous offensive line coach, Beurer's elevation to head coach did not come at the likes of all of the Brits on the roster. 

"Most of the defensive guys were skeptical at first," said Beurer. "Some of those guys told me it felt like we were on two different teams with the minimal interactions."

"We butted heads my first two years here, so I was really skeptical at first," said Ladd, a linebacker on the squad. 

"I was similar to Levi," said Shafer, a safety for the Brits. "He was the offensive coordinator so it was very hard to interact with him before he became the head coach."

An immediate culture shift, Beurer made his changes apparent in the first team meeting.

"Everyone used to just sit in the back away from everyone," said Aukema. "Our first team meeting Coach B was telling us to fill in the open seats up front, and right away we could tell things were going to be different."

"I was definitely still skeptical," said Arendsen. "It was a different style than what I came for … a more era-adjusted style. I butted heads with that occasionally, but winning talks louder than anything."

Win is certainly what they did. The first year of the Beurer era, the Britons exploded to an 8-2 record and are 15-2 under the leadership of the '05 Albion grad. 

As expected, when COVID-19 hit in March of 2020, these nine did not expect it to affect their football season that fall, let alone in the spring as well. An original six-game slate was slowly shortened to five, then four, before ultimately the team played three games, navigating their way through last-minute cancellations and postponements. 

"We had a lot of leadership meetings and just talked about our feelings," said Arendsen. "We spent a lot of time thinking if we even wanted to continue doing this."

"The coaches kept a lot of people calm when we were really frustrated,'' said Ladd. "We were doing what we were supposed to with COVID regulations. The coaches put it in our minds to keep playing. We came here to play football and that's what we did every day."

"We never wanted to be the reason we couldn't play," said Beurer. 

"With how crazy spring was -- the accelerated curriculum, the COVID stuff -- football was our only sense of normalcy," said Canfield. "Things were never great, and we had multiple conversations about it. But, Coach B's culture is preaching 'that day is the most important day.' We would just go on the field and get better."

After a 3-0 season in the spring, the Britons claimed the MIAA Championship. Despite some who claim their title isn't real or with an asterisk, this group knows the significance behind this title. 

"Coach B told us at the beginning of the week heading into our final game that he didn't care about the asterisk or if it's only our third game, to think about all the stuff we went through. You can't tell me this isn't real," said Shafer.

The adversity this squad has gone through has prepared them to be leaders on the team. Already off to a 4-0 start, the group explains how they keep mentoring and pushing younger guys on the team. 

"Our class has been 4-0 in non-conference and still didn't end up where we wanted to," said Thomas. "It's our job to keep that chip on our shoulder and pass that on to the younger guys because nothing in the conference schedule will be given or handed to us."

"4-0 was the short term goal, but now we focus on the long term goal," said Canfield. "We can cherish that, but we still have a job to do."

"Our guys have kept a good focus overall and the difference with this team is that we're really good at reflecting on what we need to improve on," said Buerer. "Our guys think they're going to win every game, regardless of how it looks, we just want to be on the winning side at the end of the game."

With altered paths, Thomas and Bush knew immediately they would be returning for their extra year. As for the other seven, that decision didn't come quite as quickly. 

"There was a revenge factor involved in my decision," said Canfield. "Two of the games that got canceled were our two losses in 2019. When I registered for classes is when I made my decision."

"We had unfinished business that we wanted to come back for," said Aukema. 

Some unfinished business from 2019 led to a fifth year decision for some, but so did the importance of having one more year with their brothers.

"When I saw the other guys coming back, that made my decision," said Tietsema. 

"My decision also rode on that," said Shafer. "We didn't know for sure who was coming back, but between going 4-6 our freshman year and everything last year, we wanted closure and to finish out the ride with our class."

This group of guys have been through it all together over the last five years. They know what they've gone through will help them once they leave Albion.

"It's what Coach B preaches -- 'The Albion Way'," said Ladd. "It's about being a better man, a better student, husband, community member … those things will help you later in life, not just as football players and athletes, but it's real life stuff we talk about every day."

"I feel like I could write a book on everything I've learned in my five years," said Canfield. "Coach B preaches if you're going to complain, you better have a solution."

"When we came here, a lot of us played as freshmen, but we didn't get the job done," said Thomas. "We kept working and progressively tried to get better. We knew our potential as a class. That correlates to the real world because wherever we go off and work, it may not go our way in the beginning, but we're going to find a way to make it happen, the same way we have here."

"Life comes at you fast, just like football. Things change but you're going to have to keep adapting" said Arendsen. 

This group of nine are consistent players weekly for Beurer and the Britons. In addition to their contributions on the field, Beurer is just as grateful for them coming back as individuals. 

"I'm really grateful these guys came back and took a leap of faith with no guarantees," said Beurer. "They took a leap of faith even coming here after one of the worst seasons in program history. It takes a lot of courage to do what they did."

The leap of faith has been huge for the Britons, currently ranked No. 24 in the AFCA Coaches Poll and receiving votes in the latest D3Football.com poll. At least one of these individuals have started in every one of their 37 career games. An extremely talented group, this corps has accounted for 8,515 passing yards, 89 passing TDs, 2,134 rushing yards, 31 rushing TDs, 1,475 receiving yards, 499 total tackles and 56.5 TFL.

Those nine along with the rest of the Albion football team heads into a bye this weekend before commencing conference play next Saturday, Oct. 9. The quest to defend their MIAA title begins at Adrian with a 5 p.m. kickoff.