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Ted Collins assumes command after the retirement of long-time coach Kevin Taylor, who stepped down at the end of last season after 21 years at the school, the last 16 as the varsity football coach.

Collins, 36 and the father of three children (ages 10, 7 and 5), is still living in Atlanta where his wife teaches school. But he hopes to move to Kalkaska in the near future.

Until then, he'll commute to practice if necessary.

New regulations handed down from the Michigan High School Athletic Association limit the number of days a coach can have contact with his players prior to the first official day of physical conditioning on Aug. 9.

But the Blazers did conduct a 7-on-7 passing drill with the Forest Area Warriors on Thursday, July 12, at which time Collins had an opporunity to talk with some of his players. Collins played college football at Northern Michigan University.

Following his graduation from NMU in 1994, Collins became the freshman and junior varsity coach and teacher at Cadillac High School for four years.

He got his first varsity coaching assignment in 1998, becoming the defensive coordinator for his old hometown team in Lake City. He coached there for two years.

After a one-year stint at Mesick, he took the head coaching job at Atlanta.

The year before he became head coach, Atlanta had finished 0-9. Two years later, the team went 5-4 and just missed qualifying for the state playoffs.

"I thought we were going to get in," Collins said in a telephone interview. "We missed a game we should have won, and that cost us the playoffs. I made a coaching mistake on one thing, really.

"When we finally went back to what we had been doing all year, we did very well against AuGres-Sims. But, it didn't matter. The first quarter was over, and they already had 20 points on the board."

Collins didn't coach Atlanta in 2003-04, but stayed in the game by going around looking at high school players for Northern Michigan University, offering suggestions on players NMU's recruiters might want to investigate further.

He says he's delighted with the opportunity to coach at Kalkaska, especially since he has a lot of family living in the area. All have called him at some point since he got the job.

"I'm real happy with the kids in Kalkaska," said Collins. "I hear the kids in Kalkaska are tough, and pretty smart kids, and I have not been disappointed yet.

"Like I said, we had that 7- on-7 camp and that was the first time these kids went out there as a group, and I thought they did a very nice job.

"We have some good, young quarterbacks coming through the program. We have some pretty good older kids who are going to steer the ship in the right direction."

Collins' offensive game plan is to run the football out of the Wing-T formation. He learned it at Lake City, coaching under Irv Sigler, III.

Defensively, the Blazers are going to start with a 3-4 alignment, and try to get as many athletes on the field as possible.

"There are a lot of athletes at Kalkaska," Collins said. "I'm not disappointed at all with the kids we have out there. I'd like to see some of the other sport athletes coming out for football, but that will come in time."

Another positive has been having former coach Taylor on board to help out.

"Kevin works with the weightlifting at the high school, and has been a great help," Collins said. "He's been a positive for the program. "I'm glad that I can take over for a coach like him, and continue on with the things he's established."

Kalkaska had two players named to the Lake Michigan All-Conference First Team last year in Steven Bonofiglio and Tim Dixon.

Collins believes there are more like them who'll take the field this year.