Photo by Scott Bolsby | The Advertiser Cass City senior Josh Steely, middle, signed his National Letter of Intent Feb. 1 to play college football at Lawrence Tech University. Steely was joined by his parents Marla, left, and Dennis, right.
CASS CITY — When Cass City’s Josh Steely suffered a leg injury in junior high football, he wasn’t sure what his playing future would look like.
After a successful high school career Steely recently solidified his future plans by signing his National Letter of Intent on Feb. 1 to continue his education and football career at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield.
“When I broke my tibia and fibula, it was a compound fracture, so it came through my (skin),” he said shortly after signing the document. “A couple days after when I had my surgery I asked, ‘Will I be able to play football next year?’ and the doctor said there should be no problem.
“I was young and thought it was much worse than it was. Once they fixed me up, it was all good.”
Steely was able to return to the field to play football all four years of high school, although he admits that he was a tad timid his freshman year.
“I was on JV my freshman year,” he said. “So for the first year, I was a little scared and worried I’d hurt it again, but after that year and through my sophomore year I regained confidence and I was OK after that.”
Steely played outside linebacker and worked as long snapper for the Red Hawks. The long snapper position has garnered the most attention to get him to the next level of football play.
“I’ve been snapping since during my freshman year,” he said. “I for some reason had a knack at it and they needed a snapper. My sophomore year I was snapping on varsity and then I kept on snapping, got better and better, and even went to a few camps this year.”
He noted that while long snapping got him into a college program, he may be able to see other areas of the field.
“Coach (Cass City head coach Scott Cuthrell) said it’s a ticket to get into college,” Steely said. “I’m going for long snapping, but they also told me that due to my size they’d like to work with me at outside linebacker eventually.”
The Cass City football program has recently produced athletes to play at the next level that includes 2022 Air Force Academy signee Connor Herford.
Steely said the recent uptick in signings for the program is a testament to all the coaches involved with the program and the players buying in.
“Coach C (Cuthrell) pushes you hard and he’ll know when you aren’t pushing yourself as hard as you can; Coach TO (Tavis Osentoski), the defensive coordinator, he’s scary, he’s a scary guy and you don’t want to get on his bad side,” Steely said with a laugh.
“Coach (Brett) Ross, he’s always there at the weight room, pushing you to get better and motivating you. He’ll shoot you a text to check up on you and to make sure to keep in touch. He makes it so you don’t feel like you’ve been forgotten.”
Steely also played defensive end for the Red Hawks during the 2022 season and recorded 32 tackles with two sacks and one fumble recovery.
He plans to continue getting better before he steps foot on campus at Lawrence Tech.
“I’m going to be lifting a lot and working on speed a lot more,” he said. “This winter I’ve been lifting a lot since football finished, but I haven’t been working on speed as much. I’ve been doing it, but not as much as I should.”
Lawrence Tech is a private institution and its teams belong to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. The football program competes in the Mid- States Football Association.
“I really liked the placement of the campus and the size,” Steely said. “They are really good at placing you in jobs following graduation, and they can also get you internships while you’re there. They are a real young coaching staff, and I can relate to a lot of them. They are a bunch of good guys who are really energetic about the sport.”
While Cass City has a few restaurants, Steely quipped that “I also really liked that (Lawrence Tech) is by a lot of food places, too.”
Steely plans to study business analytics and entrepreneurship, planning to eventually own a gym after he graduates from college.
