Adams Follows Football Tradition with Playoffs — and Hairdos

At , it's easy to pick out who will be playing on the blue turf at Oxford High School on Friday night.

How easy?

Members of the Highlander football team are sporting bleached-blonde mohawks as part of the team's MHSAA playoff tradition. This is their 15th consecutive year of postseason play.

"It's a big game, the biggest game we've had so far," said Mike Fisher, a senior linebacker for the Highlanders.

Fisher and other players met on Sunday night — "Selection Sunday" — to hear who they would play this week. They had dinner together and worked on their hairstyles, which Fisher said is a playoff tradition for the team.

Coach Tony Patritto has been at the helm of the Highlanders for the past nine years.

“This is the first time ever we didn’t know for sure if we were in going into our last game,” Patritto said.

Patritto said he hopes his team can put together a full "four-quarter effort" — playing good defense, not making mistakes and moving the ball on the ground on offense.

"Playoffs was the driving force, that has been the tradition here for 15 years in a row," he said. "That's a big burden on our players, especially the seniors, because they don't want to be the ones to mess that up."

"It’s a positive pressure, because standards are important — and they met the tradition," Patritto said.

The game starts at 7 at Oxford High School.

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