Bloomfield Hills football coach Scott Merchant wants the MHSAA to require every athlete to get a heart screening.
He also believes athletes shouldn’t be the only ones getting annual physicals. He wants his fellow coaches to get them, too.
His reasoning is pretty simple.
Merchant went in for a routine physical this offseason. Doctors found a heart murmur. A visit with a cardiologist revealed he was born with a bicuspid aortic valve, a heart defect in which the aortic valve has two leaflets instead of the normal three.
The news was scary.
If Merchant hadn’t gone in for that physical, something much worse could have happened. He had open-heart surgery in March to save his life.
“I grew up playing sports, have worked out my whole life and even played in college,” Merchant said during practice Aug. 10. “But I had no idea I had this heart defect. The only way they could’ve found it was with my physical. After they heard that murmur, it triggered a bunch of other appointments and tests, going from something that was no big deal that they’d keep an eye on to them saying in January that I needed surgery in the next six to nine months.”
Merchant spent almost seven weeks recovering at home. Then came rehabilitation and a return to work as the high school’s guidance counselor.
His motivation wasn’t exactly a mystery. He wanted to be back on the football field when offseason activities began.
Including his time as Clinton Township Chippewa Valley’s coach from 2009 to 2023, where he won a Division 1 state title in 2018, Merchant hasn’t missed a fall camp in 34 years of coaching.
Heck, counting his playing days at Birmingham Brother Rice and Albion College, he’s been in a fall camp every year since sixth grade.
And getting back in time for this season was especially important.
The Black Hawks are in Year 2 of their rebuild under Merchant. He wants to help them qualify for the postseason and win the first playoff game in program history.
But there’s a personal connection, too.
Bloomfield is where his daughter, Emma, won a girls soccer state championship and graduated in 2022. It’s also where his son, Will, a senior captain, grew up.
Coach Merchant has never been known for giving anything less than his full effort. That goes back to his days rebuilding Detroit U-D Jesuit from 1998 to 2006.
Open-heart surgery wasn’t going to change that.
Not at a school that helped shape his children into the leaders they are today.
“The doctors said he should be out for six to 12 months, and he was out for only three,” said Will, a linebacker. “Obviously, if he wasn’t ready to be out here, he wouldn’t be out here. But he knows what we’re capable of, and we know what we’re capable of, and we’re just all thankful to have him out here with us today.”
The Black Hawks won only one game the year before Merchant took over. Four of those losses came by running clock.
They went 2-7 in his first season, but the turnaround was clear.
Bloomfield Hills scored 177 points, the sixth-most in a season in program history. It allowed 249, the fourth-fewest.
Now Merchant has brought a college-like atmosphere to the Black Hawks, and they expect to take another step forward this season.
“It feels amazing having him here because you can feel that a huge change has happened in our program,” senior captain CJ Thomas said. “His whole mentality and positive outlook, it makes us all try a lot harder, giving it our all, even in the offseason. With his leadership, it makes us feel like we’re pioneers, bringing in the eventual resurgence of Bloomfield Hills dominance.”
That’s easier said than done.
The Black Hawks move from the Oakland Activities Association Blue to the White, which means a tougher schedule. They also have two crossover games against Red Division opponents.
They were picked to finish last in the White in the preseason coaches poll released Aug. 7, but they could finish much higher if their offseason work carries into the fall.
And don’t overlook how their coach’s fight has inspired them.
“Coach Merchant has shown he cares about us as more than players,” said senior Isaac Kaplan, a four-star long snapper committed to Duke. “Watching him get surgery was obviously heartbreaking for the team, but the fact he made a fast recovery, especially coming back fast just for us, meant a lot to all of us.”
Outside of saving his father’s life, Will said the one bright spot of his father’s open-heart surgery was the number of dinners neighborhood families dropped off while he recovered.
Will especially loved the shepherd’s pie.
But there’s a bigger takeaway from Merchant’s story. Beyond the wins, losses, playoff appearances and championships, he wants his experience to encourage other coaches and players to take their health seriously.
Being active isn’t enough. He wants everyone to get routine physicals. He also wishes more schools had electrocardiogram (EKG) machines so athletes could detect irregular heartbeats and other conditions earlier than he did.
“The moral of the story is: Football coaches try to be tough, stubborn and hardheaded,” Merchant said. “But when it comes to medical stuff, you have to take care of yourself and get checked every year. In my situation, if I hadn’t gotten a physical, I wouldn’t have known about the heart defect I was born with. My heart could’ve failed, and I wouldn’t be here today.”
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports for the Detroit Free Press. Follow him on X at @folsomwrites.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Bloomfield Hills football coach completes comeback from heart surgery
Reporting by Brandon Folsom, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Brandon Folsom, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
