The fiercest intrasquad competition for the Brighton football team this summer hassn’t been on the field or in the weight room.
Instead, inside coach Brian Lemons’ classroom at Brighton High, players have waged hotly contested battles at the foosball table. Whether it is before or after morning lifting sessions or a practice, Bulldogs players have been squeezing in games of tabletop soccer wherever it fits.
“He has a foosball table in his class,” junior quarterback Dominic D’Agosta said Thursday, Aug. 6, at the Kensington Lakes Activities Association. “He doesn’t like it when we play foosball, but we are playing it like no other. It is awesome. And it is a bunch of stuff. We are playing video games. I know as an athlete you aren’t supposed to be on your butt, but while recovering, it is fun. The video games are fun, the foosball is fun. This stuff gets heated.”
The tight-knit Bulldogs locker room has spent most of their summer hours together in preparation for an anticipated MHSAA football campaign. The friendships in the locker room make it easy for the players to continue forming those bonds at any and every hour outside of football.
Combine the factors, and you have a talented football team moving in lockstep that believes in the identical messages and goals instilled by Lemons, who was elected into the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in February, and his staff.
“We go out and do stuff together all the time,” said senior offensive tackle/defensive lineman Jack Carlson, a Michigan State commit. “It could be as small as getting breakfast after a morning lift, to playing foosball and hanging out in Lemons’ room after school. Being around this team is what I really enjoy.”
The Bulldogs have lots of returning experience from the 2025 team that went 7-4. Brighton experienced some highs with a relatively young group, but lost out on the claim as Livingston County’s top team in a Week 8 loss to Howell, narrowly lost to Dearborn Fordson in Week 9 and was blown out by eventual Division 1 champion Novi Detroit Catholic Central in district finals.
Lucas Mayo, Brighton’s director of strength and conditioning, reminds the players of the 2025 losses every day in the weight room.
“It is always in our ear,” D’Agosta said. “It is always fuel for getting up that extra rep, an extra set. It is like a fire in the gut. You’ve got to push through and do it for your team, not yourself.”
They have key pieces returning at all three levels on both sides of the ball, headlined by Carlson as a two-way force up front. D’Agosta will be in the backfield for a second straight year alongside one of the best running backs in the state, junior Dominic Nauss, and has top returning targets Jayden Ciponaer and Jamo Parsell out wide.
Ciponaer and Jaeden Byrd (Army) lead the secondary. Outside linebacker Brody Shannon is the top returner at the second level while junior defensive tackle Graydon Tomblin will have a key role up front as a three-year varsity contributor.
Overall, the Bulldogs return a half-dozen starters on both sides of the ball and have plenty more on the roster with playing experience.
“We are excited,” Lemons said. “We have some really gifted athletes. You put all of those guys together in one room and you should be pretty good. The question is, how much of a gap is there between them and that brotherhood that you have to have? Our season will be based on how bad they want it as a whole.”
They want to build to a point where they can not only hang around with the CC’s of the state if another playoff matchup pops up, but prove they are the bar for other teams to clear. They will have to prove it on the field after being picked second (behind Howell) in their newly shaped divisions in the KLAA preseason coaches poll.
“We want to get to the point where we can clear that bar with flying colors,” Carlson said. “We want to be one of the best teams in the state and we are willing to work that hard for it. Seeing that level last year was something new for a lot of guys who hadn’t been smacked in the mouth like that. Having that humbling experience helps us stay level-headed and work hard.”
The two Dominics, D’Agosta and Nauss, will have a large say in where Brighton’s bar ends up. D’Agosta has added between 35 and 40 pounds between his sophomore and junior year, relying on a strict diet of 8-10 eggs plus toast for breakfast and a protein shake before bed every day.
Nauss finished second in the state at 190 pounds as a wrestler in the winter, following his 1,489-yard and 18-touchdown football season. Nauss has had the “greatest physical improvements” of anyone on the Brighton offseason this summer, Lemons said, setting him up for another big season.
“It is going to be exciting to see where Dom Nauss ends up at the end of the season,” Lemons said. “He’s a talented kid in the backfield. We’ve seen probably some of the greatest physical improvements from him.”
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Jared Ramsey covers high school sports for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jramsey@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why Brighton is vowing not to repeat 2025 mistakes in MHSAA football
Reporting by Jared Ramsey, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Jared Ramsey, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
