BEAR LAKE, Mich. — Not far from the beautiful shores of the inland lake that gives their town its name, the Bear Lake High School Lakers are practicing on a flat piece of land just outside their school. Strong gusts of wind blow across the practice field's single set of goalposts as the players go through drills.
The coach walking the players through those drills is Samantha Mullet. She walks over to me for a quick interview. After asking her how her team is looking this season, I ask her the question she's no doubt been asked 100 times or more this summer - how does it feel to be making history as Michigan's first female varsity head football coach?
"Honestly, I try not to think about it a whole lot. I just want to be a coach, and I think the boys respect me for that. I'm just the coach. I don't do anything differently. I don't treat them any differently. I don't ask them to treat me any differently. The way that I would like to earn respect and make history here is by having a good season for us and our program" she said.
Coach Sam, as she's known on the field, is a very kind person. But after that answer, I got the sense she was sick of being asked about making history. I asked her if that was true.
"Yeah, to be completely honest I am," she said with a laugh.
"I would like to be able to just coach."
That might lead you to wonder why Coach Sam honored this interview request in the first place. I soon found out why.
Before Coach Sam joined the coaching staff at Bear Lake, she was a student at the school. When Bear Lake's co-op with Onekama ended after the 2016 season, the Lakers got a team of their own the very next year. Coach Sam joined the staff as an assistant.
Since then, she's also gotten experience with a large high school in Georgia, and in the NFL.
"In 2019, I did a summer internship with the Baltimore Ravens and worked with the tight ends, and then ended up coming back to Bear Lake and coaching that fall. Then last summer, I spent with the Buffalo Bills coaching linebackers and then came back here and coached defense in the fall here at Bear Lake," she said.
She had her foot in the door in the NFL, so many people are probably wondering, why come back to Bear Lake - a community with just over 300 residents?
"That's a great question. This is home to me. This is where I grew up, and this is the community that raised me. This is the community that showed me that I want to be a football coach," she said.
"I want to give back to them, and I want to give these kids the best opportunity and show them that being from a small town isn't a crutch or an excuse or something to hold you back."
You can see Coach Sam's face light up when she talks about her hometown.
"It's the community. It's the family. It's the understanding that we're the underdog, but we love that. And we're all in this together and we just have a certain pride about us. It's not arrogance, but it's just like a loyalty to this building and the people in this community. It's having each other's back and just knowing that we're just always here for each other. It's truly a family around here and I just love that," she said.
That's why Coach Sam wants the cameras to be at her practices. She wants to show the world what this town and what this team is all about.
"I tried to think of it as this is an opportunity for me to share what my team can do, and try to make it less about what I'm doing and more about what they're going to do this season. I keep telling them the cameras are here. Give them something to look at that's not me," she said.
The players aren't totally comfortable around the cameras yet. Prior to this year, Bear Lake's eight-player football team hadn't received a lot of media attention. But they understand why Coach Sam wants the cameras around and they feel the love.
"I know all the headlines say 'First female head coach.' That doesn't matter. I mean, she's a football coach. She's one of the best football coaches in the area and in the state. I mean, she's been in the NFL. Not many high school coaches can say that," said sophomore Myles Harless.
"She knows so much more than any other average high school coach. It doesn't matter what her gender is. She's a football coach and she's our football coach and we love her and she loves us."
These players are eager to soak up all the knowledge they can get from Coach Sam.
"She brings smartness to the table. She knows what to do. She's showing me right now how to read the defense, how to read the linebackers, to see who's open," said sophomore Grady Harless.
"For defense, she's teaching us how to tackle and how to stay square. She brings a lot of good things to the table for Bear Lake football.
Coach Sam and the Lakers open up the season on Friday on the road in Bellaire.
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