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I believe between Grandville, Jenison, and EK, Grandville has the best chance of making the playoffs. Grandville will return some key skill position talent from a 4-5 team, including their dual threat QB who was only a sophomore. The biggest thing that could prevent them from making the playoffs is coaching. From what I've been told, Jenison has had a large increase in players coming out for football at all levels. Sigler has sparked a lot interest in that program and I have no doubt that eventually they'll return to being a good program. However, outside of Hackley I don't believe they return much this year. East Kentwood is one of those schools that's full of talent, but from what I've been told by those close to the program, the players are all about playing for themselves rather than the team. You can have all the talent in the world, but when you have a team full of individuals rather than a team playing as a single unit, you're bound to not win. Their new coach will have to change that mentality in his players to turn that program around.

As far as West Ottawa and Grand Haven goes. Both programs have always been average, while WO has had a few good seasons as of late. Grand Haven is one of those programs that should be a powerhouse considering the football culture of the area being near Muskegon and the size of the school (shrinking every year though), but for whatever reason they have always been a 5-4, 4-5 type team with the occasional bad season. West Ottawa probably has the most potential of the two programs to make the playoffs based mostly on coaching and the recent success they've had so there's more of a winning culture in the program. WO was also much more competitive in their losses last season than GH was.

If I had to predict right now how the conference ends up next year I'd say this...

1. Rockford

2. Muskegon

3. Hudsonville

4. Grandville

5. West Ottawa

6. Grand Haven

7. Jenison

8. East Kentwood

With Hudsonville and Rockford losing key players and Muskegon losing their coach, it could be a down year for the O-K Red and you might even see teams like Grandville and West Ottawa as top teams. It could be anyone's conference this year.