ESCANABA — With patience being the virtue that it is, it’s only right that Escanaba High School football has been looking better and better the past few years.

The Eskymos program has been led by EHS graduate Bailey Lamb’s guiding hand since 2022 and looks ready to break out this season after a 5-4 campaign a year ago. That was Esky’s first winning season since 2019, a year the Eskymos went 7-3 that included an MHSAA Division 4 playoff game.

As the smallest-enrollment school among the six in the Big North Conference, the Eskymos don’t often get what would be considered a week off against weaker opposition as they’re in with a group of almost all Division 2 and 3 schools, the only other Division 4 school this year being Sault Ste. Marie.

Lamb, a 2014 Escanaba and 2019 Central Michigan University graduate, reported that EHS finished 35th in playoff points in the state last year in Division 4, just missing the postseason as 32 teams make the playoffs.

Still, that was quite an accomplishment against schools like regular-season undefeated squads like Petoskey and now nonconference rival Kingsford, or a now-solid Upper Peninsula and Big North foe Marquette.

The Eskymos posted a trio of 40-point victories, but the state doesn’t give out any bonuses for that as those opponents’ few wins hurt in the playoff point-gathering process.

“We won a bunch of games and we were really competitive last season,” Lamb said in a recent telephone interview. “Kingsford and Petoskey were both undefeated. We were playing ‘up’ just about every week.

“These seniors (this season) are the first to be in my system for a fourth year. It’s really, really fun to see what we can accomplish.”

While Lamb felt lucky to be able to finish his schooling before the COVID-19 pandemic hit early in 2020, he was thrown right in the middle of that chaotic situation as a brand-new teacher at Escanaba High School that year.

He related how crazy it was with all the remote learning going on for the first time for almost all involved.

“I guess in some ways it wasn’t bad, we were just trying to figure everything out then,” Lamb said. “But it was just the ‘wild west’ and everything was crazy at times.

“But I grew up here. I love living here and teaching here.”

His mother has been a teacher in Escanaba for what he estimates is either 25 or 26 years.

Lamb also joined the football coaching staff when David Wilson was named coach for 2021, a year the Eskymos went just 1-8.

“Football was hard for us,” he said. “From what I understand, we probably actually played the fewest games of any team in the U.P. because of the (COVID-19) situation.

“We actually got on the field for only two games. Every other game was called off.

“I remember we had Homecoming week, and the guys practiced all week, then the day before, we hear the game is called off.”

He said some players were so disappointed they seriously considered quitting and doing something else, like getting a paying job.

“We went 2-7 my first year, actually 2-7 the first two years,” Lamb said, adding that those players in the first season were playing for their third head coach in three years. “But we made some ‘investments’ by bringing up some sophomores that second year.

“They’re paying off now as that group gives us about five or six seniors who are in their third year on varsity.

“That why I have so much confidence in this group of kids. One of the third-year varsity players is our quarterback, Nolan Bink. And he’s got a great support system around him.

“It’s fun to coach in this conference. Every week, you get a new challenge for your game plan.”

Being in place now for four years, Lamb has had a chance to install his system not just with the varsity, but trickling down to the JV, freshman and middle-school levels.

“We have kids in our system from the seventh to the 12th grade,” Lamb said. “These kids get to stay in the same system throughout the years, and so we have a real good support system.”

Lamb actually has an even longer history of coaching baseball, a sport he also spent some time with during his summers home from college.

“I started with the American Legion teams here in Escanaba,” Lamb said. “Right now, I’ve been JV baseball coach here at Escanaba for four years.”