NCA Retires Jason Whitens, Dawson Bilski Jerseys

POWERS---A special night in Powers Monday as the community gathered to honor two of its most successful athletes. The North Central Schools retired the #30 jersey of Jason Whitens and the #14 jersey of Dawson Bilski, both of whom were a part of three high school basketball state championships and are now playing at the collegiate level.

The two best friends graduated in 2017, and now Whitens is playing at Western Michigan University, and Bilski is now one of the mainstays on the Michigan Tech University basketball team.

“It means a lot,” Whitens said. “Not only for us two, but for the whole community. They played such a big role in our lives, through our whole elementary, junior high, and high school careers. It’s more about them than it’s about us. But it’s a blessing to go in with one of my best friends, and it just means a lot.”

The pre-game ceremony included the unveiling of large glass picture frames including their now-retired jerseys, and then at halftime of the Bark River-Harris-North Central game, all of the men who played on the NCA teams going back to the 2011-12 season were introduced to the large crowd.

“Growing up with these guys, playing basketball and every sport possible, thinking about the things that we accomplished, I mean, it’s just unbelievable to think about,” Bilski said. “It’s awesome to be able to celebrate this tonight, especially with them. It’s awesome being able to celebrate it with Jason here. Retiring our jerseys? I mean,we grew up together playing basketball and it’s a special moment for us.”

Whitens and Bilski were the leaders of a Jets team that had a national record 85-game winning streak over three years, culminating in three Class D state championships.

Whitens was a starter on the Jets team all four years of high school, and had a 105-1 record over those years, with the only loss coming to Cedarville in overtime in a state quarterfinal game in Marquette. That was during Whitens’ freshman year, and he missed the potential game-winning free throws that night. He never lost another game.

“It was not about any singular guy throughout every year,” Whitens said. “We were a group, and we were only going to get it done if we were together. It was just fun going throughout the years just wanting the best for each other."

"Just having fun with it. We didn’t take it too seriously, and we appreciated every single game as it went, and we cherished every moment.”

“It was a team effort,” Bilski agreed. “Nobody cared who scored what, as long as we won the game, that’s all that we cared about. I think that was the main reason for our success. We went out there and had fun, and because of that, we had the success that we had those three years.”

Other starters from that championship team were also in attendance Monday night: Marcus Krachinski, who now plays at Northern Michigan University, Bobby Kleiman, and Seth Polfus. Polfus has since gone to academic success at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and is well-known locally as a budding photographer.

Bilski has gone on to post stellar grades at Tech, and Whitens, a member of the National Honor Society, made the Dean's List with a 3.8 GPA at Western Michigan this semester.

Both Bilski and Whitens paid tribute to their parents, and to Head Coach Adam Mercier, who retired from coaching one year after the Jets won their final state championship.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos from the celebration, and see interviews.