The clock had struck midnight and a steady stream of players began flowing onto the Belleville football field.

High school football was back and the Tigers didn’t want to waste any time in their pursuit of their third Division 1 state championship in the past four years.

No one was happier to get the show rolling than quarterback Bryce Underwood, the five-star consensus No. 1 recruit in the country who has committed to LSU.

“It’s midnight, for sure,” he said as the players began swirling around him. “I’m definitely excited to be on the field, for sure.”

Monday was the start of the football season at 607 schools across the state, 500 of which participate in 11-player football. The only equipment players are permitted to wear now are helmets, before adding shoulder pads Wednesday and full equipment Friday.

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Monday was also the beginning of practice for seven other Michigan High School Athletic Association fall sports — boys and girls cross country, girls golf, boys soccer, boys tennis, girls swimming and diving and volleyball — meaning almost 100,000 athletes are participating in high school athletics this week.

Underwood is one of them, and pleased to begin to put the past behind him.

That stems from last season’s 36-32 shocking upset of the Tigers by Southfield A&T, ending a 38-game win streak.

It was a loss no one saw coming, especially Belleville players themselves. It is the main motivating influence for this season.

“It should be a driving force for everybody on this field,” Underwood said.

It is a loss that has been impossible to erase from their memories.

“We talk about it every day,” said running back/linebacker Ray-mond Smith. “We talk about all the mistakes we made and how we’re going to improve and get better.”

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That process has been ongoing through a winter program and a spring and summer filled with 7-on-7 competitions. But it got a jump start with the midnight practice, which had the players bubbling over with enthusiasm as they took the field at 12:02 a.m. Monday.

“This is something different for the kids,” said second-year head coach Calvin Norman. “The kids get excited for it. It’s got that little build up for us so this is the best way to kick it off.”

Norman instituted the midnight practice a year ago and liked the way the players responded to starting the season in the middle of the night.

“Out of all of the practices, this is the one they’re excited about,” Norman said. “The lights are on, giving us atmosphere, so they’re excited about it.”

The players, which includes 35 seniors, began with an extensive stretching session, followed by a number of 100-yard dashes.

The first half of the practice was defensive oriented. Players underwent a series of defensive drills before moving to what Norman referred to “7-on-7 good,” which matched Underwood and his top receivers against the starting defense, minus linemen.

Underwood looked sharp, especially on a couple of deep balls thrown to Elijah Dotson, a transfer from U-D Jesuit, who has committed to Pittsburgh as a defensive back, but is also a valuable receiver.

“He’s just another great football player on our team,” Underwood said. “We’re going to be great with him. He’s a great all-around player.”

Dotson, 6 feet 2, 175 pounds, adds size to the receiving corps and with his leaping ability is more than capable of coming down with the ball in jump ball situations.

“He’s a very tall guy,” Underwood said. “He can move fast and he knows the offense.”

Dotson is delighted to have Underwood throwing to him and he also accepts the challenge of being on defense and attempting to shut down Underwood.

The two joked at how often — or infrequently — Dotson has been able to pick off Underwood passes.

“He makes me a lot better player,” Dotson said. “I have to have great eye discipline, read my keys and make sure I stay with who my assignment is because if not, he’s going to trick me, he’s going to get the ball where it has to be.”

Dotson transferred to Belleville in January and spent all spring and summer playing with Underwood and liked the results.

“We dominated; he got the ball to me a lot,” he said. “He knows where I’m going to be. He knows my speed, he knows that I can go up and get the ball off the defender down there so we’ve got that connection now.”

During the 7-on-7 period defensive back Adrian Walker broke up a pass and the ball bounced softly on his helmet three or four times before dropping to the ground.

Walker was upset he didn’t come up with the pick and put his arms behind his back, showing how he pulled off the highlight play of the game in last season's championship game.

Late in the first quarter, Walker tipped a pass into the air and put his hands behind his back to catch the ball, leading to a Belleville score and a 7-6 lead.

It was an amazing play that earned him a spot on ESPN’s Top 10 plays of the day, and the 2024 USA TODAY HSSA National Boys Play of the Year.

“I’ve watched it a million times,” said Walker, who has committed to Miami (Ohio). “I practice that, since I was a kid. I just do it. I throw the ball up and catch it behind my back.”

Dotson said he has seen Walker practicing that play and isn’t surprised by the number of times Walker catches it.

But interceptions were rare as Underwood appeared to be in midseason form.

“Bryce is throwing the ball very well right now,” receiver Antwon Thomas, who also has committed to Miami (Ohio), said. “He is the No. 1 quarterback in the nation so he’s throwing the ball very well.”

So it seemed to be business as usual at Belleville, which is coming off a summer of quality workouts — just the way Norman hoped things would go on the season's first day (err night).

“Really, everything that I’ve been seeing at practice so far, I’ve been satisfied with,” he said. “I’m going to see that today. Everybody’s locked in, everybody’s ready to go, everybody’s amped up to start off on what we call a long season.”

A season the Tigers hope will be long enough to last until Nov. 30 and end again at Ford Field.

Mick McCabe is a former longtime columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at mick.mccabe11@gmail.com. Follow him @mickmccabe1.

Save 10% on his book, “Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook: 50 Great Years of Michigan’s Best High School Players, Teams & Memories,” by ordering right now at McCabe.PictorialBook.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Bryce Underwood, Belleville football ready to rock in title quest