DETROIT — There are easier ways to begin a football season.

Kenowa Hills will open its 2026 campaign Thursday night under the lights at Wayne State University against defending Division 3 state champion DeWitt, one of Michigan’s premier programs and a team that enters the season having lost just once over the past two years.

For the Knights, though, the opponent may not be the only challenge.

The days leading into the opener have been anything but ordinary at Kenowa Hills.

On Monday, the Kenowa Hills Board of Education called for the termination of athletic director Ross Willick and issued head football coach Don Fellows a two-game suspension following an investigation into the athletic department and football program. The investigation included findings related to Fellows’ conduct and an all-male strength class heavily populated by football players, which investigators determined violated Title IX and Michigan school law.

Fellows publicly expressed disappointment with the suspension while emphasizing his desire to keep the attention on his players and the beginning of their season.

Now, after a week in which conversations surrounding Kenowa Hills football have largely centered on matters away from the field, the Knights finally get the opportunity to do something about the noise.

Play football.

And they’ll have to play it exceptionally well.

DeWitt represents about as difficult an opening assignment as Kenowa Hills could have drawn. The Panthers completed a perfect 14-0 season last fall by defeating Mount Pleasant 54-20 in the Division 3 state championship game at Ford Field. DeWitt set MHSAA Finals records for rushing yards and total offense in the victory, finishing an unbeaten championship run in emphatic fashion.

The Panthers have lost only one game across the past two seasons and enter 2026 carrying the expectations that come with being the defending champions.

But Kenowa Hills isn’t entering Thursday night simply as an opponent fortunate enough to share the field with them.

The Knights have expectations of their own.

Kenowa Hills finished 8-2 last season, went undefeated in River Cities Alliance play and captured a conference championship. The Knights return 18 of 22 starters from that team and move from Division 3 to Division 4 this fall with aspirations of making a considerably deeper postseason run.

That makes Thursday night more than a season opener. It is an immediate measuring stick.

At the center of those expectations is senior standout Lundon Hampton, a University of Michigan commit and one of the state’s most dynamic players. Hampton is expected to carry a significant portion of the Kenowa Hills offense after establishing himself as a difference-maker capable of impacting a game in multiple ways.

His connection with Fellows also makes this week’s circumstances particularly difficult.

“Coach Fellows has helped me a lot in that aspect of the game,” Hampton recently told Michigan Sports Radio while discussing his development as a football player.

For Hampton and the rest of the Knights, Thursday offers a chance to shift the conversation back to the players who have spent the offseason preparing for this moment.

That won’t make the circumstances surrounding the program disappear. Nor does one football game resolve the questions facing Kenowa Hills following this week’s administrative actions.

But for a few hours Thursday night, the Knights can simplify things.

The field is still 100 yards long. The assignment is still the assignment. And across the line will be exactly the type of opponent a team with championship aspirations eventually has to prove it can compete with.

DeWitt presents a particularly fascinating challenge because the Panthers aren’t simply defending champions — they’re transitioning into a new season themselves. The backfield responsible for last year’s record-setting championship performance will look different, but the expectations surrounding the program haven’t changed.

Kenowa Hills, meanwhile, has experience everywhere.

Eighteen returning starters against the defending state champions makes for an intriguing matchup even without everything that has happened this week.

With it, Thursday night carries another dimension.

How does a team respond when the conversation around it suddenly has little to do with football?

The Knights can’t control everything being said about their program. They can’t undo the events of the past week, and they can’t determine what happens administratively from here.

They can control what happens after the ball is kicked off.

And perhaps that’s why DeWitt is such an appropriate first opponent.

There will be no easing into the season. No opportunity to spend a few weeks discovering what kind of team Kenowa Hills might become. The Knights will find out immediately where they stand against the standard set by the reigning Division 3 champions.

For a Kenowa Hills team that believes it can contend deep into November, that’s an opportunity as much as it is a challenge.

The Knights spent the offseason preparing to make the next jump.

Their first chance to show it comes Thursday night in Detroit — on a big stage, against the defending champions, after one of the most turbulent weeks their program has faced.

For Kenowa Hills, the objective now is remarkably simple:

Block out the noise.

And play.