Everett Pride on display in the national championship game

Former Crimson Tide stars Sainristil, Stewart help set the tone for the Wolverines to clinch title 

By Joe McConnell

Mike Sainristil, the Gatorade 2018-19 Massachusetts Player of the Year and two-time Super Bowl winner for the Everett Crimson Tide, is now a national champion. And just like his high school conquests, Sianristil also played an integral role in Michigan’s 34-13 triumph over the University of Washington in the NCAA CFP (College Football Playoff) national championship game on Monday night in Houston.

His fourth quarter interception and subsequent 81-yard return to the Washington six led to running back Blake Corum’s second touchdown of the game to seal the victory from the one, while it also wrapped up the perfect season with the team’s 15^th straight win, only the sixth program in major college football history to compile such a lofty record. The last two teams that ended up with 15-0 records were the 2022 Georgia Bulldogs and the 2019 LSU (Louisiana State University) Tigers, and now Everett residents Josaiah Stewart and Sainristil are a part of that unique history. Stewart, a junior edge rusher on the Wolverines, also did his part to bring home the ultimate prize to the Ann Arbor, Michigan campus with four solo tackles and one assisted tackle against the Huskies.

But it was Sainristil’s interception – his sixth this season to lead the team in that category – that virtually ended any thoughts of a Washington comeback bid. At one point during his runback, he was thinking touchdown all the way. “The second I (intercepted) the ball, the only thing I thought about was scoring a touchdown,” Sainristil said during an interview with the Everett Advocate on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t do that, because I got tackled at the six, but at least I was still able to give the best offense in the country this year a short field to work with before Blake (Corum) was able to punch it in. They know how to capitalize on these situations.”

Sainristil knows something about the Michigan offense, because he was a starting wide receiver on that side of the ball throughout his first three years as a Wolverine. He scored five offensive touchdowns in three years, before switching to defensive back in 2022, his senior year.

Going back to his critical interception return, it was the longest in CFP title game history, and the second longest in CFP history (86 yards, Clemson, 2016 Fiesta Bowl). That runback set a new single-season school record, putting Sainristil at 232 total yards. He ranks second all-time with 240 career yards to Tom Curtis’ 431 that he established in 1968.

Since Monday night, however, Sainristil has been living a dream. “It’s just starting to hit me (that we won the national championship),” he said during the Tuesday night interview. “It’s still so surreal, especially with everything this team has been through this year. It’s been a roller-coaster ride. We had to go through a lot of adversity, but now to see it come full-circle after (many of us) decided to come back for the extra year to dedicate ourselves to win a national championship, this means everything to us. We definitely wouldn’t want to be a part of any other program or any other group of guys or any other head coach.

“For me, personally, when I came back this year, I did everything I could to make sure that this team can be the very best it can possibly be,” Sainristil added.

And the results speak for themselves to give the program its first national title since 1997.

Labelled a “Michigan legend” last year by coach Jim Harbaugh, Sainristil, a two-time captain and an All-American, is one of the fastest rising defensive backs on NFL draft boards. Harbaugh knows something about the NFL as a former quarterback and coach, and he’s pretty sure the Everett Crimson Tide product will have a bright future on the pro level. “They just don’t come any better than Mike Sainristil,” Harbaugh said in a recent press conference. “Playmaker, difference-maker; I bet if you check the NFL draft boards right now, he is rising to the highs, you know, of a first-round type of an All-American guy. He’s just a great guy, who’s down to earth, and heck of a football player.”

There was plenty of celebrating on tap back at the hotel for the players and their families Monday night after the championship game. The team then headed back to Michigan Tuesday night, where they were greeted by a celebratory student body on campus, before unwinding in Schembechler Hall.

Through it all, Sainristil still found time to reflect on his Everett roots. “Being a member of the Everett High School football program for four years gave me an understanding of what a winning culture is all about,” he said. “I was then able to carry it over to Michigan, but I soon discovered it was two different levels between high school and college football. But the leadership part of it carries over (naturally) for players who know how to lead, and that alone allowed me to separate myself from others to be successful here in my own way.”

There’s no time to savor the title for players like Sainristil, who will now be getting ready for the NFL Draft in late April. For the former high school Super Bowl champ, he will be heading back to Texas on Sunday to workout at Exos, a performance training center in Frisco that serves professional, college, high school, youth and adult athletes. The Indianapolis Combine will soon follow in March, where NFL coaches and scouts convene to see many of the 2024 prospects run through drills.

“I can’t wait to attack the process,” said Sainristil. “I’m just going to put myself in the best position possible to get picked high on the draft board. But in the end, I didn’t think about the draft when I came back here for my fifth year. I just wanted to do everything I could to make sure this team had an opportunity to win the national title.”

And that’s what they did, thanks to a kid who was born in Haiti, but moved to Everett as a baby with his parents, Carlot and Raymonde, where he developed into a highly skilled football player, who will in all likelihood carve out a long career as a professional athlete.

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