ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan has a lot of traditions. From running out and touching the banner, to the marching band playing “The Victors” and “Let’s Go Blue,” there’s a lot to choose from.

But, there’s been something of a recent tradition that has little to do with public fanfare or crowd involvement.

In recent years, Michigan’s top cornerback has hailed from Detroit, specifically flagship program Cass Tech. Now a Dallas Cowboy, former Michigan All-American Jourdan Lewis wears his city and his high school on his sleeve, and he carried it everywhere when he was a standout in Ann Arbor.

Now, the Wolverines have a bevy of top-flight cornerbacks, and the one who gets the most attention is Lavert Hill — who didn’t graduate from Detroit (MI) Cass Tech, but was a Technician before he transferred and finished as a Crusader from Detroit (MI) King.

Hill and Lewis had one year of overlap in Ann Arbor — in 2016 — but Lewis always stuck around to help the next generation from Detroit, even before that. As a result, Hill still looks at Lewis as his ultimate mentor, the player he aspires to be the most like.

“He taught me mostly everything I know about playing corner,” Hill said. “Just looking up to him, watching him, see how he did as an All-American. (I) just want to be an All-American as well.”

But he’s not the only one that Hill remains close with from his former high school program.

While he maintains frequent contact with Jourdan Lewis (just about every other day, he says), it’s his former defensive coordinator at Cass Tech: current Belleville (MI) head coach Jermain Crowell.

As the former defensive coordinator at Cass Tech under head coach Thomas Wilcher, Crowell also oversaw Jourdan Lewis’ development at Cass. And though he’s now at another program at Belleville — a fast-rising one, at that — Hill says that he his former DC calls him every single day.

“Coach Crowell – he’ll call me if he sees I did bad on a play (even if) I think I did good on it,” Hill said. “He critiques me every day.

“Me and him, we’re real tight. I call him each and every day to see how he’s doing, how his team’s doing. He calls me about practice. He’s probably calling me right now to see how I did in practice today! Just talking to him each and every day is good.”

But that doesn’t mean that Crowell takes it easy on him. The coaching continues, even now that Hill has reached a certain level of acclaim.

Despite being one of the very best players at his position according to scouting website Pro Football Focus, Crowell makes sure that Hill knows precisely where he went wrong on any given play.

And if he played things right? Crowell still lets him know where he can improve.

Which is precisely why Hill continues to cherish the relationship he has with his former high school mentor.

“He’ll be honest – if I did bad on a play, he’ll tell me I sucked,” Hill said. “If I did good, he’ll tell me I could have did a little bit better.”

So Hill continues to grow, learn from his mentor and aspires every day to be more like his role model. As he notes, that requires being more “mature” and “playing every play like it’s your last, because you don’t know when it could be taken from you.”

But, in one way, he’s already there, having accomplished a semblance of what he’s set out to do: continuing that ongoing tradition — one that started in Detroit, and continued through to Ann Arbor.

Like Jourdan Lewis said about Hill back in 2016:

“Once you go under Coach Crowell and you learn what we learned from him, it’s a brotherhood from there.”

And with that hard work, Hill hopes that continued brotherhood will help him reach the status, recognition and future in the NFL that his friend and mentor has, by going through the same steps. So long as he hears from where he continues to go wrong from a teacher that refuses to quit on him — years removed from having him as a player.

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