The Munising Mustangs Varsity Football team is on a winning streak. Closing the regular season with a strong finish of 9-0, and currently 1-0 in the playoffs, ’Stang Nation pride is abuzz. Expats are coming home for the Friday night playoffs, while other hometown enthusiasts are tuning in to WQXO, hosted by father/son duo Charlie and Cameron Nebel, who are just as excited as everyone else.
“It’s still about the kids. It’s still about the game. It’s still about bringing that message to the community,” said Charlie Nebel. “I love the fact that with technology advancement, I can broadcast a game to an uncle and aunt that live in Georgia or Minnesota.”
By day, Charlie is the judge for the Alger County Probate/Family Court. Cameron is an attorney at Nebel and Nebel. Both are former Munising Mustang athletes. Both are diehard University of Michigan sports fans. Both have coached kids sports and Charlie also officiates.
As radio broadcasters, Charlie has been a hometown announcer off and on for 19 years. He’s weathered evolving technology, and a few changes over the years on who was broadcasting the radio program. He’s had a handful of co-hosts as well, including his sons Cameron and Keegan sitting in on occasion. Another son, Chase, helped the tech side when they streamed with Jamadots. Cameron joined his father as a permanent co-host in 2018 and it’s been a lot of fun spirited back and forth ever since.
Charlie is the light-hearted portion of the show, and Cameron is the guy who keeps it all focused and moving forward. This synergy in addition to their mutual enthusiasm and banter is entertaining, sometimes hilarious to say the least. During a recent broadcast where Charlie insisted that a team he misidentified as the Trojans, were in fact at one point actually called the Trojans. After Cameron calmly corrected the mistake. Once. Twice. Three times. He, without missing a beat, firmly in his moving-along manner noted that “No. They were not the Trojans. They were never the Trojans.” The winning formula, Cameron’s laugh out loud punchline to Charlie’s humorous riffing on his own facetiousness.
“I think that in a way it’s funny to come back at him from a very serious perspective. Sometimes that’s the joke, not engaging,” said Cameron Nebel. “And also sometimes, I am just trying to keep the train on the tracks.”
Both will tell you that they do not, nor have they ever taken themselves seriously. They don’t consider themselves professionals and they are unquestionably pro-Mustangs. However, they always try to be fair and they never mean to be disrespectful.
Charlie has coached many of the Munising athletes on the football field this year. He’s been a large part of the community that has helped raise these young men into the players they are today, whether it be through flag football or mini mustangs. He was there as a coach when one player, who in middle school battled Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and still insisted on playing through a basketball game after chemotherapy. The whole team shaved their heads in honor of that teammate. Charlie’s been there through injuries, parents divorcing, family deaths and even to help redirect athletes missteps towards positive outcomes. Today, his youngest son Kane is a team captain and quarterback. All of those years of accumulated experiences, built a bond that he shares with these particular players. That attachment could be heard in Charlie’s voice as he emotionally called the regular season to an end.
“These kids have all come from great homes, and they have made great strides. But I do think that coaches have a big impact on a young man or a young woman’s life. It certainly was true in my life,” said Charlie. “I think back to the coaches that coached me, and I still remember them all. I still have great relationships with them all. It’s just high school sports on the one hand. And on the other hand, it’s awesome to be involved in high school sports.”
They will both tell you it’s all about the community for them. They couldn’t care less about the stats. It’s about supporting Munising local sports programs.
“At the end of each season you realize that the overall importance of high school sports is not all that significant to global, national and local issues. Its importance to the individual, the team, the school and the community can nevertheless be profound,” said Charlie. “We can all be entertained by the process and we get a front row seat to watch our student athletes mature into the men and women that they will become post high school. It’s a winwin vantage point.”
