What really rattles me about Fredericksburg...

B

Box Dad

11-man fan
Is how a program like that can disappear for 2 years? Nothing but outstanding start to finish. They have the best program I have seen in my short time (5 years) of watching sixman.
Is this kind of flux the norm for all programs or just the small schools? Or was this a paranormal situation, like Greenville not making the playoffs this year?
 
Here's one reason that the Heritage program is so good.

Tim Shipman.

Another reason ... the school, kids, families all have bought into his system. We were up there a couple weeks ago getting our rumps kicked from one side of the field to the other and noticed they have a wonderful new campus that has just opened up in the last two years. Heard they had an increase of 50 kids (primarily elementary) this year from 160 to 210 (K-12).

Tells me that they are doing a lot of things right on a lot of levels.

Freddy took a year-and-a-half sabbatical from their five-championships-in-six-years run (they did make it to the semi-finals last year). But part of that you can attribute to losing several key athletes to nearby public schools in that time. plus one year where they had no freshmen boys on the football field (that group graduated as seniors in 2011), so the squad on the field now are guys who had to step up as sophomores and juniors to carry the load as opposed to other programs where you might not become a key player until you're a junior or senior.

Being able to sustain that level of excellence over time pays dividends. The old joke I say about successful teams being too stupid to know they could lose isn't far off here. They have been successful and enter every season with the expectation of success AND the knowledge of what they need to do to be successful. The team trains and prepares better than almost every private school six man (and many 11 man) teams do; and not with fancy facilities. For years, the Heritage practice field was a pasture behind Dr. Ramsey's house.

By my count, they had two losing seasons in ten years of football ... 2002 (their first season) and 2009 (I think they went 3-7 or 4-6). Again, go back to my reasons above. And having athletes helps ... but the world of sports is full of championship teams with average athletes playing at a high level (and non-champions full of "superstars.")
 
I will attest that they are the classiest, most respectful team I have ever seen. Win or lose (They throttled our kids when they were freshmen, to them taking a beating when our kids were juniors and seniors) they and their parents exhibited class in every way. I wish them all the success this year. They are doing something very right!
 
Agree with TexasJim. I've seen them knock kids on their rear...hard...and offer them a hand to get back up. Not just some of the time, but all the time. Hard not to like tough, hard-nosed kids that are polite and respectful.
 
Agree, it was strange for those last couple years to see only 10-11 players total suited up. We just didn't have the bodies. Happened to have a small senior class last year of only 6, 3 of them guys...none of whom played football. This year we moved up our biggest class ever into 9th grade (29 kids) and suited up around 22 guys. We also had our first ever middle school squad with I believe around 21 middle school guys as well. Coach Shipman is a class act and commands respect from everyone, especially his team. We are certainly proud of him and our guys and appreciate your kind words. It is always our goal that they show respect and Christian character, win or lose. I only have daughters, and we just started our first ever cheer program and have had to work really hard to field a squad we felt would be worthy of the excellence our football team has shown. We're just pleased and humbled to contribute in some way.
 
Heritage,
As much as I'de hate to see it, (and Lifegate would long for) your destined for D1. Size and quality you would fit in nicely.
I have a daughter on the cheer team, I saw our girls get together after the game last week. Having boys that play, I sometimes forget that the girl are part of the team also. Remember to recognize them as part of the winning team. We should have done something special for the girls last year. They can get overlooked in the mix.
 
Box Dad":3t3tbsf4 said:
Heritage,
As much as I'de hate to see it, (and Lifegate would long for) your destined for D1. Size and quality you would fit in nicely.
I have a daughter on the cheer team, I saw our girls get together after the game last week. Having boys that play, I sometimes forget that the girl are part of the team also. Remember to recognize them as part of the winning team. We should have done something special for the girls last year. They can get overlooked in the mix.
Click to expand...

Heck, I've stopped waiting for that day. It's a cruel ruse that the folks in Fredericksburg and at TAPPS offices have devised just enjoy tormenting me.

There was one year when the TAPPS Board decided to move up the boys number for D1/D2 breakoff from 30 to 31. Now remember, the Board does not know what schools are at what number when they determine the cut-offs. In this case, they found that only one school would go from D1 (in their original alignment, prior to release) to D2 that time. Guess what? That one school was Fredericksburg Heritage.

And you know, chances are, even if they went D1, we'd probably like to keep them on the schedule.

In fact, this realignment, we realized that we at Lifegate were only three or four boys short of being in D1 ... we are the largest boys enrollment school in our new district (27) ... and we are looking at some larger classes in our current 6th and 7th grades that if they fall in the right time of realignment, could move us into D1.
 

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