The varsity football team is doing great from the outside, but on the inside there is so much going into the season. This season the team is playing a lot more of a physical brand of football. “We’re striking our opponents really hard. We’re trying to be physically mean, and that’s a beautiful thing. Because that requires a conscious choice to do that,” Coach Gibson said. This is exciting because many people live for intense physical football. Gibson says that the team needs to improve on is maximum effort. “Something that we can improve on for sure is on true maximum effort, which we are getting to. He also adds that there have been times when the team is out of position. “There’s been several times that they were misaligned. We’re not sure what kind of split to get in, we’re not exactly sure where to be on time and there’s some details that we need to clean up. Sounds like they will be perfecting their craft in these next practices. He goes on saying, “This will make a difference because the second half of our season is much tougher than the first.” He includes that, “The team has really gelled together as a team. We noticed some great things that happen. They celebrate with each other, they don’t do anything like unsportsmanlike conduct, and they really rally around each other and that’s only gotten better.” 

Dylan Hodges gets in on the action while sharing his thoughts about this season. He says, “Kaden Swope and Andrew Dietz are very outstanding players this year because they’re always willing to put their bodies and their minds on the line to get better.” This is great to hear that people on the team are improving day by day. One team that Dylan and the entire team really wants to beat is Cedartown. “We’re all wanting to beat them, we’ve been training for them, the entire season. And we think that they’re going to be our biggest opponent and we really know that we have a chance this year.” He states. The coaches have really been a massive motivator this season for him. “They’ve been more positively influenced and positive back when we do something wrong multiple times. They correct us and use positive reinforcement every time we do it right,” he says. He is a senior meaning this is his last year playing for heritage. All throughout high school he has played football. He says, “Brotherhood makes me incredibly proud, because if one of us gets a personal foul. The entire team is backing whoever got fouled. This makes me proud of the brotherhood that we have.” Here at heritage I like to think everyone has a brotherhood too. Whatever extra-curricular activity you’re in, you have a version of this “brotherhood”. This is what makes Heritage, Heritage.