Chatt. Christian Football

[jadguitar06]

They said they will be playoff eligible in 2009. Where do yall think they weill be classified? 1A, 2A, 3A? What region if so?

[Indian]

3-2A. The middle school was 4-2, 38 players in grades 7-8. There's a link to a huge story on the program from the Chattanooga paper, in the public-private section. Front page of the sports, about half of the back page, 7 color pictures and 2 of those were huge. Pictures were taken over a couple of months. There's also a slideshow on the paper's website. They couldn't buy better advertising.

[zonepirate]

They said they will be playoff eligible in 2009. Where do yall think they weill be classified? 1A, 2A, 3A? What region if so?

 

Should be region 3 but I'm not sure what their enrollment is. I would think they would be 1A but they may have enough to be 2A???? Below is an article from the Chattanooga Times Free Press. It will be few years. I know several people that have not sent their kids their because there was no football.

 

 

 

CCS forging ahead with plans for varsity football

 

By Mallory Carra Staff Writer

 

 

 

When he was in fourth grade, Josh Blomberg begged his parents at the dinner table to support a Chattanooga Christian football team.

 

Four years later, Blomberg started as the quarterback on a CCS middle school team.

 

CCS fielded a team of seventh- and eighth-graders this fall. Next year the school will begin a high school junior varsity with freshmen and sophomores. The first-ever Chargers varsity season will kick off in 2009, playing a full schedule.

 

"I’ve been waiting four years for this, and it feels good to be part of the first team," Blomberg said. "We’ve come a long way from the beginning. Before we were just running around, but now we’re running plays with purpose."

 

CCS’s 15-member board of directors unanimously voted last year to add football and start the middle school team this year. It’s a similar process to how Grace Academy, Silverdale Baptist Academy, David Brainerd and Tennessee Temple recently built their football programs.

 

There wasn’t any pressure because of those schools to start a Chargers football program, CCS athletic director John Visser said, or from students transferring out of CCS to play football elsewhere.

 

"We started our plan on how it would best fit Chattanooga Christian School," Visser said. "I don’t think the school sensed an urgency, but we felt it was an ideal time in our history to venture out into football as another program we offer our students, not the program.

 

"Starting at the middle school level gives us an opportunity to get players in football condition, to get kids used to it. We feel it spreads out the economics before we go to a Friday night without a fieldhouse and any of those types of things. It gives us lots of opportunities to look at it through a period of time. Financially, it keeps us from going back and having to raise tuition to fund this, which is not our goal at all."

 

The start-up cost is about $15,000 with no change in tuition, Visser said. Bright yellow goal posts and yardage hash marks have shown up on the school’s former soccer field. The players wear yellow and blue Chargers uniforms, helmets and jerseys. CCS plans to renovate the field and add more seating capacity.

 

In June, CCS hired Barry Loyal to coach the middle school team this year. He will move up as the program progresses, eventually becoming the Chargers’ first high school head coach. Loyal was previously offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Trinity Presbyterian School in Montgomery, Ala.

 

CCS basketball coach Eddie Salter and Toby Morgan serve as assistant coaches.

 

"I thought we had a great start and I’m excited about our future," Visser said. "Barry has been proven as a top assistant and also understands that we are a Christian school and that football is a part of our overall program. So we think we have a very knowledgeable individual that really has the enthusiasm to build a program and is invested in it. "

 

The middle school team began practice July 10 and played games from early August to mid-October, finishing with a 4-2 record. The team had 15 eighthgraders and 21 seventh-graders, some who had played previously through a YMCA program.

 

Blomberg and Zach Mansell, an eighth-grader who plays defensive end, both played YMCA football previously through Middle Valley’s and CCS’s middle school exchange.

 

"These kids have committed to learning," Loyal said. "At first they weren’t used to full-blown practices and taking warm-ups to completion with 45 other guys. It’s been a mental process more than physically, and they’re light years from where they started, from knowing how to line up during a game to knowing what’s going on around them."

 

Current CCS freshmen were invited during the last week of practice in October to gauge interest for next year’s JV team, but current juniors and seniors aren’t invited to be part of the newest Chargers squad.

 

CCS senior Logan O’Dell, a four-year veteran of the Chargers basketball and baseball teams, always wanted to play football and is disappointed he will never be a part of CCS’s team. He decided to concentrate on baseball after his attempt to play co-op football at Lookout Valley was rejected, and he decided against transferring to McCallie.

 

"It’s pretty frustrating," O’Dell said. "I think it’s a great move for the school, to help attract more athletes and to help the whole sports program, but there’s not much I can do. I’ve had a great high school experience and I don’t feel like I missed out.

 

"I’ve always wanted to play in a football game, but if you want the atmosphere, there’s always a high school game to go to on Friday night."

 

But it’s an exciting new era for those who will be around.

 

"It’s cool that we get to be here for the start of it, and when we come back in 10 years, it’ll still be here," Mansell said. "Our school has won a state championship in pretty much every sport, and we want to live up to what the rest of the school has done."

[zonepirate]

3-2A. The middle school was 4-2, 38 players in grades 7-8. There's a link to a huge story on the program from the Chattanooga paper, in the public-private section. Front page of the sports, about half of the back page, 7 color pictures and 2 of those were huge. Pictures were taken over a couple of months. There's also a slideshow on the paper's website. They couldn't buy better advertising.

 

 

 

You beat me to it. I was trying to find enrollment on their web site

[Indian]

They could either be 2A by their real enrollment, or moved up due to the multiplier. If the multiplier is thrown out, they could be just at the highest 1A enrollment depending on if any go to Division II. Some of that is still up in the air, believe it or not. Be careful about posting copyrighted material, that's why I put a link to the article.

[just4fun]

They are about the same size as boyd so they would be 2A. I believe that is one of the reasons they are starting slow. They will have some tough compitition when they jump into region play.

[just4fun]

I think one of the main differences about CCS starting football is that it was not started to bring a bunch of new kids in.. it was started to offer a program for their current students. I think they may even have a waiting list for some grades in the high school.

 

One big reason to add a sport like football is that there are very few choices in the fall for boys who are athletes. If you don't run cross country there really isn't anything to do. If a school is ready to add to their athletic program then it makes sense to do it with football.

 

CCS has a good athletic program and I know they are approaching football very carefully because they don't want it to take away from the sports they already have.