LABC PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE: We are very
fortunate to have such a successful athletic program here at Lafayette
High School. This is due to a very high level of
participation by our high school students and very dedicated, talented coaching
staff. Even though we have a very
successful athletic program, our athletic facilities are inadequate. Our only first rate athletic facility is our
weight lifting room. This facility is actually the envy of some small college
programs. The rest of our athletic
facilities are in need of some immediate improvement. The running track and
equipment for the field events are in such poor condition that our track team
may not be able to have any home meets this year. The same condition applies to
our tennis courts. One gymnasium is
inadequate to support both the girls' and boys' varsity and junior varsity
basketball programs along with the wrestling program. Jamestown
High School is scheduled to get an
additional gymnasium. A second gymnasium for Lafayette
High School needs to be included in
the next capital improvement budget. As parents of past, present, and future
high school athletes, we need to express our concern over our inadequate
athletic facilities to our school board members. We are all aware that capital
funding is tight, but as a growing and prosperous community we must provide
adequate funds for maintaining high standard facilities, including our athletic
facilities.
Jim
Reyher - President
AD’s
CORNER: by Dan Barner
WHAT DOES A SPLISH AND A SPLASH, A HOP, JUMP AND A VAULT HAVE IN
COMMON? …WOULD YOU BELIEVE TWO LAFAYETTE VHSL STATE “AA” CHAMPIONSHIPS! As we
traveled down Interstate 64 around 7:30 PM
on Saturday, February 24, I could not help but to listen as our Indoor Track
coach, Mel Jones, making one cell phone call after
another. Although the bus was dark, I
could sense a huge smile on coach’s face as he talked to each person. In his voice, I could hear a very excited man
telling his many friends that one of his teams had accomplished what all
coaches’ hope their team would do at the end of any season. This coach, who has dedicated himself to the betterment of thousands of LHS athletes in four different
decades, was so proudly telling his friends that after all these years of
coaching at Lafayette, one of his teams finally won a VHSL State
Championship. A state championship that
was won by a wide margin and one that saw our athletes break a number of Lafayette
records. As I listened, I thought about
how fortunate I was that I could share this moment with a man who has given
more to Lafayette High School and its students than any school division could
ever expect out of one person. As I sat
there feeling happy for our coaches, athletes and our school, my thoughts
drifted back to one week earlier when I was sitting in the same position on
another Oleta bus, around the same time, rejoicing with another Lafayette team which
had just won a VHSL State Championship.
That team, our girl swimmers and divers, had just won their second
straight state championship and they did so in a dominating fashion. They set state records in four events and won
the meet by one of the largest margins ever.
Their coach, Harold Baker, although very proud of his team, did not
outwardly seem as excited as Coach Jones.
See, for Coach Baker, it was his and Lafayette’s
fourth state swimming championships in the past seven years, two by the boys
and now two by the girls. Like Coach
Jones, Coach Baker is also a long time LHS coach. Although using different styles in coaching,
both have brought a standard tradition of excellence to their sport and to Lafayette. As we continued down I-64 getting closer to Williamsburg,
I looked out the front window of the bus and in front of me I saw the biggest
and brightest moon. I thought to myself,
what a perfect setting for two perfect weeks.
At the same time, I wondered if people in our community really understand
the quality of student-athletes that represent them each time they take the
field. Not just the student-athletes
from our two state championship teams but all the student-athletes who wear the
Blue and Gold. Believe me when I say we
are all very lucky to have them on our side and I would not trade them for the
world.
Besides
the state championship won by our girls swimming and boys indoor track teams,
they were both the Bay Rivers District champions. The boys indoor track team also was the Region
1 champion. Swimming does not have a
regional championship. The rest of our
winter teams also had good seasons. All
of our winter teams finished in the upper half of the Bay Rivers District
making Lafayette the only school in
the district to accomplish this feat.
Our boys swimming team finished their season second in the Bay Rivers
District with an 8-1 record. Their only
loss was to the state champion, Tabb High
School.
This team also finished the year, as one of the state’s best as they
placed fourth in the VHSL. Our
wrestling team this winter finished with a 19-3 record and placed second in the
district and second in Region 1. They
were Eastern Sectional champions and at the VHSL state tournament, our Rams
finished 17th but were only a non-take down call from being in the
top 15 in the state. Our boys basketball team had a good season with fourth place in
the district and finished with a 16-6 record.
They were the only team to beat the district champion Tabb
High School twice, and they made it
to the district tournament championship game.
Our girls indoor track team, fielding our youngest team of the winter,
finished fourth in the Bay Rivers District.
A week later they had their best performance of the winter by placing
fourth in the Region 1 tournament.
Another young winter squad was our girls
basketball team. Without any seniors, our Lady Rams finished fifth in the
district and just missed by a point here and there of a third place finish.
As I mentioned
above, LHS was the only school to have all its winter teams finish in the upper
half of the final Bay Rivers District standings. With all of our falls sports teams also
finishing in the upper half of the district final standings this school year,
Lafayette athletic teams have now accomplished this feat in 11 of the 23
athletic seasons (fall, winter & spring) that we have participated in the
Bay Rivers District. Considering that
only three of the other nine district schools have been able to accomplish
this, (Grafton and Tabb three times each and Jamestown
twice) we should be proud of the consistency of our athletic teams from year to
year. For this winter season, our seven
teams produced two district champions, two district runner-ups and two state
champions. Our seven teams had an outstanding combined record of 75 wins and 25
losses. The end of the winter season
finds our Rams ranked second in the state of all the “AA” schools in the race
for the overall VHSL sports championship.
Also, this winter we had 51 of our athletes make some type of post
season honors.
As always our
teams worked many hours doing a variety of community service projects. Our athletes worked this winter with such
organizations as the Salvation Army, the Va.,
Department of Highways, Colonial Capital Basketball
Association and visited with patients at the Williamsburg
Community Hospital. With all of the accomplishments of the
winter season, there was one major area were our athletes did not meet our high
expectations. Academically, our winter
Rams had one of the least productive semesters of the past few years. Although 63% of our winter athletes did earn
a 3.0 or higher GPA, which would be very good at many schools, it falls well
below the usual 70% or higher GPA’s of most of our athletic seasons. This area will be something that we will be
taking a long and hard look at so that we can make corrections for next
winter. On the bright side, of the 51
winter athletes who won some type of post season honors, 69% of them achieved a
3.0 GPA or higher during their sports season.
Better yet, we had 16 athletes who earned All-State honors this winter
and 14 of those achieved a 3.0 GPA or higher.
It is encouraging that our highest honored athletes are also some of our
best academic achieving athletes.
SPEAKING ABOUT ACADEMIC SUCCESS:
Just recently one of our top student-athletes, junior Emily Cetrone
an All-District performer in both volleyball and tennis, was selected as one of
only 20 students across the country by the University of Southern California to
be enrolled into their special Residence Honors Program. Emily flew to Los Angles in early March to
visit the campus and to talk with the program coordinators. After some hard decision making, Emily
decided to stay home and finish her senior year at Lafayette. This is a great honor for Emily and though we
are happy with her decision, we are also very proud of her being selected as
one of the top students in the country to be accepted into this very special
program.
MILESTONES: Dakari Taylor-Watson: This winter Dakari became the
most celebrated one season track athlete and maybe LHS’s best ever to wear the
blue and gold. At the VHSL State Indoor
Track meet, Dakari dominated the meet by making
All-State in four events. Dakari won three individual state championships ( high jump, triple jump and 55 meter hurdles), finished
second in another (long jump) and was part of the 4 x 200 relay team that
placed 8th in the state. Anna
Linkenauger: Making her own case for having one of the best ever performances
by a LHS Ram was Anna’s day at the VHSL State Championship meet. Anna's day included a major upset of two
highly rated girls in the 100 breaststroke.
By winning the state championship in this event, Anna also set a new VHSL
State “AA” record. Anna was also part of the state record
setting 200 Medley and 400 Free Relay teams and place 4th in the 200
IM. Hannah
Davis: A third argument for maybe
the best day ever by an LHS athlete could be made by Hannah for the day she had
at the state swimming championships.
Hannah made All-State in four events that included being part of two
VHSL “AA” record setting relay teams (200 and 400 Free Relays), placing second
in the 50 Free and third in the 100 Free.
Jennifer Johnson: The day Jennifer had at the state swim
meet would be considered at most high school as probably one of the best
ever. However, being a Ram, the
competition among her own teammates is so tough that her outstanding
performance could easily be overlooked.
Jennifer’s great day included making All-State as part of two “AA”
record setting relay teams (200 Medley and 200 Free Relays) and by placing
third in the 50 Free. She also finished
8th in the 100 free. Tori Benton:
After spending the entire week, including the night before the state
meet, fighting off the flu bug, Tori showed her competitive spirit by making
All-State as part of the 200 and 400 State Championship Free Relay teams. Tori also placed 5th in the 100
free and 7th in the 200 Free. It was a very good day considering her
weakened condition. Tara Svadeba: Tara’s
performance at the VHSL State Diving meet was the best ever by a Lafayette
Ram. Tara became
the first Ram diver to earn All-State honors by finishing third in the diving
competition. Hope Sweetnam, Paige Boyer and Eva Linkenauger: All three girls made All-State honors as
part of our record setting relay teams.
Hope was a member of the 200 medley relay and also finished 7th
in the 100 Back. Paige was a part of the
200 medley and 400 Free Relay teams and Eva was part of 200 medley and 200 Free
Relay teams. Kyle Kammer: Leading
the boys swim team at the state meet was Kyle’s big performance. Kyle finished the day by making All-State in
four different events. He was the state
champion in the 100 back and was part of the state championship 200 Free Relay
team. He also made All-State by placing second as part of the 200 medley Relay
and 3rd in the 200 IM and he was part of the 400 Free Relay Team
that finished 8th. Jon Vorpagel: Jon had a banner day at the state
swimming meeting by making All-State in three events. Jon's All-State
performances were as part of the 200 Free Relay state championship team, the
200 medley relay team that placed second, and a third place finish in the 200
IM. Jon also placed 5th in
the 100 Free. Scott Harkins: Scott was an
All-State swimming performer as part of the state championship 200 Free Relay
team, as a member of the second place 200 Medley Relay team, and by finishing
third in the 500 Free. Scott also placed
7th in the 200 Free. Jake Coleman and Kurt Linkenauger: Jake and Kurt made All-State by each being
part of a relay team. Jake was a state champion as part of the 200 Free Relay
team and was also part of the 8th place 400 Free Relay Team. Kurt's All-State performance was as part of
the 200 Medley Relay team that placed second and like Jake, was a member of the
400 Free Relay Team that finished 8th in the state.
Ryan Gaul: Ryan finished his
junior season of indoor track by making All-State as the state runner-up in the
1000 meter run. Ryan was also a member
of the 4 x 400 relay team that placed 6th in the state. Caleb
Stuart: Caleb’s family's move to the Lafayette
zone this summer was perfect timing as he helped our Rams to the state
championship in indoor track by making All-State in the pole vault
competition. Caleb placed 3rd
in the state in that event and also was a member of the 4 x 200 relay team that
placed 8th in the state. Leon Barrow: Leon
probably had one of the most interesting seasons of any athlete ever at LHS. This winter he became a member a special
wrestling club of LHS wrestlers who have won over 100 bouts during their
career. Leon
finished his career by winning 113 matches.
A couple of weeks ago he just missed making the state top four at the
VHSL State Wrestling tournament when a sure take down was not awarded to him at
the end of a match. The take down would
have put Leon
in the top four in the state. Just
before his trip to the wrestling state championships Leon
became one of the few LHS athletes ever to be named to the Virginia All-State
Choir and finished off his busy winter schedule by having a main part in Lafayette
spring production of the Zombie Prom.
SPORTSMANSHIP-INTEGRITY-SCHOOL SPIRIT AWARD: This is the most
prestigious seasonal award that we give at Lafayette. The winners are voted upon by our
sportsmanship committee made up exclusively of students. Being voted the winner of this award by an athlete’s peers makes this a very special
honor. This winter’s award go to: Girls Basketball – Jacquelyne Chantry, Boys
Basketball – Tim Murray, Girls Indoor Track – Nandi Sims, Boys Indoor
Track – Dakari Taylor- Watson, Girls Swimming – Kelly Cuddihy, Boys Swimming
– Jon Vorpagel, Wrestling – James Lipford.
Congratulations to all these athletes for up-holding the tradition of
outstanding sportsmanship that we have at Lafayette
High School.
ALL IN THE FAMILY: By making All-State in swimming Kurt Linkenauger joined brother David and sister Eva in becoming our
second family to have three siblings earned this honor during our eight years
in the VHSL “AA” classification. The other family that has three state
champions is the Davis sisters. The
three, Elizabeth (‘03), Samantha (‘05)
and Hannah (‘07) all have earned the honor of making All-State in swimming. To date we now have 15 siblings that have
made All-State. They are listed by their
year of graduation and the sport that they made All-State. They are: Briana (‘01-cross country) and Brendan (‘99-football) Kearney, Tilly (‘04-swimming & track) and Kase (‘99-track) Luzar, Lindsay (‘02-swimming) and Chris (‘00-football) Miller, Ashley (‘02-swimming) and Justin
(‘01-football) Foerster, Kate (‘03-volleyball) and Doug (‘00-tennis) Daub, Sarah (‘01-track)
and Jimmy (‘02-track) Kohlman, Ashley (‘02-volleyball) and Todd
(‘04-football) Reyher, Jake (‘06-swimming) and Caitlin
(‘04-swimming) and Coleman, Justin (‘00-football) and Colin (‘03-football) Kelly, Connor (‘02-football & soccer) and Brock (‘04-soccer) Hughes,
Anna (‘06-swimming) and Monty (‘99-track) Linkenauger, Eva
(‘06-swimming), David (‘04-swimming)
and Kurt ( 08’-swimming) Linkenauger, Elizabeth
(‘03-swimming), Samantha
(‘05-swimming) and Hannah (‘07-swimming)
Davis, Andrew
(’01- indoor and outdoor track) and Morgan
(’04-soccer) Kuhn and Elizabeth (’06-outdoor track) and John (’04-indoor track) Hopke.
THREE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN LHS ATHLETICS: Keven Jones: Besides
being our boys’ basketball coach, Coach Jones is also our academic advisor for
the athletes. Please, if your child is
in need of academic help, call Coach Jones at 565-4236. Do not hesitate to
take advantage of the help that he can provide.
Dan Gotthardt: Coach
Gotthardt is our full- time certified athletic trainer. If your athlete is having some type of injury
related problem or if you just need some information, please call Coach
Gotthardt at 565-428. If he cannot
solve the problem he can point you in the right direction to get the necessary
medical help needed for your athlete. Paul Wheeler: Coach Wheeler, who is our
football coach, is also a nationally certified Strength Training Coach. Besides the benefits that strength training
has on an athlete’s performance on the playing surface, it has just as much or
more positive effect on their self-esteem and appearance. Please call Coach Wheeler at 565-4253 to
get more information on our spring and
summer workout schedules. He runs a
great program and it will surely help your athlete become a stronger and more
physically fit person.
SAT & ACT TESTING: Has your son
or daughter signed up to take the SAT or ACT test? If they are a junior and have not taken one
of these tests, please have them sign up now. Remember that a student can take
this test as often as possible and only the highest scores counts. Call 565-4202
for more information.
IMPORTANT SAT TESTING
DATES:
Test Dates: Registration
Dates:
May 7 March 25
June 4 April 29
IMPORTANT ACT TESTING
DATES:
Test Dates: Registration
Dates:
June 11 May 6
IMPORTANT DATES:
Spring Sports Banquet – Mon, June 13 -6:00
PM
Fall Sports Physicals – Wed. July 27
Girls – 5:00 PM
Boys – 6:30 PM
FALL PRACTICE
STARTING DATES:
Golf Monday,
August 1
Football Monday,
August 1
All
9th graders report on August 10
Cheerleading Monday,
August 8
Cross Country Monday,
August 8
Field Hockey Monday,
August 8
Volleyball Monday,
August 8
*** Parents – Please be reminded that for all sports
that have tryouts (varsity football, golf, cheerleading, volleyball and field
hockey) athletes must be present during the tryout period in order to make the
team. Some sports (jv football and cross country) do not
have limits on the size of their 8teams and do not have tryouts. For more information call the athletic office
at 565-0440.
WEIGHT ROOM HOURS:
Spring Hours –
Mon-Fri – 3:00
PM to 4:30 PM
Summer Hours –
Mon-Fri – 10:00
AM to 12:00 AM
Mon-Wed-Thur
– 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
***
PARENTS – IF YOU EVER HAVE ANY CONERNS OR QUESTIONS PLAESE FEEL FREE TO CALL
THE ATHLETIC OFFICE AT 565-0440.
HAVE A GREAT SPRING!!!!!