LABC PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE:
As I finish up my tenure as president of the Lafayette Athletic Booster
Club, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all those individuals who have
made a significant contribution to the LABC during my years of service. First
of all, thanks to Dwight Pinkett for both preceding
me as president and then volunteering to follow me as president. Dwight has
many contacts in the community and was instrumental in getting the Ford’s
Colony golf course for our annual golf tournament. This is annually our largest
fundraiser. A special thanks also goes out to Pegi Shurtz, who along with
assistance from her husband Ron, coordinated the golf tournament for the past
several years. Thanks are also in order
for Helen Lapetina and Patti Banks who raised
significant funds for the LABC through concessions at the football games and
wrestling matches. I want to thank Peggy Willis for her many years of service
to the LABC as our treasurer and for Bee Dente who took over the treasurer
position this past year. I also want to thank Barb Drzal
for preparing the agendas and compiling and issuing the minutes for our LABC meetings.
Thanks also go out to Susie Morrison who handled LABC memberships and
coordinated volunteer assistance. I was
very fortunate to work with such a great team of volunteers. As my involvement with LABC comes to
an end, I would like to offer a few words of advice to the parents. First of
all, your child’s time at Lafayette
will pass by very quickly so take the time to support your child by attending
as many athletic events as possible. I
would also like to encourage you to give back to the athletic department by
volunteering your time and services with the Lafayette Athletic Booster Club.
As I have watched my daughter and son move on to participate at the college
level, I have gained an even better appreciation of how difficult it is to
compete at the next level. As parents, please do not lose sight of reality when
it comes to judging your child’s athletic ability. This only leads to conflict
and disappointment. One of the greatest benefits of participating in athletics
is that it prepares our children for life in the working world. As parents, we
must provide guidance to our children but let our children work through any
problems or issues with a coach. We must resist stepping in and handling the problem for them. This doesn’t prepare our children for life
after high school.
In closing,
I would like to especially thank Parke
Land, Dan Barner, and all the
dedicated coaches at Lafayette High
School. You truly made it a wonderful experience
for my family.
Jim Reyher
AD’s
CORNER: by Dan Barner: RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY BECAUSE THE LAFAYETTE RAMS ARE HAVING A BANNER DAY. It
has become a pleasant habit each year to summarize each of our sports seasons
by using the phrase “another outstanding season.” This spring as you look at
all the accomplishments of our athletes and their teams athletically,
academically and in the area of community service, you will see that we not
only had another outstanding season but one that could be characterized as possibly
the best spring in the history of LHS athletics. Just a year ago, I suggested
that athletically the spring of 2004 was one of the most successful ever and
what a spring it was. The 2004 spring
teams won two Bay Rivers District and one Region 1 championships and had four
teams set or tie records for the most wins in a single
season. However, not to be outdone by the spring athletes of 2004, this year’s
spring athletes celebrated a season to the heights that has never been seen
before at this time of the year. By looking at their accomplishments, it is easy
to see why we say that it was truly a sun shining Lafayette
spring. The spring highlights include:
·
One VHSL
State Championship
Boys Track
·
Four Bay Rivers Championships
Boys’ Track,
Baseball, Girls’ Soccer & Boys’ Soccer
·
One Region Championship
Boys’ Track
·
Two Region Runner-ups
Girls’ Track
& Girls’ Tennis
·
Seven of our eight spring teams finished in the
top four of the Bay Rivers District
·
Six of our teams finished in the top four of
Region 1
·
Our spring teams won 70 % of all their games
·
76% of our spring athletes had a 3.0 or higher
GPA during the season
·
47 spring athletes earned some type of
post-season honors
·
8 won All-State honors
·
83 % of our honored athletes earned a 3.0 GPA or
higher and seven of the eight ( 88%) of our All-Sate
athletes achieved a 3.0 GPA or higher during the season.
·
Community service projects this spring included:
March of Dimes, The Friends of the Powhatan Creek Watershed, Chambrel Retirement Home, Heritage Humane Society, Harvest
of Hope,
Va. Department of Highways, The
American
Red Cross and the Cherished Angels Scholarship fund.
2004-2005 – ANOTHER BANNER YEAR FOR OUR LAFAYETTE RAMS: As I mentioned above, success
for our athletes and their teams just seems to go on and on. This year, our
Rams won an outstanding 76% of all the games that they played and 133 of our
athletes earned some type of post season honors. Three of our teams won state
championships, the most ever in one year.
Our teams won nine Bay Rivers District championships while five others
finished second in the district. This
success propelled our Rams to our fifth Red
Simpson Award in the past six years.
This award is given annually by the Peninsula Sports Club to the school
who wins the over-all Bay Rivers District championship. During our eight years in the Bay Rivers, our
Rams have never finished lower than second in the overall championship. Also, for the second straight year our Rams
finished the year as the number three school in the VHSL. This marks the
seventh straight year that LHS has finished in the top 10 in the state. Only a very few schools can make this claim
and one of them is our partner school, the Jamestown Eagles. The Eagles
finished the year as the number six school in the state and, like our Rams,
have finished in the top 10 for seven straight years. Two
schools from the same community that finish in the top ten in the VHSL on an
annual basis is an outstanding accomplishment and something that should make
this community very proud. A
third Bay Rivers
School, Tabb, finished this year as
the number two school in the VHSL. That
gives our district three of the top six schools in the VHSL this year and shows
why the Bay Rivers District is annually considered one of the very best “AA”
districts in the state.
FOUR GREAT YEARS: When our
seniors marched across the Willam and Mary Hall stage
on Saturday, June 17, to receive their diplomas, they took with them, without
question, the four most successful and exciting athletic years ever at
Lafayette. During this four year time
period our Rams:
- Won 70% of their 1220 games
- Won six VHSL state championships
- Were a VHSL
state runner-up twice
- Had 34 teams finish in the top 15 in the state.
- Won 8 Region 1 championships
- Were Region 1 runner-up 15 times
- Won 21 Bay Rivers championships
- Were Bay Rivers runner-ups 20 other times.
- Out of 86 senior athletes, 41 made some type of
post-season honors.
- Performed thousands of hours working for and raise
thousands of dollars for community services projects.
ACADEMICS + CITIZENSHIP = THE LAFAYETTE RAMS!!
Each year as I review what our athletes have accomplished outside of
the arena of athletics, I just think about how fortunate we are to have so many
outstanding young student/athletes. This
year’s final statistics show that our athletes once again had another
outstanding year academically as they outperformed the non-athletes of the
school by a wide margin in a number of very important categories. For example, 16% of our athletes have an
overall GPA of 4.0 or higher compared to on only 3% of the non-athletes. In the 3.0 and higher GPA category, 61% of
the athletes have achieved this level to only 30% of the non-athletes. At the
bottom end of the GPA scale, just 6% of our athletes have earned under a 2.0
GPA while a huge 32% of the non-athletes GPA’s fall under a 2.0. In the areas of citizenship and attendance,
our Ram athletes have also graded higher than the non-athletes. Year-end statistics show that only 20% of our
athletes versus 38% of the non-athletes missed more than 10 day of school.
Discipline wise, just 4% of our athletes received either ISS or OSS
compared to 12% of the non-athletes. Heading this year’s list of outstanding
academic and citizenship performances are five seniors. Kerry Morrison: Kerry became
the third athlete during the past six year to win the honor of being named the
Valedictorian of the senior class. We have also seen during this same time
period three of our athletes win the honors of Salutatorian. Besides being the
number one student of the class of 2005, athletically Kerry was a member of
this year’s regional runner-up tennis team, a member of our 2004 VHSL state
championship field hockey team and also played on the girl’s softball team for
three years. Kerry will attend the University
of Virginia this fall. Ben Heller: Ben became the first Lafayette
student ever to graduate in the WJCC Honors program. Ben has been a steady member of our boy’s
tennis team for four years and was a big reason why our boy’s tennis team was
the Region 1 runner-up last year. Ben
will attend the College of William
and Mary. Leon Barrow: Leon
is one of the most versatile student/athletes ever to walk the halls of Lafayette. Besides making all-district and all- region
in four different sports (football, wrestling, indoor track and outdoor track) Leon
found time to become the only LHS student this year to make All-State Choir. He
also was the only athlete to land a major part in the school’s spring musical
production of “Zombie Prom.” Leon
will attend VMI on a wrestling scholarship this fall. Mallory Shurtz and Dakari Taylor Watson: Mallory and Dakari were named the winners of Leadership Award for the Class of 2005
during the senior awards assembly in early June. Both have achieved a GPA of over 3.0 and they are former winners of the LHS Sportsmanship-Integrity-School Spirit
Award. During her four years, Mallory participated on the volleyball,
basketball and softball teams, making all-district in softball during her
junior year. She was also the president
of the SCA. Mallory will attend Radford
University. Dakari has
participated in football, basketball, indoor and outdoor track while at Lafayette.
He was also selected
by the senior class as the Homecoming King last fall. More of Dakari’s
accomplishments are listed under the Spring Milestones section. Dakari will attend Morgan
State on a football
scholarship.
WHY LAFAYETTE IS LAFAYETTE: At the end of each sports season, I always
find it very easy and enjoyable to write about all the good things that our
athletes do on and off the playing surface.
Over the years, our Ram athletes have won far more than their expected
share of games and championships; they have always excelled in the classroom;
and they have raised thousands and thousands of dollars and given thousands of
hours helping the many needy people our community. Day after day as I look around our school, I
see a community of teenagers who really are champions. Like all high school teenagers (ah, don’t
forget how we were back in the day), they have their typical teenage moments
and there are times when we look at them and think that they must be SOS (stuck
on stupid). There are many times when we have to get after them and make them
do things that they just don’t want to do. There are times when they give us
that look and we know the words that they are thinking. And there are times when we are just mad at
each other. All these are typical of the
relationships of teenage athletes and their coaches. During the years that I
have had the pleasure of being at Lafayette,
the one thing that I have always felt set our athletes apart from those at
other schools is their resiliency. I
have found that so many of our athletes have this characteristic and along with
being just really good all around good kids’, they have created this incredible
environment of success. In the following
section I will list the spring athletes who earned some really great honors.
Obviously, these athletes have played a major role in our success this year. However, it is very important for everyone to
understand that our true success over the years lies in the fact that so many
of our athletes have been very dedicated and hard-working. The Ram work ethic, year after year, has
lifted our athletes and their Lafayette
teammates to the height of excellence in so many areas of their life. One recent example of this dedication and
work ethic can be seen in the 85 to100 or so athletes who are showing up daily this summer to work
on their strength and speed conditioning. Tradition, hard work and spirited
dedication have become synonymous with the athletes at Lafayette
High School. As I always say “It's great to be a
Lafayette Ram.”
SPRING MILESTONES: Dekari Taylor-Watson: Without question, Dakari
ranks as one of the top male athletes ever to come out of Lafayette. With a GPA over a 3.0, he was offered a
number of college scholarships in both football and track. After receiving
all-district and regional honors this fall in football, Dakari
became almost a one-man track show this winter and spring. He won three individual state championships
while leading our Rams to the team state championship in indoor track. During the outdoor season, even though he was
plagued with a severe back injury, he led our Rams to the outdoor state
championship and captured one state individual championship. Dakari was not only
named the Daily Press Indoor and Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year but also the
Daily Press’s overall Athlete of the Year.
The Peninsula Sport Club also name Dakari
their Male Athlete of the Year and he was the Principal’s Award winner as Lafayette’s most outstanding male athlete. Kellie
Jenkins: Like Dakari,
Kellie is one of the most outstanding athletes ever to wear the blue and
gold. Also with a GPA over 3.0, she is
thought to be the only female LHS athlete ever to receive a full Division 1
scholarship in two different sports. Kellie received offers in both field
hockey and soccer from some of the top powers in the country. She has been
named all-state in both sports for three years. Kellie is Lafayette’s
all-time single season and career-scoring leader in both sports. During her junior year, she was named the
state co-player of the year as she led Lafayette
to it’s first ever VHSL State Championship in field hockey. This year, she was
named the Daily Press Field Hockey and Soccer Player of the Year. The Peninsula Sports Club named her the
Female Athlete of the Year and she also was named Lafayette’s
Female Athlete of the Year. Kellie was
also named a member of the East team in the Virginia Coaches’ Association
All-Star Game. Kellie will attend
William and Mary. Caleb Stuart and Ryan Gaul: Both
Caleb and Ryan, just as they did during the indoor track season, won all-state
honors in outdoor track. Caleb won the individual state championship in the
pole vault, and in doing so, set a new VHSL state record. Before heading to college, Caleb will do
missionary work for his church. Ryan,
only a junior, won all-state honors by placing second in the 3,200 meter run.
Ryan just missed being the state champ in this event as he was edged out in the
final few yards. Elizabeth Hopke: For the second year, Elizabeth
won all-state honors in outdoor track in the 100 and 300 meter dash. Only a
junior, Elizabeth has a very good chance of becoming Lafayette's
only three-time all-state sprinter. Teddy Barry and Stefan Melone: For the second straight year Teddy was
named to the VHSL All-State Soccer Team. Teddy was also selected to play in the
Virginia Coaches’ Association All-Star Game this summer. Teddy will continue his soccer career at Virginia
Wesleyan College.
Stefan was also named to this year's VHSL All-State Soccer team. Like Teddy, Stefan also was all-state last
year. Stefan will play soccer this fall
at Mary Washington
College. Coach Joe Henzel: Joe was named both the
Bay Rivers District and the Region 1 Baseball Coach of the Year. This was the third time that Joe has won this
honor at the district level. Coach Brian Schwab: Brian was selected as the Bay Rivers
District Coach of the Year in Girls’ Soccer.
SPORTSMANSHIP: As many of
you may recall, last year Lafayette
was one of only three schools in “AA” to be the recipient of the VHSL’s prestigious Sportsmanship-Ethics-Integrity
award. Each year one of our athletic
goals is to win this award because of all that it stands for. This year five schools are being recognized
by the VHSL as winners of this award and I am sorry to report that we came up
just short of the requirements needed to win the award for the second straight
year. Next year we will again make an all out effort to win this prestigious
award. With the help of everyone in the
Lafayette Athletic family, I am sure that next spring I can report to you that
our Rams will once again be selected as one of the VHSL Sportsmanship award winners. Sportsmanship is one of the cornerstones of
our athletic program. Each sports season, one athlete from each team is
selected by their peers as the winner of the Lafayette
Sportsmanship-Integrity-School Spirit Award. This, like the VHSL’s
award, is one of the most prestigious given to our athletes. This spring winners are:
Girls Track Kadari
Taylor-Watson
Boys Outdoor Track Leon Barrow
Girls Soccer Erin
Lacey
Boys Soccer Mason Nauman
Girls Tennis Chandon
Hudgins
Boys Tennis Lyndon Ombac
Softball Mallory
Shurtz
Baseball Kyler Paluga
SPECIAL SENIOR AWARDS: Each year at the Senior Awards Assembly and
at the Spring Awards Ceremony we announce the winners of our major Senior
Athletic Awards. The Gordie Tutman Award, which is presented by the
coaching staff to the outstanding senior scholar/athlete, was given to Maddie Lyerly. Maddie received a $500 scholarship for winning this award
and she was also a co-winner of the Cherished
Angels Award for which she received a $1,000 scholarship. During Maddie’s four years at Lafayette,
she has won numerous awards. She won a
total of eight letters and played on five different sports teams. As a field hockey player she made All- Bay
Rivers District three times, All-Region 1 and VHSL All-State once. She was also
an all- district and all-region winner in indoor track..
Maddie also was twice selected by her peers as the
recipient of Lafayette’s
prestigious Sportsmanship-Integrity-School Spirit Award. During her junior
year, she was a major player on our VHSL State Championship Field Hockey
team. Maddie
graduated with a 3.8
GPA and will play field hockey next fall at Sweet
Briar College. The other co-winner of the Charished Angel Award was John Harbin. John has been a four-year mainstay on our cross country
and tennis teams. John was a major
contributor to the Region 1 runner-up team of 2004. John graduated with a 3.7 GPA and will
continue his education next year at Virginia Tech. The Principal’s
Award presented to the most outstanding male and female senior athlete was
given to Kellie Jenkins and Dakari Taylor-Watson. Kellie and Dakari each received a scholarship of $500.00 for winning
this award. Both Kellie's and Dakari's accolades were given above in the Spring Milestone
section this newsletter.
MOVING TO THE NEXT LEVEL; This year we have 24 athletes who have
been recruited to play at the collegiate level.
This
is the
most of any year during the eight years that we have been in the “AA”
classification. They are: Maddie Lyerly
– Sweet Briar (field hockey); Melissa Griffith – Catawba College (volleyball);
Nick Ritchey – U.Va Wise (football); Dakari Taylor-Watson – Morgan State (football); Mike
McKenna – Catholic University (football); Chris Rogers – Randolph Macon
(football); Trevor Wagner – Christopher Newport (football); Thomas Hartman – Ferrum College (football); Deon Brown – Potomac State
(basketball); Leon Barrow – VMI (wrestling); Kelly Cuddihy
– Sweet Briar (swimming); Jon Vorpagel – North
Carolina State (swimming); Kyle Kammer – University
of Missouri at Rolla (swimming); Shea Nutter – Averett University (baseball); CJ Rhodes – Va. Wesleyan
(baseball); Josh Rickman – Averrett University
(baseball); Kyler Paluga –
Lynchburg College (baseball); Ricky Capelli –
Lynchburg College (baseball); Kelli Jenkins – William
and Mary (soccer); Teddy Barry – Va. Wesleyan (soccer); Stefan Melone – Mary Washington (soccer); Andrew Evans – Va.
Wesleyan (soccer); Greg Seaborne – Norfolk State (track) and Jonathan Simpson –
Wingate University (lacrosse). Congratulations
to all.
PARENT EVALUATIONS: I would
like to thank all those who took the time this year to send back the parent
evaluation form of their child’s coach.
This was the first year that we used this type of tool to help evaluate
our programs and coaches. The majority
of the evaluations were exactly what we had hoped for. They were written with
constructive criticism, suggestions and also listed the positive aspects of the
program and coach. As I promised, all
returned evaluations were used in the overall coach’s evaluation process even
if we disagreed with the parent’s assessment. Also as promised, the names of
the parents who wrote the assessments were never given to the coaches. Again, thanks for the responses and I hope
that next year more parents will use this form to help us evaluate our
programs.
IMPORTANT DATES:
PHYSICALS EXAMS at LHS
JULY 27 -- $15.00
GIRLS – 5:30
BOYS – 7:00
VARSITY WILL HOLD TRY-OUTS FOR ALL SPORTS EXCEPT CROSS-COUNTRY.
ATHLETES MUST BE AT TRY-OUT TO MAKE THE TEAM.
AUG. 1 – GOLF – 8:30 AM at LHS
ROOM 409
1:30 PM at FORDS COLONY
FOOTBALL – 3:00 PM
FOR 10TH,
11TH & 12TH GRADE
AUG. 8 – CROSS COUNTRY – 7:30 AM
CHEERLEADING – 9:00 AM
VOLLEYBALL – 6:00 PM
FOOTBALL – 3:00 PM
FOR ALL 9TH
GRADERS
AUG.10 – FIELD HOCKEY – 8:30 AM
FOR ALL 10TH, 11TH,
&12TH GRADE
AUG. 15TH – FIELD HOCKEY – 4:00 PM
FOR ALL 9TH GRADERS