The Hamilton Football Team: Dedication and Pride

Photo by Roberta Pratt

Grace Strelow

Hamilton's High School’s football team is experiencing a great season this year with an astonishing conference record of 5-0 (6-1  total, including preseason and non conference games). The team's record may be due to the new coaching staff, who have implemented a new team mentality. Head Coach Justin Gumm says, “I am extremely proud of the growth of this team and the buy-in to our culture.  We have had a little bit of success because these guys care about each other and they care about our culture.  There is love from player to coach, coach to player, player to player, and that gives us a chance every week.” 

Under the leadership of the coaches, the team’s culture centers around several mottos: ‘CHOP the wood’, ‘CHARGERS’, and ‘FAMILY'.  Each of these acronyms represents a different aspect of the team's culture which is centered around the love for the team, a positive attitude, and work ethic. According to Gumm, “I would like the program to continuously improve on CHOPping the Wood!  It is very process oriented and not result oriented.  It is something that, as we continue to mature, and expect to win, the process and consistent daily habits of excellence lead to bigger things.  It is the precision in the classroom, in the community, at practice, in the weight room, at home - that leads to success. How you do anything is how you do everything.”

The team has bought into this mentality and Coach Gumm’s leadership. Safety Scout Lauer (#30, junior) says, “Coach Gumm truly has started a new program with important pillars and messages to make sure we know what he wants and expects from us; he has created a new culture here at Hamilton that hopefully will last a long time.” Jacob Spoerl, left tackle on O-Line and defensive end on D-Line (#74, senior) adds, “Coach Gumm brings great enthusiasm and has given us a culture that has allowed us to unify as brothers on and off the field.”

One of the shifts in the team has been an increased focus on character and leadership. Quarterback Nate Kollath (#5, junior) says, “Playing football has made me a better person on and off the field. It teaches you to respect and care for others and also makes you more committed to other things in your life.” The focus of becoming a better person has resulted in being a better team.  Wide receiver and safety Alex Eichmann (#2, senior), continues, “We’ve helped each other learn and get better and now we’re playing great football as a 6-1 team.”

The team is continuing to work on improvement together and as individuals, which is paying dividends. Defensive Coordinator Coach Joseph Ray says he is impressed, “Just how much they have grown. This group hasn't won a lot of games in the past, and it can be tough to flip that switch. They have done a good job focusing more on the process and not as much on the results of things, and that's what has led to our success.”

As the team gears up for a playoff run, they are taking things one step at a time and focused on continual improvement.  Coach Ray is focusing on one game at a time, stating, “I think that if we play disciplined, we tackle well, and we play our brand of defense, we can play with anyone.”

The team does have some things to work on to get deep into the playoffs. Kollath is working hard to keep a steady mindset to be ready for the upcoming games. “To be playoff ready our team needs to keep our foot on the gas and keep working as hard as we can. We haven't proven anything yet so there's no point in stopping now.” According to Eichmann, the best is yet to come. “I still don’t think we have played our best football yet and I hope everyone else thinks the same thing.” 

Coach Ray agrees that the team needs to take care of a few things before they can be playoff ready. He adds, “We need to keep improving on the little things, specifically in practice. Tackling has been a growing area all year, we need to improve our pad level and our pursuit angles, which comes from great reps in practice. Our coverage also needs to continually improve, but I feel good about our ability to stop the run, especially as the weather gets worse and throwing gets more tough. We also just need to be more physical; we have won and lost games this year because of that.”

Regardless of how long the season lasts or the win/loss record, the team has been able to reflect on things that have made them proud to be a part of this team and community. Spoerl reflects on what he is proud of so far, saying, “I'm personally proud of becoming a starter on varsity and being named one of the team co-captains this year.  I'm proud of how our team turned around our conference record from last year, when we were 0-5 to this year, when we are 5-0, a complete 180!  I'm especially proud of how we all did it together.”

Hamilton has never had a lack of school spirit and it's something that is present at every game and brings energy to the field and the players. The team has a few messages of gratitude to the Superfans and all other Charger fans: 

Sporal- “Keep up the great support.  Our student fans are awesome!  Nobody comes out for games in the student section like our fans! Get ready for more fun... and go Chargers!”

Eichmann- “Get ready cause the second half of the season is going to be crazy.”

    Lauer- ”Continue the support, because it truly does mean a lot. We have been preparing and putting everything into our season.”

    Kollath- “TURN ME UP, CHARGER NATION!”

All photos by Roberta Pratt