The Huntingdon Middle School Mustangs just completed a 6-1 season and have not had a losing record in several years under three different head coaches. Several years ago, Nathan Wallace went something like 30 games in a row without losing, then Ben Carter kept winning games on the middle school level before taking a high school coaching job in Dresden. Trevor Burlison took over and the train called HMS football keeps churning down the tracks to wins.
Winning middle school football teams do not always translate to winning high school football teams but it sure does help. I have been often asked about how you build a winning program that has the tradition of winning such as what Huntingdon has and, in the past, I have written about that very subject. After the Middle Mustangs completed their season and a week after homecoming my mind went back to that subject of tradition.
The homecoming parade is a perfect example and no one does it like Huntingdon. They have been doing the very thing like the parade when I was in high school 48 years ago. They take the parade by the primary school and then by middle school where children 1st through 8th grade line up in their Mustang jerseys and dream of one day playing football for the Mustangs.
You saw how that played out last week as the Middle School Mustangs played their final game. The HMS Mustangs are a clone of the high school team. They are well coached and tough as nails. They pound the rock down the throats of their opponents in the same style that the high school Mustangs do every Friday night. It is how Huntingdon football is played. It is played by kids that are normally smaller than the team they are playing but nobody is tougher than the kids that play Mustang football.
You want to build a winning program built on tradition it requires winning football games at every level. Huntingdon is a great example of how tradition works.
For more of my ramblings, check out The Beating Around the Bush Podcast, available on Apple, Spotify and other places you find your podcast.
