Sage Hill football players rally to keep 11-man program

On the football field, Caden Sheetz and Miles McCord can make quite the connection as quarterback and receiver. Away from the field, they are putting their teamwork skills to good use as they are rallying and recruiting football players for the Sage Hill School program.

The school has decided to pursue an 8-man program for football after Abram Booty stepped down as coach last week and the varsity team was left with just 12 potential returners. But Sheetz, McCord and the rest of the returners, as well as their parents, said: “Not so fast.”

A group of parents, dressed in green Lightning gear, showed up to support the football team during a student assembly on Tuesday morning. Some of the parents held up signs, including one that read: Don’t sack 11-man football at Sage Hill.

Sheetz, a quarterback who will be a senior in the fall, asked his classmates to join him at a meeting during lunch if they are interested to play football for Sage Hill. Sheetz wants to recruit at least 15 students to play football next year. He hopes that will be enough for Sage Hill to reverse its decision and remain an 11-man program.

“I think it’s a little bit too quick of a decision,” Sheetz said of Sage Hill’s pursuit to become an 8-man football program. “I think that they needed to assess the numbers better once we’ve recruited more kids to play. I think we’ll accomplish that. I don’t think we’ll have to play 8-man football. If we do, it will be a little bit disappointing because it will be my senior year. I love football and I don’t want that to change.”

Said McCord: “I was kind of hurt. You put in so much work in the offseason. For them to just tell us that 11-man might not be possible, it just didn’t seem right. Us [returning] seniors, we felt like we had a job to do, to save this program.”

Sheetz said about 30 students showed up to the meeting at lunch, and were interested in playing football for Sage Hill. He said he wants to get commitments to play so that will help Sage Hill decide to remain an 11-man program. He said he will meet with Sage Hill Athletic Director Megan Cid on Thursday to show the commitments with the hopes the school will no longer want to be an 8-man football program.

“I’m excited for them,” Cid said of the football players who are trying to recruit teammates and prevent the program from going to 8-man. “At Sage Hill, we teach our students to think critically and advocate for themselves. Clearly these players are fighting for what they believe in and they are sharing their enthusiasm for football with their classmates. I think that’s a great learning experience. I’m behind them 100% as they go through this process of developing as teammates and leaders.”

Cid said she has had several people contact her who are interested in the vacant coaching position for football.

“I don’t think we’ll have any issue for finding a good qualified coach that has a philosophy that aligns with ours,” Cid said.

Booty resigned as coach because he said a group of potential football players were not admitted into the private school. He believed the team could’ve been special with the additional talented players.

Booty’s son, General, was also headed toward playing football at Sage Hill as a freshman in the fall. General Booty stood out as a quarterback for the Newport-Mesa Junior All-American Football program, as a part of two teams that won Super Bowls, that his father coached.

“We’ll miss Coach Booty but he had to do what he had to for his reasons,” said Cherry Dickinson, whose son, Jack, was a junior on the football team that finished 2-8 in the fall.

“What we love about Sage is that the student body has a voice,” Dickinson said. “The administration and athletic department wants to talk to them about it and see what can happen. A decision was made but now we feel that there is some hope.”