Ross Sheppard Football Program

Mission Statement:

Ross Sheppard's football program emphasizes the development of lifelong skills, knowledge and attitudes for future successes by instilling a strong work ethic, discipline, commitment to team, school and community and sportsmanship. These skills evolve through communication among coaches, athletes, parents, staff and students.

Objectives:

The Ross Sheppard Football Program is an integral component in the educational experience of a student. With this in mind, we will accomplish the following:

Develop a high quality competitive football program that is safe, challenging and enjoyable for the participants.

Provide qualified coaches in all position areas that focus on maximizing the skills and abilities of each player.

Stress the importance of work ethic, discipline and character on the field, in the classroom and within community.

Emphasize and model the ideals of Ross Sheppard Athletics: PRIDE, TRADITION and EXCELLENCE. Participants will understand our motto: "Once a Thunderbird, Always a Thunderbird"

Our Core Ideals

We believe that students experience positive personal growth as a result of their participation in Thunderbird football. It is our goal to be a highly competitive team that creates and maintains a reputation of playing the game aggressively and with great intensity while displaying sportsmanship and respect for opponents, officials, teammates and fans. An athlete in the Thunderbird Football Program demonstrates:

Strong Fundamentals: Football is a game of individual techniques. Football fundamentals are the focus of our program. Ross Sheppard football players learn and practice fundamental football techniques daily. Many of our players continue to play football after high school because of their strong fundamentals.

Physical Presence: This is what football is all about! We continually strive to execute our fundamental techniques as aggressively and physically as possible.

Team Before Self Attitude: Thunderbirds know that while individual goals are necessary, the goals of the team come first. A Ross Sheppard football player is unselfish. We play as a team, appreciate and respect the efforts of other teammates. We demonstrate great pride in the efforts of our teammates.

Intensity and Hustle: Hustle cannot be beat! It is a mind set. Offensive and defensive schemes may change, but one thing that will never change is hustle. It doesn't take talent to hustle! High energy, intense practices are an expectation. NO ONE OUTWORKS a THUNDERBIRD!

Mental and Physical Preparation: Thunderbirds have a strong desire to prepare for opponents. Ross Sheppard football players prepare physically by participating in our off season and in season training programs. In addition, we expect our players to commit to mental preparation by attending lunch meetings, analyzing film, studying playbooks and scouting reports.

Discipline: We take pride in showing composure and know nothing is ever achieved without commitment, dedication, sacrifice and respect. A Thunderbird thrives on challenge.

Our Core Commitments

Ross Sheppard football players will commit to:

Their School and Schoolwork: We will take pride in our school, its traditions and our program. We will dedicate ourselves to our studies first and foremost, because we realize the importance of our education.

Constant, Never Ending Improvement: We will (daily) become better individual football players, and a better football team through mental and physical preparation. This is achieved through practice of football fundamentals and dedication to TEAM.

Giving Maximum Effort: We will give our finest effort at practices, games, in class, the weight room, meetings and team functions.

Our Football Beliefs:

Offensive, Defensive and Special Teams Systems:

The team that wins the game is not the team with the thickest playbook, but the team that can execute the most plays physically, efficiently and effectively. Our focus is on development of football fundamentals and therefore our offensive, defensive and special teams systems will:

Be Easy to LEARN: Concepts within the systems linked and are easily understood
Be Easy to ADAPT: Our systems allow for adjustments to be made

Be Easy to EXECUTE: Techniques within our systems can be executed by high school athletes
Allow us to BE PHYSICAL: What we always strive for on the field