Stratford quarterback Josh Trueheart accounted for 1,726 yards and 22 touchdowns this season.
Hillwood coach Kurt Page looks on during Wednesday’s practice.
Hillwood coach Kurt Page talks to his team during Wednesday’s practice.
Midstate football fans should recognize the faces of longtime coaches Kurt Page and Maurice Fitzgerald.
What they might not recognize is the brand of football the two coaches have their teams playing.
“The excitement is everywhere,” senior Stratford lineman Khalil Jones said. “We shocked the whole city.”
Fitzgerald (Stratford) and Page (Hillwood) have their helped their programs break playoff droughts. Page’s Hilltoppers haven’t been to the playoffs since 2004 while Fitzgerald’s Spartans haven’t gone since 2006.
Not many predicted Stratford wrapping up its regular season at 7-3 and Hillwood at 5-5, despite the highly successful coaches taking over this season.
Tennessee high school football playoff brackets
Both Fitzgerald and Page know a thing or two about turning around a program.
Fitzgerald took over a struggling Pearl-Cohn team in 1989 but directed the Firebirds to back-to-back 4A state championships in 1996 and 1997.
Page was a head coach at BGA before taking over a Father Ryan program (1994) that had struggled by its standards. He helped the Irish fight their way back to relevancy to capture a Division II state title in 1997, their first since 1974.
Despite that experience, both coaches faced an uphill battle to get the two Metro Nashville programs back to the state playoffs.
Stratford High School football head coach Maurice Fitzgerald works with his team during an early-season practice.
Changing mentalities
When Fitzgerald arrived at Stratford this summer, it didn’t take long for his players to realize they were in for some changes.
“Just the way he approached us, I knew this guy was different,” Stratford senior wide receiver Corey Simmons said. “This guy is here to make a change, and I felt like it could be a special year if we bought into what he was telling us.”
One change that Fitzgerald made that has helped the Spartans buy in and move forward has been the way he has handled players’ mistakes and failed assignments.
“We know even if we do mess up, we’re still going to get coached up,” Jones said.
And it’s rubbed off on how players respond to one another after a blown play.
“Just like Coach Fitzgerald instilled in our heads,” Jones said, “if we do something wrong, encourage your teammate and get to the next play.”
Getting to the next play was a key piece of advice for a Spartan squad that started the season 4-0 before dropping three straight games.
Bracket breakdown: State football playoffs
Instead of letting it take the wind out of their sails as it might have in previous years, Stratford rebounded from its three-game skid to win its final three games and earn a 3A playoff berth. The Spartans play at Fairview on Friday night.
Handling losses better than they did last season is a tribute to changes Fitzgerald has made in the Spartans’ mentality.
“I think a lot of times it’s the way that you lose,” Fitzgerald said. “Sometimes you lose and you don’t have any sense of hope, and sometimes you can lose and you know that you’re in the game.”
Power of belief
For Hillwood players, simply having a coach they felt truly believed in them has made all the difference from last year to this year.
“He brought us in and talked about what we did last year and we could do this year,” senior receiver Jamal Kirklen said. “He made us have faith in each other and in the team.”
And having the support of their coach makes the Toppers want to put it all on the line for the man calling the plays.
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“It makes you not want to let him down,” senior running back DeShawn Kinzer said. “Previous coaches may have given up at halftime, but him, regardless of the score, he’s believing in us at all times.”
That belief has landed the Toppers in an opening-round Class 4A playoff game at Springfield on Friday night.
One reason Page has so much faith in his team is its ability to stick through tough times.
He knows how hard it is to stay positive when the Toppers’ previous two seasons produced a combined record of 1-19.
Hillwood senior Jamal Kirklen (left) has scored a team-leading eight touchdowns for the Hilltoppers this season.
“I don’t know if I could have done that at 15-, 16-, 17-years old,” said Page a former Vanderbilt quarterback. “Not everyone is going to stay with that. That’s a tough pill to swallow and they have done it, so I told them they will get my best effort every day.”
By believing in their teams and helping players embrace and cultivate a winning mentality, both coaches have helped struggling programs find new life.
And now that they’ve led their squads back to the postseason, there’s only one more thing to do.
“The playoff motto is go hard or go home,” Simmons said. “We’re just trying to go hard every snap, every play. Go hard and leave it all on the field, because Friday could me my last day playing football.”
Reach Sam Brown at 615-259-8232 and on Twitter @SamBrownTN.
TURNING IT AROUND
Stratford
2015: 7-3
2014: 2-8
2013: 2-8
2012: 3-7
2011: 5-5
2010: 3-7
Hillwood
2015: 5-5
2014: 0-10
2013: 1-9
2012: 4-6
2011: 3-7
2010: 3-7