Dalton: Christian Heritage building project is a success

DALTON, Ga. — In the near future, when their days of playing in the Georgia Football League are nothing but memories, the Christian Heritage Lions will know they experienced things no other generation of player will.

And that’s beyond being currently 10-0 and possibly playing for a championship. This group of Lions, especially the nine seniors on the 28-man roster, laid the foundation for the program. Literally.

“We helped build this field,” said senior running back/free safety/punter/kick returner/sod layer Jarred Cronan. “We’ve seen this program be built from the ground up, and that will always be with us.”

The football program is in its fifth year of existence at the 21-year-old school located five miles from mighty Dalton High School.

Before this season, the Lions had never won more than five games while competing in the GFL, a league made up of nine teams in northern Georgia. This year, with their largest senior class (the previous high was four), the Lions are undefeated and playing Saturday in the GFL semifinals at Kell High School against New Creation Center of McDonough.

“It’s not only having the nine seniors, but all nine of them have played at least three years, giving us experience we’ve never had,” said veteran coach Mike Vaden, a former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga player who has coached at several public schools, including Southeast and Northwest Whitfield. “We’ve got some good athletes. Many of them could play for some of the other area high schools.”

Cronan, a 6-foot-2, 178-pounder with 4.6 speed in the 40-yard dash, is one of those, according to Vaden. He’s rushed for more than 1,110 yards for the second consecutive season and has 3,300 yards in his career. He averages better than 10 yards per carry and has scored 19 touchdowns for a team that has averaged 38 points per game.

Terrell Wilson, a 5-11, 215-pound linebacker/tight end, is another.

If there is a perception that football is a club sport at Christian Heritage, Cronan and Wilson know otherwise.

“Playing football here is a lifestyle,” Cronan said. “From July through Christmas, it’s all you live and breathe. We take it very seriously.”

Added Wilson: “We practice five times a week, two hours a day, and we go hard the whole time. The only thing that separates us from the public schools is we don’t have the numbers.”

To get the numbers they do have, the program allows home-schooled students to play. There are currently nine such players on the team. They live in Chattanooga, Cleveland, Chatsworth, Ringgold and Calhoun.

“We feel blessed to be able to allow these students the opportunity to participate in athletics because other athletic associations won’t let them,” Vaden said. “It allows us another opportunity to reach students we might not normally get the chance to. Playing football here is just another way we can glorify God.”

Vaden said the school’s long-term goal is to join the Georgia High School Association. The GHSA requires a school have 150 full-time students to be accredited. Christian Heritage currently has 100.

First, though, there is a championship to win. With a victory Saturday, the Lions would play a team from Cobb County, either the North Georgia Falcons or the Crown Knights, for the GFL championship. A win would be yet another block in the program’s foundation.

“It’s what we’ve been playing three years for,” Cronan smiled. “I hope we get to find out what it feels like.”