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As everyone around
the Hartford community knows, I put in countless time and hours
updating and renovating this website. This is
just my way of saying thanks to those
individuals who have
not only helped, but have made this site what it is
today. |
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First and foremost, my
whole family--they put up with me when I have to
get the site done and stats up to date. Thank
you is so little to say to them for the things
they've done. |
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Hartford Public Schools and the Hartford Athletic
Department for allowing me to do
this. |
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Coaches Janicki, Manning (x2), Jonatzke, Banic and VanWagoner:
Thanks for your encouragement, your friendship
and your confidence in allowing me to help you
guys with stats on Friday nights. |
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Doug Meachum for his friendship
and keeping the offensive book for the Varsity team for
over 20 years. And as always, Doug,
thanks for the apples and
"blueberries"! |
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The Hartford Football Team (JV and
Varsity both): Thanks for accepting me and
this site. |
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Parents of the Football Team for
visiting this site and your kind remarks. |
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Hartford Football Alumni for all
the history you men have made, making our
program great. |
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Derek Goss for
the excellent banner on the
top of all the pages. |
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Mike Leith from the Tri-City Record
for visiting the site, using the stats and
writing great stories locally for our team. |
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My friends because
without them, this site wouldn't be here today. |
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ONLINE
PARTNERS |
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Custom Computing,
especially company Owner Matt Olds, for
donating the domain and web space
for this site. Thank you for
remembering where you came from. |
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Lee Browndorf Photography for the team
pictures on this site. |
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Doug Swift Photography
for pictures for the flash scroller on each page next to
the banner. |
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Michigan Helmet Project
for all the helmets seen here. |
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Michigan-Football.com
for all historical data on the
site. |
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Emma Thornburg Sefcik
and the
Hartford History Website
for Hartford's historical information seen here.
Without dedicated people like
Emma, the history of Hartford
and our sports programs would
just be
a blur. |
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(NOTE: I'm sure there is more people I'm
forgetting to thank and if that is the case,
please contact me and I'll be sure to add you.) |
First and foremost, thank you for your interest
and visiting the Hartford Football website!
My
name is Jerrod Birmele and I'm the webmaster of
the Official Hartford Indian Football Website.
I'm a 2004 graduate of Hartford High School, from a city where I
have lived my whole life. I was born in Saint
Joseph, Michigan, but Hartford's the only town
I've ever known. While in High School, of the 6
sports available at the male level, I played 5.
For three years, I ran Cross Country. But my
senior year, that all changed. I played Varsity
Football for the first time. I wasn't the best
of players, but being on a team with my friends
was the best.
During my senior year, we accomplished a lot of firsts. We won the
first SAC South Division championship, running a
5-0 record within the division. We then won our
seventh straight game in the SAC overall
championship, beating Fennville. However, we
lost one week later to Cassopolis in the
playoffs, ending at 7-3 overall.
However, my passion for football never wavered. Soon after I
graduated, I was asked by the football staff to
come back and do stats the very next season. I
accepted knowing the challenges. However, I
wasn't able to keep that commitment, because of
Cross Country coaching.
The year 2005 brought new opportunities for me. Not only was I
asked to do football stats again, but the
wrestling team also needed my expertise. That
season, I did mainly defensive stats,
calculating tackles, interceptions and more.
Because I didn't have a program, I didn't do
total stats, but was always commended for the
work I did.
2006 brought new changes. Coach Janicki came to Hartford and I
really didn't know where I stood. However, I was
brought back in a familiar, but more complicated
role. I remained on the defensive side of stats,
but this time, I was in charge of cumulative
stats. This was a new challenge, knowing if I
made mistakes, the players would catch it.
This is the point where the website comes involved. In 2006, kids
said to me "we want our stats faster." That's
what the site was supposed to be, just for stats
and basic information. However, at the teams urging,
the site became an entire, fully functional site.
This is the second design of the site and I'm
hoping to make it bigger and better for 2008.
In 2007, I continued doing defensive and cumulative stats for the
Varsity team. I also traveled to all the Junior
Varsity games to take stats for the website, as
well as pictures of the games. This was the
first year I had gone to all the games.
I will also continue my job in the winter, doing
wrestling stats, something I really enjoy doing.
I currently reside in Hartford. I live with my parents, Jerry and
Cindy. They own the Calvin and Leonard Funeral
Homes in Hartford and Lawrence. Also living
under our roof is my two sisters: Janell and
Jenna. Janell is also a graduate of Hartford in
2001 and Jenna entered High School this fall. We also have three pets, two cats and a
dog, named Whiskers, Porkchop and Ellie.
You can always contact me through my e-mail address on the left
side links of the site or if you need instant
contact, I have AOL Instant Messenger and MSN
Messenger. E-Mail me to get the details. |
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