Three years ago Chayton Kattermann was a freshman on varsity for the Morgan/MSW football team going up against mostly 17 and 18 year olds, and now as he faces a winless season up to this point, he is a leader and motivator all over the field.

In Kattermanns freshman year, the team was 3-7. Kattermann was one of the few freshmen that year that saw time on the field that year. He was asked to start at Linebacker. at the linebacker position. In his sophomore year, his role took a step up as he was no longer the freshmen on varsity. The team that year went 6-5 and made the playoffs.

“It was kind of unbelievable,” said Kattermann, “making the playoffs brought new hope to my high school football career”.

Following Kattermanns sophomore year, head coach Kevin Sullivan announced he would be leaving the MSW program to be the Offensive Coordinator at Kingswood-Oxford. This meant the MSW program would have a fresh beginning with new opportunities. This also meant Kattermann was losing the coach that taught him how to play linebacker.

“It kind of felt good having a fresh start, but it really just sucked losing that coach, that kind of brought me up my freshman year, showed me the ways of how to play my position, made me fall more in love with the sport and having to switch coaches, it was a whole new beginning” said Kattermann.

As the years went on, Kattermann felt his voice was heard more. Not only that, his role on the defensive side of the football has skyrocketed.

“As a freshman I felt like I was just there, now I would say I’m headman of defense, I call out the defense, call out what the opposing offense is doing. I have that role,” said Kattermann, “I’m able to understand the situation I’m in on defense and help out my teammates whenever they need help.”

He believes that the team chemistry over the past four years could have been a lot better, but lacked due to the constant arguments among teammates. Kattermann expressed when now head coach Casey Trassaco was hired, their team chemistry as whole saw major improvement, but when the losses started to pile up, the team chemistry diminished. 

“I would say the thing we all struggled with on the team was just getting along. I feel like once we started losing more, the kind of team chemistry started falling apart, we all started getting mad at each other over stupid things. 
It kind of just got out of hand. So as the loss was piled up, the chemistry matched the results,” said Kattermann.

In his freshmen and sophomore year, Kattermann looked up to then Quarterback Tyler Baldwin. Baldwin was able to show Kattermann that he had the ability in him to not only be a great football player someday but he can start on varsity as a freshman. When Baldwin tore his acl and found out he’d miss the remainder of his senior year, Kattermann felt inspired and motivated to work even harder because of Baldwin’s love for football.

“I looked up to Tyler Baldwin. He was really inspirational for me. He drove me around for 7 on7s and we became close. He showed me that it was possible to play at a varsity level, being a freshman and sophomore,” said Kattermann, “After his injury, it just inspired me seeing his love for the sport and how even though he was out for the rest of the year, he still had such a deep passion for the sport”.

Kattermann believes if future MSW teams want to succeed, they must be working out, practicing, and staying conditioned all offseason so when the season starts everyone is ready to go. He believes in his time as a member of the MSW football team, numerous members of the team lacked any sort of offseason workouts.

“Put in the work in the off season, go to the field, go to the weight room, do some conditioning when you’re not doing anything else,” said Kattermann, “some people just sit at home, play video games. 
You really need to be outside, running, practicing.”

Over his four years, Kattermann is most proud of his time starting on varsity as a freshmen and getting to compete with soon to be and some even adults. Katterman was fresh out of middle school having to play against players who were stronger, faster, and bigger than him but this kept him motivated.

“I’m most proud of was really taking that step up my freshman year to be able to start varsity, being able to compete with people who are four years older than me, three years older than me” said Kattermann “I was still able to compete with them, and it really showed me that if I really set my mind to anything, I could do it”.