Tommy Heatherly is a firm believer in purpose and reason for why things happen in life.
Heatherly grew up in Grove, Okla., and punted for NEO, located in Miami, OK. Both towns are within 25-50 minutes of Chetopa. He finished his career at Division I Florida International. Heatherly enjoyed a standout high school, junior college and Division I career punting. He spent time with the Miami Dolphins in the 2022 training camp.
Plus, then-Chetopa head football coach Josh Ghering invited Heatherly to work with the Green Hornets on a kicking camp in summer ’22, between OTAs and training camp with the Dolphins.
“Josh decided he wanted to better his athletes, which was awesome to me,” Heatherly said. “Because not a lot of schools do that in the high school level.”
Heatherly became aware of a Chetopa team that finished 0-8 in ’22 and had won one of its previous 19 contests. Plus, Heatherly knew the Chetopa players, akin to himself at points in his life, needed to significantly change their bodies in the weight room. Heatherly was eventually cut by the Dolphins and, during the fall of ’22, Heatherly worked with the special teams units at NEO.
Heatherly’s weight had spiked up and down during college and cleared 300 pounds at one point. He dedicated himself to physical fitness and dropped over 100 pounds. Heatherly could have taken jobs at a variety of places or pursued punting opportunities at non-NFL levels. However, Heatherly was also drawn to coaching – and turning around a program.
Chetopa offered Heatherly the positions of head football and head baseball coach.
“I am a big-time competitor,” Heatherly said. “I have always been a competitor personally and when I saw a project ahead of me, an 0-8 football team that hadn’t had a lot of success, and a very small town, not a lot of pride in the football program at the time – I saw that, and I thought, ‘There might be a reason why this is thrown at me. I think this is my calling for right now.’”
Heatherly has quickly transformed the Green Hornets. Chetopa is 4-0, its best start in nine years. The Green Hornets lead six-man football with 220 points, per the SunflowerSportsSolutions.com database. Chetopa has just nine players on its roster, including a couple new ones.
“I am still a player at heart,” Heatherly said. “But nowadays in my heart, I am a head coach of these great young men. It’s just a huge blessing in my life at this time at 25 years old, I really couldn’t ask for any better of an opportunity.”
On Friday, Chetopa travels to No. 4 Waverly (4-0), a longtime power that finished 11-1 and reached the state semifinals last fall. Waverly, under coach Nick Fraenza, is first in six-man in scoring defense with 1.5 points allowed a game. Waverly has not lost a regular season contest since Week 3 of 2021, its last year of eight-man football. Chetopa, Waverly and No. 1 Bird City-Cheylin are two of the last three undefeated six-man squads. This game will likely decide District 1. Waverly has the longest current regular season winning streak in six-man.
“We have been getting better and better,” Fraenza said. “More crisp, more focused from week to week, and our young kids are playing a lot, and they are coming along greatly, and so I am really happy with stuff like that.”
Waverly features senior quarterback Ben Meehan, a returning first team all-state pick. Meehan played tight end as a freshman, which helped when he moved to quarterback. Playing end helped to see the game from a different perspective.
“Ben has worked real hard to became the athlete that he is,” Fraenza said. “He has always been a student of whatever game he is playing. He is a really smart basketball player, a really, really smart football player. In track, he has really tried to think through things, and it shows. He corrects a lot of things that he makes mistakes on without any coaching. He has been an amazing kid.”
For the opening 54-6 victory versus Southern Coffey County, Meehan had six rushes for 89 yards and completed 10 of 19 for 229 yards. In a 45-0 win last week at Centre-Lost Springs, Meehan completed nine of 12 passes for 226 yards for three scores against an interception. Andy Foltz returned a fumble for a score.
Meehan and lineman Luke Bartley are the lone seniors, while sophomore Carter Ohl has emerged. He missed the last five games of '22 with a broken foot.
In Week 2 against Altoona, Ohl had a 75-yard kickoff return and scored four offensive TDs. Waverly has cultivated a stewardship mentality under legendary coach Mike Hevel. He has spent more than 45 years at Waverly and coached more than 1,000 games. Fraenza was a Hevel assistant and is 33-11 as head coach. He has three children, including two boys who grew up following Waverly football. Fraenza has preached to the high school players that they might be "the hero" to Waverly youngsters.
“Carter Ohl is probably the kid that we have been highest on in terms of his improvement from last year,” Fraenza said. “Everybody has definitely seen improvement, but ever since Day 1 at camp, we were looking at him, we knew he was going to be a player for us.”
Colten Woodson is a returning starter at center and playing well. Freshman Dustin Foster is at safety. Sophomore end Ty Glissman is a solid player.
“We preach that athletics is a very important part of the educational process here at Waverly,” Fraenza said. “It’s not always about winning and losing. It never has been, but our kids have bought into the fact that if we are going to be on the team, if we are going to wear the orange and black, by the time we are done in school, we are going to leave it in a better place.”
Heatherly came to Chetopa in Nov. 2022. He convinced his players to start lifting.
“My first thoughts were, ‘I need to get these boys in shape,’” he said. “I need to get them elusive and agile.”
Heatherly lifts with the players.
Chetopa’s roster consists of senior running back Blake Carter, senior receiver Cauy Ross, junior athlete Tagg Bond, 6-foot-3 sophomore quarterback Jackson Lawellin, senior running back Derrick Thomas, and four freshmen: receiver Harrison Carter, end Ethan Lawson, and lineman Gabe Robison and Preston Mills.
Carter has 69 carries for 1,065 yards and 18 scores. Chetopa has ran the ball on 102 of 111 snaps. Thomas has 95 tackles.
The stout 5-foot-8 Robison did not play any peewee football and just one year in the junior high. He starts at center and has quickly transformed his body. Heatherly knew he turn Robison into a lifter and powerful blocker. When Robison first met Heatherly, he weighed over 260 and could barely squat more than 200 pounds. Robison has dropped to 219. Robison can squat over 500 pounds and has been Chetopa’s most impressive lifter. Robison has gained significant confidence in himself.
“He has taken his eating habits and his off the field activities to the extreme,” Heatherly said. “I really used Gabe as a huge example for a lot of boys on our football team that want to look to better themselves, whether it’s weight gain or weight loss, because the discipline that Gabe has had and the structure that he has held with his diet is just unreal. I could say the same for Blake Carter.”
In Week 4, Carter continued his big year with 10 carries for 218 yards and five scores in a 62-13 win versus Altoona-Midway. Carter lost about 23 pounds during the summer and did 500 pounds on the squat for three to four reps. He has put on more than 150 pounds on the squat. Lawellin is a first-time full year starter at quarterback.
“Turning Jackson into a leader, and he has really taken that on,” Heatherly said. “He is starting to get more confident in himself, and more comfortable with being verbal in the huddle or verbal about getting the guys set before he starts his cadence. He has taken that part of the game by storm here in the last couple few weeks.”
Marcus Smith serves as the assistant coach. Chetopa has done nice work with social media and marketing, too. Heatherly created the offense without talking to other coaches, which generally has not happened with new Kansas six-man coaches.
Heatherly geared Chetopa’s offense with 11-man principles shrunk to six-man. He based his offense with concepts he learned at junior college and at FIU. Heatherly called offense “more of a run-and-shoot style” with a little spread.
“My offense isn’t shooting for the stars each play,” he said. “We are earning our yardage, and we do have our breakout plays, but I wanted our offense to be a time of possession offense, take control of the game, hold the ball, take control of the whole entire clock.”
Defensively, Heatherly had focused on his players swarming. The Green Hornets have twice played Altoona-Midway, with a 78-33 victory in Week 1, and the big win last week. In the season opener, Carter rushed for 169 yards, and Thomas had 106. Chetopa earned statewide attention for its 46-26 victory at Peabody-Burns in Week 2, and won 33-9 last week versus Southern Coffey County.
“Play angry,” he said. “Play like a mean dude, like you just got broke up by your girlfriend, be an aggressive man. My culture is just being disciplined, being structured, being organized and you will see the results.”
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