Heritage's McCarthy Earns Iron Lion Award

Well ... I am still on my tour of Hampton Inns across the South ... enjoying Clemson University today. At Clemson they had 15,000 fans show up Sunday for Fan Appreciation Day to meet and greet the football team. Yes, it is time for football and the high school season in Loudoun kicks off this week. Let's get ready with this news from Heritage High school.

The Pride football staff established a competition two years ago that would honor the hard work that the football players put in during the off-season. The competition is called the 'IRON LION' and it is an annual award that is presented in August every year.

The award is determined by a series of events including off-season attendance, agility performance(40 yard dash, broad jump, vertical jump) and core lifts (bench, squat, power clean and deadlift). The competition occurred the last week of summer workouts, August 3 – 7, 2009.

This culminated in the best off-season in Heritage Football history. Many of the records were broken in all events this year.

The Heritage staff is proud to announce that the third annual "Iron Lion" recipient is senior David McCarthy.

According to the Pride staff: "David has had a work ethic that is unmatched in the weight room and speed training. He has been a player who the coaches have to kick out of the weight room since he was an incoming 9th grader because he would stay for hours and hours. He finished 2nd two years ago behind his brother, Brian McCarthy and 2nd again last year to Ross Madison. David was determined not to let that happen again as he broke many individual records this off-season. The Heritage staff could not be any prouder to have David as the 3rd annual Iron Lion winner. David received the trophy during a presentation on picture day and will have his picture and his name added to the ‘Iron Lion’ plaque in the weight room.

David finished in first or second place in every event and scored a record 77 pts this year. David and first runner-up Josh Labuhn were the first individuals to join the 1600 lb club. These two have pushed each other the past four years. The coaching staff could not ask for two harder working student/athletes."

Also to note…David is 5th in his class with a 4.28 gpa.

David McCarthy’s Individual Results:

Bench – 295 lbs. 40 time - 4.50 sec.

Squat – 565 lbs. Broad Jump – 9’ 5"

Clean - 300 lbs. Vert Jump - 32"

Deadlift – 505 lbs. Attendance - 96%