Stampeder Nation Newsletter - December 2023

Good day to you, Stampeders Nation, 

The fourth quarter of our 2023 calendar year is already here, can you believe it?! 

What a ride these past four months have been. I think I speak for many when I say, I still don’t think we have caught our breath from this amazing year at the new Middleton campus. 

So much to cover from our Pop Warner football and cheer season, so let’s get started there.

For the first time in our program's history, we had two cheer teams, our Mighty Mite team and our PeeWee team, participated in the Pop Warner national competitions back on December 5th and December 7th. Not to be outdone, Cheer PeeWee (12u) placed second in sideline cheer and third in show at the regional competition to advance to Nationals. Cheer Mighty Mites (8u) also placed fourth in sideline cheer at the regional event to advance to Nationals. 

On the football side, four of our five teams (6u, 8u, 10u & 14u) participated in the Mid-Florida Conference playoffs, with 8u becoming the conference's runner-up and our 10u team became the first undefeated team in program history to win the Mid-Florida championship. Our 10u football squad was also invited to participate in an AAU national competition from December 6th through December 10th in Davenport. ​And once again, both of our 6u and 8u teams, along with our PeeWee cheer team, will showcase their skills during the Pop Tarts Bowl on Dec. 28 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando.

This is such a HUGE improvement for our programs in just a few short years. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for not only our Stampeders squads, but potentially our VHS Buffalo varsity and junior-varsity teams, too. A big “thank you” to all of our directors, coaches and volunteers who’ve helped make this run of success happen.

Moving to off-the-field accolades for our football and cheer athletes. This is always a special part of our program to showcase the strength these athletes portray, both as young people and students. All-American candidates are up for selection now through May 2024. We won't know results of award selection until springtime. Mid-Florida is usually January-February, Southeast Region announced February-March, and Nationals are announced in April.

Join us in congratulating the following candidates from our Buffalo Stampeders Pop Warner program:

Shifting sports into baseball and wrestling…both groups are making great strides in development!

I caught up with Director of Wrestling, Joe Cummings, and Director of Baseball, Rusty Wilson, to learn some of the resources our organization has been able to facilitate for each program. 

That starts with a new wrestling mat that is set to arrive later this month, along with sports barricades to use for large events, such as the first major youth wrestling tournament that will be hosted in the Mark G. Morse Sports Complex. That’s right, the AAU State Wrestling Championships are coming this February! It is exciting to see the best young wrestlers in the state come to our hometown and put on a show.

As for the Stampeders Wrestling season, it’s just getting underway. We currently have 40 youth wrestlers in our program, which is a huge uptick from the past few years. 

Coach/Director Cummings reports we had a successful sixth annual Buffalo Stampeders Wrestling Cornhole Tournament, raising about $10,000 to help our wrestling program’s needs. We must give a huge thanks to all our sponsors:

• Diamond

  Stranage Tree Services, Inc.

  AgeWave Solutions

  T&D Pool Construction

  TDSE Inc.

  Wholesale Golf Carts

• Platinum

  State Farm (Connie Duff Wise)

  Encounter Church

  SonLife Landscaping

  Olympus Sport Horses

  Romac Industries, Inc.

  Mike Scott Plumbing

  Rotary Club of The Villages

• Gold

  Curry Roofing

  Legacy Clinic of Chiropractic

  Rivers Family Medicine

  Shannon Barley & Associates

• Silver

  Wiechens Realty

For baseball, Coach Wilson reports our baseball programs just finished their fall season. We had eight player-coaches from the Lake-Sumter State College baseball team visit our program, offering on-field instruction to our athletes. It was incredibly successful and we look forward to the continued partnership between both campuses. Other baseball highlights came from our 10u team as they picked up a pair of runner-up finishes this fall, while earning some pretty sweet commemorative rings, too. Also, the Buffalo Stampeders Board of Directors approved the purchase of our very own Rapsodo Hitting and Pitching technology to help improve our athletes. Using video and radar readings combined with cutting edge software, our athletes will receive real-time feedback and a breakdown of their on-field performance like never before. This will allow coaches to have instantaneous feedback on players’ performance to provide corrective coaching. This will hopefully make our athletes even more competitive in what’s an already special slate lined up for them this upcoming year, including the Cal Ripken tournament in Myrtle Beach (South Carolina) over Memorial Day Weekend, as well as hosting our own MLB Pitch, Hit and Run event on June 8th.

And let’s not forget the third annual Buffalo Stampeders Wiffleball Tournament set for March 16th. Sponsorships are currently being accepted, so please visit www.buffalostampeders.com/events/wiffle-ball-tournament/2024 to support our program today!

And finally, I feel it’s so important to take a second to thank all of the wonderful men and women leading each and every supportive company within our community for all of the generosity you have shown to our youth sports program. We have been able to help deliver some much-needed goods that will help bring new opportunities to all our Buffalo Stampeders programs.

Don’t forget, our annual winter fundraiser, the Battle at The Villages basketball tournament is set to take place at The Villages High School December 28th-30th. This tournament features 8 high school basketball teams (including The Villages) from across the country competing in a high-level three-day tournament. Tickets are now on sale at www.battleatthevillages.com!

In conclusion, it’s worth noting that human capital and manpower is one of the biggest (and most effective) ways we have been applying funds to help grow and facilitate the needs of this rapidly growing organization. We have recently hired a photographer and videographer India Pantin, who comes to us after an award-winning tenure at The Villages Daily Sun newspaper. We’ve also brought aboard Drew Chaltry, the Director of Communications for Brave SC (formerly The Villages SC) for digital video assistance. We could not do this without all of your support. 

We are looking forward to an amazing 2024 alongside you.

Thank you!

Josh Yoder
President
Buffalo Stampeders