LEXINGTON — The Lexington High School football team was welcomed home Sunday night by a town which, by all accounts, was instrumental in the team’s ascension to the state championship game.

“Your mark has been made, and you put your stamp on this program,” Lexington High School Principal Sean Berry told the senior player in the high school gymnasium. He could have just as easily been talking to the fans in attendance.

Then he turned to the underclassmen: “This has been fun. Let’s do it again next year.”

About 800 community members packed the high school gym of a town with a population of roughly 2,000.

“There’s no reason we can’t with the support of the community,” Berry added.

“This is a football town,” Lexington high school football coach Mike Castleman told the audience.

“That’s a good thing,” he continued. “People appreciate hard work, they support the players. They understand what it takes to win a football game. It’s not cheap running a football team, especially when we go 14 weeks.”

The team finished the season with a 13-1 record, a remarkable improvement from their 2008 record of 3-6. The 2009 team tied the 1989 and 2001 state runner-up squads for the school record for wins.

“This team did everything I asked,” said Castleman, who listed early morning weightlifting and training through much of the summer vacation as some of the hard work put in by the team.

Senior mothers who prepared meals for the team and cheerleaders who braved the cold were also recognized by Castleman as a factor in the team’s success. 

“We’ll probably get started Monday working on next year,” he said.

Senior fullback Jesse Kemp described looking into the stands at the Memorial Stadium and “knowing we had way more people” in the stands than the Tuscola Warriors, who claimed a 14-7 win against the Minutemen in Friday’s Class 1A state championship game.

After the addresses to the audience, football players retired to a reception area where they sat at tables signing footballs and various other items for children. Senior running back T. J. Stinde, who set a state single-season record of 3,325 rushing yards and  a state record 46 rushing touchdowns, said playing high school football is something Lexington boys start looking forward to from an early age.

“When you’re a kid growing up, you look forward to playing Friday nights,” he said, applying his signature to a napkin.

“When I was growing up, I looked up to the players,” he said, noting his uncles and cousins played for their classes’ teams.

Castleman described supporting local football as a “family affair.”

“It’s our identity. It’s so much a part of everybody. Dad had played. Son plays. Mom does so much … These boys and girls want to be a part of it,” he said as his 6-year-old daughter, Gracie, dressed in a Minutemen cheerleader’s uniform, hugged him.

“You always want to build year to year,” said Lexington assistant coach Rick Barkes. “It’s hard to build from a championship caliber team such as this. The seniors that are leaving have shown the juniors the drive, the enthusiasm that you need to make it to a championship. It’s a credit to the seniors.”

As for the community support for the 2009 team, Barkes said, “When I looked up at the stands (in Memorial Stadium) I thought, ‘Is there anybody in Lexington?’”