Server controls...a templated approach...

Accomplishing a centralized page template is proving to be a challenge.  The overall agreed strategy is to utilize server controls for the main page elements and standards form elements (technically still server controls) for the main form area.  The goal is a page (from top to bottom) with a header, and information section, a form or other page elements, then a footer.  Dividing up the page into several server controls seems to be the approach.  A server control for each section including the form/other page elements section that is a container.  Is this going overboard with the use of server controls?  The .Text application seems to accomplish this with user controls rather than server controls from what little I've quickly examined of the code.  What's the community conclusion on page templates.

I've also briefly looked at these boilerplates that they speak of for templates in the Microsoft development environment.  Anyone using these?