A recap of the 2021 football season from Durant, Plant City and Strawberry Crest.
Durant Cougars (8-3)
After 18 years under former head coach Mike Gottman, former alumnus andformer Durant football player himself Claybo Varnum took over as head coach for the Cougars.
In his first year as head coach, Durant finished second in the 8A District 10 standings with an 8-2 regular season record, the team’s highest single-season win total since 2016. Despite a young defense and a reformed identity on offense, the Cougars were able to notch 372 points for and 152 points allowed, both of which paced the district and led to their district-best point differential of +220.
On offense the Cougars were led by senior quarterback Marcus Miguele, completing 53 percent of his passes and eclipsing the 1000-yard mark on the season with 1,007 passing yards and 15 touchdowns to just five interceptions. But he wasn’t just dangerous in the pocket, finishing second on the team with 643 rushing yards and eight more touchdowns on the ground. Miguele’s most popular target was junior wide receiver Jeremiah Gines who hauled in 22 receptions for 389 yards and eight touchdowns, followed by Elian Gonzalez with 221 yards and four touchdowns.
The Cougars found a surprising star early in junior running back Calub Connell. While sophomore Alex Daley was projected as the starter prior to the season, he was forced to miss time to start the year and Connell ran away with the starting job. Connell finished the season with team-high 730 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on 111 carries. Upon his return however, Daley made his presence in the backfield known with 570 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 66 carries.
Defensively, senior defensive lineman Leo Tabakovic exploded for 18 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks while linebacker tandem Jacob Reed and Austin Bovee shored up the middle of the field with nine and seven tackles for loss, respectively. Reed also paced the team by a significant margin with 93 total tackles.
In the defensive backfield, Jayden Cornelius hauled in a staggering five interceptions as a freshman, followed by junior Xavier Peavy and sophomore Luther Scarlett with two each.
All-Conference selections
First-team: OG Cade McClellen, DE Leo Tabakovic
Second-team: QB Marcus Miguele, WR Jeremiah Gines, LB Jacob Reed
Plant City Raiders (6-5)
Heading into the 2021 season for the Raiders it was evident that there would likely be some growing pains on offense as Plant City’s starting quarterback and top four pass-catchers from the 2020 season, including every single player to haul in a touchdown pass, were lost to graduation. Most notably, former top-ranked wide receiver and current Oklahoma Sooner Mario Williams.
With so much talent in the pass game departing, the run game was leaned on to provide consistency early, led by senior running back Reggie Bush Jr. Bush totaled 856 yards and seven touchdowns, highlighted by a 265-yard, four-touchdown performance in a 24-21 win over Plant late in the season.
But despite inexperience, moving the ball through the air remained an integral part of the Plant City offense with junior Clint Danzey stepping up under center. Danzey finished the season with 1,483 passing yards and 15 touchdowns to just six interceptions. At receiver, a pair of seniors in Sincere Williams and Jaylen Gadson led the charge. Williams handled a majority of the volume, bringing in a team-high 37 receptions and 555 receiving yards with four touchdowns, while Gadson was a master of efficiency. Despite just 17 catches on the year, Gadson turned those limited opportunities into 405 yards and seven touchdowns, good for an unbelievable 23.8 yards per reception and 2.4 receptions per touchdown scored.
Defensively the Raiders saw a much more experienced unit. Senior edge rusher D.J. Haynes led the team with 22 tackles for loss, followed by junior inside linebacker Cole Highsmith with 20. The duo also notched seven sacks each. Alongside Highsmith was senior linebacker Rhet Conyers who led the team with 111 total tackles and racked up 15 tackles for loss of his own.
But arguably the strongest unit on the roster came in their defensive secondary with a trio of seniors in Jermarian Jackson, Ian Jolly and Romello Jones. Jackson led the group with three interceptions and seven passes defended while Jolly notched five passes defended and Jones notched one interception and four passes defended. A jack of all trades, Jones also totaled 383 rushing yards and two scores on the ground, 130 receiving yards and two touchdown receptions, 266 yards on seven kickoff returns and two blocked punts.
All-Conference selections
First-team: C D.J. Robinson, OLB D.J. Haynes, DB Jermarian Jackson
Second-team: RB Reggie Bush Jr., WR Sincere Williams, OT Jovani Torres, DB Romello Jones
Strawberry Crest Chargers (5-5)
While the ultimate goal at the beginning of every season may be to win your district and put yourself in the best possible position to reach a state championship when your potential playoff run begins, each team has separate and relative goals. For head coach Phillip Prior, that goal was laying the foundation for a growing program, a young program that had previously finished .500 or better just twice – going 7-5 in 2013 and 5-5 in 2010 – over their 13 seasons.
Despite 2021 serving as Prior’s third season as head coach, it was his first year in which he was able to hold a traditional spring football season with summer workouts after being hired just weeks before the 2019 season began and seeing COVID-19 cancel any such preparations in 2020. With wins over Spoto, Freedom, Brandon and Leto and accruing another win due to a forfeit from Armwood, the Chargers finished the season at .500 for just the third time.
While it was expected before the season that the Chargers would use a rotation in their backfield, both at the running back and quarterback positions, quarterback Coby Burger took over as the primary signal caller midseason. And although he totaled just 72 passing yards on the season, Burger’s ability to make plays on the ground opened up a new dimension for Crest’s offense. Burger led the team with 358 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 82 carries, even hauling in a 25-yard reception against Leto.
At running back, Crest got the bulk of their production from junior Ryan Weems with 354 rushing yards and four touchdowns, followed by sophomore Devin Blunt with 231 rushing yards and one touchdown. At receiver, the Chargers had just one wideout eclipse 100 receiving yards on the year as junior Quincy Hart hauled in five receptions for 153 yards and two touchdowns, ending the year with 30.6 yards per reception.
Senior defensive lineman Brock Craig led the defense with eight tackles for loss while sophomore Quintin Walker led the team with four sacks. And with a young team, several of the Chargers’ offensive skill players were tasked with playing both sides of the ball. Weems brought in a team-high two interceptions while Blunt added one of his own and junior receiver and defensive back Marcus Springfield led the team with five passes defended and 49 total tackles.
All-Conference selections
Second-team: OL Elijah Johnson, DB Marcus Springfield
