When Strawberry Crest began the process of hiring a new coach last month, the school knew that it wanted to take things in a different direction. The goal was to move on from the past and get a fresh start.
So far, interim head coach Jim Peaden has stuck to the plan.
Although midseason coaching changes have an effect on teams, this one hasn’t been so tough.
“For a pretty difficult situation, they’ve responded in an awesome way,” Peaden says. “A lot of the kids have that look, like they’re loving football again.”
NEW COACH
Peaden’s been a head coach before. He was last running the show at Van Buren Junior High School, now Van Buren Middle School, in 1994. He’s always been around the game in some way, coaching other positions and watching his son grow up with the sport, but the past few years have seen him become more serious about managing the game than he had been since Van Buren.
His other love has been teaching. Although he did start coaching at Crest last season, it wasn’t until now that Peaden was able to teach United States History at the school.
Before then he coached Crest’s O-line while teaching history at Lennard — his first opponent as a high school head coach.
Despite his short tenure with the Chargers, Peaden has made enough of an impact that the school felt comfortable approaching him with the interim job.
He didn’t hesitate to accept.
“The conversation came up, that they were going to make a change, and they asked me if I’d be willing to step in,” Peaden says. “I told them I was willing to do whatever it takes to help the program, help these kids the most I can and make it better.”
NEW BEGINNINGS
After the Chargers’ 39-6 loss to Tampa Bay Tech, Peaden stepped to the plate for his new role and, with help from the coaching staff, changed everything.
Practices aren’t the same. Warm-ups aren’t the same. Meals aren’t the same. Attitudes aren’t the same.
The only things that haven’t changed are the roster, the rest of the coaching staff and the schedule.
“We kind of like to say we started our season over,” Peaden says. “That started with Lennard. I told them, ‘Don’t get on the bus if you don’t think we can win.’ The buses were full.”
Ehatever the players thought they could do when they got on that bus was close to reality: the Longhorns needed a fourth-quarter rushing touchdown to escape with a 28-21 win.
Escaping wasn’t something that any Crest opponents had done all season, besides Middleton. And Middleton wasn’t regarded on any level near as high as the wave Lennard was riding at the time.
The Chargers have been playing more physical up front and trying to mix up the offense more often than it had been doing before. Peaden had wanted to get running back Bryce Blackmon more involved and make sure that Crest would be able to establish its run game with success.
Two weeks ago, Crest followed up with a 27-14 home loss against Durant that, despite the score, was quite closely contested. It was clear that Crest still hadn’t figured out how to close out games, but the attitude on the sidelines was noticeably different.
And, as any coach will say, attitude is the key to every part of a game plan succeeding.
Blackmon now had room to run. Tate Whatley now had receivers to hit and plays to extend. The defense now had an idea of how to cover its assignments and come up with big stops.
This change in attitude may not have resulted in any wins, but it’s been a big step in the right direction. That’s what Peaden was hoping for when he took over, and what the school will be looking at when it chooses to either retain Peaden next year or hire a new coach.
Could this be the week the Chargers finally get in the “wins” column?
VS. EAST BAY
The Chargers will have their work cut out for them Friday, Oct. 23.
East Bay, currently tied with Durant for third place in the district, has been on a tear this month. The Indians (5-3; 2-2 district) have won all three October games, averaging 27 points per contest and allowing an average of 11. Most recently, the team’s 31-12 thrashing of Bloomingdale has gone down as the team’s second-biggest win of the season.
Quarterback Ian Kuykendall completed five of his six pass attempts for 125 yards and two touchdowns, and he also ran the ball 12 times for 100 yards and two more touchdowns.
Playmaker K.J. Sails also had himself a game: 12 carries for 120 yards, four catches for 108 yards and both receiving touchdown catches. Sails also grabbed an interception while playing on defense.
The Bulls (0-7; 0-4 district) gained just three rushing yards and 101 passing yards. It’s reasonable to think that the Chargers can surpass those totals, given the way the team has been playing, but East Bay will not be forgiving.
One of East Bay’s other two wins in October came over Lennard (5-2; 2-2 district), which Crest nearly beat. That was a 26-14 win, fueled entirely by East Bay’s 359 yards on the ground.
The key will likely be containing East Bay’s ground game, which boasts a mobile QB in Kuykendall and several legitimate threats in Sails, Gaej Walker and Austin Hollingshed.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
OTHER AREA ACTION
Durant’s loss to Plant City in the Redman Cup rivalry game gave the Raiders (7-1; 5-0 district) the district title with three weeks left to play. That’s not a bad way to go into the bye week, as far as Greg Meyer and his team are concerned.
The Cougars (6-2; 3-2 district) will be the only other local team playing this week.
They’ll travel to Tampa Bay Tech, where the Titans (4-4; 3-1 district) are looking to lock down the final playoff spot over the next two weeks. Since they hung within five points of Armwood and won a shootout with Lennard, the Titans are heading into this one with serious momentum.
Should the Cougars win, they would vault into second place (for the time being) and potentially send Tech into a third-place tie with East Bay.
Should the Titans win, only East Bay could knock them out of the playoffs Friday, Oct. 30.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23
WHERE: Tampa Bay Tech, 6410 Orient Road