It wouldn’t be the month of May without three things: sunny days, Florida love bugs and spring football practice.
All three Plant City-area high schools — Plant City, Durant and Strawberry Crest — are returning to the gridiron, shaking off the rust and, in some cases, carving out new identities.
Annual intrasquad games aside, these teams do have something to look forward to in the near future: The May 22 Spring Jamboree, hosted by Durant, will give the teams a chance to play each other and scout the competition in a game scenario.
But, it’s still early enough in the year that the teams are focusing most strongly on themselves. One might see the action outside and wonder, “What’s going on with those guys?”
PLANT CITY
Losing 17 seniors to graduation — many of them starters — is never a good thing. That’s the case for the district runners-up, the Plant City Raiders: Perhaps no one lost as many impact players as they did, and it could really show on the lines.
Many players on their vaunted offensive and defensive lines — Sedrick King, Montel McBride, John Broome, Lance Doenges, Quincy Robinson, Jordan Buck and Jeriah Burlingame — are all gone. The younger guys have some big shoes to fill, and head coach Wayne Ward and his staff are working to make that an easy transition.
“The key thing is fundamentals,” Ward said. “The details of the game, and getting these kids mentally prepared to play a physical football game.”
Shoring up those lines appears to be the Raiders’ biggest challenge, because just about everything else looks good. Receivers T.J. Chase and Markese Hargrove, both currently sophomores, are talented enough to make life easier for whoever steps in at quarterback — be it Cory Cotnoir, Cory King or Strawberry Crest transfer Austin Carswell. Offensive weapon Hassan Bailey may be gone, but sophomores Sterling Day — who got plenty of touches last season — and Ervin Micheal can fill that void.
On defense, junior linebacker Sawyer Dawson appears ready and able to anchor a unit that includes up-and-comers Javaris Whitsett, Quay Young and Peyton Collins. The possibilities for this team are good, and Ward’s ready to see if he can’t help take the team further than last season’s first-round playoff exit.
“I’m excited to be out here on the grass, in the sun a little bit and getting some helmets popping a little bit,” he said. “It’s going to be good for us.”
Also keeping the Raiders busy are the college scouts who keep dropping by. Dawson and lineman Evan Crowell have gotten a combined total of nine offers, and Chase is almost at 20 — including some from Clemson, South Carolina, Michigan, and many more big-time BCS programs.
DURANT
If 2013 was a historically great year for the Raiders, it was one that Durant and head coach Mike Gottman would love to put behind them. After losing a number of seniors, the 2013 Durant team posted a disappointing 3-7 record.
Clearly, Durant has some work to do in practice if it doesn’t want to repeat 2013.
“We’re working on mental toughness, No. 1” Gottman said. “We’ve got to be better-disciplined. We turned the ball over too much last year and made too
many mistakes. We’ve got to clean up the mistakes — we’re working hard on that.”
Specifically, protecting the ball and playing better defense — two aspects that spelled doom for Durant for most of last season. Fortunately for the staff, as well as fans of the school, Gottman said his players have been coming to the practice field in the right state of mind.
“I told anybody that didn’t want to be here, ‘There’s the door,’” he said. “‘Go home.’”
They’re all here, now, and they’re all working. If everything goes well, at least some of Gottman’s predictions may come true. Ask the coaches, and they’ll say to keep an eye on the team’s collection of backs. That includes tailback Chris Atkins and fullback Kadarius Griffin, a pair of juniors that showed some promising flashes when they got touches in 2013. To make them work well, though, the Cougars have to make sure their O-line is in sync.
“The O-line, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Gottman said. “We’re trying to put one together.”
Such work will be necessary to help quarterback Trey VanDeGrift’s replacement — who has yet to be named — have enough time to throw to his best targets, lanky wideout Garrett Rentz and tight end Joe Williamson.
STRAWBERRY CREST
The Chargers were arguably the most pleasant surprise of 2013. Although they lost their starting quarterback, Tristan Hyde, to an ACL injury within a few weeks, Austin Carswell was able to step in and help take the team to its best record ever. Crest just missed out on a playoff spot and the district title, but it proved it could hang with the bigger dogs.
Now, they’ll have to try to do it all over again — without many of the players that made it possible.
Four of the 2013 team’s five best players — Alex Carswell, Josh Hyde, Matt Chaney and Chris Perez — are graduating. The fifth, Austin Carswell, transferred to Plant City to be closer to his family. Add in all the rest of the graduations, and everyone else who left the team for their own reasons, and the Chargers are suddenly a team with little in-game experience at the varsity level.
“I don’t really choose to talk about the guys (who) left — they made their decision, and that’s fine,” head coach John Kelly said. “I wish them well wherever they go. I’m going to coach and work with the ones that really, truly want to be here. We’ve got some good kids.”
The 2014 senior class will be just over half the size as last year’s but does boast a couple of strong leaders who will help the younger guys assimilate. On offense, team captain Tristan Hyde will return from his injury to quarterback the team. On defense, captain Josh Engram — a defensive back — will look to lead that unit.
With new coordinators on the coaching staff, Kelly is counting on team leaders like Hyde and Engram to help the new guys out as much as possible. Although the Chargers just got a lot younger — and much more raw — it may not be accurate to think that the team doesn’t have much potential.
“There’s talent on this team,” Kelly said. “They’re just unproven, and they’re going to have that opportunity to get in the fire here, pretty soon.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
PIGSKIN-PALOOZA
Itching to watch some prep football? If so, make plans to be at the Spring Football Jamboree at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 22, at Durant High School, 4748 Cougar Path, Plant City.
All three Plant City-area teams, along with Seffner powerhouse Armwood, will play a series of exhibition games.
Plant City and Armwood will play each other in the first half of the game, followed by the Cougars taking on Strawberry Crest in the second.