The Plant City Raiders are on their fourth head coach in as many years, but still have a talented roster. Can James Booth get the team back to the playoffs?
Plant City’s football players have gotten used to change. That’s what happens when you’ve got a different head coach coming through the program every year, but this time appears different.
Unlike Greg Meyer and Robert Paxia, James Booth was not a hire pulled from within the existing Raiders program. He came from Manatee, running the offense with his twin brother, John, helming the Hurricanes, and he came with a mission in mind: to work hard and exceed all expectations from the jump.
“It’s not fun to run,” Booth said. “It’s not fun to do the conditioning side of it. But it’s fun when you put 40 points up on the board. Yeah, this is what we’ve got to do to get there, though.”
Though the Raiders had a talented roster in 2016, getting to the playoffs at all in 2017 — let alone getting as far as St. Thomas Aquinas normally does — would be an improvement.
NEAR MISS
Plant City followed up its stellar 2015 season with a 6-3 (4-2 district) overall record and nearly made the playoffs.
Under Paxia, things looked good early on for the Raiders. They stayed competitive with Armwood, even holding an unexpected lead at halftime. They followed that up by winning four of their next five games, scoring an average of 34.6 points per game.
But a 16-6 loss to Durant in the Redman Cup game, coupled with the team’s earlier 39-6 loss at Tampa Bay Tech, eliminated Plant City from playoff contention in mid-October. The Raiders ended the season with a 10-8 win at Lennard and a 22-6 win at Freedom.
Running back Treshaun Ward powered Paxia’s offensive attack, finishing the year with 1,082 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground. Dual-threat quarterback Corey King’s senior year ended with 953 passing yards, 115 rushing yards, 12 total touchdowns (10 passing, two rushing) and eight picks. Tydre Ward was the team’s top utility weapon with 954 all-purpose yards, lining up at wide receiver and running back as well as returning kicks and punts.
The Raiders’ defense didn’t have any players with more than linebacker James Gordon IV’s 74 total tackles, but the unit held steady as a whole and got solid play from sophomores Gordon, Ashton Mincey and Tyreke Harrison as well as seniors such as Steven Ogletree and Calvin Richardson. Cody Cribbs was a steady presence in the secondary, ranking first on the team with five picks and third with 59 total tackles. Fellow juniors Amir Abdullah, with 41 tackles and two sacks, and Austin Eldridge, with 43 tackles and a team-high eight sacks, also made the most of their playing time.
After the season, Paxia resigned from the position to take a job in Georgia and Treshaun Ward transferred within the district to Tampa Bay Tech. But James Booth and the Raiders aren’t worried about the offseason departures the team had to deal with.
COMPETE, COMPETE, COMPETE
From the moment Booth walked into the Raiders’ weight room April 7 and introduced himself to the players, coaches and staff, the rookie head coach spoke of several “mantras” for the team to follow.
Fly to the ball. Hold each other accountable. Run. Compete.
“Compete” is the umbrella under which all of the Raiders’ other mantras fall. Booth and his players say the term has come to define everything the team has done since April, bringing a heightened intensity.
“You’ve got to have that competition,” Booth said. “These guys have got to fear, ‘If I don’t do it right, I’m out and I might not get back in.’”
The competition on offense has been especially healthy for Strawberry Crest transfer Braxton Plunk, whom Booth said has earned the right to start 2017 as the team’s top quarterback. Plunk battled for the job with fellow transfer Ryan Overstreet, who came over from Manatee several months after Booth’s arrival, and the coach said his starter has gotten more comfortable making defensive reads and understanding his role in a spread offense.
“He’s taken over command of this offense,” Booth said. “Now he knows where everybody needs to go. He can let everybody know the positions they need to be in.”
Plunk will be looking for receiving targets such as Xavier King, Tyler Hood and Eldridge. He’ll also work with Eric Wilson, who appears to be the team’s starting running back heading into the new season. Booth believes Wilson has the potential to become Plant City’s next top running back. Zamir’ Knighten will also primarily work in the backfield with Wilson as the Raiders attempt to replace Treshaun Ward’s production.
There are fewer uncertainties with the defense, which has enough returning talent from 2016 and enough possible impact players coming up to have Booth excited for what the unit could do.
Cribbs will be back to anchor the secondary in his senior season. The junior trio of Gordon, Mincey and Harrison are back, and will be joined by freshman cornerback Carlisle Johnson, whom Booth said “plays a lot bigger” than he is, and athletic senior Amir Abdullah. They will all contribute to the “11 hats to the ball” philosophy Booth and defensive coordinator Melvin Jenkins are preaching.
The most intriguing part of the 4-3 defense, though, is the defensive line. Converted receivers Emmanuel Baez and Jordan Wiggins have been moved to the edges of the line in an effort to manipulate offenses with their length — Wiggins stands at 6-foot-5, Baez at 6-foot-4. Fellow defensive lineman Kobe Panier has also drawn praise from Booth for his athleticism and offseason work.
“We try to force everything inside and create leverage to force guys to cut back in to the meat of our defense … it just gives us a little bit more of an advantage, pre-snap, and then post-snap, it’s on our athletes to make plays,” Booth said.
Getting back to the playoffs won’t be easy but Plant City is ready to work.
“We know what’s coming, so we’re coaching our guys not to beat Strawberry Crest or Durant,” Booth said. “We’re setting up our guys to, ‘You’re facing St. Thomas Aquinas. You’d better be doing it this way because this is what it takes.’”
