Strawberry Crest will look to build consistency, along with a culture, in 2021.
As far as Plant City-area football goes, Strawberry Crest is the new kid on the block.
After opening its doors in 2009, it’s been a rocky start to a hopeful football program, to say the least. In 12 seasons, the Chargers have totaled only two seasons with five or more wins and just as many winless seasons. In those 12 seasons, they’ve also seen six different head coaches walk through the door—the most recent being Phillip Prior.
The team has lacked consistency, not not only in performance but also in leadership. Prior intends to change both.
Despite heading into his third season as the head coach for the Chargers, in many ways this past year has felt like Prior’s first. Hired just weeks before the 2019 season began, Prior was forced to adjust on the fly without any semblance of offseason work with the team. Then, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic took spring football and summer workouts away again.
“The last two years, we’ve basically been having to install a new offense and a new defense in the first two weeks of fall practice,” Prior said. “So you just kind of hit the ground running, and you don’t ever get a chance to get some traction. And that’s been one of the things—we’ve got a foundation laid now. We’ve been pretty consistent in what our schemes are from last year to this year, that’s another thing. We’ve had some consistency in our coaching staff that’s allowed us to do that. But spring football, that’s where you lay your foundation for the next season. That’s where you get to figure out who’s made the jump, who’s matured in the weight room, who’s matured from a mentality standpoint, who’s going to rise up and be your leaders that next year. We haven’t had the opportunity for that, so it’s been a breath of fresh air.”
The Chargers finished 2020 at just 1-8, with a big win over Freedom and narrow losses to King and George Jenkins to bookend the season. But with some regularity in the staff, the players and the scheme, Prior has seen just how different this team can look heading into a season after a true full offseason of work.
“It’s just been a really good offseason, it’s been a really good summer,” Prior said. “That’s really what the summer is about. Your team starts to gel and to blend together, and those leaders start to emerge, and that’s what’s happened. And I’ve been thankful for it.”
Defensively, the Chargers have looked strong throughout their preseason work, standing tall against Brandon and Lennard in scrimmages before allowing just 17 points, much of them coming in the second half with their starters off the field, in their preseason game against Palm Harbor University High School. A point of continuity for the Chargers, they will rely on a number of returning starters along the defensive line, setting the tone for a young linebacking corps and defensive backfield where many of the players have roles on both sides of the ball.
With that in mind, Strawberry Crest wants to run the ball efficiently and keep the game at their pace. But the tone will be set by a new starting quarterback in junior Dylan Peeples and a new offensive coordinator in Elijah Goodrich, joining the Chargers’ staff after previously serving as the offensive line coach at Victory Christian Academy. The Chargers’ offense wants to be multiple, with a number of different packages and personnel groups that utilize the strengths of individual playmakers.
“I want to be as multiple as I possibly can, but be as simple as we possibly can, if that makes sense,” Goodrich said.” Change things up for the defense—different formations, motions, shifts—but keep our base rules and everything that we do the same. I think that’s the best way that we can kind of keep teams off balance.”
Fans can expect Peeples to be a staple leading the Chargers’ offense, but the staff fully intends to utilize wildcat formations and single-wing packages with different players at the quarterback position to gain an edge.
Goodrich sees a deep running back group being the backbone of the Chargers’ offense in 2021, with Devin Blount bringing big play ability, Miles Jones getting some carries in addition to his work along the defensive line and Ryan Weems bringing the ability to mix into the backfield and line up under center in the wildcat.
“We can be as good as our players will prepare,” Goodrich. “We’ve given them the answers to the test… Now we’re going to go learn on film, if they want to learn it, but it’s going to be on them.”
SCHEDULE
Note: All games are scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. Games are broadcast live online at
NFHSNetwork.com.
8/27: vs. Alonso
9/3: vs. East Bay
9/10: @ Spoto
9/17: @ Armwood
9/24: vs. Freedom
10/1: vs. Wiregrass Ranch
10/8: @ Brandon
10/15: vs. Wharton
10/29: @ Tampa Bay Tech
11/5: @ Leto
THE DETAILS
Location: 4691 Gallagher Road, Dover
Established: 2009
Head Coach: Phillip Prior
(third season with team)
2020 record: 1-8 (0-1 district)
ROSTER
1 Jean Henry RB, DB Fr..
2 Devin Blunt RB, DB So.
3 Ryan Weems RB, DB Jr.
4 Marcus Springfield RB, DB So.
5 Jaylin Burden RB, DB Jr..
6 Quincy Hart WR, DB Jr.
7 Dylan Peeples QB Jr.
8 Gage Reibsome WR, DB Fr.
9 Brady Schmidt QB Jr.
10 Brock Craig TE, DL Sr.
11 Zach Curtin WR, DB Sr.
12 Brice Schmidt TE, DB Fr.
13 Cayman Griffin FB Sr.
14 Jaden Baker WR, DB So.
15 Abe Craig LB So.
16 Brandon Baker WR, DB Sr.
17 John Baxter WR, DB Fr.
18 Coby Burger WR, LB Jr.
19 Femi Smith WR, DB Sr.
20 Quintin Walker DL, FB So..
21 Fabian Laudet WR, DB Sr.
22 Miles Jones RB, DL Sr.
24 Josh Mukendi TE, LB Jr.
25 Carson Brown DL, FB Sr.
30 Steel Craig TE, LB Jr.
32 Radek Shah LB Jr.
34 Deegan Fearnow LB Jr.
36 Austin Creel LB, DB Fr.
42 Dominic Bledsoe LB Jr.
44 Caden Newman LB So.
45 Grayson Haynes LB, FB Jr.
50 David Miller OL Sr.
51 Austin Perry OL Jr.
54 Tyler Oblow OL So.
55 Dylan Weaver DL Jr.
56 Ben Bradford OL So.
57 Daniel Cruz DL So.
58 Troy Eskew OL Fr.
59 Jace Eldridge OL, DL Fr.
66 Antoine Wilcox OL, DL Jr.
69 Cody Craft OL So.
70 Samuel Shiver OL Jr.
74 Elijah Johnson OL Sr.
75 Daniel O’Connor OL So.
78 Jared Jirau DL Jr.
80 Declan Herrington LB JR.
84 Kaden Jordan WR, LB Fr.
88 Landon Berg WR, LB Fr.
99 Rodney Addison DL So.
