Every year, the Plant City Observer highlights three players from Durant, Plant City and Strawberry Crest’s football teams who coaches believe could play a huge part in their success.
DURANT
Wyatt Lawson, OL/DL
What do you bring to this team?
I feel like I bring some big leadership here. I feel like I have a pretty big role with the guys and I feel like I can talk to them, be a good teammate to them and they’ll do the same for me.
What are your goals for this season?
I hope I accomplish what it takes to be a Cougar. I want multiple pancakes, some good plays, good tackles, a good record this year and a good season with the boys.
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from your time with the team?
Leadership and life. They teach a lot about life here, too. When you come here and you play football for these coaches, they’re not just gonna coach you — they’re gonna teach you about life, also. Over the last four years I’ve become a better person, too.
Jacob Reed, ILB
What do you bring to this team?
I try to be a leader and make sure everybody does what they’re supposed to do. There are responsibilities.
As a sophomore learning to be a leader, what do you think is the most important quality a leader should have?
Accountability. If he can’t do what he’s supposed to do, how are other people supposed to follow him?
What are your goals for this season?
Win every game, really. Most of all, beat Newsome.
What’s something about this team that people may not know, but they need to watch out for?
Our defense, our core is really good. Our secondary, they’re working hard and getting better. Our defense is really getting good.
Marcus Miguele, QB
What are your goals for the season?
That we have a positive record this year and do better than we did last year.
What do you bring to this team?
I call myself a leader and everybody else out here pretty much thinks I’m a leader, too. I can basically do it all. I can run, I can pass, everything.
Where do you think you’ve improved the most since last season?
Pretty much everything. I’ve worked a lot in the offseason.
What’s one of the most important things you’ve learned from being with this team?
Leadership’s the most important. Guys like to get in their heads a lot when stuff goes wrong, so you’ve got to make sure you keep that in check
————
PLANT CITY
Romello Jones, RB
What would you say you bring to this team?
I think I bring leadership, athleticism, intelligence — I make smart plays — and I try to help my team overall as a good team player.
What was it like not having a real offseason, and how did you get yourself back on track?
Coach Booth, he kept motivating us. Even though we couldn’t be in the weight room, there was always stuff you could do wherever you were at.
What are your personal goals for the season?
I want to try to rush for 1,000 yards even though the season got cut short. I still want to try to rush for that, as many yards as possible. I want to play both sides of the ball. I just really want to do good, put up numbers and try to get college coaches to look at me. Get me an offer. That’s pretty much it.
Ian Jolly, CB
What would you say you bring to this team?
My strengths are my height and my speed. I can work with my speed and whatnot, stay with the receivers in fades and I can get in fades a lot quicker and easier because I also have long arms.
What motivates you out there every day?
Just the will to get better. My brother (Patrick Jolly, formerly of Newsome High School), he’s also in college and I want to follow in his footsteps and also play D-1 college ball. He went to UCLA.
What was it like not having a real offseason, and how did you get yourself back on track?
It was kind of hard, for the most part, because normally in the summer we would work out. So what I had to do to compensate for that was work out at home, go to the field and do drills by myself. I just had to try to find work the best way I could.
What are your personal goals for the season?
I want to set a record. I want to get seven picks in the season and maybe have a couple football options by the end of the season so I have some options going into senior year.
Cole Highsmith, DB
What would you say you bring to this team?
Some of my strengths are reading offenses, my instincts are really key, and just playing fast.
What about the season are you excited for?
Being able to play with my brothers, my teammates, and put on for the city this season.
What motivates you out there every day?
My teammates, my coaches, the city, my parents, everything.
What was it like not having a real offseason, and how did you get yourself back on track?
You just had to keep your head up, keep your mind right and do workouts at home. Keep your head up and keep working every single day, even if it’s just by yourself.
What are your personal goals for the season?
I want a turnover of some sort, a forced turnover, in every game this season.
————
STRAWBERRY CREST
Connor Dias, DB/WR
What do you bring to the team?
Every day in practice, we try to bring a lot of energy. As one of the team captains I contribute a little bit to that. There’s been a culture that’s not necessarily about winning throughout my four years here and I feel like, as a senior, it’s been my job to kind of change that. I feel like I bring that energy trying to change the culture we’ve had around here.
What motivates you out there?
I’ve been playing this since I was in fifth grade and it’s always been about the guys around you, your teammates, never an individual sport. You always work for the guys that you work with and I feel like my friends, my teammates, they always push me to do better. They’re my main motivation out here.
What are your goals for the season?
When it’s all said and done, I hope I can say regardless of any adversity I faced this year, whether that be coronavirus or a loss, I wish I can say I gave it my all in my last year playing football here. That I left it all out on the field and I didn’t really let myself cheat, that I did everything to the best of my ability. That’s all I can do.
Sebastian Fernandes, DT
What do you bring to the team?
As a player and a teammate, I bring aggression and I make everybody around me competitive. I like to be as aggressive as I can be, do my thing on the field and try to get everybody else up there with me. I like to bring energy, always screaming and yelling at somebody in a positive way, or if they need to work on stuff. I like to boost my numbers as much as I can so they see where the bar is at. They need to come up here with me so we can all get up there as a team.
What are your goals for the season?
I want to be big still, but I’m trying to lower my weight a little bit and be faster. I want more sacks, more tackles and more team tackles, too. People don’t understand how important those are. I want to bring up my whole team’s tackles altogether.
How far have you seen things come in your four years here, and what are you excited about now?
I’ve seen some pretty low lows on this team and we’ve definitely built up for that. Right now I’d say we’re peaking for our class. Our game plan right now is really good.
Jake Craig, MLB/RB
What are you most excited about for this season?
I’m excited to see our young guys come out. We’re a very young team, but I’m excited to see them come out and get some varsity reps. I’m excited to see the veterans come out and show us what they’ve got. I’m ready to see a good season, a very productive season — a building season. We might not win them all, but what we’re gonna do is go out there and build. We’re definitely gonna get out there and kick some butt. That’s for sure.
What are your goals for the season?
I’ve been on the grind for three years doing this. At this point I’m coming out to have some fun, to build up other guys and to really push the boundaries of what we can do and what we can accomplish here at Crest.
How do you feel about the program as it is now and where it could go from here?
Satisfaction wise, I’m 100 percent satisfied. I’m loving our coaching staff. Much better, in a sense. It’s a different mindset. A different program. From what I’ve seen, from what we’re going to, I’m loving it. We’ve got a future here. Like I said, the class you’re looking at now, we’re at our peak. The upcoming class, they’re the ones to look out for.
