This past Saturday was the day that five of our Plant City-area youth football teams have waited all year for: the Superbowl.
While most of the teams walked away with a loss, we were at least able to see two teams win championships: the Plant City Dolphins JV team and the Turkey Creek Trojans Varsity team.
I spent the entire day at the Brandon Lions’ field, and my feet weren’t too happy about that, but I can definitely say that the football action made it all worthwhile.
I have to thank Mother Nature for not bringing the rain, because things weren’t looking so good earlier in the morning. Gray skies dominated the view until the afternoon, with the sun really starting to peek out during the JV game. The field was just one quick rainfall away from turning into a mud hole. On the other hand, that could have made for some cool photos.
Kudos to the Plant City Dolphins fans who stuck around for all four of the program’s games. Those three losses were tough, with the boys getting closer and closer to pulling out a win every time. Fortunately, those teams are all young — they’ll get another chance to win soon, given how well they’ve played.
Speaking of the Dolphins, one of my favorite plays of the day came in the Midgets’ 13-12 loss to the East Bay Buccaneers. With just over a minute left to play, and Plant City around the Bucs’ 30-yard line, quarterback Brent Coton saw wideout Ethan Pues beat his man off of the line and led him with a beautiful touch pass for a touchdown. From a fundamental standpoint, I’d call it the best pass thrown all day. Of course, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see two former Plant City Times & Observer Athletes of the Week doing something great together on a playing field.
I have to give the East Bay Bucs a lot of credit. They play well every time I see them, and Saturday was no exception. Those were two hard-earned wins, and my only hope is that the team is happy enough to splurge on new uniforms. After seeing gradient-colored uniform numbers in person, I now understand why the NCAA forbids collegiate teams to use a pattern on their numbers that matches that of the jersey. It’s extremely difficult to read.
The Dolphins JV team was undefeated this year, and they certainly showed why in their game against the Brandon Lions. They faced stiffer competition than the 20-6 final score suggests, and though it certainly wasn’t the best game the Dolphins have played all year, the team still managed to get it done. With more tournaments on the horizon, such as the upcoming UYFL National Championships, it’s hard not to like this team’s odds of collecting more hardware by the end of the year.
Everything was perfectly fine throughout the day, until the Lions’ fans showed up. The Lions teams themselves seemed to be respectful on the field, so that’s not the issue — it was people on the outside detracting from the experience. There was a lot of unnecessary swearing, yelling at the kids as though they were professional athletes, and at least two brawls that broke out — one near the end of the varsity game, which caused a lengthy delay, and one after the game ended, and the police officers had left the park.
Again, this has nothing to do with how the players and coaches acted. But, I would urge those in charge of the TCYFCC to reconsider holding Superbowls there in the future and to also take precautions to have police officers present until everyone leaves the parks.
With that said, I have to give a big shout-out to the Turkey Creek Varsity team. The fact that these 12 kids came together and won a championship playing serious, iron-man shifts is incredible. Many of their game scores from this season made the process look easier than it really was, but it took a lot of hard work and dedication to make this win happen. Football’s a tough game, even when you’re only worried about playing on one end of the ball.
Trojans, I hope that those fights didn’t spoil your big day. You all worked way too hard this year to deserve anything like that. The final drive of that game is going to stay in my mind for a long time, and I’m sure it will for you all, too.