2023 FP

DURANT COUGARS STEPPING UP

After 18 years with Mike Gottman at the helm for Durant football, Durant finished their first season under head coach Claybo Varnum at 8-3 in 2021 – the program’s highest single-season win total since 2016. In 2022, Durant bounced back with another eight-win season as they also claimed their first Alafia River Rivalry win over Newsome since 2017 and their first district championship since 2014.

As Durant’s football program prepared for their second season under Varnum last fall, the major story entering the season was an influx of young quarterbacks following the graduation of starting quarterback Marcus Miguele the year before. To help fill the void left by Miguele – who made his way to DIII football powerhouse Mount Union – the Cougars found themselves with a positional battle that featured three sophomore quarterbacks.

Rising to the top was Newsome transfer Mike Ryan. In his first year as a starter, Ryan led the Cougars to eight wins behind 1,655 passing yards with nine passing touchdowns and just three interceptions, adding 230 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns on the ground.

“I love Mike’s consistency, he’s the same kid day in and day out,” Varnum said. “I don’t think it’s gone to his head. He’s continued to stay humble, he’s continuing to work hard, he puts in the reps, he does a nice job and has good chemistry with our players. I asked some of the seniors the other day how they felt about him and they were all extremely complimentary and happy with how he’s been so I’m really excited about his maturity as he grows into his junior season and he’s our guy. He had a great run last year and we hope that he can replicate that and do even better this year.”

A position that was a question mark just a year ago may now be a crucial strength for the Cougars as Ryan enters his junior year with a season of experience as a starter in Durant’s system under his belt, on top of adding 15 pounds of muscle to the slender frame he played with as a sophomore. And for the Cougars, stability at the quarterback position may be more important than ever as you look across the rest of the offense.

In the backfield, it will be a completely new crop of rushers for the Cougars as all three of their leading rushers from 2022 will not be with the team this fall, losing Calub Connell to graduation after he paced the unit with 483 yards

and nine rushing touchdowns on 113 carries as a senior, while Alex Daley and Jarelle Franklin are no longer with the program, totaling 473 yards and eight touchdowns and 155 yards and one touchdown on the ground, respectively. To fill the gap left by a trio that combined for over 1,000 rushing yards and more than half of the Cougars’ offensive touchdowns last year, Varnum says that Durant will likely lean on Plant City transfer Dominic Jones alongside a committee of backs that continue to battle for their roles.

“We had Dominic Jones come over from Plant City last year and we really like Dom’s attitude and the effort and how he’s done, and behind that it’ll be by committee,” Varnum said. “We started Kendrick Jean in the spring game, he’s a guy that will have to continue to earn reps, we had a couple of other guys that didn’t play their sophomore year that have come back out for junior year, we had a young man move in from Sumner that’s going to try and give us some looks. It’ll be a committee but we’re really excited about Dominic. He’s a senior, he’s powerful, he’s got a couple of Division II offers and we’re hoping that he can step into that role. He’s a doit-all back, he can catch, he can block, he can catch, he’s elusive

and we’re hoping that he’ll be that five-tool back for us.”

Last year the Cougars were blessed with experience and size up front on the offensive line, a group led by seasoned players that had grown and developed through Durant’s program. And while there have been some key departures, Durant will once again lean on a pair of incoming senior leaders alongside a group of fellow upperclassman that are finally stepping into their opportunity to anchor a pivotal part of the offense.

“We lost Ajai Brown, he was a big one. We lost Tanner Pierce, that’s another big one for us. So that’s crucial not having those guys anymore,” Varnum said. “They were four-year players in the program, legacy players and guys that we really leaned on so it’s up to our seniors now, Alex Smith and Luke Machristie, who have been in the program for a long time and it’s their time to step up and go. We’ll be a little bit younger on the other side. At center we have a little bit of a battle going on between two guys but that position group will probably determine a lot of our season. We’ve got the skill guys, we’ve got the backs, but it’s going to be crucial for that offensive line to step up and not take the mentality that

we’re too young and that we can’t do it but to step in and say that we pride ourselves on great offensive line play here and continuing that.”

And at receiver, the Cougars lost two of their three top receivers in departing seniors Jeremiah Gines and Elian Gonzalez but will look for big years from  a fully-loaded group of returning pass-catchers to carry the weight. The same goes for defensive back, where Durant no longer has the dynamic trio of 2022 seniors in Xavier Peavy, Zaevion Jordan and Gines, but will turn the page toward experienced upperclassman in the form of two-way players Jayden Cornelius and Jaden Forte alongside safety Luther Scarlett to lead the way.

Varnum spoke about how Durant will adjust to some major losses at skill positions on both sides of the ball.

“We started Treon Williams at receiver last year as a freshman so he’s coming into his sophomore year and he’s done a nice job,” Varnum said. “Jayden Cornelius and Jaden Forte are both back. We got Jaylen Torres back, he went to Tampa Catholic but came back to us and we’re really excited to have him, he kind of knows how we do things. So it’s almost like we’ve lost a couple in every room

TAYLOR JENKINS SPORTS WRITER

but it’s not empty, the cupboard’s not bare. We have some guys that know how we do it and I think they’ll do well, we have some guys that have got to grow into leaders. Obviously we’re losing a recordbreaking receiver and a four-year starter in Elian but these guys know what we expect. This is year three for us, we’ve had a couple of kids move in that I think will do a nice job. There’s going to be a lot of proving early on, when the rubber hits the road, who’s going to stand up and be the guy we go to but I’m excited about that. I love seeing that type of stuff and developing those people.”

On the other side of the ball it all begins up front on the defensive line, where the Cougars will likely face their largest hurdle in replacing last year’s production. With a strong and experienced front seven last year and that was headlined by Valdosta State commit Ty Merkle and his teamleading 4.5 sacks, the Cougars also lost defensive tackles Gage Aroz and Greg Smith who totaled 3.5 and 2.5 sacks respectively. But despite so much production graduating, Durant is moving forward by filling those spots with upperclassman and young depth pieces that are familiar with the program and the system and are now getting the chance to step up.

“We’ve got several guys that have been in the program for a while, now it’s just their time to go make it happen,” Varnum said. “Jovan Ortiz is a guy that we want to step up, he’s a senior now and he’s been with us all four years, A.J. Hancock’s the same way, Jerome Parham. We’ve got some seniors that have been here, they’ve kind of been roleplayers in some situations but now’s a chance to step up and earn a job. We’ve got a couple of sophomores, some juniors and no one’s listed as a ‘one.’ They’re all fighting it out

and trying to win that job and I’m ok with it being by committee as long as those guys go 100 miles per hour to make it happen. It’s nice to have some youth but also nice to have some older guys that know the expectation.”

At linebacker, Durant will return impact players from last year’s defense in Hale Sollmann and Brant Bovee, with one huge gap left by program staple Jacob Reed in the middle linebacker spot. Sollmann, entering his junior year, led the Cougars’ defense in total tackles with 75 and tackles for loss with 13 across 11 games played last season while Bovee wasn’t far behind with 66 tackles and 11.5 tackles for loss in 10 games. But Reed’s absence as the quarterback of the Cougars’ defense will be felt, much as it was last season when he missed three games late in the year due to injury while still racking up 71 total tackles and 11 tackles for loss.

“Losing Jacob’s huge,” Varnum said. “I’ve coached Jacob since he was a freshman here and he’s our all-time leading tackler in program history so he leaves a huge void and you saw that down the stretch for us last year – against Newsome, against Riverview, it was tough without him. But one of the guys that replaced him last year, Wyatt Zinke, is going to step in. He’s a junior, played two years of JV, he’s kind of taken the normal progression a guy takes here where he’s been in the system, he knows what to do and now he’s stepping into it. We had Lucas Bowlin move over from Plant City, Cole Castle over from Newsome, we’ve had some guys that have come in that have got to figure out what it’s like on Friday nights for us, they haven’t seen that side of it. But then Hale and Brant have done a great job. They’re both legacy players, both of their older brothers played here,

they’ve been with us since our youth camps back in the day so they’ve been great. They’re both good students, they’re both good people and they’re the ones I look at when things need to move or I don’t like things defensively. I can go to them and it’s, ‘yes sir, no sir,’ and they take care of it. I’m really proud of their leadership and how they’ve done this offseason.”

All-in-all, Durant will certainly have some big shoes to fill on both sides of the ball but luckily for the Cougars, they appear to have built a solid culture that affords them the ability to regularly find production from familiar players that have developed within the program.

“We’ve set goals and we have to continually chase them,” Varnum said. “We can’t get complacent at all and I don’t feel compla -

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which will begin at 7 p.m.

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cency from these guys. We coach hard, they play hard and I don’t sense any complacency there but they’ve got to go earn it. We won the district last year by like six combined points and we know Sumner’s better, Riverview’s better, Newsome is always tough, so they understand that if we want to go back and win the district and do what we have to do, we have to show up in games again. We’re not just going to be there and it’ll be given to us, they understand that. We kind of beat that mentality into them and they do a nice job taking to it… As far as how we look, it’ll be pretty similar. We have the same offensive coordinator, same defensive coordinator, the same system we’re running and obviously new guys to

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(from MaxPreps.com)

1 Hunter Smith LB Jr.

2 Dominic Jones RB Sr.

3 Jayden Forte DB Sr.

4 Christian Gambrell RB/WR Jr.

5 Jaylin Torres WR Sr.

6 Jayden Cornelius FS/WR Jr.

7 Michael Ryan QB Jr.

8 Damari Styles WR Jr.

9 Ajani Peavy WR Jr.

10 Treon Williams WR So.

11 Jesse Donnell WR Sr.

12 Kendrick Jean RB Sr.

14 Isaiah Sawyer K Jr.

15 Chris Lankford WR Jr.

20 Brant Bovee LB Sr.

21 Quentin Pope DB Sr.

22 Lucas Bowlin LB Sr.

23 Mohammed Elsharkawi LB Sr.

25 Charles Williams Jr. DB Jr.

THE DETAILS

26 Kaidyn Taylor DB Jr.

27 Luther Scarlett WR Sr.

28 Cole Castle LB Jr.

32 Parker Klangthanmien RB Jr.

33 Garrett Bowmer LB Jr.

35 Jovan Ortiz DL Sr.

Kristien

fill the roles but with that ‘right in the middle’ mentality we have, as soon as a guy comes in he fills it quickly. If he doesn’t feel it, they kind of drift off and they aren’t with us anymore, or they buy in. We’ve got great buy-in from our young guys, our guys that have come in and joined us and our leaders have just continued to implement it. I think that if we do that and we stay emotionally stable in those big games, we’re going to play to the finish and you had better play all four quarters if you want to beat us.”

PLANT CITY RAIDERS ANOTHER FRESH START

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Following a 6-5 record in 2021, James Booth stepped away from the Raiders’ football program after serving five years as head coach. The following spring, Plant City announced the hiring of former NFL first round pick Michael Clayton. But despite the highly-anticipated arrival, Clayton’s tenure with Plant City lasted just a year as the two sides mutually separated after the conclusion of a 3-7 season in 2022.

At the end of a second coaching search in two years, defensive coordinator Terrence Hicks –who joined the Raiders’ program as defensive coordinator under Clayton in 2022 – was promoted to head coach.

“We knew when Coach Clayton left that we would have big shoes to fill, but Terrence had been his right hand man,” former Plant City principal Susan Sullivan said following the announcement of Hicks as head coach. “He’s been the one on campus all season, working with our boys and making sure that they’re doing what they need to do at school academically, that they’re in class, they’re on time, they’re working hard, he’s been the one that’s handled

a lot of the communication. He’s just done a really good job and the kids really respect him so we felt like it was a natural next step to move ahead with him at the head coach position.”

Hicks played his prep football at Wharton High School before making his way to Santa Rosa Junior College in California. Hicks then spent five years away from football before earning a scholarship to Southeastern University in Lakeland where he played his final two years of college football as a defensive back with the Fire. Upon finishing his time at Southeastern, Hicks knew that he wanted to begin coaching where he subsequently spent one year at King before serving two years on staff at Alonso High School and one year with his alma mater at Wharton before coming aboard at Plant City. And after just one year with the Raiders, Hicks ultimately found himself with his first head coaching opportunity.

“It was just a thing where you have to be prepared,” Hicks said. “If the opportunity presents itself, be ready for it. Being a head coach is something that I always aspired to do so once I saw the opportunity I said I’ll apply, let me put my best foot forward and now we’re here... The staff

is smaller, much smaller, so I’ll say that we’re working harder because we don’t have as many but it’s one of those addition by subtraction things,” Hicks said. “I don’t like dead weight so if you’re here, you’ve got to pull your own weight and all of the coaches have bought into what we’re doing and my biggest thing was putting men around these kids. You have to know football but at the same time, I can’t be everywhere at all times so if a kid is talking to you I want to make sure that he’s talking to a man and not another kid, putting good men around these kids. That’s was one of my biggest things with bringing Khalif Ponder over from Hillsborough, I returned Bo Dasher — Mr. Plant City as I call him — I brought back Will Blankenbaker, I can’t get it done without Blankenbaker. He’s the other half of running this team. I do this, he does that, I can’t say enough about him, he’s a workaholic just like me. I’ve got my defensive line coach David Green, I’ve been with him since I entered the coaching industry. I played college ball with him and like I say, he’s probably the best D-Line coach in the county. Jerry Yoder, he’s the JV head coach and receivers coach. Then Isaac Ricks, our new offensive line coach that

just got done playing with the University of Florida.”

On the football side, Plant City’s staff knew that the 2022 season would be an uphill climb after the Raiders saw a significant number of players depart from the program at the conclusion of the 2021 season, including several that went on to play at the college level. Heading into 2022, Plant City would enter the season with just a handful of seniors after losing their leading passer, their two leading rushers, their four leading receivers, their interception leader, two of their top three tacklers and two of their top three sack leaders from the year before. There were growing pains as Plant City battled their way to a 3-7 record, but all of that inexperience from last year has resulted in a situation where the Raiders are returning nearly all of their starters – along with a few outside additions – to their 2023 squad.

At quarterback, Plant City added transfer Chris Denson to take over under center. As a sophomore at Mulberry High School in 2022, Denson played in three games where he completed 24 of his 47 attempts for 332 yards and one touchdown, now looking to lead the Raiders as a junior in 2023.

“It’s going amazing, he’s the best,” Hicks said. “I wouldn’t want any other guy in our uniform. He’s a team leader. First one in, last one to leave, he holds everybody accountable and holds himself accountable. He’s the first one to finish in conditioning, full-speed every rep, leading by example. He’s just a guy that you want in your program.”

At running back, the Raiders were led by a junior duo of Dominic Jones and Jaden McCants in 2022, with McCants totaling 483 yards and four rushing touchdowns on the ground while Jones finished the year with 333 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns – combining for 816 of the team’s 851 total rushing yards and six of their nine rushing touchdowns. As Jones transferred to Durant ahead of his senior year, the Raiders’ backfield will likely be led by a new addition,  junior Tony Marshall, in tandem with McCants and sophomore Maurian Hugee, according to Hicks.

Out wide the receivers unit will once again be familiar, also bolstered by some new additions.

“Right now we’ve got Zykee Joyce, that’s our leader, he’s coming off an ACL injury. He’s fearless and I can’t say enough about him,” Hicks said. “We have Joshua

Gueh, another receiver we have in. T.J. Knighten, he’s a returner and going to be a junior this year. Haven Pierce, he was our JV quarterback last year and transferred to receiver, he’s the fastest receiver we have on the team so that was a big addition, and C.J. McLain, another one of our senior leaders. We have a pretty good group.”

Up front on the offensive line the unit will now be anchored by upperclass leaders in junior Nathan Zipperer and senior Will Belen.

“Right now what helps them is the style of offense that we’re running,” Hicks said. “It fits those guys and they’re comfortable in what they’re doing so they can play fast, they can play free and we brought in an offensive line coach Isaac Ricks, a former Florida Gators running back, so he comes with a ton of knowledge as well. We added a few pieces up front and the leaders are leading. They believe in each other now, they’re becoming one again. It’s cohesiveness, everyone’s gelling, everybody’s doing what they need to do.”

Defensively, the crown jewel of Plant City’s team last year was their brutal defensive line — highlighted by 13 sacks and 16 tackles for loss from from Donte Jenkins, 18 tackles for loss from Davin StoneGrant who also totaled 8.5 sacks on the year and Temarce Miller who racked up 12 tackles for loss and six sacks as a freshman in 2022, all of which are back for 2023.

“That’s the anchor of our team right there, we move with them,” Hicks said. “Our defensive line, we’ve got one of the best coaches and every one of our defensive linemen returned this year so we’re going to have two years with the same system, the same coach, everyone’s comfortable and it’s at the point now where they move on autopilot because they knew exactly what to do. Those guys are amazing, our defensive line

is hands down the best group on this team… Donta Jenkins, he was the only sophomore in the state to make the All-State team. Davin Stone may have been overlooked because it was his first year doing it but if you go look, 18 tackles for loss. Temarce Miller, he’s going to be a sophomore this year and got two Division I offers as a freshman. Pablo Matias, a big guy, you can’t move him, he’s the strongest guy in the weight room. That group is nasty. We have another senior in Dacoby McDonald and then our secret weapon Nijah Drawdy, he’s a big wrestler, so they’re loaded down there.”

Looking back into the Raiders’ secondary, Plant City lost just one of their true impact defensive backs from 2022 in safety Tehauji Miller while adding senior cornerback Khai Ponder from Hillsborough High School to the unit. While inexperienced like much of the varsity roster was last year, Plant City’s defensive backfield exemplifies yet another situation where the Raiders are seeing nearly the entire group return with senior leaders in Chase Dexter and Trae’veon Smith.

“I didn’t feel the best about the secondary group last year but that’s another situation where all of those guys are returning so now we’re teaching the same thing for two years in a row,” Hicks said. “They get it more, it’s not day one teaching them how to walk stuff anymore. Chase Dexter is my little genius, that’s what I call him. He nearly made a perfect score on the SAT and that’s something that you just can’t teach. Chase is very intelligent, he knows how to get us lined up, he’s like a coach on the field. We’ve got Trae’veon Smith – fastest kid in the county, he ran a 10.5 [100-meter dash] so you’ve got a 6-foot-1 cornerback running like that. Last year was his first year playing high school ball and he’s confident so that’s going to raise

him up. Khai Ponder came over and he’s another senior corner and Ta’zayvion Miller, Tehauji’s little brother, he’s replacing him at weak safety right now so we’re all hitting the ground running. Those boys are bought in and Trae’veon Smith, being the leader he is and holding himself to a high standard, he isn’t scared to call you out if you’re not living up to what we want this year so having guys over there that are leading… that’s danger.”

As the group gains experience with more and more reps on the field and time in the Raiders’ system, arguably the biggest benefit that the secondary will have is that dominant front seven.

“I tell them all the time, they’re going to look so good because anyone can get a pick when the ball’s just getting thrown up in the air but it was hard last year just teaching them everything,” Hicks said. “Football is so intricate and so deep. You have to teach them how to play, you have to teach them what to do, you have to teach them why they’re doing it. There’s so much that goes into football but now, since

SCHEDULE

Note: All games are scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. Games are broadcast live online at NFHSNetwork.com.

they’ve been in the system for two years, we can teach them how we want them to do it and get more into that side of it. That’s why it hurt us last year being so young, but we’re reaping the benefits of it this year knowing that we’re getting a lot of our returners back. I expect them to have the biggest jump of any group on the team.”

At linebacker you’ll find what was quite possibly the biggest loss on either side of the ball as senior middle linebacker Cole Highsmith graduated last spring. But in the void Highsmith leaves in the heart of Plant City’s defense, senior Mike Bell will now have his opportunity to step in as a crucial anchor for the Raiders.

“Cole Highsmith is irreplaceable, let’s just start there. He’s irreplaceable,” Hicks said. “He’s a kid where you probably get one of them your whole coaching career but Mike Bell being back, I’d say that we might have a Cole Highsmith reincarnated. Another fourpoint-something GPA guy so the brains are there, he’s got a natu-

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ral linebacker’s body, he grew a whole lot this year and still moves the same way, it’s almost like he’s not even human. He’s not scared to stick his head in there and hit anybody and he has the biggest ego when it comes to losing, he hates losing. So that side of him right there will put him above a lot of players in the county, just his will to not get beat. Having Mike Bell is major.”

So as the Raiders’ season creeps nearer, 2023 will be another fresh start under a new head coach as Hicks leads a team that has grown tremendously since last fall while adding a few new additions at key positions. “It’s honestly amazing,” Hicks said. “I’m around them all day and it’s a family thing. That’s the best thing about Plant City and why I didn’t want to leave here because everything in Plant City revolves around the family vibes. From the principal to the admissions to the counselors, there’s such a cohesiveness. Everybody works together.”

STRAWBERRY CREST CHARGERS RELOADING

Hired just weeks before his first season as head coach at Strawberry Crest kicked off in 2019, Phillip Prior saw the Chargers total just three combined wins in his first two years. Taking over a program that was not accustomed to winning, or even the feeling of it with much regularity since opening their doors in 2009, Prior was facing the challenge of not just trying to claw out wins during the season but to instill a culture that could develop players and establish a level of sustained success.

By 2021, the Chargers posted their first .500 season in eight years as they finished with a 5-5 record, a massive improvement from their 1-8 finish in 2020. And in 2022 their 6-4 finish marked their largest single-season win total since going 7-5 in 2013.

“Winning cures a lot of different things and if you win, that gets people excited about the program, it gets more kids coming out for football, it gets more community support,” Prior said “The question is, why are we winning? We feel like we’ve done a really good job of establishing a culture and creating a platform and a way for when our guys enter our pro-

gram as freshmen, they’re entering a system that’s going to develop them to become a great high school football player and a great young man. Those are the things that we strive for and that we aim for and we believe that if we do those things, if we can take care of those little things that we can control, then we’ll have sustained success and to me that’s the number one mark that we want our football program to experience.

The last couple of years we had a 5-5 season, we had a 6-4 season and I don’t like to put any numbers on any season but we want to maintain that success that we’ve had and that’s always relative to our football team. I tell the kids all the time, if we get beat, let’s get beat because we’re not faster than the other team or we’re not as strong as the other team or we’re smaller than the other team. Let’s not get beat because of discipline, effort, being aware, using our technique, all of those things that are within our control because at the end of the day, if we take care of the things that are within our control and we just get beat because we got beat by a better football team, we can live with that. If we get beat because we didn’t do one of those things that we can control then that’s on us, that’s what we strive for.”

Last year the Chargers were led by an experienced secondary full of four-years starters that anchored the back end of their defense — some that have since committed to play football at the college level in Marcus Springfield and Ryan Weems, alongside fellow senior Quincy Hart and junior Devin Blunt. At linebacker and defensive line there was a mix of upperclassman manning the front seven, with seniors Steel Craig and Deegan Fearnow leading the defense in total tackles at linebacker. But from a defense that was experienced and shined in the defensive backfield, the Chargers find themselves in a totally different scenario heading into 2023 as they will deploy just four returning seniors on defense — coming in the form of defensive linemen Quintin Walker, who led the unit in tackles for loss with 17 in 2022, and Didier Godonou Dossou, linebacker Abe Craig and defensive back Devin Blunt.

“Defensively we’re going to be a little bit inexperienced in our secondary,” Prior said. “That’s where we lost a lot of guys, in our secondary. We’ve got four returning starters on the defensive side of the ball, those are our four seniors on defense so we need those guys to really kind of carry our team and be that experience while

those other guys go through some of the lumps while getting varsity reps, because those are the only four guys that have received varsity reps at their positions… The experience up front now takes some of the pressure off of those guys in the secondary. Last year it was kind of the opposite, we kind of had the opposite approach. We knew going into the season that we had a wealth of experience in our secondary so we put a lot of pressure on those guys to kind of help our box out a little bit more. But now it’s, again, kind of the opposite a little bit. We need our box to take a little bit of that pressure off of our secondary while those guys gain some valuable reps and I’m excited to see that as we get through that first half of the schedule — because every time we step on the field we’re going to get better. There’s no doubt about it. It happened this summer, every time we’re stepping on the field we’re going to get better. As those guys come along we’ll all benefit because virtually all of those guys are then going to come back next year, so that’s another way to look at it. Again, they have very limited varsity reps so every time we step on the field we’re going to gain some valuable experience. We’re going to make mistakes, but can we make the

adjustments as we make those mistakes and get better.”

As opposed to what amounts to an relatively inexperienced defense for the Chargers, Prior noted how excited he is for the talent and experience that Crest will have on the offensive side of the ball — including a new quarterback in junior Riverview transfer Zy Floyd.

“Obviously we lost a lot of seniors off of last year’s team, a lot of experience at certain positions, but we have some experience at other positions,” Prior said. “We had 20 seniors on our team last year. Our offensive line, for the most part, we’re bringing most of those guys back. We’re bringing two of our leading rushers back. We’re very excited about our wide receiving corps this year and Zy Floyd’s going to be our quarterback, we’re excited about what he can bring through the air on the ground.”

Across the rest of the offense, high school teams are regularly forced to utilize players on both offense and defense, and often on special teams as well. It’s something that the Chargers have done a lot in the past, most notably looking at Springfield and Hart as they finished last season as the two of the Chargers’ receiving leaders while also leading the

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defense in passes defended and combining for five interceptions. In the backfield, Blunt, Weems and Reibsome were three of the team’s leading rushers in 2022 alongside quarterback Jordan Lewis. When those players subsequently graduate it can then serve as an even larger hurdle to replace production as team’s essentially lose a player on each side of the ball, but 2023 marks a significant improvement toward a shift away from such a heavy reliance on two-way players according to Prior.

“We definitely lost those guys and they had a wealth of experience,”Prior said.

“They were four-year varsity starters on both sides of the ball for us so absolutely, we’ll lose a lot of that. However, as far as our receiving corps, this is the first year since I’ve been the head coach here where our receivers are not two-way football players. That’s going to benefit our pass game, that’s going to benefit our secondary. Now Gage Reibsome and Devin Blunt are still going to be two-way players. Those guys will be our running backs and play in our secondary as well so we’re not quite out of the woods when it comes to being a one-way football team but for the most part we’ve been able to avoid that a little bit.”

Under center, Crest may have found their quarterback for the immediate future in Floyd as he prepares for his junior season. It’s a position that the Chargers have used flexibly under Prior, often utilizing a wildcat approach with a number of different players stepping in at quar-

terback depending on the specific package being used. Two years ago the Chargers added Lewis midseason and he started five games for Crest, leading the team with 181 of their 279 total passing yards on the season while throwing their lone two passing touchdowns on the year. As a senior last fall, his numbers jumped to 752 passing yards and seven touchdowns as the team total also lept to 806 passing yards. With Floyd, he may provide crucial stability to the position, as well as being an additional threat on the ground.

“We’re excited about Zy,” Prior said. “He brings a lot of energy, he brings a lot of effort, he works his butt off, there’s not doubts about that. We’re just as excited about what he can do on the ground with his legs as we are what he can do through the air. He’s got a good group of receivers that he’ll have an opportunity to throw to this year and he’ll really have the opportunity to extend plays for us. So that’s what we’re going through now, finetuning a lot of that stuff and getting out of the seven-onseven summer mode because there’s a lot of bad habits that get developed in that stuff, so we’re trying to break that stuff in the first part of camp.”

But while the addition of Floyd at quarterback could certainly provide an instant influx of talent at any team’s most important position, Prior argues that the versatility of their offensive packages has always been an attempt at highlighting the strengths of their offensive

players and won’t necessarily change the looks that they deploy or the way they’ve attacked their opponents in recent years.

“There’s so much that goes into it,” Prior said. “One of the reasons that we do what we do offensively is managing our personnel. What type of running backs do we have? What are the skill sets of those running backs? What’s our offensive line? What’s the skill set of that offensive line? It’s really like trying to come up with your offense. In the past, even if we had receivers that are going both ways, what we believe in as a football team is resting those guys on offense, we don’t rest them on defense. We play defense first, defense gets the priority. There’s a lot that goes into that. So our offense is still going to look very similar to what it has in the past but we will try to call plays and kind of tweak some things to highlight the

SCHEDULE

Note: All games are scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. Games are broadcast live online at NFHSNetwork.com.

8/25: King

9/1: @ Spoto

9/8: @ Robinson

9/14: Leto

9/29: Plant

10/6: @ Middleton

10/13: Alonso

10/20: @ Riverview

10/27: @ Plant City

11/3: Lakeland Christian

THE DETAILS

Location: 4691 Gallagher Road, Dover

Established: 2009

Head Coach: Phillip Prior (fifth season)

2022 record: 6-4 (1-2 district)

skills of our guys and Zy is no different from that. He can do a lot with his legs so the more we’re under center, the less we take that away from him. It’s trying to find out that balance and how we can maximize the potential of our guy’s skills.”

With experience lost at some positions but other position groups coming back stronger off of their six-win season in 2022, Prior was confident in the fact that he doesn’t at all consider 2023 to be a rebuilding year for the Chargers, but yet another chance to build on that sustained success that Crest has been establishing throughout the past two seasons.

“This is not a rebuilding year for us, I don’t see this as a rebuilding year,” Prior said. “We’ve got experience coming back on the offensive side of the ball, we’re going to be better at some positions and we’re not going to be as good at some positions

ROSTER

1 Zy Floyd QB Jr.

2 Devin Blunt CB/RB Sr.

3 Stevie Parkmond WR/RB Sr.

4 Zayveon Springfield LB o.

5 Oscar Valdez DE So.

6 Gage Reibsome RB/DB Jr.

7 Braden Flanders DB Jr.

9 Jose Aponte DB So.

10 Brice Schmidt Jr.

11 Jake Curtin LB Jr.

12 Levi Kilton Jr.

13 Jean Henry DB Jr.

14 Thimothee Woods WR Jr.

15 Abe Craig LB Sr.

17 Calvin Francis WR Jr.

18 Trey Revoy K Jr.

19 Matt Ibarra DB Jr.

20 Quintin Walker DE Sr.

21 Kyle Cherry RB So.

21 Arnulfo Castillo RB Sr.

24 Angelo Rametta DB Jr.

25 Troy Eskey TE/DL Jr.

30 Rowdy Tucker LB So.

32 Carl Davison LB Jr.

34 Jared Lopez K/P Jr.

51 Gabriel Almeida OL Sr.

52 Didier Godonou Dossou

53 Jace Eldridge LB Jr.

but that’s football from year to year. I’m excited about this team but that being said, every single team, every win that we got on our schedule last year, every single one of those teams is going to be better. We know that. A lot of those teams are going to take us seriously and we’re going to get everyone’s best football this year, there’s no doubt.”

54 Tyler Blow OL Sr.

59 Brady Wilson DE Jr.

65 Bryan Gonzalez OL Jr.

66 Austin Gardner Jr.

69 Cody Craft T Sr.

72 Billy Vaughn DL So.

74 Curtis Vaughn T/G Sr.

75 Daniel O’Connor Sr.

77 Cam Eckard OL So.

88 Jacob Ogden TE/WR So.

99 Rodney Addison NG Sr.

N/A John Baxter Jr.

N/A Alexander Hoblit Sr.

N/A Malachi Johnson So.

N/A Camden Wagner FB Jr.

N/A Hunter Hall So.

MAJOR MATCHUPS 2023

Here we look ahead to some of the biggest games for Durant, Strawberry Crest and Plant City this season.

AUG. 25: DURANT VS. CHAMBERLAIN

After back-to-back eight-win seasons in their fist two years under head coach Claybo Varnum – seasons that included the Cougars’ fist district title since 2014 and their fist victory over Newsome in their annual Alafia Rier matchup since 2017 –Durant will look to kick off their nw year in a big way as they welcome a Chamberlain squad that finished the 022 season at just 3-7. But more importantly than the matchup itself, the Cougars will not only use their season-opener to unveil their brand new turf field along with other impovements made to the athletic complex, but will also welcome back a number of Durant football alumni as they celebrate the 2003 Durant team that made a run to the state Final Four.

SEPT. 1: CREST @ SPOTO

Strawberry Crest moved to 2-0 and posted their fist of three shutouts on the season when they made their way to Spoto last season and came away with a 21-0 victory. With a more experienced team that’s primed to return most of their production from 2022, Spoto will look for a different result as they host the Chargers early in 2023.

SEPT. 8: DURANT @ BLOOMINGDALE

As the Cougars opened the 2022 season with a 7-1 record through the team’s fist eight weeks, the lone blemish on their schedule came in the form of a razor-thin 15-14 loss at the hands of Bloomingdale. With the Bulls looking to regain their footing after two consecutive losing seasons,

Bloomingdale could serve as a measuring stick early in the Cougars’ season after opening the year against Chamberlain and Middleton.

SEPT. 14: DURANT VS. PLANT CITY

There are few rivalries in the Plant City area that match the excitement of the annual Redman Cup played between Durant and Plant City. Even with vastly different records at the end of 2022, the Redman Cup was a dogfight o the last whistle as Durant narrowly escaped with a 21-13 victory over their crosstown rivals after trailing 7-6 at halftime.

SEPT. 22: PLANT CITY VS. HILLSBOROUGH

After opening the season with four losses in 2022, Plant City claimed their fist victory of the year with a 19-7 win over a Hillsborough team that finished the ear at 4-6. In a battle between two historically strong programs that are looking to rebound from somewhat uncharacteristic records last year, Hillsborough will be looking for revenge as they make their way to Plant City.

SEPT. 29: DURANT VS. SUMNER

In what ultimately resulted in claiming a district title, very few moments put that accomplishment at risk more than Durant’s trip to Sumner last year as the Cougars came away with a narrow 14-13 victory over the Stingrays. For the Cougars’ hopes of another district championship in 2023, it may very well hinge on another strong home win over an improved Sumner team.

OCT. 6: STRAWBERRY CREST @ MIDDLETON

Middleton nearly claimed a district title in 2022 on the heels of a 6-4 record that included a 12-8 win over Strawberry Crest, moving the Chargers to 5-2 after a perfect 5-0 start to the year. Middleton and Crest are both looking to build on identical winning records last year and will likely put on a highly-competitive showing when they meet in early October.

OCT. 13: DURANT @ NEWSOME

Another huge rivalry game in the Plant City area is the Alafia Rier Rivalry between Durant and Newsome. If you look to the sky from a Friday night football game at Durant, you can see the lights shining from Newsome’s stadium over the trees in the distance. Durant clinched their fist district title since 2014 with a thrilling overtime victory over Newsome in 2022 — the Cougars’ fist win over the Wolves in four years — and 2023 is sure to be another exciting installment to the annual matchup.

OCT. 20: DURANT VS. GAITHER

Durant entered their late-season meeting with Gaither in 2022 at 7-1 on the year, fresh off f a huge overtime win over Newsome that clinched their district title. Despite 311 passing yards from quarterback Mike Ryan, it wasn’t enough to overcome 11 sacks from Gaither’s front seven as the Cowboys came away victorious in the 41-35 shootout. Look for another exciting contest this year as Gaither makes their way to Durant.

OCT. 27: PLANT CITY VS. STRAWBERRY CREST

With the two teams sliding in opposite directions last year, Plant City made their way to Strawberry Crest last year where the Chargers squeaked out a 14-6 victory in the low-scoring affair. With familiarity and bragging rights on the line, there is always excitement when two Plant City area teams meet.

NOV.

3: STRAWBERRY

CREST VS. LAKELAND

CHRISTIAN

As the Chargers look to hopefully finish another winning season strong, they will end the year against a Lakeland Christian squad that ended 2022 with an impressive 9-2 record.

While the Colts have been revived after a year off in 202, the Trojans have taken actions to revamp their organization through a new-look board.

TAYLOR JENKINS SPORTS WRITER

After the Plant City Colts youth football and cheer organization came to a halt in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, it appeared that all was back to normal for the organization as they bounced back with a huge resurgence in 2021, sending three teams to the Super Bowl as their Pee Wee and J.V. teams came away victorious while their six-and-under flag ootball team fell just short of a championship of their own. But in 2022 however, disagreements among leadership led to the Colts shutting down once again as a large percentage made the move to the Bealsville Eagles organization.

In that season off, the Colts’ board brought Sharon Moody into the fold — both to act as the organization’s public relations manager but also to help reshape the organization and get them moving back in the right direction.

“Our kids are missing a lot and our forefathers have taken all of this time to build something up in our community to let it go,” Moody said. “It was in my heart that I couldn’t let another year go without them playing or doing something in the community. Our kids need to be doing something, not getting into trouble or whatever, but their minds need to be elevated.”

After another structural change to the Colts’ presidency, seeing former vice president Laquandra Smith take over as president, an effort was made to bring all of the coaches together and rebuild the program. In agreement, the coaches and players that had previously departed to Bealsville returned to the Colts and the organization has since been able to field eams for four of their fie age groups, lacking only

a varsity team in the organization’s oldest age division.

The Colts played in their Jamboree on Aug. 5 where three of their four teams came away victorious, later opening their season with a pair of wins in Week 1.

“I think that everyone is excited because they miss that action in the heart of Plant City,” Moody said. “The parents are coming out and supporting, they jumped in. We’ve got cheerleaders, we’ve got players for all four teams, we got started at the last minute and we’re winning so I’m excited for the kids and the coaches.”

Across town, the Turkey Creek Trojans have received an influx f youth and energy into their board and are in a similar process of revitalizing an organization of their own.

Following COVID, participation at Turkey Creek had begun to dwindle. With no 7-8 year old team in 2020 and no 11-12 year old team in 2021, forcing players that had signed up to play up an age group, the Trojans saw a turnover of about half of their board.

“During COVID things started to dwindle down,” vice president Dave Storey said.

“There wasn’t as many athletes but we got some new, younger, energetic people on the board who have spent the time recruiting, reaching out and trying to find kids to increase our numbers, both in total but also in pulling kids that have played football and want to play football to better the organization… We did a bunch of different things. We reached out to the local schools to put things out through the school system, we went to the baseball parks and recruited kids that maybe have only played or tried out football but showed interest. We said it’s the spring, this is baseball time but come fall there’s an opportunity to play football. A lot of people think that the

Dolphins are the only organization in Plant City but there’s several.”

In addition to reaching out through local schools and looking for other youth athletes who maybe hadn’t given football a try yet, one of their primary goals was to boost visibility. The board members have taken it upon themselves to spread the word and wear team gear around Plant City, getting the name, the face, the organization back into the public eye as best they can. The Trojans participated in the Plant City Christmas Parade, passing out candy with papers attached that offered discounts on registration fees. But the biggest change that Storey’s seen in his four years on the board, now in his second year as vice president, is the buy-in from the parents, coaches and players.

“The biggest proponent that we’ve seen as a board, in my four years that I’ve been involved now, is that we feel like the players and the parents have really bought in,” Storey said. “We’ve got a lot of very talented kids that are new to the park, some have come from other parks, some have just never played football before but they’re super athletic and we’ve gotten them rolling right along. But the parents this year have really bought in, it’s been great. We do little fundraisers, we had a popcorn fundraiser where all of the parents share a link on their social media and then 50 percent of the proceeds go to us while 50 percent go to the popcorn company, but that fundraiser raised nearly $6,000 and that’s all due to our parents buying in and seeing the change and wanting to help grow the park, wanting to get the kids new and better equipment. We do all of these fundraisers and a lot of time you get 20 or 30 percent involvement but this year I felt like that number was 60 or 70 percent. When the parents buy in like that it really makes

for good change and they’re only buying in because they see something that’s looking good in their opinion.”

Through their efforts, the Trojans were able to field a eam in all fie age groups for the 2023 season and some of the teams are even pushing the maximum number of players permitted on their team’s roster.

“With where we’re at, we’re trying to prepare these kids to go on and play high school ball,” Storey said. “Some to Plant City High School, some to Durant High School, we’ve had some kids go to private schools. We’re just trying to get people’s eyes back on the Trojans and they’re going to see a big change this year. We’ve brought in a lot of good coaches, a lot of good athletes. We had one team make the playoffs this past season and I’m hoping for probably three teams to make the playoffs this season and help people realize that Turkey Creek isn’t just a football park, my goal is for it to be the football park where people want to be.”

And while much of the board has changed, Turkey Creek’s president Daphne Cromie remains on board — as she has for over 15 years with the organization. Storey noted that Cromie fist became associated with the program when her daughter cheered for Turkey Creek and her son played football there, now seeing that same daughter and son grow up and get involved themselves and become coaches in the organization, while her son is also a board member.

“People that have grown up out here at this park, the kids are now getting involved,” Storey said. “The kids that once played here are now joining the board and being involved in helping it grow and establish.”

BEST OF THE BEST: 2022

TAYLOR JENKINS SPORTS WRITER

BEST OF THE BEST: 2022