The Plant City Lady Raiders flag football team knew exactly what it was in for late in its April 20 game at Riverview. With a commanding 40-0 lead in the fourth quarter, the clock winding down and the Riverview girls looking all but defeated, their perfect season was pretty much in the bag.
So the home team’s quarterback sneak as time expired was no big deal — even if it was the one play that ended the Plant City defense’s bid for a scoreless season. Such a play isn’t exactly allowed in flag football, but head coach Greg Meyer and his team didn’t care.
“Game ended when they scored,” Meyer says. “It was a QB sneak, which isn’t allowed, but they let it ride. We didn’t worry about it.”
Therefore, Plant City finished the regular season with a 9-0 record, an average of 27.7 points scored and 0.7 allowed per game, and enough momentum heading into districts to topple a building.
The players made everything happen on the field. But the seed was first planted in the offseason, when Meyer decided to switch up his coaching philosophy.
“Last year, I treated it like a completely different sport,” he says. “I think that was a big mistake. Now, our accountability and execution mirrors what we do with the boys. Last year was an abbreviated version, due to the rules, but the reality is that it’s the same game — just without the pads.”
The girls go through the same practice plan as the boys and have all gained a better understanding of the game and Meyer’s plans. In fact, he says the girls have become so adept out there that there are few times when he needs to call plays.
The team’a main goal was when they set out at the beginning of the seaons was to win consistently, and the team’s results speak for themselves. But the Lady Raiders added another goal just a few games into the season, when the team noticed it hadn’t given up any points. It wanted to keep it that way through the entire season.
“We didn’t have that goal right away but, once we realized in the third or fourth game that we hadn’t been scored on, we wanted to see how far we could push it,” Meyer says. “I give all the credit to the girls.”
The team’s proudest moment of the season was not finishing 9-0 and looking back on things, but it was instead the very first win of the year: a 26-0 victory at Durant.
“We’re going against our rival, everyone’s nervous, and people want to find out what we’re all about,” Meyer says. “Durant did very well last year, and they’ve been a good team this year, but we beat them. That meant the world for us.”
Perhaps the two most notable players are senior captains Samantha Black and Avery Brown.
Black, a two-way player, didn’t lose a step since 2014 and kept the team motivated with both her play and her leadership.
Brown, who returned to the team after taking a year off, regained her role as the team’s starting quarterback and led the offense to its high scoring average — including leading the team to a stretch of 124 points scored in four games.
Meyer also credits several other girls with stepping up to make such a good season happen.
“There have been surprising additions,” he says. “Taylor Michael: She’s become a two-way starter at wide receiver and outside linebacker, and done a phenomenal job. Taylor Williams is our anchor at middle linebacker. That’s been phenomenal. Jaquavia Youngblood and Bre Ruedeman, our two corners, and Jamie Beasley — outside linebacker, flag-pulling machine.”
The team may not have met its goal of not allowing a single score all year, but that doesn’t matter to the girls. They’ve had one of the best seasons in program history, up to this point, and one measly touchdown play couldn’t take that away from them.
“I know they’ve done really well in the past,” Meyer says. “Me not being here, I don’t know how those years compare, but I definitely consider this to be a very special group.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
PAST SUCCESSES
This isn’t the first time the Lady Raiders have gone undefeated in a regular season. Before Greg Meyer was coach Larry Langston, who coached the team from 2006 to 2013, and the Lady Raiders enjoyed perfect regular seasons in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2013. The 2008 squad finished as the state runner-up, and the 2009 squad made it to the state quarterfinals.