Without a doubt, one of the biggest and best moments of the 2019-20 school year for Plant City High School was when its Special Olympics Unified basketball team won a state championship in February.
A 14-2 season even had the perfect storybook ending: down nine points to St. Cloud with two minutes left in the Feb. 28 Division 2 Unified Sports title game, the Raiders fought their way back to a two-point deficit with 5.1 seconds left. Ayden Perez inbounded to Parker Hancock-Eitenior, who passed to Taylor Teeden for the last shot. Teeden pulled up from the three-point line on one foot and nailed the buzzer-beater to win by one point.
Plant City High School invited the team members and their families to campus Tuesday night to show its appreciation in the coolest way possible: with a fresh set of really big rings.
The school got everyone in the program, as well as principal Susan Sullivan, a championship ring full of bling and a few nice personal touches, including engravings of each person’s name and the team’s 14-2 record. Sullivan, coaches Lisa Goad, Maverick Lawrence and Jacob Goad gave speeches about the season, the players and what the experience meant to them. On a broader scale, teacher (and team mom) Jeannette Teeden stood up to tell the team how much that season meant to the students, teachers and PCHS at large, even for students who didn’t know any of the players personally but still enjoyed following the incredible season as fans and as classmates.
“You’re making memories for other people in the school,” she said. “What you’re doing is bigger than right here.”
ROSTER
Devin Amerson
Kyle Hall
Jesse Ortiz
Parker Hancock-Eitenior
John Davis
Austin Davis
Ayden Perez
Taylor Teeden
COACHES
Lisa Goad
Jacob Goad
Maverick Lawrence