School’s out for summer, as rocker Alice Cooper would say, but prep football is just getting started.
Though Durant, Plant City and Strawberry Crest high schools spent the past few weeks preparing for and administering final exams, the football programs got ready for something more like an aptitude test — a pair of spring games held May 18. None of the three schools found perfection, working with fresh faces and new concepts, but all are ready to study up and ace the summer season.
DURANT
Of the three area teams to play in a spring game, only Durant managed to pick up a win.
In the opening half of Newsome High School’s Spring Jamboree, the Cougars swiftly handled the Brandon Eagles, 21-7. Head coach Mike Gottman says he was pleased with the way the team looked, especially with the way the offense performed on the ground. He praised the play of quarterback Carlton Potter, specifically for using his legs to make plays, and liked the look of the backfield’s one-two punch of running back Cam Myers and fullback David Tabakovic.
The defense held up well, allowing just seven points, though Gottman admits that the unit could use some more experience. That will come over the summer, as the team continues to work and participates in 7-on-7 competition.
“We’ve got to get bigger and stronger,” Gottman says. “We’ve got to have a great work ethic this summer and we’ve got to grow together as a team.”
The team’s top priority for the offseason is to maintain what was possibly its greatest strength in 2016: the chemistry. To the Cougars, going to cookouts, canoeing trips and other team bonding activities will be just as important as time spent in the video room, hitting the weights or going live on the practice field.
“We’ve got to have a good summer, and we’ve got to gain some experience,” Gottman says.
PLANT CITY
James Booth’s first game — more appropriately, first half — as a head football coach ended not with a sought-after win over the Armwood Hawks, but with a 24-0 loss in one half of football at the Hawks’ nest.
But Booth says that something he often tells quarterback Braxton Plunk is true: “It’s never as good or as bad as you think it is.”
“(There were) a lot of positives that I took from it,” Booth says. “The end result is what it is. I don’t really care. You look at development. ‘Where can we grow? Where can we go from here?’”
The Plant City Raiders were able to hang with Armwood in the opening quarter, allowing just one score, but things got out of hand in the closing quarter when the Hawks blocked a punt, recovering the ball deep in Plant City territory and dashing into the end zone. The Raiders almost managed to score on several occasions, most notably on a Treshaun Ward run that was called back on a blocking foul, but couldn’t get past that pesky defense.
Still, Booth liked what he saw.
“I thought our defense played really well,” he says. We had (Armwood’s) first drive, they converted a fourth-and-10 and a third-and-long to get a touchdown. I thought we played really well outside of that drive. Even on that drive, we forced them to make it.”
Booth says that Plant City’s offseason will be spent improving the players’ consistency, and that he plans to work with Plunk on his reads and execution in a new offense.
STRAWBERRY CREST
Strawberry Crest and Tampa Bay Tech squared off in the first half of Armwood’s Spring Jamboree and, like the Raiders, the Chargers were held scoreless in a 35-0 outcome.
Going up against Tennessee commit Michael Penix Jr. and a fearsome offense posed a mighty test for Crest. The defense showed its lack of experience against the Titans, which let the offense run smoothly, but head coach Ron Hawn says the Chargers weren’t lacking in heart.
“They didn’t stop fighting until the very end,” Hawn says. “They knew what they were up against. Tampa Bay Tech is one of, if not the most, athletic teams in the entire Tampa Bay area. They are extraordinarily talented.”
The offense leaned heavily on the running backs, specifically Jaquell “Boosie” Narine, and Hawn feels the unit has made some noticeable strides — especially considering the teams’ last meeting.
“They played hard,” Hawn says. “We moved the ball better against them in the spring than we did against them in the fall.”
The team’s top offseason priority is to eliminate the mistakes that come from a lack of experience, which should especially help the defense and offensive line. Hawn says the team has plans to compete in several tournaments, from Boca Ciega to Anclote, to make sure the Chargers get the benefits that come from live reps.
“Once we kind of put that thing together,” he says, “we’ll be in much better shape.”