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Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

Trey Burdick

Prep football midseason review

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The 2019 Florida high school football regular season has reached the midway point. Here’s a closer look at how teams and players are faring from The Laker/Lutz News coverage area.

The Gaither Cowboys are off to a blistering 5-0 start and are ranked among the state’s top 10 teams in Class 6A.
(Courtesy of Gaither Athletics)

Perfect performers
At the midway mark, there are three programs sporting undefeated records — Academy at the Lakes, Gaither and Steinbrenner. What do each have in common? Potent offenses backed by efficient, veteran quarterback play.

  • Academy at the Lakes is averaging over 39 points per game. Junior quarterback Jalen Brown, a fourth-year starter, has completed 55% of throws for 785 yards, 14 touchdowns and three interceptions. He’s also the team’s leading rusher (445 rush yards, six touchdowns).
  • Gaither is averaging over 38 points per game. Senior quarterback Tony Bartalo, a two-year starter, has completed 63% of throws for 1,320 yards, 19 touchdowns and three interceptions. He currently boasts multiple Division I offers.
  • Steinbrenner is averaging over 48 points per game. Senior quarterback Haden Carlson, a three-year starter, has completed 64% of throws for 783 yards, 12 touchdowns and one interception. He is a FIU (Florida International University) verbal commit.

Also notable: Wiregrass Ranch (5-1) has received stellar quarterback play from sophomore Rocco Becht, who’s posted a 56% completion rate, 936 passing yards, 13 touchdowns and two interceptions.

The Land O’ Lakes Gators went 7-3 last year, but have struggled much of this season with a 1-5 mark thus far. (File)

Surprising struggles
Entering the 2019 season, Land O’ Lakes and Zephyrhills were expected to build off winning seasons and compete for a playoff spot in their respective classifications. But early season struggles has all dampened those hopes for both teams.

  • The Gators finished 7-3 last season — its first winning campaign since 2013. But, they’ve hobbled to a 0-5 start before finally securing a 44-0 win over Freedom last week. A team thin on seniors and an anemic running game has magnified the struggles.
  • One of the most consistent and dominant programs in Pasco County in recent years, the Bulldogs haven’t lost four or more games since 2012 and haven’t missed the postseason since 2013. But after losing 22 seniors from last year’s 11-1 squad, the Bulldogs have shown less bark this season. They lost their first three games, but have begun to show life with recent road wins against Wesley Chapel and Tarpon Springs, respectively.

New coaches finding their way

  • Sunlake has jumped to a respectable 3-3 mark under first-year head coach Trey Burdick, holding his own in assuming the role previously held by one of the county’s winningest coaches in Bill Browning. Under Burdick, the team is on pace to surpass the 4-6 mark the program has had each of the past two seasons. Better yet, Burdick, a longtime assistant under Browning, steered the Seahawks to a 34-23 victory over crosstown rival Land O’ Lakes in the annual ‘Butter Bowl’ showdown.
  • New Pasco head coach Jason Stokes already has led the struggling program to as many wins as it did all of last season. And while the 2-4 mark doesn’t seem all that great, the Pirates have battled hard in one possession losses to Sunlake and Springstead, respectively. With that, this year’s “9-Mile War” rivalry game against Zephyrhills should provide some more intrigue; Zephyrhills has won the past four contests. Stokes is no stranger to being a head coach in the Tampa Bay area — he steered Gaither to three playoff appearances between 2011 to 2016, and also had stints at Bloomingdale and Middleton, respectively.

Stat stuffers
Here’s a look at a top statistical performer from each high school in The Laker/Lutz News coverage area:

Hillsborough County

  • Reggie Johnson II, Carrollwood Day, junior defensive end: 15 tackles, three sacks
  • Hussein Hafiz, Freedom, senior linebacker: 12 tackles (five for loss), three sacks
  • Deveon Knighton, Gaither, senior receiver: 28 receptions, 431 yards, six touchdowns
  • Deon Silas, Steinbrenner, junior tailback: 828 all-purpose yards, 11 touchdowns

Pasco County

  • Adrian Leverette, Academy at the Lakes, junior tailback: 379 scrimmage yards, five touchdowns
  • Jack Miller, Bishop McLaughlin, freshman receiver: 19 receptions, 502 yards, three touchdowns
  • Jehlani Warren, Cypress Creek, senior quarterback: 57% completions, 515 passing yards, five touchdowns, three interceptions
  • Ethan Forrester, Land O’ Lakes, senior quarterback, 39% completions, 790 passing yards, seven touchdowns, four interceptions; 336 rushing touchdowns, five touchdowns
  • Gabriel Barnes, Pasco, junior linebacker: 49 tackles, 20 hurries, three sacks
  • Mark Anderson, Sunlake, junior receiver: 475 all-purpose yards, three touchdowns
  • Brenden Maddox, Wesley Chapel, senior fullback/linebacker: 269 rush yards, four touchdowns; 45 tackles (six for loss)
  • Keith Walker, Wiregrass Ranch, senior receiver: 735 all-purpose yards, 10 touchdowns
  • Tyler Davis, Zephyrhills Christian, senior tailback: 616 rush yards, six touchdowns
  • Zyree Roundtree, junior tailback: 483 rush yards, four touchdowns

Schools in Laker/Lutz News coverage area (and their current 2019 records)

Hillsborough County:

  • Carrollwood Day School Patriots (0-5 overall)
  • Freedom High School Patriots (1-4)
  • Gaither High School Cowboys (5-0)
  • Steinbrenner High School Warriors (5-0)

Pasco County:

  • Academy at the Lakes Wildcats (eight-man) (4-0 overall)
  • Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School Hurricanes (1-5)
  • Cypress Creek Middle High School Coyotes (2-3)
  • Land O’ Lakes High School Gators (1-5)
  • Pasco High School Pirates (2-4)
  • Sunlake High School Seahawks (3-3)
  • Wesley Chapel High School Wildcats (2-3)
  • Wiregrass Ranch High School Bulls (5-1)
  • Zephyrhills Christian Academy Warriors (3-2)
  • Zephyrhills High School Bulldogs (2-3)

Published October 2, 2019

Pasco High gets new football coach

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Pasco High School will have a new head football coach roaming the sidelines, for the first time in more than a decade.

The school recently announced its next head coach is Jason Stokes — a coaching mainstay in the Tampa Bay area, most notably at Gaither High School.

Jason Stokes has been named Pasco High School’s football coach. (File)

Stokes, 43, replaces longtime Pasco coach Tom McHugh, who was relieved of his coaching duties following four consecutive losing seasons, including a 2-8 mark this past year.

Stokes most recently coached at Lake Region High School, in Polk County. The perennially struggling program went winless in his lone season there.

Stokes has achieved coaching success elsewhere, however.

In 2017, he served a season as offensive coordinator at Indian Rocks Christian High School, which went 9-3 and reached the 2A regional finals.

He’s best known for his time at Gaither, from 2011 to 2016 — steering that program to playoff appearances in each of his first three seasons. (He later resigned in the middle of the 2016 season after reports surfaced about using ineligible players, which led to three games forfeited that year.)

Before that, Stokes was the head football coach at Bloomingdale (7-5 in 2008) and Middleton (10-10 combined record in 2009-10) high schools.

In taking over for McHugh, Stokes undoubtedly has big shoes to fill.

McHugh compiled an 86-50 mark in 12 seasons, winning six district titles (2007-12) and two regional titles (2008, 2011).

He is the county’s fifth winningest coach in public schools, behind John Benedetto (195 wins at Land O’ Lakes), Tom Fisher (124 wins at Zephyrhills), John Castelamare (103 wins at River Ridge, Mitchell) and Scott Schmitz (94 wins at River Ridge, Mitchell).

McHugh also coached a trio of Pasco players who would go on to the NFL— Josh Johnson, a former San Diego Charger and Jacksonville Jaguar cornerback who now plays for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League; Janarion Grant, a wide receiver currently on the Baltimore Ravens practice squad; and, Joey Ivie, a defensive tackle currently on the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad.

Yet, the Pirates have struggled in recent years under McHugh, going a combined 10-30 the past four years. Moreover, the program suffered four straight defeats to crosstown foe Zephyrhills High School in the annual 9-Mile War rivalry game, losing those games by an average margin of nearly 40 points.

Despite the difficulties of late, the Pirates do have a young roster stocked with promising players.

That includes linebacker Gabriel Barnes, tailback Malcolm Gibbs, receiver Darrion Robinson and lineman Savion Spaights, who will all be juniors next season, as well as rising seniors in quarterback Desmin Green, defensive back Jordan Mclaughlin and offensive/defensive tackle Cody Rand, among others.

New Sunlake football coach Trey Burdick, left, pictured with former Sunlake all-star linebacker Adam Jarvis. (Courtesy of Trey Burdick)

Meanwhile, Pasco isn’t the only local school to undergo a coaching change this offseason.

In early December, Sunlake High School named assistant Trey Burdick as its next head coach, to replace the now-retired Bill Browning, the only head varsity football coach in the school’s history.

Burdick, 36, has been an assistant at Sunlake since 2008, where he’s coached linebackers, tight ends, special teams, and served as the team’s recruiting coordinator; he’s also been the school’s head track coach for six years, a role he’ll continue as head football coach.

Prior to Sunlake, Burdick was an assistant for two years at Tallahassee Godby High School, working under Florida Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Famer Shelton Crews. He also played football for Tallahassee Lincoln High School, where he was a member of the 1999 6A state championship team.

Sunlake is coming off back-to-back 4-6 marks. Before that, from 2010 to 2016, the Seahawks strung together seven consecutive winning seasons and four playoff appearances.

Published January 16, 2019

Track and field standout leaps into nationals

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It didn’t take long for Keymo Pearson to realize Arielle Boone oozed potential when she joined his AAU track club last spring.

“Day 1, when I saw her…I said, ‘Hey, if this girl stays with the team, she’s going to be great.’ My exact words were, ‘She has the chance to be one of the best jumpers in Pasco County history,’” said Pearson, an assistant track coach at the Wesley Chapel-based Speed Starz Track Club.

Turns out the coach’s assessment is pretty spot on.

Sunlake High School senior Arielle Boone will compete at New Balance Indoor Nationals at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City, from March 9 to March 11. She will take part in the triple jump and high jump events. (Courtesy of Speed Starz Track Club)

Boone will compete this weekend in both the high jump and triple jump events in New Balance Indoor Nationals at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City.

A senior at Sunlake High School, Boone will join more than 3,500 of the country’s best track and field student-athletes, from more than 40 states and Canadian provinces — each looking to run, hurdle, jump, throw and walk their way to titles and All-American honors in 48 boys’ and girls’ championship events.

The event runs from March 9 through March 11.

Boone qualified for the prestigious competition after posting elite qualifying marks in triple jump (39’ 2.5) and long jump (18’ 2.5) at recent AAU meets in Orlando and Birmingham, Alabama.

She is believed to be just the second track and field athlete from Pasco County to ever compete in the national event. The other is former Pasco High star Alfreda Steele, who qualified in 2014. Steele now is a sprinter and jumper at the University of Miami.

Boone isn’t nervous about the big stage, despite squaring up alongside countless future Division I track starts and possibly some Olympians-in-the-making.

Instead, she’s poised to hold her own — especially after going toe-to-toe with such athletes at AAU meets throughout the summer and fall.

“I’m not worried about it. I’m just there to compete and to get my marks,” said Boone, who acknowledged she used to be intimidated, when she first began training for AAU meets in the spring and summer.

A former gymnast, Boone joined her high school track team as a freshman at the behest of former Sunlake track coach Nick Carroll, now the head football coach at Zephyrhills High School.

“Coach was like, ‘If you’re one of my fastest girls, you have to run for me, OK?’ Like, he really pursued me. He wanted me to run track. And, I was like, ‘You know what? My dad’s been telling me that for years, so I’ll try it,’ and I ended up being pretty decent, so I stuck with it,” Boone explained.

Early on in her high school career, Boone mainly competed in sprints, such as the 100-meter and 200-meter dash, and the 4×100 relay.

It wasn’t until last season she took field events seriously.

The leap into those events — especially the triple jump — was bred out of pure curiosity.

Said Boone, “Triple jump seemed so complicated and just difficult, which it is. It’s the hardest event track puts on your body. I just wanted to see how it works; I had no idea.”

Sunlake girls track coach Trey Burdick said Boone’s jumping numbers really took off toward the end the 2017 season.

“Something clicked at districts last year,” Burdick said.

All of sudden, Boone started hitting personal records of 2 feet, then 4 feet in the triple jump, and that’s something you don’t usually see, Burdick added.

Boone firmly solidified herself at the Class 3A state championships as one of the state’s top jumpers after securing a ninth-place finish in the triple jump (then a 36’ 11.25), just one spot away from podium honors.

She was also named named the Sunshine Athletic Conference’s Girls Field Athlete of the Year.

“I was just like, ‘Wow, I have been doing this event for not even six months, and I got this close. Next year I’m going to wreck it. That’s what I really want to do,’” Boone said.

After the season Boone joined Speed Starz to work one-on-one with Pearson, himself a former college track and field standout at Kansas-based Friends University and Independence Community College. He serves as an assistant with BB Roberts, who founded the AAU club in 2013.

Pearson trained Boone on core strength, plyometric movements, and shoring up her bounding technique to make her an even better jumper.

“I saw that she was very explosive, and that was really what drew my attention,” Pearson said.

“Just seeing the talent that she had without an offseason training, it just was like, ‘Wow, I know the drills that I’m going to give her is going to make her that much better as an athlete.’”

“I had to bound my way into becoming a really good triple-jumper,” Boone said. It’s a lot of training involved. It’s an event that you can’t play with it. You have to do a lot.”

After the national competition, Boone will go back to focusing on her final high school season.

In addition to Sunlake High records in the triple jump (38’ 9.5) and high jump (17’ 9.75), Boone also claims school records in the 200 meters (26.32 seconds) — which she’s owned since her freshman year — and as a leg on the 4×100 relay (49.55 seconds).

Burdick noted Boone could soon own the school record in the 100 meters, once she gets the chance to run the event. High school track athletes are allowed to compete in a maximum of four events per meet.

“She’s probably the reason why we’re the favorite to win conference this year,” Burdick said.

“She’s one of those athletes that if I could put her in six (events) I’d put her in six. She’s a guaranteed first place in at least three of her events every meet, and most of the times it’s four.”

Boone’s recent emergence, meanwhile, has the caught the eyes of multiple Division I college track programs statewide.

She’s picked up scholarship offers from South Florida, Central Florida, Florida Atlantic and Florida International universities.

Boone said she plans to spend the next month visiting colleges before making a decision by the time the spring singing period begins on April 11.

Whichever program Boone chooses, those coaches will be getting a dedicated and focused athlete.

“She catches on really fast — that’s what’s great about her. She listens, she’s disciplined, and she actually works on those things on her own so it makes it that much easier,” Pearson explained.

“Motivation’s never been an issue for her,” Burdick said. “She’s always came to practice everyday and is just like strictly business, ‘This is what we need to get done today’ and boom that’s what she’s doing.’”

“She knows (the) drills, she picks up on them, and she knows how to go out there and do it without me telling her,” he added.

Published March 7, 2018