By Jeff Odom
Laker/Lutz News Correspondent
For a program entering its third year, the Steinbrenner wrestling team has seen more than its fair share of success since the school’s inaugural season in 2009-10.
The Warriors won the program’s first district championship last year. The four-point victory in the Class 1A-District 9 meet also ended Jesuit’s 10-year stranglehold on such titles. Steinbrenner also advanced a school-record five athletes to the 1A state tournament.
The Warriors lost nearly all of their state tournament line-up to graduation, but coach Paul Noble said the team still has the opportunity to compete for its second district crown.
“We spend a lot of time working on our bread and butter and we have a lot of kids who are committed,” Noble said. “I don’t think we have star power, but overall as a team, we’re about as good as we were a year ago.”
The team also lost a host of leadership after the departures of seniors Josh Fulford, Cody Dunham, Ryon Keith and Tyler Reed, but Noble said this year’s group is rising to the challenge of laying the foundation for a winning tradition by sticking to the basics.
“We expect to be good on our feet, and a lot of coaches will say that, but the proof is in the pudding,” Noble said. “If you come to our matches, we attack on our feet. If other teams fear you on your feet, if they don’t think they can take you down, then they don’t think they can win and that’s a mental deal.”
With the new season comes a new slate of 10 district opponents, including Freedom and Gaither, as Steinbrenner moves into 2A-7.
The Patriots are the team most likely to prevent the Warriors repeating as district champs. Freedom lost its two state qualifiers, Andrew Ford and Trey Lawson, to gradation, but returns most of its other key wrestlers.
Noble said the opponents may have changed, but the winning mentality has not.
“(The win over Jesuit last season) sold the kids on what it takes and made them believe we can win, and that belief is still there,” Noble said. “We’ve taken a couple of lumps this year and we lost a couple of matches and we haven’t been at full strength yet, but we should be when the conference tournament begins.”
Senior Jesse Florentino said Noble has helped lead the team to become one of the best in the area in just a short amount of time, and the athletes have shown enough poise to help fuel its high expectations.
“We have a lot of good freshmen and other guys that showed promise,” Florentino said. “We have a really good lineup again, we didn’t lose many guys.”
Noble, the Warriors’ only coach in program history, faces a different challenge than maintaining the Warriors’ budding wrestling tradition. He drives a daily commute from his farm in Plant City to Lutz, which he roughly estimates is a 35-40 minute drive one way. However, Noble says the distance isn’t an issue and has actually benefitted his own children.
“We spend a lot of time (at school) and the one good thing about wrestling is, that it is more family oriented than any other sport,” Noble said. “(My kids) are always around, they compete and they wrestle and in the offseason they can wrestle with the high school kids and they both like it and that makes it easier on the family.”
Noble also added, “This is a great school, plain and simple. This is the best school I’ve ever worked at and I worked at East Bay for a long time and then in Vail, Colorado, which was even more affluent than this school … it’s just a really good place and I plan on staying here so that my kids can go to school here.”
The Warriors next travel to Sickles on Friday, Dec. 16 for the Western Conference American Division Tournament at 5 p.m.
