Spring game within sights
By Kyle LoJacono
High school football practices have been underway for a few weeks and the first Pasco County spring games in 19 years are a few days away.
One of the teams looking to build on last year is Wiregrass Ranch High, which went 5-5 in 2009. The five wins are the most in Bulls school history, which opened in 2006.
“Things have been going real well,” said Wiregrass Ranch coach Jeremy Shobe. “We have high expectations. We brought in a whole new coaching staff who are unbelievable and are getting to know the kids and gel with them. The more we play together the more together we will be as a team.”
The staff is new, but the system will remain similar. The defense will run the same 4-3 defense, or four down linemen and three linebackers. The offense will use multiple formations to run the spread offense.
The Bulls are losing 23 seniors from the 2009 team, but have at least that many juniors who will fill that void.
Sophomore lineman Brandon Teeling and junior defensive back Rudy Walker have stepped up on the defense.
“Practice has been going good,” Walker said. “Just putting in hard work is all we do…Having that spring game coming up has helped us a lot getting ready.”
Offensive leaders include wide receiver Donovan Blackman and quarterback James Tringali.
“The thing I’ve really noticed is we have a lot more kids out here this spring versus last year,” Tringali said. “The enthusiasm is good. We’ve got that winning mentality now.”
The players are looking forward to the game, but coaches are focusing on the basics.
“Were just working on fundamentals and getting everyone back in the swing of things,” Shobe said. “We just want to build on last year’s success. We tell them with winning comes expectations and we expect to win.”
LAND O’ LAKES HIGH
Last season Land O’ Lakes High managed to extend its Pasco County record for regional appearances to 13 straight years despite losing John Benedetto who coached the Gators for 32 seasons.
Matt Kitchie took over the program and led them to a 9-2 record, but the Gators are not resting on their reputation.
“Things have been phenomenal in practice,” Kitchie said. “Our goals are to find out who our starters will be and also to find out who’s going to be role players. We need to know who is going to step up and fill in if we have injuries. We need to find out who is going to play varsity and who’ll be (junior varsity).”
Land O’ Lakes ran the spread offense last season and will keep the same system in place in 2010. The system is based on throwing the ball with multiple receivers, which puts added importance on quarterback Stephen Weatherford.
“Stephen needs to get the ball to the right player and make good decisions,” Kitchie said. “We want to spread them out so they’re in a bad position to defend. On defense we play a 3-3 stack like they play at the University of Michigan and blitz a lot to keep them off balance and again put them in a bad position.”
In a 3-3 stack, a team has three down linemen, three linebackers and five defensive backs.
Continuing the playoff streak is likely reason enough to work throughout the spring, but the revival of the game at the end of the season is adding more motivation.
“Before last year I’d never coached at a team that didn’t have a spring game,” Kitchie said. “The younger kids know they’ll get to play against the varsity. It’s a huge carrot for the kids to compete throughout the spring.”
Most teams view playoff appearances as successful seasons, but the Gators have greater goals.
“Every day is a competition and no one is guaranteed a spot, even Stephen has to earn his place,” Kitchie said. “That’s what it will take to win a state title is competing on each play in each practice because district titles are nice, but we want that big prize. If you’re not trying to win that title each day and on each play then you’ll come up short.”
ZEPHYRHILLS HIGH
Whenever Zephyrhills and Pasco play the intensity level is ratcheted up, even for spring football.
“The kids are always motivated to play that team nine miles away, but we are focusing on the fundamentals right now,” said new Bulldogs coach Reggie Roberts, who played for Zephyrhills from 1986 to 1990. “I believe in being fundamentally sound as a team so you don’t beat yourself.”
One of the things Roberts has emphasized to the team is football is important, but not the most important thing.
“When I took the job I said I had a triangle of three important things, with academics on the top of that triangle,” Roberts said. “With that is community service and good health. That means getting your workout in and staying away from drugs and other things that hurt your body and mind.”
Each Monday and Wednesday players with a 2.5 grade point average (GPA) or higher have study hall for an hour before practice. Those with a 2.4 to 2.0 GPA hit the study hall Monday through Thursday. Students are not eligible to play sports if they fall below a 2.0 GPA.
On the field the coaches are learning how to best use the players’ talents.
“Were going to spread it out a little bit on offense,” Roberts said. “That means throwing the ball down the field and getting good work from our running backs like Jacolby O’Neal who’s come over from Pasco.
“On defense we’re going to bring back the old (Tom) Fisher days of defense,” Roberts continued. “That’s smash mouth and making the other team pay for every yard.”
Tom Fisher coached Zephyrhills for 20 years and led the Bulldogs during Roberts playing days.
SUNLAKE HIGH
The 2010 season will be the fourth year of Sunlake as a school and football program and the goal for the Seahawks is to continue to improve.
“We’ve had a good start to the spring,” said Sunlake coach Bill Browning. “We’ve still got a long way to go to get where we want. I like what I see but we still need to improve.”
Sunlake finished last year 4-6, setting a program record for wins. In the first two years the Seahawks won a total of one game, but the practice field has been filled with players hoping to make 2010 the school’s first winning season.
“We have 70 guys out there right now and we’re looking to see who will be our leaders next year,” Browning said. “We ran multiple offensive and defensive alignments last year and we won’t know what we’ll use next season until we sort out the positions.”
The Seahawks emphasized the run last year with 60 percent of the plays staying on the ground.
Sunlake will play Mitchell at home May 28. Bringing back the game changes the spring schedule for the coaches.
“It really expedites things for us,” Browning said. “We have to think about game preparation as we get closer to that. We’ve done as many spring practices as we were allowed during the last few years and this kind of increases the importance of each one.”
WESLEY CHAPEL HIGH
Wesley Chapel is in the first spring practices without former coach John Castelamare running the show, but new coach Ben Alford is not wasting time putting in his system.
“The former coach ran a wing-T and we run more of a spread offense,” Alford said. “That means using four or five wide receiver sets, but we’ll also run out of the I-formation. Basically whatever our kids do best that is what we will do.”
A wing-T is an offense based on running the ball on sweeps to the left or right, while a spread formation relies on the pass.
The former quarterback at Pasco, the University of Northern Iowa and in the American Professional Football League will use a spread offense next year.
“Things are going really well,” Alford said of practice. “We’ve got some leaders emerging and we’ve got 80 kids out there which shows the passion for football in Wesley Chapel.”
Some of those leaders include two-way player Devin Piper, defensive back Davan Henry and linebacker Jake Fisher.
“He will play middle linebacker (and) he is the quarterback of the defense,” Alford said of Fisher. “Great kid on and off the field. The other kids really look up to him. I’m just glad that my first year of coaching that I have a guy like that in the middle of my defense.”
While Alford is installing his system, he has a lot of respect for what Castelamare did at Wesley Chapel.
“Coach Cass is a legend,” Alford said. “He worked here and did a great job. He set the foundation for me to come in and work with. I’ve got some big shoes to fill and I can only hope to do half of what he did here in his career.”
ACADEMY AT THE LAKES
Academy at the Lakes is not the largest school in Pasco, but it has one of the most well-known coaches — John Castelamare who coached at Wesley Chapel from 1999 until last year.
“We’re doing alright here considering some of the kids are still new to the workouts,” Castelamare said. “We have 14 boys on the team now, which is pretty good when you consider the school only has 46 boys in the high school.”
The academy, which has about 110 high school students, will again play six-man football this year, but the goal is to move up to the 11-man version.
“That’s the goal is to make us a traditional football team and grow the program,” Castelamare said. “I keep telling the kids you could be the start here.”
Castelamare does not know what system he will run yet until he learns the players’ strengths. He has however found some leaders in seniors Alex Thompson and Jason Pitcairn.
“They are the only two seniors we’ll have next year,” Castelamare said. “The team only had eight players last year and six of them graduated. We’ll lean on their experience.”
The Wildcats will either play a spring game or an intra-squad scrimmage at the end of the spring season, but that is to be determined.
Pasco spring schedule
Land O’ Lakes at Wiregrass Ranch May 28
Zephyrhills at Pasco May 28
Mitchell at Sunlake May 28
Hudson at Wesley Chapel May 28
Academy at the Lakes vs. TBA
