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Plant Facing Tallahassee Tradition

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By KATHERINE SMITH | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 16, 2008

TAMPA - Playing high school football in a college town does a funny thing.

With Florida State University and FAMU as backdrops, Tallahassee Lincoln High's football program's been able to soak up a lot of collegiate atmosphere and use it to its advantage.

"It helps to make football important in the town and the kids grow up seeing success from those universities," Lincoln coach Kyle Rice said. "I think it has a trickle down effect. A lot of kids get into high school and want to be champions."

For the Trojans, that influence has translated into two state championships (1999 and '01). Lincoln (11-3) plays Plant (13-1) Saturday [1 p.m.] at Orlando's Citrus Bowl for the Class 4A title with aspirations to make it three.

"We feel like Tallahassee plays great football," Rice said. "We've always got a ton of recruits coming out of Tallahassee on to the next level and we've had a lot of schools close [to championships] over the years."

Many of those players have gone on to the next, next level. Tampa Bay Bucs defensive lineman Kevin Carter earned Parade All-America honors as a senior linebacker at Lincoln. Antonio Cromartie, whose San Diego Chargers team plays the Bucs on Sunday, also is a Lincoln product.

There are several members of this year's Lincoln squad that stand a good chance of playing on Sundays, even if it might not have looked promising earlier in the season.

Rice credits a tough regular-season schedule, one in which the Trojans dropped three games, with guiding the team through an identity crisis. They were shut out 38-0 by national powerhouse Byrnes High School from South Carolina in the third game of the season. Then they dropped back-to-back games in the middle of the season to Pensacola Pine Forest and Panama City Rutherford, a game that was decided by a point.

The losses were a turning point of sorts because the Trojans went on a tear after. All but abandoning the spread offense they employed earlier in the season, Lincoln focused on the ground game and haven't lost a game since.

"I think that helped us to determine who we were and to figure out what our personality is," Rice said. "We didn't know who we were as a team and where our strengths and weaknesses were. We were a young team and we had a lot of kids who were untested."

Lincoln features at least five Division I prospects, including starting cornerback Deandre Byrd, a Nebraska commit and wideout Jawanza Starling, who is being heavily recruited by nearly every Division I school including Florida and Florida State. There's also a familiar face – junior running back Tony Moore. Moore played at Gaither before his family was relocated to Tallahassee this year.

"Lincoln's an extremely balanced team. They're good on both sides of the ball," Plant coach Robert Weiner said. "They've got great size and they've got very, very good speed. Every time you turn on the film and you look around, you see a player that's probably a [Division] I player, so you know there's not too many holes there.

"In terms of competition, we certainly compare them to Chamberlain, that we played earlier in the year, and Armwood. They're really, really a diverse team that you have to step up your game and be ready to play against."

Reporter Katherine Smith can be reached at (813) 259-7860.

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