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Ware, Wildcats Add Up To Title

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By KATHERINE SMITH

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 20, 2008

TAMPA - Wharton forward Joe Layton kept asking the same question after the Wildcats won the Class 5A soccer championship.

"How did we do it? How did we do it?" Layton repeatedly asked.

You didn't need to look further than the Wharton head coach that led his team to the school's first state championship for the answer. Scott Ware, in his second year as Wharton's boys soccer coach, provided some state hardware for the Wildcats trophy case.

It was Ware, the Tribune's Hillsborough County Male Sport Coach of thre Year, who prepared his team to not only play with the best, but also to beat the best. He had his players believing they were unbeatable, even when their record suggested otherwise.

Proving his commitment to his players, Ware, who is a math teacher at Wharton, allowed his seniors to chop off his thick head of hair at a school pep rally to celebrate the championship.

The scene was quite surreal, a term Ware used in describing the Wildcats' state title run, which isn't a stretch considering where the team began the season.

Only a month into it, Wharton struggled with injuries and was barely above .500. The Wildcats entered the district tournament as the No. 4 seed with nobody expecting them to do much damage - nobody except Ware and his players.

Ware managed to pull the team together in time to take the district title, beating neighborhood rival Freedom in the process. At regional, the Wildcats again pulled off the improbable by knocking off defending state champion Auburndale.

At the school's first final four, Wharton dispatched Jesuit with a 1-0 victory in the state semifinals. The nationally ranked Tigers were heavily favored to take the 5A title.

Finally, the Wildcats held on for a 2-1 victory against Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas, a team extremely familiar with state championships.

After the state championship game, Layton talked about how Wharton did the "unthinkable" by becoming No. 1 out of 111 teams.

"No one even knew we existed," Layton said.

A state trophy resides at Wharton High for the first time in school history.

The Wildcats can thank Ware for putting it there and the school on the state map.

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