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Holidays Mean Playoffs For These Prep Teams

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By KATHERINE SMITH | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 28, 2008

TAMPA - Every year, Plant High's football team strives for many things.

One of its main goals is to still be practicing during the Thanksgiving holidays. It's a sign the team has advanced in the postseason, when the stakes get higher each week.

"Football is a family thing, and there's no bigger family day than Thanksgiving," Plant coach Robert Weiner said. "That's one of our great goals – to spend a short time together practicing on Thanksgiving morning before going home to our families to spend time together being thankful."

That's what Plant did Thursday. As one of six Hillsborough County teams remaining in the playoffs, the Panthers (10-1) spent part of the holiday preparing tonight's game at Bradenton Southeast (9-2) in the Class 4A regional semifinals.

In another 4A semifinal, Armwood (11-0) hosts Tampa Bay Tech (10-1) for the second time this season. The Hawks beat their district rival 45-6 in the regular season.

For the Titans, who won their first playoff game in school history last week, the rematch has an edgy feel.

"We get more pumped up because this is the only team that handed us a loss all year, and we're trying to get some revenge," Tampa Bay Tech senior quarterback Angel Rodriguez said.

Add on the fact that Titans coach C.C. Culpepper played and was once an assistant coach at Armwood, and the game gets a little personal.

"Tech, their program, has turned around; they've done a complete 180," Armwood senior linebacker Petey Smith said. "Plus, their Coach C.C. used to be over here, and [assistant] coach [Ernest] Hayes, too, and they're good coaches. We know they're going to come out hard, and we've just got to come out hard and be ready to play."

There's another rematch in the Class 2A regional final. Tampa Catholic (8-3) hosts Mulberry (8-4), a team the Crusaders beat in the regular season. T.C. coach Bob Henriquez has been in this situation before and knows not to put too much stock in the first victory.

"I've been through this a few times back in the '90s: Cardinal Mooney one year we did that, and at Jefferson, we played Jesuit twice," Henriquez said. "We blew them out the first time, and it was a tight game the second game. It tends to be that the second time around, regardless; it's a closer game.

"We would expect this to be a very hard-fought game. Even though we won by 11 last time, they're a quality football team with ridiculous speed."

The last time Chamberlain (10-1) and Wharton (9-2) battled was the Class 5A regional quarterfinals last year, a game decided by one point. The Chiefs ended the Wildcats' season when kicker Austin Pullaro nailed a 43-yard field goal with four seconds remaining for a 26-25 victory.

This time, Wharton coaches studied film of Plant's regular-season victory against Chamberlain to use as a blueprint of sorts on how to contain Chiefs quarterback Dontae Aycock. The Panthers limited Aycock, who averaged more than 100 rushing yards per game during, to 13 rushing yards, his lowest total of the season.

"They got to the ball and disrupted their offense," Wharton coach David Mitchell said. "They didn't give [Aycock] a chance to get to the outside."

Every team is striving for a win, something that would extend their postseason into the next holiday season.

"There's also a goal to still be practicing so that when we're driving home, Christmas lights are on," Weiner said.

Reporters Adam Adkins, Bill Ward and Nick Williams contributed to this report. Reporter Katherine Smith can be reached at (813) 259-7860.

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