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Kathleen High's courtroom fight shows intensity of Polk football

File photo by KEVIN HOWE (2007)

Football is big in Polk County, especially at Lakeland High, where the perennial playoff contender features a scoreboard that features a video replay screen.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 6, 2009

From Lakeland to Davenport and Auburndale to Frostproof, Polk County is linked by more than just Interstate 4 and U.S. 27.

The connections that bind happen each fall when the young men of each community go up against each other on the 100-yard-long field of battle. They fight under names like the Dreadnaughts, Highlanders, Thunder and Bolts.

Welcome to high school football, Polk County style. It has a long tradition that goes back more than a century when Lakeland High School fielded its first team in 1907. Nowadays, there is something wrong if Lakeland High isn't in some kind of title hunt at the end of the season.

It's all a bit unusual for a county which has a population half the size of Hillsborough County and about a third fewer teenagers, according to U.S. Census figures.

The warfare waged among the high schools in Polk County has always been top notch, but this past week, the need to win was played out not on the sweaty gridiron on a humid Friday night, but in an air-conditioned, oak-paneled courtroom on a Wednesday afternoon.

The participants weren't wearing numbered jerseys, helmets and shoulder pads. They wore gray suits, ties, American flag lapel pins.

Until Wednesday's day in court, Lakeland's Kathleen High Red Devils were en route to a spectacular season, winning all eight of their games and poised to enter the playoffs. That meant college scouts in the stands and some seniors destined for something bigger.

But there was a problem. In the days that followed a Sept. 25, 21-0 trouncing by Kathleen, football coaches and a guidance counselor at bitter cross-county rival Bartow High discovered, through questionable means, some say, that one of the Red Devils was academically ineligible to play.

The would-be whistleblowers waited two weeks — two more wins by Kathleen with the ineligible player on the team — before notifying the district, which notified Kathleen officials who were apparently unaware of the problem.

After Kathleen administrators, admitting that a mistake was made in allowing the student to play, reported itself to the Florida High School Athletic Association, all of its games up to that point — six — were forfeited, scrubbing them from playoff contention.

A lawsuit ensued, filed by a group of Kathleen football parents who said, sure, the player was ineligible, but, if Bartow had reported the discovery right away, the last two forfeited games could have been played without the player and likely won, keeping the Red Devils' playoff hopes alive.

The taking of the fight off the field and into the court shows how much winning means to this county's teams and fans.

Edward J. Rielly, author of Football: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, said high school football is important to more than just the players.

"There is no doubt but that high school football continues to be taken very seriously by not only players and coaches but (often more troublingly) by parents and fans," he said in an e-mail this week.

"On both sides of this case," he said, "we seem to see this super competitiveness: use of an ineligible player, someone on the other side examining student records. There may be serious ethical violations on both parts."

Still, he said, there are places in the nation where football remains a sport driven by the passion of the players, "strictly for the love of the game and local pride."

He pointed to high schools playing six-man and eight-man teams in Texas, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Nebraska.

"The young men are most unlikely to have a chance to play football at a higher level," he said, "but, they play with passion and determination. Maybe the rest of high school football could take a lesson from these teams on what the sport really should mean."

Polk County football fans have gotten used to a winning tradition.

"Athletics in general is big across entire state of Florida," said Kathleen Principal Cecil McClellan. "Of course, the No. 1 priority here always is academics. That is in the forefront of everything you do. That's why you exist."

Football is huge in Polk for a few reasons, he said. The rural character of the sprawling county makes football an appealing form of entertainment. There are generations who live in Polk who have gone to high schools in their towns and who have children going to the same schools; in some cases, their children's children.

Generations play the same sports.

"You have a lot of close-knit communities here," McClellan said. "That just enhances the programs. We've got several generations of families here. The first football team [at Kathleen] was formed in 1942."

The principal said he keeps in touch with some alumni, including one man who graduated in 1950 who still listens to football games on the radio when he can't attend the games.

Some games, including rivalries with cross-town teams of Lake Gibson High and Lakeland High, draw as many as 8,000 fans a game, McClellan said. "They are all good rivalries."

By good, he means, "We play hard and end up shaking hands."

Kathleen, with a student enrollment of 1,800, has a disproportionate number of athletes that go on to play in Division I colleges and even at the professional level. Ray Lewis, the All-Pro linebacker with the Baltimore Ravens, may be the most recognizable name.

Desmond Clark, now a tight end with the Chicago Bears, even sponsors a mentoring program at Kathleen for ninth-graders, McClellan said.

"We've had many go on," he said.

Through it all, he said, education comes first. He said there are some "tremendous athletes here who do not qualify to play" because of grades.

He said Kathleen graduates have placed first in the number of athletic and academic scholarships in the district over the past seven years.

Masha Paul is president of the Kathleen High Touchdown Club, made up of a group of parents of football player parents. It was the Touchdown Club that brought the suit to reinstate the forfeited games. Paul vowed to continue the fight against the forfeitures, even though there are only two games left in the season.

His son, Gionni, is a junior on the squad and plays linebacker.

"Football in Polk County," Paul said, "is definitely big."

Parents are involved as much as the athletes, he said. "We take it seriously. It bonds our community."

Paul said the way Bartow handled the matter was wrong and may have ruined chances for some seniors to be recruited by colleges.

"The playoffs are when the scouts come down to view the kids," he said. "If a team isn't in the playoffs, the seniors don't get seen.''

That was one of the claims of the court complaint, said Joseph Brown of Lakeland, who represents the Touchdown Club.

The actions of Bartow High, in delaying the reporting of their discovery, would "adversely affect the economic rights of the students on the Kathleen High School football team" in the way of scholarships, donations and sponsorships, Brown said.

"This possibly was the best Kathleen High School football squad ever fielded," he said.

The Polk school district is investigating whether Bartow coach Shawn Killets, athletic director Glenn Rutenbar and an unnamed guidance counselor inappropriately accessed the grades of the student at Kathleen. The results of that probe aren't expected for another week or two, officials said.

Bartow officials said they would not comment on the matter until the investigation is complete.

Killets and Rutenbar have hired Bartow attorney John Frost on their own, Frost said this week.

FHSAA executive director Roger Dearing recognizes the importance of football to a tight-knit community like Polk. He traveled from Gainesville this week to attend the court hearing.

He said the sad part of the Kathleen scandal is that the win-loss record of the team was taken out of the hands of the players and put into the hands of adults.

That a rival school blew the whistle on Kathleen's ineligible player was not the issue, he said.

"Fifty percent of the time, an ineligible player is found out by another school," he said.

Still, the season is lost for the Red Devils and that's not a memory that will fade any time soon for students, players, teachers, fans and parents.

"This is heartbreaking for this school," he said. "Players and students will remember this at their 10-year and 20-year reunions."

Football in Polk is fierce, he said, but it will go on.

Polk County is a small, rural part of the state, he said. "But the competition here is getting larger and larger."

The football teams grapple with each other often, he said. "They all are rivalries. There is a certain pride among the high schools here. It is very intense."

"While winning is important," he said, "losing offers life's lessons."

Polk County director of athletics Don Bridges said football teams create an identity for fans. There was a time when each town across the sprawling Polk landscape had a high school and each of those high schools had a football team. Everyone in those towns identified with that team, he said.

"On Friday nights, it's 'Let's go to the football games,' " he said. "Every town had its own football team, its own stadium, and that's the thing to do."

"And," he said, "it's pretty good football."

Still, he said, the heyday of Polk County football was 10 or 15 years ago, when there weren't so many distractions, like malls to go to on Friday nights or sitting home watching sports 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"It's not like it used to be," he said. "There are so many things to do now."

"Attendance, unless it's a big rivalry," he said, "is down from 10 years ago. We've seen a reduction of students going to games. We don't see masses of student bodies like we used to. We see a lot of adults and graduates going to games."

The concern is that the numbers continue to erode, he said.

"We're like anybody else," he said. "Football pays the bills for all other sports. Money from football runs the athletic programs."

Winning games is always important, he said, but with the high schools playing each other, some win more than others. Still, the talent coming out of Polk is a point of pride among everyone, he said.

"We've got some pretty big name players," he said, "that have played at our high schools."

Lakeland High is a perennial contender for state championships in Class 5A. The school fielded a football team for 102 years. The Dreadnaughts boast 19 district championships, six state titles and two national championships within the past four years.

At one end of Bryant Stadium, where Dreadnaughts play, is a 39-foot tall, 45-foot-wide electronics marvel that cost $400,000. It's the only high school football stadium in the area with a scoreboard that shows live action and replays.

Boosters are moneyed and influential, and Lakeland High players are among the Polk County players who go on to play at big colleges and occasionally the pros.

Head coach Bill Castle has been at the helm of the team for 33 years. He said athletics in general is important for a well-rounded student.

"Athletics is a great supplement to an education," he said. "There are so many lessons learned that you just can't learn in the classroom." He said values, team concepts and selflessness are more easily taught on the playing field than in class. "That's more important now than ever."

Polk football is a "vital part of the communities" he said, although some of the attendance has eroded over the past decade or so.

Still, he said. Polk high school football fans know they see top notch players at their best on Friday nights in the fall.

"We are fortunate to have a lot of dedicated coaches here," he said. "Polk County has had some success."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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