TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Football notebook: Ciao goes for win 150

ADVERTISEMENT

A Tribune staff report

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 13, 2009

TAMPA - A victory against Anclote High tonight would give the Berkeley Prep football team its first seven-win season since 2004. It also would be Coach Dominick Ciao's 150th career victory.

Ciao started accumulating victories in 1986 as the coach at Jesuit, and he has continued to rack them up the past three seasons at Berkeley Prep. He would join an exclusive club of four other Hillsborough County coaches (Billy Turner, Earl Garcia, Roland Acosta and Sean Callahan) to reach the 150 mark.

"I've been very fortunate to have a lot of great, great players make a lot of great plays," Ciao said. "And I've had a lot of great coaches work with me. I was very fortunate in my early years of coaching to be with Bill Minahan, who was at my side for great support during the early years of not being very successful. To be honest, I had no idea I was near 150."

Ciao's first win was a 6-0 shutout against St. Petersburg Catholic. No. 149 was the Bucs' playoff-clinching victory against Indian Rocks Christian last week.

In his third year at Berkeley, Ciao has the Bucs back in the playoffs. They will travel to Dixie County for their first-round game.

"We're just trying to build what we believe is a good program," Ciao said. "I'm very proud of this team. We've had kids hurt and kids sick. It's been a special team. Our goal was to be in the hunt in November and to be playing for something, and that's what we're doing now."

Patriots hope to set school record

Since the school opened in 2002, no varsity team at Freedom has won more than six games in a season. In 2005, the team went 6-4, and followed with a 6-5 record in 2006, when it earned the program's first playoff appearance. The Patriots are 6-2 entering tonight's game at Lennard and a win would set the school record for most in a season. This year's team has already solidified the program's best record.

Win or lose, however, the 2009 season is Freedom's best to date. In 2006, Freedom had to play in a Monday night tiebreaker to make the playoffs. The Patriots clinched a playoff berth this season with a 23-0 win against Brandon.

"It was hard work and determination by the players and staff," first-year coach James Harrell said. "They bought into the program."

6-3 Cougars are bowl bound

The Durant football team's season won't end tonight, after all.

The 6-3 Cougars, who were eliminated from state playoff contention with last week's loss to Newsome and play their regular-season finale tonight at King, have accepted an invitation to play in a bowl game, Coach Mike Gottman confirmed Thursday. Durant will play Longwood Lyman at Winter Springs on Nov. 21. The FHSAA allows teams that finish with a record at or above .500 to play in a postseason bowl game.

"I told our seniors, 'You're going to miss this when it's over. This will give you one more chance to play this game that you love, and for 90 percent of you, this will be the last time you play this game,'" said Gottman, who added he left the decision on whether to play in the game up to his seniors. "They decided they wanted one more game to play."

Katherine Smith, Nick Williams, Adam Adkins

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT