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Tampa Bay Tech lands a kicker

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By BILL WARD | TBO.com

Published: October 8, 2009

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Well, at least there appears to be one at Tampa Bay Tech.

The Monday after TBT suffered a 9-6 loss to Armwood—a game where the Titans most certainly could have used a kicker to attempt a point-after kick or a field goal to tie the score late in the game—senior Deyor Chris Bedell came knocking on the door of Titans coach C.C. Culpepper.

"He told me 'Coach, I heard what happened. I can help you win football games,' " Culpepper said. "After watching him in practice the next day, I believed him."

And after watching Bedell make field goal after field goal from 30 yards and beyond at practice Tuesday, something tells you Bedell isn't exaggerating when he says he can aid the state-ranked (Class 5A) Titans. So far, Bedell has played in two games but has only kicked point-afters. Still, that's something TBT hasn't done before. Until Bedell came along, the Titans went for two-point conversions in all their games.

Bedell went 3-for-5 in point-after-kicks in TBT's 46-0 romp over Chamberlain and hit 2-of-3 extra points in last week's 45-21 victory over Alonso.

This week, however, Bedell may get his first test for a field goal. The Titans are playing an important district game against Freedom. Last year, they edged the Patriots 22-21, but Freedom missed a late field goal that could have won it the game. TBT has come a long since then, but so has Freedom under new head coach James Harrell, the former co-defensive coordinator of two-time state champion Plant.

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