Durant, Plant City Face Preseason Contests

The pomp and circumstance won't be anywhere near that of their regular-season opener, but the Raiders and Cougars hit the football field Friday for some real game action.

Durant and Plant City are taking part in preseason Kickoff Classic contests on the road. The Cougars will play at Gaither and Plant City will visit Tampa Bay Tech. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. for both games.

Originally the Raiders were to be at home Friday but because of ongoing resodding of the Raider Stadium field, the teams agreed to switch venues to Tampa Bay Tech.

It will be the first full game on the sidelines for new Plant City head coach Jason Strunk. He coached for a half at the spring jamboree.

Though the game won't count in the standings, Strunk has important plans to be formulated.

"We will give some guys a chance to earn a starting spot," Strunk said. "I need to see some players yet. I want to see what they can bring to our team."

Tampa Bay Tech is coming off a wildly successful season, during which the Titans won six games after having gone winless the previous two years. Head coach C.C. Culpepper, who was an assistant at football powerhouse Armwood and brought some of that winning attitude with him, was credited largely with last year's turnaround.

Strunk, hoping for a successful first season, said his system will not be completely refined for the game and that the Raiders will be "pretty vanilla" on offense and defense.

As for the Cougars, they may have their hands full Friday in trying to contain standout Gaither running back Jarvis Giles.

But Durant head coach Mike Gottman is not too worried about Giles.

"We haven't even really game-planned for Gaither. We're just worried about ourselves this week," Gottman said.

The Raiders open the regular season Sept. 5 at Durant. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.

Reporter Darek Sharp can be reached at dsharp@tampatrib