Plant's Dungy, Wilder blazing their own trails

Plant High football coach Robert Weiner has been a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan since the team's inception, when his family became original season-ticket holders.

He remembers being a kid, sitting in the old aluminum bleachers of Tampa Stadium watching Bucs running back James Wilder running over defenders with his power and leaving them rolling around on the ground with his speed.

Later in life, when he got into coaching, Weiner would observe Tampa Bay coach Tony Dungy's pregame ritual of standing underneath a goal post during warmups with his arms crossed, a man at peace with himself with chaos all around him.

Tonight, sons of those Buccaneers legends will try to help Weiner and the Panthers make Hillsborough County history as the only school to win three state football championships when they take on Bradenton Manatee for the Class 5A title. James Wilder Jr. and Eric Dungy have grown up with famous NFL football names, but both have made names for themselves on the high school football fields.

"You don't get starstruck, because both of them are just kids," Weiner said. "They're great kids, but they're like any other kid on the team."

Dungy grew up on the Bucs sideline and at One Buc Place, the team's training facility. He was 4 when his father became the head coach in 1996 and soon found himself running around with Mike Alstott, Warrick Dunn and Derrick Brooks.

"Jose, the chef, would always make me a grilled cheese sandwich and I would go and watch Cartoon Network in my dad's office," Dungy said.

Those defensive-minded Bucs teams obviously had a big influence on him, since that's where Dungy shines. The starting safety leads Plant with five interceptions, including three in the postseason.

"He learned about being in big situations," said Tony Dungy, who retired from coaching after the 2008 season. "I don't think it overwhelms him to be in a big situation because he's seen a lot of them."

Wilder wasn't born until two years after his father's playing career ended in 1990, but that didn't stop him from becoming a fan of the man who still holds the Bucs' franchise record for career rushing yards (5,957). Wilder, Plant's second-leading rusher, studied his father's highlight films.

"We are both upright runners, and we're both big backs," said Wilder, who leads the team with 17 sacks and also has 858 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns. "If he was trapped on the sideline, instead of running out of bounds like the smaller backs would do, just like me, he would give the defender the lick. I don't let people give me the lick. I go give them the lick, just like my dad."

Those NFL instincts ingrained in both players have shown up at various times throughout their Plant careers. Years of standing on NFL sidelines paid off for Eric Dungy when he played in his first game for Plant, the 2008 spring game, where he got his first interception.

"He rolled around and landed on top of the defender, which meant he wasn't down, and Eric immediately kept going," Weiner recalled. "Rolling over was like another stride of his running, and he just continued running. I thought 'Only the son of a football coach would have done it that way.'"

Wilder's instinctual moment came in the fourth quarter of Plant's 20-0 semifinal victory against Lakeland last week. He made a key block to spring wide receiver Allen Sampson on his 53-yard touchdown, on a play the Panthers have not run or practiced in quite a while.

"James got outside, rolled his hips, blocks one guy, slides off of him with timing and blocks the next guy to seal the lane where Allen needed to go," Weiner said. "It was really one of our great plays of the year, and it was just instinct."

Parental instincts have replaced football instincts for the elder Dungy and Wilder. On any given Friday night during the high school football season, there's one place you can find them both, and it's not on the sideline.

"They're just in the stands cheering for us at games and at practice," Wilder said. "They're just regular people. They want to be out here watching their kids play football, just like an ordinary family."