County football: awful to awesome

There was a time when high school football in Hillsborough County was, well, not so good.

From 1971 to 1992, the county failed to produce a state finalist. And there was a 33-year drought between 1969 and 2003 when the county was unable to produce even one state champion.

"We were awful back then," longtime Hillsborough High coach Earl Garcia said. "Between the high school teams here and the Bucs, people used to say Hillsborough County had some of the worst football in America."

Not any more.

Since 2001, Hillsborough County has been a regular fixture in the state finals, with at least one team making it to the championship game and three teams — Armwood, Plant and Jefferson — capturing a total of six state titles.

Today in Orlando's Citrus Bowl, two county teams can win a state crown.

At 1 p.m., two-time champion Armwood (14-0) takes on Miami Central (13-0) in a battle of undefeated Class 6A squads. At 7 p.m., Plant (12-1) will try to bring home its fourth state title trophy since 2006 when it takes on Miramar (13-0).

Indeed, things have changed in the county. But Armwood coach Sean Callahan knows how much work it took and is still young enough to vividly recall what it meant to coach a team in Hillsborough.

"I remember being at a coaches clinic with Earl (Garcia) and it was so long ago no one really knew who we were," Callahan said. "We were sitting right behind (four-time state championship coach) Joe Kinnan (of Manatee High) and we could hear him saying how glad he was to be playing Hillsborough teams because that meant an easy 'W.'

"I just looked at Earl and said, 'This ain't good. We gotta do something about this.' "

It took awhile, but with coaches such as Garcia, Callahan and former Jesuit coach Dominick Ciao laboring at the job year after year, the county turned the corner. In 1992, Ciao, now at Berkeley Prep, guided Jesuit to the championship stage. The Tigers fell to Pasco, but it marked the first time since Robinson in 1971 that a county team got to the title game.

In 1996, Garcia led the Terriers to the championship game but they lost to Miami Carol City. Then, in 2001, the streak of at least one county team playing for a title began when Chamberlain and coach Billy Turner made it to the 5A final. Two years later, in 4A, Armwood finally got over the hump and won a state championship for Hillsborough County.

Armwood repeated as champion in 2004 and lost to a Tim Tebow-led Nease squad in 2005. In 2006, 2008 and 2009, Plant emerged victorious. And last year, Mike Fenton's Jefferson Dragons won the 3A crown while Armwood and Plant were runners-up in 5A and 4A, respectively.

Ask a county coach today what it takes to reach this level and you'll probably get any number of responses.

Some say it has to start with a supportive administration at the school. Others say it takes a talented coaching staff working year-round, seven days a week. Considering a head football coach in this county earns a base supplement of only $3,736 and varsity assistants make $1,892, there's not much financial incentive to do either job.

Plant's Robert Weiner, who coached several seasons at Jesuit under Ciao, said it was coaches such as his mentor there, as well as veterans such as Garcia and Turner, who laid the foundation for other county teams on which to build successful programs.

Weiner believes it was the consistently competitive teams at schools such as Jesuit, Hillsborough, Jefferson and Chamberlain during the mid-to-late 1990s that created the environment for other squads to improve.

"You look back at the '80s and early '90s and Tampa was still very much a baseball town," Weiner said. "But when you have a competitive football environment grow, you have kids who for years now have been working towards being part of that environment. And as a result, you end up with better athletes."

Garcia agrees. And as he tries to get his program back to the state finals while playing in the same district as Armwood, he is quick to point out there are a lot of football programs in the county working hard just to go .500.

"There's a lot of hard-working, bright coaching staffs in this county that don't even make it to the playoffs," Garcia said. "What it's done is raise the entire level of football in this area. And when you have that kind of competition in just one area, you're going to see teams from that area get to the state championships."