LARGO – You never want to be the man that follows the man. In recent years, there have been a few instances where first-year head coaches have survived quite nicely and gone on to establish themselves, but those instances are few-and-far-between and you could make the case that on the surface following a guy like Rick Rodriguez at Largo would be nearly impossible. Rodriguez compiled a 123-40 record and led the Packers to 10 district championships including nine of those consecutively. The Packers also won consecutive regional championships in 2007 and 2008.
Last season, under the direction of first-year Head Coach and Largo Alumnus Marcus Paschal, the Packers went 6-5. That number of losses was just the second time in eleven seasons that Largo had lost more than three games in a season.
The adversity began to set in and folks undoubtedly began to wonder if the honeymoon was finally over when the Packers were sans seven starters in their spring game earlier in May versus Pinellas Park. Then other schools like Clearwater and Northeast started picking up legitimate expectations this summer of perhaps up-ending the Packers in the district which would farther knock them farther away from their perch at or near the top as one of Pinellas County’s elite programs over the past decade.
All of that negative energy has led to a little pushback, but that’s natural when dealing with this kind of change. The now second-year coach thinks that through all of the bad vibes of the recent past, much if it is simply that—in the past and he’s ready to oversee his heart and soul and hope to make his community proud to call themselves Packers.
We caught up with Paschal yesterday and asked him some of the things we felt needed to be addressed to help set the record straight that all negatives aside, the Packers aren’t going anywhere and anytime soon. It helps that the man that is now in charge is about as dialed-in as you could possible ask him to be across the board though and to have him within a community that feels very much like it’s in the middle of nowhere instead of all the concrete makes it unique, but not without it’s challenges.
“There definitely is [a little pushback], but my situation is a unique situation. I think that if it was anybody besides myself following Coach Rodriguez then it would be A LOT harder to get the buy-in from the community and the players, but being that I’m a product of Coach Rodriguez’ and to be the quarterback when he won his first game–to being the first big recruit to go to college under him and go on to the league from there I think the transition is a lot easier and I have a lot more community buy-in and and from the administration on campus as well. I think it’s a lot easier than anyone else stepping on campus trying to do this and I still have Coach Rod on campus to basically be that on-the-job mentor each and every day.”
In a small twist of fate, the entire school is undergoing a rebuilding process itself that is in congruency with the new era that began with the football program last season, so there’s some symbolism to this whole thing. How does that overall rebuilding of the physical property (a $55 million dollar upgrade to campus) run with the job that lies ahead for Pascal though? Because after a 6-4 season, it almost feels like Largo is in a “rebuilding” phase since we have become so accustomed to much better results from them.
“I think the rebuilding and the new era (and it’s symbolism) will go hand-in-hand, last year we finished the regular season 6-4 and ended up the season with that loss to Armwood at 6-5–who ended up in the state championship game, but we have a lot of critics looking at us like ‘oh they’re 6-4′ but we lost same close games to same very good competition–we scheduled the best we could out-of-county district and outside of it…[East Lake, Jesuit and Lake Gibson] and of course we had Venice in our district and if you take the East Lake game out of the equation, that’s three games we lost be a combined eight points. You hold a Venice team that had been averaging 42-points a game and we held them to just five points—”
What could have been though, right? Tough breaks like that happened to other teams as well where Plant CIty lost seven games by six points or less which would have seen them 11-0 and headed to the second round of the 7A playoffs. No hard feelings and no unrealistic romanticizing on top of should’ve-could’ve-would’ve mountain for Paschal and the Packers. He simply recalls the near-misses with some poignant objectivity and self-assessment that would make his mentor proud. Although he cites Mother Nature as a not-so-nice influence on one of the contests, he certainly isn’t going to conceal it with something he shouldn’t.
Instead, you can see that he intimately understood his teams’ strengths and weaknesses and knew that if the adjustments to a power-offense were necessary, it wouldn’t end well. Seriously though, a 5-3 final score (against Venice), coach? What happened with that and what happened in the Jesuit and Lake Gibson contests? It’s tough enough to take the reigns–properly prepared or otherwise in your first season–but to have games like that and to know you’re better than that can sting even worse.
The one thing that can’t be refuted (and in some cases quite annoyingly so if you’re a coach having to deal with parents and boosters) is that your record is what it is. Those four losses just opened the flood gates to the naysayers that are slightly resistant to change. Paschal addresses all of that.
“It was just a good football game, (referring to the Venice game)– we were backed all the way up late in the late game and they blocked a punt and we had to run out for a safety. The Jesuit game that we lost by two points that was played in a monsoon when our offense is more tailored to a spread-it-out attack and get players in space was a tough one. In that monsoon, we had to line it up and run the football and that’s not the kind of attack we are tailored to—we are known now for having our athletes out in space and we’re just undersized up front so with that being said we had to change the game plan and we just came up a little short in what was a crazy weekend of high school football. With that Lake Gibson game we were within three points at halftime with the score 10-7 and there was one boneheaded play made and that was that–so I felt like we really were a few plays from being 9-1 regular season team last year to be honest—which then you would’ve had the folks saying ‘Oh, Largo’s 9-1 that’s what they’re supposed to do’ and all of the backing would’ve been positive, but the reality was we were 6-4 and as the new coach coming in regardless of the background people are gonna nit-pick at every little thing–and I’m ready for it—.”
Paschal entered the NFL as an UDFA with the Philadelphia Eagles and then went on to play for the Atlanta Falcons, Indianapolis Colts and Baltimore Ravens before retiring in 2011. He was even the subject of a documentary produced by a local professor at USF that was debuted at the All Sports Los Angeles Film Festival last November. His heart–and soul–are firmly entrenched in the city he has called home all his life. His most-passionate mission beyond getting to the ultimate level of competition in his craft has been to get to this spot as the captain of the ship at his alma mater.
“Coach Rod groomed me since high school and I used to come back from (University of) Iowa I used to tell him, ‘Coach I’m gonna replace YOU whenever you’re ready to go—and he would give me this response like, ‘Are-you-SURE-you-wanna-come-back-and-do-this?’ –we didn’t think it was gonna be this early though, but I retired from the league in 2011 and came STRAIGHT back home and was the DB coach and we had that conversation before he had that with anyone else. I just told him–‘Coach I’m ready.’ ”
Pointing to that uniqueness that Paschal mentioned earlier. The school and the program and the city itself have a very distinct feeling. An almost a back-in-time-Friday-Night-Lights feeling once you start to know it a little better. Largo might as well be it’s own city out in the middle of nowhere like a Fort Meade or a Frostproof although it’s squarely in the middle of a concrete jungle in Pinellas County. Kids seldom leave the program to go and play elsewhere in a county that’s school choice and one that subconsciously cultivates a free agency market that’s quite the circus to behold at times.
Per the 2010 Census, Largo was the 28th largest city in the state of Florida with 77,648 residents, but if you were to have a blindfold placed until seated inside the stadium and had to guess upon removal the size of the school based on the number of players standing along the sidelines, you’d wonder if they were even in 2A or 3A. The reality is that they are in Class 6A, but there are several successful programs through the years that have subscribed to quality over quantity.
Sure, you run up against it sometimes, but there’s something to be said for the approach. The concerning thing for Paschal is deeper than just a numbers-issue on the roster. He believes there’s more than just needing to have depth at a certain position. He realizes all-too-well what one of the issues is.
“It’s not football that I’m focused on right now; it’s the academic piece of it. Coach Rod has had tons and tons of talent come through these hallways but the thing is so many of them have fallen short academically therefore they have to go the JUCO route ands once they go that route–you never hear about ’em again. That’s the thing I’m trying to change–with my background and with these kids growing up in the same community that I grew up in hopefully now that lightbulb turns on and they say, well–Coach Paschal did it—he knows what our situation is all about—he knows about the sacrifice and commitment it takes to be a Largo Football player—and he’s helping us set the plan and helping them get to where they need to be. I think they’re starting to buy into it as well.”
Getting kids eligible at Largo could make a HUGE difference though and it’s not like Paschal isn’t willing to take on more guys that are willing to do the most important thing, which is work at their jobs in the classroom and on the football field everyday.
Their roster may be small…only in the 30’s…which is a similar comparison to the eastern coast of Florida and Cocoa High School, but programs built like this have to go out there with an iron-forged mindset where they have thirty dudes out there and in the end it’s gonna feel like they had one-hundred guys on the roster. Sometimes you run up against competition that’s simply going to wear you out, but in general you don’t want those small-roster problems that a Largo or a Cocoa brings with their two-way grinders.
Paschal says that he understands depth would have been nice in a situation like the one that occurred this spring, but with those guys back that were missing the test in their fall classic game in week zero versus Manatee signals that it’s time to face the music regardless of who-or-how-many are wearing Largo’s colors.
“Trying to get those numbers up will be important as well. We were a little short-handed in the spring game. Everybody came out all talking this-and-that and we had seven starters out and we played against a VERY good Pinellas Park team. The kids have been getting after it this summer though and we will have all seven of those players back in the fall and we look forward to getting the fall season started out against Manatee because they’re one of the best teams around and we want to go see how we stack up against a team of that caliber.”
The roles are reversed right now. The hunted are now becoming the hunters. The Packers have the earlier mentioned district contests with Clearwater and Northeast, but they’ll have to do more than just show up against district teams like Tarpon Springs, Osceola and Dixie Hollins—and they’ll certainly have to swing some heavy lumber against non-district foes within Pinellas when they face East Lake, Saint Petersburg, and Countryside. Even a season opener at Seminole could have its obstacles if they’re not careful. But that hunger is something that Paschal is convinced his squad is starting to feel.
“They’re definitely hungry. Actually we had that very conversation yesterday after our workout. We call it “Championship Wednesday’s” here–we do some unorthodox stuff out of the weight room type stuff. One week we pushed Tahoe’s and Escalade’s on the track for one-hundred yards and yesterday we flipped and did speed work and that’s mentality is what I brought up to the players. I told them they had to be focused on a whole different level. This isn’t the 2007 Largo team went to the state semifinals and lost to St. Thomas Aquinas because right now YOU are the hunters. I told them right now, folks are crowning Clearwater in the district and they’re looking at Northeast to come and make a name for themselves with some high-profile transfers this summer and so folks are looking at us like, what are WE gonna do this fall? The talent’s good enough to beat both of those programs, but are you gonna put the work in that it takes to beat those teams?”
In the end, one thing’s for certain in this game. You can train a kid to be good at tire-flipping or you can teach them the fundamentals all day long, but you can’t teach them to have ‘that dawg’ in them…coach provides some perspective, though.
“Just like you said earlier, we only have a roster that’s in the thirties or even around thirty, but those thirty kids have that dawg in them and they’ve been used to the success of Largo over the years growing up and watching those teams, but I try to tell them this we aren’t one of those teams right now—we have to make our own way—we have to create a new identity—2014 is over and we were a mediocre football team—what is your plan for success in 2015?”