“We had a 100% buy-in to our offseason program…”
Valrico, June 12, 2018 – The Bulls have come a long way, paving their path to success and the light seems to only get brighter at the end of the tunnel for this program moving forward. I spoke with Head Coach Max Warner about the newest renditions and updates on the organization that should be highlighted, and the game plan looking ahead for the 2018 season with his re-vamped unit of senior leaders.
“This is year three for me as a coach here, I arrived in spring 2016 as they were coming off 1-9 season, and I’m the 3rd coach these guys have seen in their four years of high school. Bloomingdale hadn’t had a lot of success consistently, so really proud of what we’ve built now for us at the moment, trying to establish this 7A program- it used to be one of the team’s others like to see on their schedule; now finishing positive at 7-3, with the 7th seed wildcard in playoffs. The group I inherited in 2016 was seven seniors, and last year we had nine. We now have 23 seniors and are in the conversation of postseason football thanks to these kids.
It all starts up front, 4 of our 5 linemen are returning, at LT Ethan Carde is massive at 6’8” 340, got half a dozen offers or so, at LG, senior Antonio Pineda, we call him tank, and he’s 5’11” 305, our RG Walker Biggers is a big boy at 6’2” 305, at Center, Connor Pouchie, an all-conference player as a sophomore for us, he’s got good size at 6’1’ 265, our RT Hunter Shrieves another guy with a decent frame at 6’1” 220, and senior TE Charlie Skinner helps us out a lot with his offensive build of 6’3” 190.
Really deep at the RB position as well, Charles Montgomery has half a dozen or so offers, he’ll be a sophomore, Rodney Roseboro is tailback skill kid, Levi Williams plays and blocks both ways on offense at TE and Tailback, tweener talent Dominic Gonnella had a really productive spring, transferred from Riverview, all-county baseball player, QB Lance Alderson is going to be a junior, he’s taken over reins at Quarterback, he’s done a great job in the offseason, putting time in and studying the offense going above and beyond, had really good spring as well. Wide Receiver Terel Ferell is a thousand-yard junior, he can play everywhere from slot to outside, definitely an IQ football player, and a highly productive player for us,” Coach Warner states emphatically.
“We had a 100% buy-in to our offseason program, kids know what it takes to put them in conversion with top rivals, done a really good job in weight room, also very committed to strength and conditioning program. Newcomer and transfer from Jesuit, DJ Perry, is adding to a productive spring as well, so word’s getting out that Bloomingdale is being put on the map, and we design our calendar around a successful football program- this group is definitely responsible for that.
From a Defensive standpoint, senior Malik Womack is a really disruptive player in front 7, both senior Linebacker’s Landon Moody and junior Gabe Jones have won MVP at BCP camps, they do a great job back there for us, and notable mention junior Quinten McCoy is a junior that plays both ends at DE and TE he’s 6’4” 260, so I think our defense took a big step forward this spring and I’m excited to see how the season plays out.”
Head Coach Warner goes on to explain, “Our Coaching staff is primarily the same group coming back, hired Defensive Coordinator from Texas, Jake Coulson, he joined us this summer, so hopefully he’ll be able to take the program to next level, Matt Hike is the team’s O line coach, he’s done a tremendous job with those guys, developing and continuing to push them- a phenomenal young coach. Coach Jairus Foster is the best receiver coach in town, really works fundamentals and technique, we throw them a lot of balls in the air with success, Coach Gifford, Coach Hutch, Coach Lima, Coach Crouse, and Coach Ramsey; without those guys we couldn’t have accomplished what we did.
Goals wise since I’ve been at Bloomingdale, looking over the course of the school’s 31-year history, we’ve never had district championship or even hosted a post-season game, so that’s something that’s been on our minds since the beginning and we’re trying to make it a respected name in Hillsborough county for years to come.”
Vaughan Sixbury, BCP Contributor