One of the biggest surprises from last year’s high school football season was the reinvigorated play of the Strawberry Crest Chargers under new head coach John Kelly. Though the Chargers finished the season with a losing record (4-6) their progress was staggering.

The Chargers were decimated for much of the 2011 football season and ended the year 1-9. The team was blown out in most games and gave up 377 more points than they scored. Needless to say when John Kelly inherited the team in January the mindset of the players was at an all-time low and there was less the twenty kids attending spring training. Kelly said his number one priority last spring was to change the team’s attitude and make the players feel that they belonged on the field with some of the counties best teams.

Strawberry Crest was part of the “District of Death” and Kelly stated that, “getting kids to believe they could do great things on the field was a daunting task.” However, it was a task that Kelly was able to excel at. Coach Kelly has been a teacher at Crest since it’s founding in 2009 and was originally asked to take the head coaching job in 2011, when former coach Todd Danohoe stepped down; yet, he declined the offer because it came in late June. Kelly had committed to coaching at Armwood and felt that it would be inappropriate to leave so close to the new season. In Kelly’s words, “Spring is really the start of your new season and it is unfair on everyone to leave at that point.” When the position came available again in early January of 2012 Kelly jumped at the chance to coach the Chargers.

Kelly’s team started the 2012 campaign with a stunning victory over arch nemeses Plant City. The Raiders had annihilated Strawberry Crest in 2011 69-6; yet, Kelly’s players always felt they could hang with Plant City. Kelly said, “The guys have all played ball locally with the Plant City kids and believed that the talent difference was minimal.” The game was one of the most stunning upsets of the 2012 football season and bolstered the Charger fan base; however, the Charger players did not fully buy into the program until a near win against district champion Hillsborough. Kelly stated, “The Hillsborough game is when I really started to see our kids turn the corner. It’s when I finally started to see a look of belief in their eyes. They had finally bought into the system.” The Chargers refused to quit and were not blown out once during 2012 season which was a stark difference to 2011.

Kelly enters this spring with the momentum of Strawberry Crest football at an all-time high. Participation in off-season practice has doubled and the players have started to believe that they have the potential to be great. Kelly stated that, “Building the offseason culture is still a work in progress but the kids are on the right track.”

Strawberry Crest will be entering class 7-A District 8 which includes the other two schools from the Plant City area (Plant City and Durant). Kelly is excited to play more natural rivals this upcoming year and feels that the new district will be a huge boost to school spirit. The district appears to be wide open at this point and should make for some thrilling games during the 2013 football season.

Notes:

~ Chargers DE/WR Alex Carswell received the school’s first D-1 football offer (from USF) and should be a huge playmaker on both sides of the ball in 2013.

~ Chargers sophomore quarterback Tristan Hyde threw for over 2,000 yards last year as a first time starter (including an impressive 300 yard performance against the formidable Armwood defense). Kelly states, “Tristan has worked exceptionally hard this offseason and I expect him to put up even more impressive numbers in 2013.”

~ Crest returns 4/5 starting lineman and their whole defensive backfield.

– Anthony Peace