They are one of the oldest public schools in the entire state of Florida much less Pinellas County and the Tampa Bay area, but the Clearwater Tornadoes and their football program have not experienced playoff football it seems since the last documented appearance of Ponce DeLeon looking for the Fountain of Youth. There could have been something special developing last season, but stud quarterback Garrison Bryant went down in week four versus East Lake with a broken collarbone and the offensive staff was forced to make due with what they had. Although the Torandoes finished 4-6, they still managed to finished the season 3-3 without Bryant’s services and saw the emergence of their guys in the trenches and the skill positions begin to show exponential growth.

This spring season, Byrant is healthy and the tireless offseason work from camps and rehab on the physical side along with his mental growth in taking on more and more of the extensive playbook that Offensive Coordinator and Interim Head Coach Don Mesick would like to incorporate that involves more pre-and-post snap working parts than a cruise ships’ engine. Before the 38th-ranked player on BCP’s Spring 79 list went down to injury, he had already completed 45-of-83 passes for nearly 700 yards and four touchdowns through the first three games.

The Tornadoes lose their fullback, a tight end and a quality starting right tackle, but they return the rest of the offensive line and all of their major contributors from 2014 at the skill positions. In fact, those skill position players Adarius Lemmons, Tupac Blanch and Jacquez Jones are just sophomores and still have two seasons left to absolutely tear up their brand new district in Class 6A that contains Largo as their main competition and schools like Dixie Hollins, Osceola, Northeast and Boca Ciega that will have to undergo transitions at key positions that could take some time to develop.

Perhaps the most important development aside from all of the physical mending that Bryant has done is the appearance through offseason 7-on-7’s plus workouts and film study is that the game is slowing down for him. He is also a stud pitcher for Clearwater’s Baseball program and if there’s one commonality amongst those guys at that position is that they can over-analyze things in a New York-minute leaving him dangerously close to sensory overload as a QB at times when he applies the kind of self-pressure to perform perfectly that he does.

Since the decade has begun, Clearwater has won just nine games including an 0-10 season in 2013. Who knows? If the numerical trend continues than we can expect to see the Tornadoes win at least 8 games this season, given they won four coming off a season in which they won zero and without their best player with a roster that was virtually unchanged. Now, THAT is some high-quality expectations for a school that so desperately wants to change the image it has earned over the years; something that Clearwater and their fans might not be used to now, but should get used to soon.