North Port Cancels Remainder of Season

[Silver King]

Charlotte was supposed to play them Friday, and it's too late to reschedule anyone like Port Charlotte did last week when Braden River couldn't go.

After Charlotte, NP was slated to face Venice in the 1st round.

 

[gatorman001]

Was the reason they cancelled related to covid?

 

[Silver King]

No not directly, the Mullet Wrapper today reported the AD's explanation:

"We didn’t have the numbers due to multiple reasons, and there’s no way we could safely field a team going forward.”

They had injuries, a lot of kids quit preseason - rumor is they had more quit after Friday's Lemon Bay game. The AD claims he doesn't want to face teams short-handed. In his words:

“You gotta look at how (Charlotte and Venice) are able to platoon and what happened with us losing kids. Going through four quarters against that, someone could get hurt"

Coach Hay from Desoto, on the other hand, has another perspective:

"DeSoto County is another area team which has been faced with a similar situation.
The 0-8 Bulldogs have been undersized and undermanned all season — fielding a roster of well under 30 players — but Bulldogs coach Bumper Hay has taken a different approach to the end of their season.

“No, not at all,” said Hay when asked if he had thought about canceling his team’s season. “I don’t know how much you know about (DeSoto County’s first round playoff opponent) Rockledge, but they’re historically good and they have four or five kids in Florida’s top 100 prospects. So, that’s a tough game to go into. And sometimes as a coach with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores, you think, ‘Should we?’ “But for me, I just can’t tell a kid that I don’t believe in him enough, so we’re gonna cancel the game. I know (North Port) had injury issues and Bayshore had the same thing. But I’d walk out there with 13 and play. That’s just me though. I may have some parents tell me not to.”

I like that: But I’d walk out there with 13 and play. Charlotte finished a dismal 1967 season with 10 players and a guy in a leg cast. They made a deal with the opponent's head coach and refs that the guy on crutches would line up a foot in fair ground at the start of the play, then immediately step off the field at the snap, so they started every play with 11. The next year they were 1-9, the next year my group arrived and the year after that my Tarpons made it to the semi-final game in 1970.

But I have now lived long enough to see something I never have in football.

 

[gatorman001]

I like the competitive spirit of the Desoto coach! Thanks for the breakdown with explaining what actually happen.

 

[Fla2014]

North Port is a struggling program regardless of the pandemic. They will never get the players or keep any of the talent they get due to Venice's success and the type of coaching Venice provides.

 

[gatorman001]

That sums things up in just a couple of sentences!

 

[Neutral 0bserver]

It also explains the main reason HS football has become basically irrelevant. School choice based on sports killed competition in most areas. Lack of competition will ultimately kill the HS game.

 

[peezy28]

It also explains the main reason HS football has become basically irrelevant. School choice based on sports killed competition in most areas. Lack of competition will ultimately kill the HS game.

Talking about things that have become irrelevant LMAO

 

[Silver King]

Article in today's Mullet Wrapper that Desoto Coach Hays was let go.

 

[gatorman001]

DeSoto County played several top-tier area teams including Charlotte, Port Charlotte, Clewiston, Lake Gibson, Lemon Bay and Hardee — losing all of those contests in blowout fashion.
Those games might have been closer if more of the 2019 Bulldogs stayed around for 2020.
Several impact players from last year — quarterback Tony Blanding, running back Jakeemis Pelham, linebacker Nelson Daniels, and cornerback Ethan Redden — all transferred away, and some others didn’t meet eligibility requirements.
That left Hay and the Bulldogs with about 25 total players (primarily underclassmen) between junior varsity and varsity to create a team.

The guy had coached Desoto to a winning record the previous 2 seasons. Silver, Did any of those players that transferred out of Desoto end up at Charlotte HS? I believe at least 2 and possibly even more in fact did...................


Go Canes Go!

 

[Silver King]

You believe that because we discussed it already in the Charlotte / Desoto game thread. Yes we got two and Port Charlotte got three. I think one of the kids who came here returned after the season to play basketball, as the rules allow, because he wasn't going to start here.

But we've also have several dozen Desoto high school students who have come here without any connection to athletics.

He was a good coach in a bad situation - and not only because kids were leaving. I think the article eluded to it also being about Admin, parents, ineligible players, etc.

The best thing that's come to Charlotte High's program from neighboring schools, is cast-off head coaches (a couple from Port Charlotte) who have found a home and excelled here.

 

[gatorman001]

I remembered your post about the game, but not the specifics in as far as transfers and/or the coach having issues beyond just dealing with the X's and O's of football. Just figured you might be able to add some additional insight, that the article online didn't really cover.

Thanks!

What do you think about Palmetto's chances tonight against Central? Personally I feel the stars were right last year, and they let it slip away from them. I think Central win's big tonight. I like the kid Amari Daniels at RB for Central, reminds me of another Central kid from a few years back "Devonte Freeman". Last I checked a few months back, he was interested in Miami, not sure what his status is now?

Go Canes Go!

 

[Silver King]

Palmetto to me wasn't as good as they were last year, might have been the third or 4th best team we played this season, we got fortunate and beat the others (Pre-season I had Palmetto beating us and two of the other three teams we beat). But I believe their HC was on some discipline and their O-Line Coach had passed before the season. We really should have beat them - three plays resulted in two interceptions right off both our guy's hands and a dropped TD. That was enough to swing it.

Now with that said, they made it this far and they may be playing for the coach. They gave us our only regular season loss in 1970 when their band director got killed in a car accident on the way to the game, awful lightening storm the entire game. They announced it and it truly elevated their players. We scored as time ran out to make it 7-6, went for two, I was leading on a bootleg and the Q threw to our HB - this Safety dives and the hands of God carried him 10 feet to just get a finger on the ball and win the game.

But I'd love to see them upset Central.

 

[gatorman001]

Speaking of teams with small numbers, that 1970 Palmetto team was only 28 players strong. Had 4 shoutout wins that season on its way to a 8-1-1 season. Its only loss was to no other then Desoto HS a 20-14 loss. Where I grew up my next door neighbors both taught at SE high school. Their oldest son had been the equipment manager for the SE football team, but decided his senior season to try out and made the team.. My Dad took me to a Palmetto game that year, which may have been that SE game which ended in a 13-13 tie.......I cant remember for sure if that was the same year or not?

For me however the glory year for Palmetto will forever be the year they won the state title in Football and then in Basketball......and Im sure Wavebb remembers the "Wizard" Wilmore Fowler, taking the basketball team to the final 4. Wilmore also played on the football team.

Marino's is back on the sideline with Palmetto, and he is a very emotional and vocal coach so Im sure having him back is a positive. I watched this team play several time this year and then live against Manatee. I dont know that its a team that had play as a team has crescendo as it went into the post season? They're talented.....I particularly like the RB # 6 and the LB #21......both of those guys are the kind of players that make everyone around them better! Naples gave Central a game and I believe lead at halftime but Central put a whuppin on them in the 2nd half............Im like you however I just don't get the feeling this Palmetto team is playing as well at this point s the team from last year. It will be live streamed on youtube, so I'll be jumping back and forth between that game and the games on the NFHS network.

 

[Silver King]

Well, 47-20 its tough to beat those Miami teams they load u too with the talent from area schools.