This year’s annual “Battle of the Boulevard” football rivalry game between Poinciana and Liberty features a pair of coaches in a pair of football programs in different stages of their reclamation projects.
For the Chargers, Coach Demetrius Hart has brought his pedigree from successful programs like Dr. Phillips High in Orlando and the University of Alabama. Liberty didn’t win a game in 2022 and scored just two touchdowns all year, and Hart took over this year and has the Chargers poised to win their third game when they travel the five miles up namesake Poinciana Boulevard on Friday for the 7 p.m. kickoff.
Both teams are coming off tough losses. Liberty (2-7) lost to Lake Region, 16-12, when its final drive was stalled by ill-timed penalties. Poinciana (36), in trying to run out the final 1:30 with a 22-21 lead at Mulberry, fumbled on a pass attempt that Mulberry scooped and scored on for a 29-21 win.
For Coach Randy Beeken at Poinciana, the project has been ongoing. At a place where coaches spent less than two years, on average — about the same number of wins per year the Eagles averaged — Beeken will wrap up his ninth season there and his fifth as head coach, and a PHS win will be his 20th, by far the career lead at the school.
“We’re going to get better next year, we’ve got some talented juniors like Cameron (Brown, quarterback who’s thrown for 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns) and Ernest (Nunn, receiver who’s been on the receiving end of nearly half the yards and nine TDs). Our offensive coordinator said he’s never seen a quarterback improve over the course of a season like he has.”
The Poinciana program, long an afterthought since debuting in the mid 1990s with just one playoff appearance (2000), has had success under Beeken. Some of it has been tangible — the Eagles were a school-best 8-2 last season and had a bowl game berth canceled due to Hurricane Nicole. But Beeken is prouder of what his Eagles do in the hallways and classrooms — and beyond Poinciana Boulevard.
“Our team’s GPA is up, and we’ve got coaches chasing kids down making sure their doing the right things and maintaining their grades,” he said. “And, the kids who want to play in college, we work and every one of them has gotten an offer. So we're creating opportunities to win and move on in life."
Beeken said he hopes the work makes people change the way they look at Poinciana, and that just starts with the football program.
“We became a place everybody was leaving, because every time kids would start to buy in to a coach, they’d leave,” he said. “No coach here before me took a group from their freshman to senior year.
“I’m fiercely loyal to this place that took a chance on me. I intend to retire here. I’m connected to this place and don't intend to go get another job.”
Hart is living what Beeken’s been through. He’s the Chargers’ fifth coach since 2017. LHS was 9-2 with a bowl win in 2018 for its best season ever — but that was three coaches ago. Hart said he’s needed to instill a new culture and teach how about playing four quarters of winning football, and it translated to victories against in-county rivals Celebration and Gateway.
“The kids are excited and buying into it,” Hart said. “Our younger guys who may be playing JV elsewhere, have gotten up to the speed of a varsity game over the course of the year.”
Senior quarterback Jeremiah Pierre-Louis, a three-year starter, is surrounded by skill players poised to return next year to build on the modest success Hart has seen.
Liberty won the first 15 Battles of the Boulevard before Poinciana won its first in 2022 in 56-0 fashion, so, for the first time, the Eagles will be trying to keep the trophy at the north end of the highway, rather than trying to wrest it away from the Chargers.
“It’ll be a physical game. Dee is building the program he wants and he’s got their support,” Beeken said. “And since it’s our first in-county game, the kids will be playing kids they know for the first time, and it’ll be fun and intense.”
Hart agreed on the intensity expected Friday.
“I just hope our kids feed off the energy that will be surrounding it,” he said. “We’re still looking for that first game where we put all three phases (offense, defense, special teams) together. We’ll have to do that and get pressure on Brown and disrupt those receivers.”
