Chargers will host Knights today

By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

This is the biggest week in high school football.

Well, up to this point, at least.

Teams will finally, after summer weightlifting sessions and three weeks of sometimes soggy, otherwise muggy fall practices, line up and find someone wearing a different color.

Kickoff Classic week begins tonight when Liberty hosts East Ridge at 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Harmony hosts Winter Springs and Celebration hosts Lake Howell at 7 p.m. St. Cloud welcomes Bishop Moore 30 minutes later.

Osceola (to Lyman, 7:30 p.m.), Gateway (to Satellite Beach, 7:30 p.m.) and Poinciana (to First Academy, 7 p.m.) all hit the road.

Liberty Coach David Benson looks forward to seeing his squad play against East Ridge, which plays in Class 6A and is one of the top teams in Central Florida. The Chargers won last year’s Kickoff Classic at Clermont.

“We kind of stunned them a little up there, but I told the guys that it won’t be that way this year, they’ll be ready,” Benson said. “This is probably the closest thing to a playoff environment we can get at this point.”

Benson said the team is healthy with the exception of senior receiver Greg Hayes, out with a shoulder injury.

“We should be out there running around on defense the way we always do. We’ll try a couple of different schemes, we haven’t settled on our base defense yet and we’ll get a good idea after we see what happens (tonight),” Benson said. “We’ve got a few new kids who are going to help us down the line, but right now they’re still learning the system and getting up to speed.”

Sophomore quarterback Greg Hankerson will run the spread offense.

“In the last two weeks of practice, he’s thrown one interception,” Benson said. “By the time he graduates, he’ll be running the offense himself.”

The first quarter of tonight’s game will feature the junior varsity.

Gateway Coach Marlin Roberts said after a scrimmage on Friday that things should be on the rise in the Panthers’ camp. GHS was 2-8 last year, a mark not unexpected as Roberts had just five returning varsity players from 2008.

The starting quarterback (Roger Allen) and a top running back (Devontae Dobson) return, and they’ll get help from “The Triplets” – Ian Stevens, Zack Smith and Aaron Roman – three versatile players who saw varsity snaps last year as freshmen.

“It’s the best I’ve seen here in a while,” said Roberts, who spent six years as a Panthers assistant before taking their lead job last year. “We said last year that the first goal was to get the numbers up. We’ve done that, and now it’s time to move on from there.”

Satellite Beach is a formidable foe Friday. The Class 2A Scorpions had a revival last year, going 5-5 after a series of dull, sometimes winless, seasons.

Roberts said that Satellite intends to make it a trend, and that the Panthers hope to be the first team to buck said trend.

“We’d love to win,” he said. “I heard they’ve got 10 or 11 transfers to replace their seniors from last year.”

Harmony finished 6-5 last year, but dropped its last three games including a winner-goes-to-the-playoffs grudge match against St. Cloud and a bowl game against Lake Mary.

But, Coach Dayne Brown said there’s no bad taste lingering in the mouths of returning players.

“This feels like a new group. They’re not thinking about last year, just about being better,” he said.

Brown lauded the experience in his backfield (seniors Christian Acevedo and C.J. Clayton), big improvement by a young offensive line and a defense picking things up under new coordinator Russ Rother.

He said Friday will be about making sure fundamentals are sound.

“It’s a typical Kickoff Classic, you just go off what they did last year,” Brown said of Winter Springs.

Celebration, with new head coach Ben Aarestad, hopes to build on the positive vibes from a 37-6 victory over Poinciana in May’s spring game, when the Storm forced six turnovers.

Aarestad, who inherits a program that won four games in the past three seasons, said another win can bring his players, who should number about 45 once all the physical forms come in, the attitude that more wins are in store this year.

Having a senior-laden first unit doesn’t hurt, either.

“We’ll play varsity the whole way, we’ll treat it like a real game,” he said. “We need for the kids to be and feel successful. We need to see them do the simple things right.”

St. Cloud Coach Bill Buldini said there are plenty of jobs open when the Bulldogs host Bishop Moore.

“We’re going to look at all positions,” he said. “Whoever goes out there and performs will play.”

Buldini said the team is coming together.

“We’re making progress. We’ve got a lot of young kids who are still learning,” he said. “But, they’re coming along. We’ll know a whole lot more after Friday, because Bishop Moore is a pretty good team.”

Buldini said junior Phillip Steinmetz will start at quarterback.

“The guys will be a little bit better after Friday, and they’ll have to be because we’ve got Osceola the next week,” Buldini said.

Poinciana Coach Michael Timpson said he has good idea of what his starting lineup will be when the Eagles visit First Academy Friday at 7 p.m.

“After seeing the summer workouts and what I’ve seen in practice, I’ve seen enough to know who the starters will be,” Timpson said. “For the most part, we’ve solidified things, though nothing’s etched in stone.”

Timpson said the team has performed to his expectations through two and a half weeks of practice.

“They’re working hard, and that’s all you can ask of them,” he said.

Timpson said he has watched film of First Academy, but the Eagles won’t spend a lot of time preparing for the Royals.

“It’s a preseason game,” he said.

Osceola Coach Doug Nichols said he is interested to see how his players react Friday.

“When you ask how many had significant plays last year, and about four out of 60 stand up, then you don’t know what to expect,” Nichols said. “These kids haven’t been asked to be leaders before. The group before them, they did it since they were sophomores. This is the first time these kids have been asked to do that.”

Nichols said the Kowboys  are prepared for Friday’s game.

“I don’t know how good we are right now. How will we react when somebody breaks it 60 yards against us? How will we deal with the adversity?”

Nichols is confident of one thing: “Our kids play hard. They don’t care whether there are four or five D-1 kids over on the other side, they aren’t afraid. They’ll get after it.”

Rick Pedone contributed to this story.