-
The finality of Osceola’s 14-7 state semifinal loss to venerable Lakeland sets in on some Kowboys players Friday. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON
In a high school football-rich Central Florida, you didn’t have to be nearby to be aware of what was going on at Lakeland’s Bryant Stadium Friday night.
When Lakeland High School and Kissimmee’s Osceola Kowboys clashed for the right to play for the Class 4S (Suburban) state championship next weekend, the matchup — billed as state-title worthy — had the statewide attention of the sport’s circles.
The teams played a regular-season game there in September, but the stakes were far different. Then, the teams asked, “How good are we?”
Friday, the question was, “How good did we get?”
Driving up, even an hour before the game, the game clearly had the city of Lakeland’s attention; streets and parking lots around Bryant Stadium were busy an hour before kickoff. Hundreds more braved the insufferable traffic getting out of Kissimmee to head 45 miles southwest to take it in.
So why was this one football game — won by Lakeland, the regions’ highest seed, 14-7, in a duel worthy of the occasion — the center of the state’s football universe? It’s all about the two teams’ lineages.
Locally, Osceola High is, and has been for a quarter century, the county’s bellwether football program, mentioned among the area’s upper echelon — Dr. Phillips, Seminole, Cocoa, Mainland, West Orange. In fact, the Kowboys regularly schedule those teams to sharpen themselves for the postseason gauntlet.
Osceola, the 1998 state champion of then Class 5A, has made playoff appearances all but three of the years since, and won at least one playoff game all but three of the others. Annually, it comes down to facing a team like, well, Lakeland.
It’s the same side of the coin for the Dreadnaughts, Polk County’s marquee program. Reading the Bryant press box façade proves it — LHS can claim its eighth state title next week against Venice (southwest Florida’s flag bearer), and was named USA Today’s national champion in 2005 and ’06.
Head Coach Bill Castle has strode the sideline for 46 seasons, and claimed his 472nd coaching victory two weeks ago to claim Florida’s career mark. Coaching … football … in Florida … is an almighty grind. Winning, a lot, makes it easier.
During that 2006 run, the FHSAA placed these two stalwarts in the same district, creating a regular-season game at Osceola that determined playoff fortunes. Lakeland carried a 38-game win streak and a No. 1 national ranking into the game. The Kowboys carried, well, a chip on their shoulder.
It was nearly enough. Osceola led, 3-0, late in the game until Lakeland’s Chris Rainey broke away for a 71-yard winning touchdown run.
The following year, it was the Kowboys’ turn to come from behind, scoring two fourth-quarter touchdowns for a 25-21 win that ended the Dreadnaughts’ regular-season win streak at 53 games. Then they met in the 5A playoffs, another Kowboy victory that was a stepping stone to the state title game they’d lose to St. Thomas Aquinas.
The Dreadnaughts make a habit out of doing this.
The Kowboys annually prepare themselves to do this.
So, of course it came down to them on Friday.
After that win, Lakeland leads Osceola, 6-3, all time in playoff games, but for much of this latest epic tussle, it didn’t look that way.
Osceola had an answer for every Lakeland advance, took a 7-0 lead into the third quarter, and was driving toward the end zone to take a two-score lead. Thoughts went to, “This is happening! We get to write the ‘Our Guys Won’ story! Do we know anybody in Fort Lauderdale (site of the state championship games)?”
But a single momentum-changing play turned the tide, and in less than an hour of real time, it was the Dreadnaughts — such a cool name, kinda like Kowboys with a ‘K’ — making those plans.
It was a fantastic game; coaches from each team admitting to each other in the post-game handshake line. After consoling dejected players, OHS Coach Eric Pinellas — who has been part of dozens of game like this as a Kowboys running back, assistant and now head coach, wasn’t ready to find the great drama in the evening at that moment.
“I hate losing more than I like winning,” as he strained to find the words. “All I can do is ask the kids to give all they have for 48 minutes, and they did that. We had a couple moments where the ball didn’t bounce our way. It happens sometimes. And it doesn’t define us. We were battle tested for a night like this.”
Based on the past, and the battles of the present — Lakeland comes to Kissimmee for the 2023 regular-season game — makes for an exciting future.
