 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
A winning record
By KEITH NIEBUHR, Times Staff Writer LECANTO -- One game doesn't make a season, but it sure can jump-start one. Saddled with a 13-game losing streak, Lecanto's football team entered Week 2 of the 2001 season 0-1. No surprise there. The Panthers after all, had never finished a season with a winning record, so losing was something everybody at the school and in the community had grown accustomed to. Another defeat seemed probable. Lecanto, which lost to lowly Tavares 13-12 the previous week, had a road date at Central. A year earlier, Central beat the Panthers 46-0 in a game that wasn't as close as the score. From that team, the Bears returned several quality players. They figured to roll. Central built a 7-0 halftime lead, but Lecanto made it 7-6 with a 50-yard touchdown run by Jarvis Patterson on a fake punt in the third quarter. Quarterback Phil Reed later connected with Bruce Emberley for a 65-yard touchdown pass, and fullback Bruce Lewis scored two touchdowns, including a 32-yarder with 1:41 left in the game. Final score: Lecanto 26, Central 13. The result sent shockwaves throughout the North Suncoast. People wondered aloud if the win was a fluke, or if this Lecanto team was for real? With every passing week, the Panthers proved that the win over Central was not an anomaly. They whipped Citrus and Hernando, among others, then closed the regular season with an emphatic 55-19 drubbing of playoff-bound Eustis to finish 6-4. In its 18th season, Lecanto finally had its first winner. "Only one group could be first," said Panthers coach Dick Slack. "That's something we tried to drill into them all year. A lot of hard work by good people has gone into it. It feels good that this group was able to come together and get it done." After beating Eustis, the Panthers took a team picture with the scoreboard in the background. The photo will be placed in the school's trophy case, where it will remain as long as Lecanto is standing. "I've been walking around and people have been saying, "Good game, good season,' " Patterson said two days after Lecanto's final game. "I got a bunch of calls Saturday morning from family and friends." The Central game was the turning point. "That pretty much set the tone for the season," Emberley said. "We knew if we could beat them like that, we could handle anything." Lecanto's 6-4 finish was fueled by its winless season of 2000, when the Panthers began with high hopes but lost three close games early and never recovered. By season's end, one-third of the team had quit. Those who stuck around were teased by their classmates. "It was real difficult," Reed said. "But we learned a lot from that season. We learned to never give up when you're down. We learned about teamwork. And we realized that we had to get in the weight room." After going 0-10, Lecanto hit the weights, and in the spring the Panthers were bigger, stronger, more cohesive and more mature. They maintained their focus during the summer. Slack predicted his 2001 team would be his best and had a great chance to win more games than it would lose. Some laughed at his claim. In the past, Lecanto had talked big, but walked with a limp once play began. The loss to Tavares, which hurt because the Panthers outplayed the Bulldogs on both sides of the ball but missed two extra points, gave the doubters something to chew on. The win at Central woke everybody up. One wonders now if the Panthers can keep it up. Will they sustain the momentum from 2001 or fade into dust? Lecanto returns 18 juniors from the 2001 squad, most notably Reed, the heart and soul of the team, and running back Jarvis Patterson, the county's second-leading rusher. Additionally, all but one lineman (on both sides of the ball) return. "Next year could be the best year ever," Patterson said. "That's what I'm thinking." Such talk used to inspire laughter. Not any more. "We're finally at the point where we can have kids graduate and have other kids move in and hopefully play as well as those kids did or even pass them by," Slack said. "It's not a case where we have to start from scratch again." One game changed the way people felt about Lecanto. More important, it changed the way the players thought about themselves. Top 101. Lecanto football team posts first winning season. 2. Homosassa native Mike Hampton has memorable year in Major League Baseball. 3. First-year coach Brent Hall resurrects Crystal River baseball program. 4. Lecanto's Kate Wheeler reaches state track meet in four events. 5. Panthers baseball standout Jimmy Metz transfers to Crystal River. 6. Jordan Darga of Citrus and Lecanto's Harold Skidmore bid for state championships. 7. Crystal River football team wins county title in style. 8. Lecanto's Amanda Howard and Tony Lyons of Citrus dominate cross country scene. 9. Amber Presnick of Citrus is soccer's player of the year again. 10. Lecanto girls finish third in state tennis tournament.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
|
