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Patriot Laws
By JOEL POILEY
Wood, head coach at Wharton High, didn't quiz Jarrett Laws on the pros and cons of the one-back set or two-minute offense. He had seen and heard enough. "I didn't know much about him," Wood said. "But those are the types of people you want in your program. His enthusiasm and love of the game would impress anybody." Those traits have earned Laws, 26, the job as head football coach of the Freedom Patriots. It wasn't only Laws' football knowledge that landed him the job prowling the sidelines when Freedom High School opens this fall. In Laws, Freedom athletic director Frank Oliver saw someone who was wise beyond his years, and put academics before athletics. So when Mike Jalazo quit five days after accepting the Freedom job to coach at Clearwater Central Catholic, Oliver contacted Laws, an offensive coordinator at Wharton. Oliver had interviewed Laws earlier in the year for the coaching vacancy at Blake before Oliver moved to Freedom. "He may look young, but having gone through the interview process with him twice, he acts and conducts himself like someone 37-years-old," Oliver said. "The kids don't think of him as a peer, they view him as their coach. He has a lot of energy and the parents are raving about him. And he has the knowledge of X's and O's, having learned under Batman (Wood)." Moment of truthMany athletes segue from playing to coaching. Laws fits that mold, only he recognized it much earlier than most. In high school, he used his speed and intellect to become an All-State defensive back for perennial power Daytona Beach Seabreeze in the early '90s. Also a standout shooting guard in basketball, Laws earned a basketball/football scholarship to Wingate University in North Carolina, later transferring to the University of South Florida to play for Jim Leavitt. "When I got to USF and I'm getting ready to play football, I'm thinking, 'I'm married, taking classes, and I have a daughter. And I know I'm not going to the NFL," Laws said. "So I decided to let it go and concentrate on my course work." To stay involved with the game, he started coaching at Sickles in 1999, while still attending USF. "Once I saw myself imparting some of these things on these kids and watching the kids develop, it was the most gratifying feeling I had ever had," Laws said. "I knew this was what I wanted to do." When James Jones left as offensive coordinator two years ago, Wood moved Laws into that position after Laws spent a year coaching Wharton's quarterbacks and receivers. "I didn't know Richard Wood, but I sure knew the Batman." Laws said, remembering Wood's persona with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "I remember sitting with my dad watching the Batman put heads to bed. So I figured if I could work with a strong coach like that I know I could learn the game." Wood and assistant coach Earl Goodman gave Laws a cram course in Football 101. Their goal: Building a future head coach. "Jarrett took the job and he ran with it and did real well," Wood said. "Our skill people were our forte and we didn't have the offensive linemen to run a power game. So Jarrett suggested the no-huddle (offense) to take advantage of our speed and I said, 'let's run with it."' Having played football most of his life, Laws knew the game. But Wood and Goodman taught him how to attack defenses, the intricacies of play calling and managing a game from the sidelines. "They kicked my butt on the chalkboard every day for two-and-a-half years," Laws said. "They forced me to observe the game from a panoramic view. That made me a 10 times better coach because a lot of people don't look at the intricacies of the game. Between them they've got more football knowledge in their pinky than I have in my whole body, so anybody who wouldn't listen to them would be a doggone fool." Laws left his mark with many Wharton players, including quarterback Ross Corcoran. A senior this fall, Corcoran recalls the April day when Laws announced he was leaving. "I cried the day he told me," he said. The Wildcats did not just lose an offensive coordinator that day. "He was like a second father to me," Corcoran said. "I could call him any time and he'd listen. Every day at lunch he'd sit with me, talking about plays, personal stuff. "Maybe it was the age thing, but he was so much like us, and he understood what we were trying to do and he was so easy to work with." It was hard at first with him not being here for spring practice. But I'm happy for him. Plus, I know I have a job when I get out of college, 'cause he said he'll put me on his staff." The proximity in age to the players helps, as does an upbeat personality. Laws, who lives in Tampa Palms, is big on attending coaching clinics and listening to motivational speakers. He is always seeking a way to connect with players as people. Laws is equally enthusiastic about the academic component of his job. He teaches social studies to exceptional students, a logical route as he views football as a form of dropout prevention. "Someone once said, 'find a kid's bone,"' Laws said. "Find the one thing that motivates him and tie it on a string and make him chase it. Use it to motivate him. I try and find each kid's angle, what does he dig. Is it music? Does he have a favorite thing he likes to do on weekends? Tie it on a string and make him chase it." Winning won't be easyNo longer "Boy Wonder to the Batman," as his wife Kalesha put it, Laws is standing on his own in a brand-new program. He has two good role models to lean on. Wood and Oliver played on the infamous Bucs team that went 0-14 in the inaugural 1976 season. Wood joined Wharton during its second year in 1998, and has yet to have a winning season. "It's a lot of hard work," Wood said. "You're trying to put something together. You don't have all the players that you want or that you need." In Wharton's early years, he said, "it wasn't the best situation, particularly with no feeder system. And I don't think it will be any different at Freedom. He's just going to have to be patient. I'm sure he can handle it." Laws's team will have the advantage of playing an independent eight-game slate this season, which includes three junior varsity opponents, as opposed to a rugged district schedule. Still, Laws realizes starting a team from scratch will test his enthusiasm. That's why this is the perfect time in his life to accept such a challenge. "You have to do it when it's in you to do it well," he said. "I feel like this is the time I can devote all of my energies to it. A lot of times guys don't get the opportunity until later on in life, and they miss out on that youthful exuberance that gives you that feeling that says 'I went through a wall with my kids to get them to do the right things.' "I still have that mentality. I'll still run with my kids and run them hard." He recalls his coach at Seabreeze, Rocky Yocum, who always told him not to worry about height, weight or lack of experience. Coaching now, he said, "makes a statement to everybody that no matter how old you are, if you believe in the system, if you work hard and commit yourself to it, and believe that regardless of age you'll be rewarded for your efforts, good things will happen to you." Struggles before successAs he observed some of his charges for the first time during spring workouts, Laws acknowledged he'll be getting young, developing players who need a guiding hand. "My thing is that if you can take those kids, and bring them along at the right pace and fully believe in two or three years they will become competitive, you have something," he said. "Wharton's a living example of that. They got their butts kicked as scrawny 10th-graders and now they're going to challenge. It's a feeling that's indescribable to watch those guys have success and I'm looking forward to that here." Laws promises the Patriots will play an exciting brand of football that involves a lot of kids. "If you give kids one point to connect on, the energy that it builds will force them to move in that direction to do the right thing," Laws said. "That's what I tried to do (at Wharton) the past couple years. That way even when one falters, there's going to be somebody coming along and bringing him along. That's what creates success." Jarrett LawsPersonal: Married to Kalesha; daughter, Jamica, 7; son, Kaleil, 3. Hobbies: "FAM-I-LY! I am a dad to the 10th degree. Going to Chucky Cheese." Favorite way to relax: "If I have a good game on and two good jokes from my wife and two good jokes from my kids, that's a perfect Saturday for me." Biggest influence: "My dad, James Laws III. This is a guy who had some difficulties in life. His father died when he was 6 years old and he pulled himself up by the bootstraps and got his college degree. He's bounced back from some personal issues as well. The one thing I learned from him is that no matter what happens in life, if you decide to roll out of the bed and be willing to try again, good things are going to happen." Philosophy: Coaches should care for the individual kid as if it were their own. On his coaching staff: Defensive coordinator Jerrell Cogmon from Tampa Bay Tech. "I see a lot of myself in him. He's a whirlwind of energy, very vibrant, and I feed off that." Offensive line coach Larry Scott, an offensive lineman who recently graduated from South Florida. Dwight Middleton was wrestling coach at King. Will coach wrestling at Freedom and assist Laws. "He's my wise old head. He'll be there to bounce things off of like Coach Wood." Laws will eventually name six or seven more coaches to complete his staff. "I want them to approach it as if it's the first day of the rest of their life because these kids are young, it's a new school, it's a new opportunity and they'll be burning with energy. That's the tone I'm going to set and it has to filter down to everybody else."
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