Team calm as its fans freak out

Armwood's players kept cool on game day. Students and teachers? Well, that's another story.

TAMPA - The Armwood High School Fighting Hawks were calm, weirdly calm, in the hours before the big game Thursday afternoon.

They sat outside the school, sucking on lollipops, listening to rap music, studying plays, hardly talking, their helmets and shoulder pads strewn about their feet.

"It's not an arrogant group, not a cocky group," said coach Sean Callahan. "They're a professional group. They're ready to stop talking about it and start playing."

They were thinking about one thing as they waited for a chartered bus to take them to Gainesville, where they would face Lake Gibson for the Class 4A state football championship at Florida Field.

Fueled by a 14-0 season, they could be champions. No. 1.

"It's the best feeling in the world," said senior Jake Griffin, a guard who was wearing a lucky black T-shirt underneath his blue jersey. "It's awesome."

And it got even more awesome. Thursday night, victory was theirs when they beat Lake Gibson 29-21 and brought home the Class 4A state title, becoming the first Hillsborough County football team to win a state title since 1969.

Thursday night was for celebrating. But hours earlier at Armwood, the pressure had been intense for almost everyone, not just the players.

"I can't sleep, I can't eat," admitted principal Maria Singfield. "It's my job to keep things calm, but I know it's just a matter of time before all the excitement breaks out."

Wednesday, the players had been cheered on by 1,500 students at a raucous pep rally. Thursday, team spirit seeped out throughout the day, as students shouted out the school colors.

"I'm sitting in class and hear, "Blue, white!' " said Sarah Wilson. "Then someone else would yell, "Blue, white!' Pretty soon everybody was yelling in the halls."

A mini pep rally broke out in one English classroom with a makeshift group of band members.

"Everybody says we're playing for Hillsborough County, not just Armwood," said senior Fred Hicks, a defensive tackle.

As the players got on the bus to go to the game, they walked past two cheerleaders from Wharton High, who showed up with a poster reading: "Good Luck Armwood Hawks."

Social studies teacher Joan Barrentine ran outside to wish the players luck.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, not just for the kids but for the teachers too," she said.

As the bus pulled away, dozens of students screamed and waved from the end of the parking lot: "Go Hawks!"

Said Joaquin Fernandez, 18, who was wearing a blue and black shirt with the words Blue Crew written on it: "How many high schools get to say, "We went to state."'

- Melanie Ave can be reached at 226-3400 or melanie@sptimes.com

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