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A place to call home field

Tampa Catholic High School Crusaders play their first on-campus football game in the school's 43-year history. And they win.

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published October 22, 2005

	[Times photo: Brian Cassella]
	Tampa Catholic High Crusaderette dance team member Ashton Weber gets help pinning on her flower from cheerleading coach Sara Lewis before the Crusaders' first football game on their new field on Friday night. They defeated Admiral Farragut Academy, 27-7.

TAMPA - Andrew Bennett scanned the crowd of green and white for familiar faces Friday night.

A little more wrinkled than they were 40 years ago, they lit up when they recognized their old Tampa Catholic High School football buddy.

Gary Taylor, class of "66, hooked his arm around Bennett.

"He was lucky he had me as his quarterback," joked Taylor, who lives in New Port Richey.

"You got that right," answered Bennett, class of '67. They hadn't seen each other in 15 years, but Friday night was cause for a reunion.

Their fellow first-generation team members teased each other about gaining weight and losing hair while they huddled together on the school's new football field, ready to form a gantlet to welcome the varsity team into the first on-campus football game in Tampa Catholic history.

It was a true homecoming for the Crusaders.

"It's wonderful to be back," said Bennett, of Tampa. "There's just a lot of love being shown between all of the old players coming back to watch the new players out here."

Cheerleaders held up a sign that read: "There's no place like Rome," a reference to Tampa Catholic's home address on Rome Avenue.

The roar of 4,000 voices resounded from bleachers on both sides of the field and the portable bleachers behind the goal posts, and under bright new stadium lights, as the players broke through the sign.

"We are thrilled beyond words," principal Patricia Landry said. "We have waited so long and worked so hard for this."

When the doors of Tampa Catholic opened in 1962, it had neither the money nor the permission from the city to build an athletic field on campus. But demand grew over the years, and in 1997, the school petitioned the City Council for a special zoning variance needed to overturn a 35-year-old ruling restricting the school from building a football stadium on campus. Tampa Catholic got the variance, to the chagrin of some Wellswood neighbors who battled the Crusaders over the noise and traffic they feared a stadium would bring.

"They don't have enough parking, so people are going to park on side streets, and we're going to be out there saying, "Don't park on my lawn,"' said Elvira Garcia, who lives a block away from the stadium. "I'm just so disappointed."

In 2003, the school launched a campaign to raise the $3.5-million needed to build the stadium and athletic complex.

Notable contributions included $250,000 from New York Yankees owner and Tampa resident George Steinbrenner, and $50,000 raised by the students themselves. They all saw the need for Tampa Catholic to have a home field it could call its own.

"We've always had to play second fiddle to some of the other private schools around," said head coach Bob Henriquez, a Tampa Catholic alum. "Just to have a place you can call your own - that you can decorate and customize and create a sense of tradition - will mean a lot to the team and the program overall. It's a very special night for all of us."

And the complex isn't even finished. The school still needs $2.5-million to complete its ambitious plans, which include a boat house for the crew team, four multisports courts and an expansion for the gymnasium.

"We're not done by any stretch. We've gotten this first part completed, but we still have a long way to go," Landry said.

But Friday night, the field was enough for senior Randy Moseley. Apart from being a defensive back on the first team in 43 years to play at home, he was elected homecoming king last Monday.

"You can't even describe it in words. I feel so lucky right now," he said before kickoff. "We all know what we came here to do. Light up the scoreboard and give it to "em, baby."

They defeated Admiral Farragut Academy, 27-7.

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 226-3354 or at azayas@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 22, 2005, 01:13:18]