St. Petersburg Catholic rededicates itself for '06

After the FHSAA hammer fell and the coach resigned, the seniors met to try to salvage pride.

By JOE SMITH
Published October 6, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - In a gut-wrenching, 24-hour stretch, the St. Petersburg Catholic High football team lost its coach but found its heart.

The soul-searching began last Monday, two days removed from the Barons' fourth loss in five games.

During a prepractice film session, longtime head coach Dan Mancuso announced his resignation, stunning his players, many of whom had regarded the 52-year-old as a father figure.

The move came six days before the school would lose its appeal to the Florida High School Athletic Association to lessen the three-year postseason ban for recruiting violations and illegal practices.

With no Mancuso, and no playoffs to play for, the burden fell on the SPC seniors, who will celebrate an emotionally charged Senior Night tonight against rival Clearwater Central Catholic.

"Every week is their bowl game, every game is their postseason," CCC coach Mike Jalazo said of the Barons. "They are going to play that way."

Ever since an SPC senior-only meeting last Tuesday, the Barons 1-5 have practiced and played with more cohesion and intensity than they showed the previous month, interim coach Mike Lynch said.

"We said to ourselves, 'Someone is going to have to step up and keep this team together,' " SPC quarterback David Girardi said. "We're trying to pull together for (Mancuso)."

The new guy

Lynch bends over, his rough hands clutching his camouflage cargo shorts.

A whistle rests in Lynch's mouth as the 51-year-old Virginian watches the SPC lineman go through a blocking drill at a recent practice.

Bleep! "One hundred percent better," he tells them. "That's how you do it!"

The 6-foot-3, 260-pound Irishman, who said he "gets dirty every day" at his construction job, has a similar hands-on approach when instructing a defensive tackle.

It is what he loves. Lynch spent the last 11 years as SPC's defensive line coach before his friend, Mancuso, stepped down and left him the unenviable task of picking up the pieces.

"It's not something I ever would have anticipated. ... I have no interest in being a head coach," said Lynch, whose son, Ryan, graduated from SPC in 1997. "I enjoy the game and enjoy working with kids, but, in this case, I'm just doing my best."

Lynch insists he won't reinvent the wheel. The SPC practices are run the same way, and even though Girardi said Lynch is more "smashmouth," while Mancuso was "air-it-out," the Barons in the post-Mancuso era won't look entirely different.

"Well," Lynch said with a grin, "Danny is more likely to go for it on fourth down."

More important for SPC, players say the Barons are far from down and out. The team, coming off its best week of practice this season, is "finally starting to jell," senior tailback Jock Sanders said.

"Some of the guys, when we were first put on probation, were saying, 'What are we here for?' " Sanders said. "But now, guys are starting to see the big picture."

Joe Smith can be reached at (727) 893-8129 or at joesmith@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 6, 2006, 01:34:33]