Sports: Seminole clearly bay area's best

[Times photo: Daniel Wallace]
Donyelle Williams, left, and Jackie Magee are Seminole High's male and female athletes of the year. Donyelle starred in football and baseball; Jackie paced the track and cross country teams.

By JOHN SCHWARB

SEMINOLE -- To say Seminole High ran wire-to-wire as the Tampa Bay area's best sports school would not be a stretch. The Warhawks triumphed the first and last times they took the field in 2000-01.

On Sept. 1, the football team defeated Palm Harbor U. 19-0, beginning what became its first unbeaten regular season. Eight and a half months later, on May 19, Seminole defeated St. Thomas Aquinas 5-4 in the Class 5A baseball state championship at Legends Field, completing a storybook season in which the Warhawks were unbeaten. Between those feats, Seminole enjoyed success in several other sports, and the combined excellence lifted it to the 2001 Times All-Sports Award.

Seminole's 652.5 points edged defending champion Berkeley Prep by 10 in the final tally among 74 high schools from Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties. Not since the award's inception in 1989, when Lakewood won, has a Pinellas public school claimed the title.

"This acknowledges that we are a top athletic program," athletic director Allyn Ramker said. "It's exciting."

Seminole picked up more than half its points from fall sports. The football team enjoyed a state quarterfinal appearance. The boys cross country team finished second in the state. The boys swimming team earned a third-place state finish. The girls cross country team took 12th at state. And the girls swimming team was 14th. Soccer shined in the winter. The boys reached the region final, and the girls advanced to the region semifinals.

The baseball team grabbed national acclaim in the spring, earning a No. 1 preseason ranking from Baseball America and maintaining its excellence all the way to its first state championship.

Track, tennis and volleyball also contributed to the school's seven district titles and six district runner-up finishes.

The school football coach Sam Roper said "has always been classified as a country club school," now owns bay area bragging rights across the sports spectrum.

"I always heard Seminole was good for academics but not athletics," said senior Chris Lang, a state champion in the 100-yard backstroke. "The teams weren't outstanding; you could never brag about them.

"Now my friends from other schools call me and ask if I want to go to a baseball or football game. They say, "You guys are going to kill us anyway.' It's nice to hear."

To have so many fine seasons come together in one school year (last year Seminole finished 31st in the All-Sports standings) proved particularly satisfying to the coaches, several of whom began working at Seminole long before members of this year's graduating class could run, throw or catch.

Roper (16 years), Bruce Calhoun (boys and girls cross country, boys track, 19 years), John Bordeaux (girls track, 18 years) and Tom Haight (boys and girls swimming, 18 years) won district titles.

"It's insanity more than anything else," Haight joked when asked to explain so many long tenures. "Really, kids and the parents understand your basic philosophy, and they have faith that it will do them some good."

One point of frustration for the veteran coaches is that Seminole did not win the Pinellas County Superintendent's Trophy, awarded annually to the top public school based on points from conference play. Seminole had enjoyed a stranglehold on the prize, claiming it 11 of the past 13 years, but this year it tied with Countryside for second behind Palm Harbor. Seminole was hampered by football (not counted due to lack of a conference championship game) and baseball, which forfeited three conference games for using an ineligible player.

The Warhawks' domination in the All-Sports standings is clear, however. Countryside finished fifth, 100 points behind Seminole, and PHU finished 39th.

"I've been here when we weren't successful," Roper said. "But this was a dream season."

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