By Gary Curreri

Blanche Ely High School senior quarterback Faitia Irving has seen a noticeable improvement in this year’s flag football team.

“We are more experienced this year,” said Irving, who has guided the team to an 8-2 record this year. “The starting seven have played together for a while. In the past, everybody wanted to be a leader and that didn’t work. I had to step up as a leader.”

“This is a lot of fun,” Irving said. “I like having the ball in my hand and making decisions. It’s a lot of responsibility, but I like that role. I have a lot of options on the team. I like to run or throw and, either way, we are going to score.”

Irving said she doesn’t feel any pressure playing football.

“It comes easy to me,” said Irving, who started playing flag football as a sixth grader at Crystal Lake Middle School. “It is more fun to play flag football now because the team has gelled together. It is like a sisterhood.”

Irving said the team’s experience is carrying it this year. The team will open play in the District 27 tournament on April 27 at Deerfield Beach High School.

“We have six seniors in the starting seven and the underclassmen look up to us and we have to lead by example,” Irving said. “I think we can go to states and win it. We hope to be as good as the (state champion) boys’ basketball team. It gives us motivation to go do it.”

In addition to Irving, the other seniors on the team being counted on are Latearia Perkins, Christa Vedrine, Stephanie Altidort, Brianna Lebrun, Ta’Marla Thorpe and Marie Lafosse. The team has already bettered last year’s record of 7-5 when it finished runner-up to Coconut Creek in the district.

“We seem better than last year’s team,” said Tigers’ fourth year coach Clenner Goodman. “The team is more focused and they are taking things a little more seriously. I don’t have to work as hard. I don’t have to fuss as much. They are pulling themselves together.

“My returners are taking more of a leadership role now,” Goodwin added. “They are more cohesive and playing more as a unit now. That is what was lacking last year. When I tell them to be someplace at a certain time, all of them are there. They are ready to play ball and they are enjoying winning.”

Bucks hire new gridiron coach

Jevon Glenn will be the new football coach at Deerfield Beach High School next season.

Glenn, a 1996 graduate of Blanche Ely, where he played football and basketball, replaces Allen Jackson, who resigned in December after four seasons.

The new Bucks coach will have his work cut out for him as the team is coming off of a 4-6 season in which the Bucks missed the playoffs. It was only the sixth time in school history, dating back to 1974, the Bucks finished with a losing record. It is Glenn’s first varsity head coaching job; he spent eight seasons coaching Deerfield’s junior varsity squad.

Photos by Jim Wilson

Rakeem Cato performed as advertised Tuesday night, Dec. 23, leading Marshall to a resounding 52-23 shellacking of Northern Illinois in the inaugural Boca Raton Bowl.

Cato completed 25 of 37 passes for 281 yards and three touchdowns, and the Thundering Herd handed NIU its third consecutive bowl defeat.

“That’s what great quarterbacks do, they put it on the dime,” NIU coach Rod Carey said. “He did and we didn’t get it out. We had a chance to battle for those balls and get ‘em out and make them line up again.”

Marshall (13-1) flirted with a perfect regular-season record. Marshall’s lone defeat — 67-66 to Western Kentucky in double overtime came on Nov. 28.

“One game isn’t going to take away what a great season we had,” Carey said. “We just won the fourth MAC championship in school history … the third in four years. And they can’t take that away from this senior class.” Marshall receiver Tommy Shuler caught 18 of Cato’s passes for 185 yards and a touchdown.

“Cato did a good job of making plays when he needed to,” NIU cornerback Dechane Durante said. “They were just staying on the field and wearing our defense down. Quick throws … gashing us up the gut. He did a good job.”

The Huskies’ big failure was not taking advantage of red-zone opportunities, settling for three field goals from freshman Christian Hagan. NIU quarterback Drew Hare was off his game, completing 15 of 27 passes for 225 yards and one touchdown. He was sacked three times. “We have to do a better job of protecting Drew, and that’s on us,” tackle Ryan Brown said. NIU took a 7-0 lead with 7 minutes, 33 seconds left in the first quarter on a 19-yard pass from Hare to Juwan Brescacin. Marshall’s Deandre Reaves returned the ensuing kickoff 93 yards for the tying touchdown.

Cato scored a go-ahead touchdown from 5 yards out to make it 14-7 after the first quarter. NIU missed a scoring opportunity when Hagan missed a 32-yard field-goal attempt wide right. Marshall extended its lead to 17-7 when Justin Haig booted a 28-yarder. At the end of a 64-yard drive, NIU had to settle for a 19-yard Hagan field goal. A 2-yard TD run by Marshall’s Devon Johnson made it 24-10. Hagan’s second field goal of the night, this one from 30 yards, pulled NIU within 24-13 at the half.

NIU recovered an onside kick to start the second half but could not convert a first down on a fourth-down run by Cameron Stingily. “I thought we ran the ball well at times, but not when we needed to,” Carey said. “There were a lot of tears. There’s a lot of heartache in there. And that’s because these guys care. And they poured their whole selves into this thing. But when the dust settles, the first thing they are going to think of is MAC championships and things like that they have been a part of.”

Finished season 3-9, 6th Conference USA

By Jacob Shendell

Old Dominion defeated Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in the final minutes last Saturday on a 27-yard field goal 31-28. Much like FAU’s other losses this year, they could do nothing but watch as Old Dominion held onto the ball for the last five minutes of the game, much like four of the other games the Owls played this season.

FAU recognized 19 players in a pre-game ceremony who were playing their final game at FAU Stadium.

In the midst of what looks to be another failure of a season, the Owls did land a $16 million donation from Richard Schmidt to help build a new athletic facility to boost the football program, and, hopefully, propel them to the next level.

By Gary Curreri

Blanche Ely first year football coach Nakia Jenkins left the field Friday night following his team’s Class 7A regional quarterfinal loss to Atlantic convinced he had the better team.

The problem was Atlantic is moving on in the postseason following the 21-13 win and the Tigers will have to wait another year to see if it can reach the same heights it did in 2002 when it won the Class 5A state championship and finished the year 14-1.

Jenkins, the school’s sixth coach since 2006, cited the team’s inexperience as a key factor in the loss. The Tigers have only won more than seven games three times since former coach Steve Davis left the school and went to Plantation in 2003.

“I’ve been telling my guys all season that you guys have to make the best of every opportunity and dropped balls killed us again,” Jenkins said. “Dropped balls and blown opportunities … Early in the game we are down in the red zone and we don’t capitalize … just miscues and it shows that we are a young team. We learn from experience and I am proud of them. We will just get ready for next year.”

Atlantic High junior quarterback Edwin Hernandez threw two touchdowns within a 2-minute and 48 second span of the third quarter to give the Eagles (9-2) the victory. Hernandez tossed touchdown passes of 19 yards to Markinson Ripert and 30 yards to Lamar Washington to stake the Eagles to a 14-0 lead.

Blanche Ely (6-5) cut the deficit in half to 14-7 on an 8-yard scamper by Teddrick Moffett with 11:49 left in the game; however, the Eagles wasted little time in answering as Davan Cleckley returned the ensuing kickoff 80 yards for a 21-7 lead.

Blanche Ely closed the gap to 21-13 on a 23-yard scoring pass from Moffett to Laderrick Smith with 2:19 remaining in the game, but the Tigers couldn’t tie the contest after it got the ball back with just 45 seconds left on its own 9-yard line.

Blanche Ely also had a chance to take the lead at 3-0 with 8:15 remaining in the third quarter when Carmeley Charite’s 30-yard field goal attempt was wide right. Demeterice Bellamy finished the game with 11 carries for 54 yards for the Tigers, while Laderrick Smith caught 5 passes for 94 yards.

Atlantic won the contest despite committing 18 penalties for 187 yards that nearly wiped out its 260 yards of offense in the game.

Jenkins’ team featured 80 percent of its roster with players in their first year on varsity. Three of the team’s five losses came in the closing minutes to Deerfield Beach, Miami Northwestern and Plantation.

“We just got to learn how to finish ball games, man,” Jenkins said. “It shows. We had opportunities. We should have beaten this team tonight, hands down. We just didn’t capitalize on the opportunities that we had and that has haunted us all year. We’ll take it. We’ll learn from it and just get ready for next year.”

Jenkins said the most important thing the team should bring away from the season is to play a complete game.

“They need to learn to play four quarters,” Jenkins said. “They need to learn to fight through adversity. They need to learn from mistakes. Dropped balls killed us all year and we probably had seven to eight dropped balls tonight and that could have helped us. We got away with it early in the season, but playing a good, solid team like that which runs the ball well and chews up a lot of clock, that’s what happens.”

By Gary Curreri

For the third time this season, host Blanche Ely had a bad taste of déjà vu.

It was the first home game for the Tigers after spending the first five weeks on the road. It also marked the debut of a new, state-of-the-art scoreboard that was donated by 2008 Ely grad Patrick Peterson, now with the Arizona Cardinals, former head coach William Facteau and other community leaders.

The product on the field was competitive, but, for the third time this season, Blanche Ely let a late lead slip away and lost in the closing minute of the contest.

Maurquice Flowers rushed for 114 yards and two touchdowns, including a 2-yard run, with 57 seconds remaining, to propel Plantation to a 31-23 victory over Blanche Ely in a non-district game last Friday night that also marked the return of former Tigers coach Steve Davis.

Davis, who spent 10 years at Blanche Ely and won the Class 5A state title at the school in 2002, won for the second consecutive season at his former school. He is 2-2 in regular season games, not including a kickoff classic win during that span. Plantation won 32-26 last season.

Flowers’ second score capped an 8-play, 93-yard drive to hand the Tigers its third loss in the closing minute this season. It also dropped games to Deerfield Beach and Miami Northwestern in the waning seconds earlier this year. Flowers and Antwuan Haynes each broke the century mark on the ground for the Colonels (4-2). Haynes finished with 101 yards on 14 carries.

“That’s really cool,” Davis said of the scoreboard. “I am a big time Ely guy. I spent a lot of years here. I really think the new scoreboard and all of the other stuff is well deserved. Hopefully, it was a little distraction for them. This was a real important game. It is not a district game, but ,when you look at the power rankings for Broward County, it lets you know where you stand.”

Blanche Ely (2-4) christened its new $100,000 scoreboard on a 38-yard field goal by Carmeley Charite with 3 minutes left in the first quarter to take a 3-0 lead.

Plantation took the ensuing kickoff and marched 80 yards in nine plays to take a 7-3 lead on a 4-yard scoring toss from Archie Banton to Yvon St. Louis with 22 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Blanche Ely, which also debuted new uniforms, capitalized on an interception by Terrance Henley to grab a 10-7 lead on a 5-yard scoring run by Demeterice Bellamy with 2:54 remaining in the first half. The Colonels took the lead shortly before halftime when Banton broke three tackles and bulled in from 10-yards out on a quarterback keeper.

The Tigers capitalized on another turnover deep in Plantation territory and converted it into another score. Zackery Purdue found Therrell Gosier for a 13-yard scoring play with 2:30 left in the third quarter for a 17-14 lead.

Plantation took the ensuing kickoff and moved 80 yards in 11 plays capped by a 7-yard scoring run by Flowers for a 21-17 lead. The Tigers answered on a 33-yard scoring toss from Perdue to Thomas Geddis to seize a 23-21 lead before the visiting Colonels battled back.

“I think we had to eliminate the big play because Ely is a big play team,” Davis added. “We were able to control the ground game and the corner backs played well. I think a win over a good team like Ely will really catapult our season tonight. We have to keep moving forward.”

Blanche Ely coach Nakia Jenkins admitted his team is young, but needs to play four quarters of football.

“We need to learn to finish,” said Jenkins, who is in his first year at the school as head coach. “We should be easily 5-1 right now. We have to put teams away early. It is definitely motivation. I tell these guys all of the time they don’t know how good they can be. We are going to be really good once we put it all together.”

If he were doling out mid-season grades, Jenkins said he would give his team a C-plus.

“We are very young,” Jenkins said. “We are about 80 percent of our JV team from last year. We are get- ting better. Hopefully, at the back end of the season, we can put a lot of things together … We have to keep building and stay healthy. We have to get them together, rally, work on technique and we are at the back end of the season … and get district champs. We just have to take it one game at a time.”

Blanche Ely Athletic Director Andrea Johnson was thrilled with the new scoreboard.

“It is really cool,” Johnson said. “It really goes with the state-of-the-art field that we have here. The community fought really hard to get it. They just beat the ground getting the donations so we could have this for our school, for our kids and for our community.

“Patrick Peterson and Bill Facteau were the major donors,” Johnson added. “The installation took a week. It’s amazing. The capabilities it has, the clarity of the screen … it is a wonderful addition to the stadium. We are still working out the kinks and figuring out all of the wonderful technology, but we will be able to show replays, advertisements and a lot of other cool stuff. We have cameras and all of that.”

By Jacob Shendell

Deerfield Beach comes out on top defeating Taravella High School, winning their first District 11-8A game to the score of 14-7 last Thursday night.

Both teams needed a district win — Deerfield (3-3) coming off of a 24-21 loss to Coral Springs High School and Taravella (1-4) with a 45-7 win over Coral Glades High School the week before.

Deerfield came out guns blazing. Quarterback Jefftey Joseph, combined with offensive weapons Antonio Cartagena and Giavante Evans, marched down the field to the Taravella 20-yard line before running into trouble. Deerfield Beach fumbled the ball with the Trojans recovering it on the 3rd down, having no gain, stopped after the fumble.

Deerfield stopped the Trojans on their drive, forcing them to punt the ball on 4th down, starting their drive at their own 36 yard-line. Kobe Farrish led the drive, carrying the ball on five of the six plays. He ended the drive with a 1-yard gain; he punched into the end zone to give the Bucks the lead 7-0 with 2:15 left in the 1st quarter.

Taravella responded right back with a touchdown in the second quarter with an 80-yard drive by Tyler Hunter tying the game up 7-7. The tie was short lived as the Bucks’ WR Antonio Cartagena caught a huge pass from Joseph running it down the field for an 80-yard touchdown play to put the Bucks’ up 14-7 to close out the third quarter.

In the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Trojans were making a huge effort toward the Deerfield Beach end zone only to be stopped by a lightning delay on the Deerfield Beach 21-yard line. Play resumed 40 minutes after the delay. Deerfield stopped the Trojans on 3rd down at the end of the drive.

The score remained the same throughout the rest of the game. Deerfield won 14-7.

Tomorrow night, Deerfield is in Sunrise playing Piper High School (2-3). The last time these two teams met was on the Deerfield Beach Homecoming night, where Piper lost (53-8).

By Gary Curreri

Cortez Grace started the season as a linebacker and third string quarterback for the Deerfield Beach High School football team; however, he finished Friday night’s game as a hero.

As the song title states, Grace was simply “amazing” in the closing minutes as he overcame two earlier interceptions and capped a 90-yard drive in the final three minutes with a 1-yard TD plunge to lift host Deerfield Beach to a 14-12 victory in the inaugural McDougle Bowl at Deerfield Beach High School.

“I just wanted to win the game,” said Grace, who grew up across the street from Blanche Ely High School, and was 5 for 6 on the winning drive for 68 yards on the 13-play, 90-yard drive with 3:01 remaining in the game. “It felt good. I just came through for my team.”

Grace connected on a 30- yard pass to Antonio Cartagena and then hit Simeon Brown for 19 and 11 yards to march the Bucks down the field. With just 24 seconds left, Grace hit Randerick Gervin to the Tigers’ 1 before taking it in himself from a yard out.

“I don’t like to lose,” added Grace, who filled in for starting quarterback Jeff Joseph, who was sidelined with an injury. “I was just ready. I wasn’t thinking about nothing. I just put the (interceptions) in my past. I got my mind right. I played against those kids in youth football. This is big for me. It was special. It tugged at my heart. It was meant to happen.”

Blanche Ely’s Robert Williams ran for two first half touchdowns as the Tigers (0-2) rallied from an early deficit to take a 12-7 lead on the 40th anniversary of the series between the two schools. Williams finished the game with 10 carries for 89 yards. Deerfield (2-1) had taken a 7-0 lead on a Kobe Farrish 6-yard scoring run early in the contest.

“The kids hung in there,” said Deerfield Beach coach Allen Jackson. “We just had to believe. That’s what the kids did on the sideline. They started believing in themselves and the passes that Cortez threw were huge for us. Oh, my goodness. You couldn’t ask anything more from him. He stepped in and did an awesome job.”

The game was sponsored by brothers Jerome Mc- Dougle (1997 Ely grad) and Stockar McDougle (1996 Deerfield Beach grad), who both went on to play in the NFL.

The brothers, who served as honorary captains for their respective teams, presented the game’s trophy, in addition to awarding scholarships to the game MVPs – Blanche Ely’s Demeterice Bellamy and Deerfield Beach’s Jimmy Harper.

“This is awesome,” said Jerome, who played with the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants from 2003-2008. “It is great for me and my brother to come back to one of the greatest rivalries in Broward County and we were a part of it. It is just a great atmosphere for football. Both teams have had players go and play in the National Football League so it is good for us to come back.”

“This is very cool to give me and my brother a chance to come back here to this game that we actually played in when we were in high school, and to tie it around our foundation,” said Stockar, who has also helped purchase equipment for his alma mater.

“The rivalry never dies. Out of the whole household, I am the only one that didn’t go to Blanche Ely. I hear it all the time, no matter how old you get.”

Stockar said the game always represents “bragging rights?”

“Yes, it is winner take all,” Stockar added. “But it is all about pouring more resources into the community and getting the two booster clubs involved. We have a lot of athletes who have come out of these two programs and who have gone on and done great things. It was definitely time.”

DBHS stepped out onto the field last Friday night for their first regular-season loss since the 2012 St. Thomas finale.

Photos by Jacob Shendell

After an impressive victory against Northeast of 43-6 the week before, “We still have a lot of work to do; we are young and we are going to struggle. I expect some of our veteran role players such as Montel Jordan, Roodney Leon and Jason Strowbridge to step up as leaders.” said Coach Jackson.

And struggle they did; during the first quarter Deerfield Beach High School (DBHS) Bucks went down 7-0 after Tajue Williams, a Dillard RB, ran the ball up the middle of the field for a 24-yard touchdown. Following this score, Deerfield put up its own points with a 34-yard fieldgoal scored by Jefferson Souza.

It all went down-hill from there; Dillard went on to make the score 13-3. Before the half, the Bucks defense stopped the extra point. In the 2nd half, Dillard’s quarterback Jason Collins connected for two more touch-downs, Jordan Merrell an 8-yard reception, and Basil Spencer a 15-yard reception, to put the score up to 25-3. In the middle of the 4th quarter, Kobe Farrish put a 12-yard run in the end zone for Deerfield, decreasing the margin to 25-9.

This Friday, DBHS plays their cross-town rival Blanche Ely High School from Pompano at home in what is sure to be a sold-out game. Ely is coming off of a 12-42 loss to Clewiston High School. Both teams are sure to be looking for redemption and would have it no other way than to defeat one another.

“We need to finish the game, cut down on our mistakes. Ely is our hometown rival and that’s about all it is. We don’t really need to make any changes for them. We have Jefftey coming back out of a two-week injury to fill the quarterback role so we plan on incorporating him back into our offense slowly with Cortez. We need to save him for our district games,” said Jackson.

By Gary Curreri

Not much has changed in the approach that Deerfield Beach football coach Allen Jackson is taking with his team this year.

“We want to be excellent,” said Jackson, who has compiled a 20-10 at Deerfield Beach in his four seasons at the school. “Our motto is new team, new faces and the same goal.”

Deerfield Beach had an outstanding season last year as the Bucks had their first undefeated regular season, won the District 11-8A crown and earned its first playoff victory since 2008. After defeating Flanagan in overtime, 14-7, the Bucks fell 43-6 to Miramar in the regional semifinal.

Jackson knows he has his work cut out for his football team this season as the squad graduated its starting backfield from last year including running backs Brandon Powell (University o f Florida) , Aeron McNeil ( University of Alabama- Birmingham), quarterback Denard Graham (Garden City), along with wide receiver Justin Morgan (Lafayette).

“We have Alex Pierre back from last year,” Jackson said. “He is going to have to carry the load. We have some other kids that we expect big things out of, including Markel Yarbrough, who transferred from Plantation.”

Deerfield Beach will also rely on senior defensive end/tight end Jason Strowbridge and two-way lineman Montel Jordan, and addition to Antonio Cartagena, Jeffrey Joseph and James Pierre. Junior Aeron Cartagena is also expected to contribute.

“Even though we lost 10 starters from our senior-laden team, we are going to focus on the same thing we did last year,” Jackson said. “I think we can; with the additions we have and with what we have coming back, I like what I see as a team. I like the attitude and the work ethic the kids have demonstrated. I am trying to get back to where we were at and get a little further on.”

“I see some big things and the goal is going to be the same,” Jackson added. “We are not going to change that.” This is Jackson’s second time around at the school as he served a variety of titles, including D-Line coach, offensive coordinator and linebacker coach from 1990-2003. Before returning to Deerfield Beach, Jackson coached at Monarch for four seasons and at Coconut Creek for three years. He’s been coaching football for 29 years.

“It is an intelligent team,” Jackson said. “Losing those guys was a big hurt, but we added to the program and I think it will be a little better. I think the program is heading in the right direction. In a sense, we are rebuilding. We added a lot of kids who are young. I guess it is a rebuilding process of old and new. I think we can get to the playoffs. Time will tell.”

Quarterback Jeffrey Joseph moves up from a JV team that went 7-1. Jackson said he is more of a pocket passer than Graham was.

Strowbridge, a 6-4, 250 lb. senior, said his game really took off after his freshman year. He is hopeful of another strong season this year. He said he studies NFL players and tries to model his game after them.

“I don’t know if you can do what they did, but I think we have a lot of young kids who are willing to learn and I think it will be fun this year,” Strowbridge said. “We definitely feel the pressure because last year’s team was the best team I have ever been on. I think there is definitely pressure to do that and do what they did.”

Jordan said the team would need to do what it did last year and be even more aggressive. He said there is a big difference between last year’s squad and this year’s version.

“Last year, we had more experience,” Jordan said.

“We have a younger team this year, but we are more disciplined. Last year, we had Brandon Powell. We had Aeron and a new quarterback (Graham), so we are going to have to work hard to get back to where we were last year.”

By Gary Curreri

Blanche Ely first year head football coach Nakia Jenkins hopes he has the perfect recipe for success this season.

The first ingredient was discipline. The other things added into the mix will come from the players – hard work and determination.

Jenkins, 38, who was named interim coach for the spring workouts, hopes that label will be gone by the first week of the season.

Jenkins, originally from Belle Glade where he played with former NFLers Fred Taylor and Reidel Anthony at Glades Central High School, started as the offensive coordinator in 2004 at Blanche Ely and returned to the school last year in the same capacity after the team started 0-4. He was the offensive coordinator at his alma mater in 2006-2007 when the team won the Class 3A state championship.

Blanche Ely has made it to the state championship game twice when it finished second in 1987 losing to Tallahassee Godby, 31-3, in the Class 4A game before winning in 2002 in the Class 5A game when it defeated Wharton, 22-10.

This is where I have been off and on.

“This is like being home in Belle Glade,” Jenkins said. “This is like home to me. I like the community. I like what I see. I like the environment. I love it. They want what is best for the kids and I do too.

“We went on a run last year and ended up being district champs,” said Jenkins, who succeeds Charles Hafley as head coach. The team defeated West Boca, 44-20, in the first round of the Class 7A playoffs last year before falling in the regional semifinals to the eventual state champion Dwyer, 49-7.

“We wound up 6-6 and the job just kind of fell in my hands,” Jenkins said. “Coach (Malcolm) Spence (the school’s assistant principal) and Mr. (Karlton) Johnson (the school’s principal) are great friends of mine and I respect those guys to the fullest. They are doing an incredible job here trying to get everything going in the right direction. I got a phone call from them and they said, ‘Coach, we want you to take over the team on an interim basis,’ and, of course, I said, ‘Yes.’ I don’t have to prove myself. They know what I bring to the table. They know I bring discipline first and foremost. I treat the players like they are my own kids.”

Jenkins is relying on several key players this upcoming season, including Therrell Gosier, a 6ft., 7in., 210lb. receiver, who is being highly recruited; Kevin Williams (CB/FS), already committed to West Virginia; wide receivers Laderrick Smith, Thomas Geddis and Terrance Henley, a senior CB. The Tigers also added cornerback George Heck, a transfer from Northeast. They will all be seniors in the fall. (CB).

Junior quarterback Teddrick Moffet will be the key, however.

“He is a three-year starter,” Jenkins said. “He is the anchor of our offense. He is not that tall (5-10), but plays like he is 6-5. He has a great arm.”

Jenkins said the team would have won more games last season if it were disciplined so that has been his focus since he took over. He also brought back long-time Broward County coach Carl Wilburn to be his assistant head coach and defensive coordinator.

“He has been coaching in Broward County for 30 years and, like me, he’s a disciplinarian,” Jenkins said. “Carl is a guy I look up to. We lost some kids from last year, but the coaches I brought in know these kids and have a good relationship with them. I think that was really big for us.”

Jenkins said he also realizes there are expectations from the community. Blanche Ely has produced 12 players – third most in Florida, who has been drafted by the National Football League, including this year’s selection of Jabari Price by the Minnesota Vikings in the seventh round.

“There is no pressure,” Jenkins said. “My motto has always been getting the most out of the kids. Ely has never been a football school. They have won some ball games, but for us to get in the playoffs and win a state championship would be huge. That would be the exclamation point.”

“A lot of people know me in the community and they want to see what I have done and what changes I have made,” Jenkins added. “We have great support. We have a booster club now that we haven’t had in a number of years. The support from the community has been great to this point, and I couldn’t ask for anything better, so my return to them is win some ball games. They are going to put the time in for the kids, and it is a good situation, and the best I can do is win some games.”