By Gary Curreri

Pompano Beach coach Melvin Jones knew it would be a tough road in his first stint as a varsity football head coach, especially with the schedule he’s faced.

Pompano Beach (0-3), which entered the game having been outscored 92-6 this season, kept pace in the early going of its most recent game against Hollywood Hills.

“The season obviously hasn’t gone according to plan, but I know what I was getting into,” said Jones, whose team opened with a 53-0 loss to Monarch and a 39-6 defeat at the hands of John Carroll Catholic. “I was just trying to change the culture and get kids to understand football and the fundamentals and to be able to line up and that is what we have been trying to accomplish.”

His team was also part of history on Friday night when Hollywood Hills junior quarterback Holly Neher became the first female quarterback to start a varsity football game in Broward County, and possibly the nation.

Neher started the team’s 51-27 win over Pompano Beach High School at Cooper City High School and was perfect on her first five passes in the first quarter for 126 yards. She led the Spartans to two first half scores, including a 67-yard pitch and catch to senior receiver Alexander Shelton.

The Tornadoes trimmed the early deficit to 13-7 on a 61-yard run from senior Brian Campbell.

Hills freshman Emile Bien-Aime made it 20-7 on a 65-yard scoring toss to Shelton before Pompano Beach’s senior Andrew Putney connected with senior Andre Francis to pull within 20-13. It was the closest Pompano Beach would get the rest of the night.

“We are just trying to get better each day,” Jones said. “I expect to get better each day. I expect them to learn more as they watch the film and being with us. They will get an understating about what football is all about.”

There was optimism following the Golden Tornadoes’ kickoff classic game against St. John Paul II Academy – a 36-34 setback – and Jones said the two schools are similar in size and mirror each other.

They are in an independent league and we were in that league, but now we are playing with the big boys.

“I knew what we are in for,” Jones said. “We are looking forward to the challenges ahead.”

Jones said he has received strong play this season from Putney, Campbell and Jalal Jean-Charles.

“A lot of our guys go both ways,” Jones said, “so they are doing good things on both sides of the ball.”

Tigers notch first victory

Blanche Ely picked up its first victory of the season thanks to a little trickery on the first play from scrimmage in its game against host Boyd Anderson.

On the first play, the Tigers (1-2) lined up two quarterbacks, both Yanez Rogers and James Wallace, in the backfield. Rogers handled the snap from center and pitched the ball to Wallace, who rolled to his left and launched a 73-yard scoring toss to a wide-open Dennis Pete for a 6-0 lead.

Boyd Anderson (1-2) answered on its opening possession as sophomore quarterback Hansy Colas connected with Johnny King on a 15-yard touchdown pass to tie it at 6 on the final play of the first quarter.

Blanche Ely converted a special teams miscue early in the fourth quarter to go up 12-6. Boyd Anderson, facing fourth down, attempted to get off a punt, however, the snap sailed over the punter’s head and the Tigers got the ball on the Cobras’ 14.

Three plays later, Rogers hit Pete for a 10-yard TD pass for a 12-6 lead. After Blanche Ely conceded a safety, the Cobras had one last chance, however, the Tigers picked off Cobras in the final minute to escape with the 12-8 win.

The Tigers opened the season with losses to Stranahan and Plantation.

By Gary Curreri

Pompano Beach High School football coach Melvin Jones is hoping to cash in on his first coaching job.

The Tornados, coming off a 2-8 season last year, move back into District 15-5A play this season after being an independent for the past couple of years. Pompano Beach showed it could score in a 36-32 loss last week to host St. John Paul II, but Jones is excited about the season.

“I am very excited about the opportunity,” Jones said. “It took eight years for this to happen. I have applied at many schools in the county and have had countless interviews, but nobody was willing to pull the trigger until now.

“There is a lot of pent up frustration,” he added. “I am just ready to get things going to show what I can do.”

More than half the 30-player Pompano Beach roster is made up of seniors. The team is led offensively by Jalal Jean-Charles (RB/DB, Sr.), Brian Campbell (FB/LB, Sr.), Andre Clarke (WR/FS, Sr.), Jordan Jaramillo (WR/FS, Jr.), Andrew Putney (QB/DB, Sr.).

The team also has some strong defensive players led by Shemon Jenkins (CB/WR, Jr.), Daniel Eggan (SS/WR, Sr.), Kelly Moore (DE, Jr.) and a promising newcomer in two-way player Jacoby Clarke (TE/DE, Sr.).

“Our goal this season is to build upon our team philosophy which is ‘Stay in the moment, Live as a FAMILY, Dare to be Uncommon and Hold the Rope,” Jones said. “I think our team will surprise people this year. We are a unit that is determined to be great. We are a scrappy team that will fight to the end. We are looking forward to competing for a district title.”

Jones said the team would play the season with a strong motivation.

“As an athlete, you always have a chip on your shoulder,” Jones said. “We are striving to be great. In today’s society you have to prove yourself everyday you wake up. No matter what you did yesterday, you have to do it again today so the chip is always there.”

Senior offensive lineman Steven Nirenberg believes his team can be special. The 17-year-old Coconut Creek resident has been on the team all four years and believes an undefeated season is in the cards when the games start to count.

“I believe we can go 10-0 this year,” Nirenberg said. “It is a new system and we all believe what coach Jones is bringing to the table. The schedule is very winnable and I think we just have the fire in us to go 10-0.”

By Gary Curreri

Pompano Beach High School’s Jalal Jean-Charles exchanged his sneakers for football cleats.

“I used to play basketball and this is more physical,” said Charles, 15, who will be a junior at Pompano this fall. This is his first year playing football. “The biggest adjustment I had was getting into a big team. In basketball, there are only 15 players and in football there could be anywhere from 30 to 50 players playing with you and it is more of a brotherhood.”

The Tornadoes were among 50 teams from the tri-county area (Broward, Palm and Miami-Dade) that played in the 9th annual Dolphins Academy Youth and High School 7-on-7 tournament at Plantation Central Park.

“I like playing with pads,” he said. “I like to be physical. We had a lot of good competition, but we were hoping to win. Tournaments like this helps us get better as a team. We run routes and it lets the quarterback adjust to our play style and we adjust to the quarterback’s play style.”

The high school football tournament consisted of round robin play and then moved into a single elimination format. The high school teams competed in the championship round with Carol City defending its title with a 35-31 victory over Miami Northwestern. Pompano lost both of its games in the tournament (Miami Northwestern, 35-17, and Spanish River, 24-10, but it was good competition for coach Rick Nagy, who was missing several of his top players, including John Padgett Jr. who was on vacation.

Pompano Beach capped the 2015 season with a 28-12 victory over St. Andrew’s School in the Southeastern Football Conference and will move to the Gold Coast Football Conference this upcoming season.

“It’s a grind,” said Nagy, who is in his fourth year as coach. “We coach from February through November so there is not much down time. This is an important part of football because it gives those young kids an opportunity to show their skills. We are a small school and we don’t have those tremendous athletes. We are missing like three or four starters today. It’s the summer and they are out and away on vacation.”

Pompano plays in five 7-on-7s this summer. They finished fourth out of 20 teams in a BCAA event, and said the Dolphins event helps them with their skill positions and he liked what he saw.

“I think we will be okay this year,” Nagy said. “The top four teams make the playoffs and I think we will make the playoffs. I am not much into predicting. I am a coach who doesn’t even go week by week. I like to go play by play. I don’t try to think too far ahead. I think we will be okay in the new conference.”

Pompano Beach senior quarterback Logan Good said his team benefitted from the competition. The 17-year-old said it helped him work on his timing with his receivers.

“You learn that not every play matters,” Good said. “It’s pretty cool to have the Dolphins do something like this. We are running the same offense as last year so we came into this hoping to get better. I am kind of trying to find the open man and get it to him.”

Tornadoes’ 6-foot, 4-inch junior receiver Andre Francis also enjoyed the experience.

“This was pretty fun and it is good competition,” Francis said. “We learned a lot about each other in this. This is the most organized 7-on-7 I have been a part of.”

“Our mission is to be the stewards of the game of football in South Florida and we were excited to host athletes and coaches at our symposium and tournament,” Miami Dolphins Senior Director of Community Affairs Twan Russell said. “We were able to engage students not only on the field, but had the opportunity to develop their character beyond sports, which is equally important.”