Category: Sports

Both high school football teams in New Tampa suffered disappointing seasons last year, but to very different degrees.

Freedom High, coming off its first winning season since 2009, failed to build on a 6-4 record in 2014 and slumped to 3-7 last season.

Meanwhile, Paul R. Wharton High, which was coming off a disappointing 2014, failed to make the playoffs despite posting an 8-2 record in 2015, because both losses were in district play. Great season, disappointing to miss the postseason.

After a few months of offseason workouts in the weight room and some 7-on-7 ball, both squads kicked off spring football on April 25, and will wrap it up tonight at 7 p.m. with a jamboree at King High on N. 56th St. with Wharton playing Hillsborough for two quarters, and Freedom playing the second half against the host Lions.

For results, check back at NTNeighborhoodNews.com tonight.

Heading into the summer, both teams will continue to work on some pressing questions.

WHO’S TO BE THE QB?

Wharton and Freedom both entered the spring with gaping holes under center for the first time in years.

This is the first year Wharton head coach David Mitchell entered the spring with no idea who his starting quarterback would be since Chase Litton was in the eighth grade in 2010. The record-setting Litton was a senior in 2013, and senior transfer Adam McAfee took over for a season before another senior, Bryce Martin, threw for 1,319 yards and 10 touchdowns last fall.

But whose turn is it now?

“We don’t know,’’ said Mitchell.

Junior varsity starter Darin Green would have been the logical choice, but the sophomore-to-be also is a standout basketball player and Mitchell said he will bypass football to focus on his hoops game.

Considering Martin was the only player to throw a varsity pass last season, that leaves a big, big hole in the Wharton lineup. At Wharton’s practices last week, five possible QBs took turns throwing passes.

Freedom narrowed its choices down to two: rangy 6-foot-3 rising junior Amar McCrae, and rising junior Deshard Hughes, who is built like a linebacker, where he will also play.

So for those counting at home, the two New Tampa football teams combined return one player who threw a varsity pass — which was intercepted — last season, and that was Robert Mungin, a Freedom defensive back.

IS SHANNON THE NEW KING?

Wharton grad Vernon Hargreaves became the school’s highest-ever NFL draft pick when he went to the hometown Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the 11th pick in the first round. Litton, who tore it up last year at Marshall, could be next. And, former Wildcats WR Auden Tate should start this season for Florida State and has future NFL wideout written all over him.

Who’s next from Wharton? This spring could give us a glimpse as rising junior RB Shannon King steps into a primetime role.

Considering Wharton’s passing game will be a bright shade of green, look for the Wildcats to lean on their rushing game, where King ran for 399 yards and five touchdowns last season, running behind senior and 1,000-yard rusher Miles Williams.

King is 5-10 and about 220 pounds, a bottom-heavy load who can both run around and through opponents. Mitchell thinks King can be special. The month of May could provide a big clue to whether or not he’s correct.

WHERE’S THE BEEF?

You won’t find many football coaches heading into spring who won’t tell you that finding capable offensive and defensive linemen is a primary concern, and the New Tampa schools are no exception.

“We need to find out who’s who up front,’’ Mitchell says.

Wharton is graduating big boy blockers like Zach Humphreys (6-4, 275), Daniel Martel (6-4, 270) and Andrew Williams (6-2, 270), but the Wildcats do appear to have some beefy replacements.

At Freedom, the Patriots also suffered significant losses on the offensive line. “We are very, very thin on the offensive and defensive lines,’’ said new coach Floyd Graham. “We need to get some kids well.”

READY FOR A BREAKTHROUGH?

Graham did not hesitate when pointing out his spring MVP: rising senior Trent Burnett, a 5-7, 185-pound jack-of-all-trades.

Burnett will start at running back for the Patriots. He has very good hands and should be a weapon in the passing game.

Last year, Burnett only had 18 carries for 64 yards, but added nine catches for 146 yards (second on the team) and two TDs.

Burnett also will play DB and return kicks. “He’s going to be everything,’’ said Graham, chuckling. “He’s going to be a game changer.’’

IS FLOYD GRAHAM THE ANSWER?

Surprise! Freedom has a new head coach. Graham is now the eighth coach in 14 seasons of Freedom football. He replaces Todd Donohoe, who lasted longer and won more games than any other coach in the school’s history (four seasons, 15 wins).

Graham, ironically, first applied for the Freedom job in 2002, the first year the school was open, but didn’t get it. He went on to start the program at Newsome High (in Lithia) in 2003, and at Steinbrenner High in 2009, having success at both schools and compiling a 21-29 record, including 7-3 his last year with the Warriors.

He is excited about taking over an established program.

“The last time I coached (in Hillsborough County), I didn’t have any seniors,’’ Graham said. “This is a different kind of animal. Something is already there. I just have to polish it.”

Graham has installed a spread offense at Freedom, hoping to take advantage of an athletic squad. He will also line his defense up in a 4-2-5.

The no-nonsense new coach had 40 kids out practicing when we checked out Freedom last week, after starting the spring with 58.“We knew we were going to have to clean house a little bit and we did,’’ Graham said. “But I’m happy with what we got.”

The best high school football player in New Tampa history is about to become the highest-drafted National Football League (NFL) player in New Tampa history.

Former Paul R. Wharton High star defensive back Vernon Hargreaves III, who went on to a standout career at the University of Florida in Gainesville, is expected to be taken in the first round of the NFL Draft, which will pick the first round tonight beginning at 8 p.m.

Hargreaves will attend the draft, which runs through the weekend and is being held at Roosevelt University’s Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.

While other Wildcats football grads have flirted with the NFL (linebacker Larry Edwards was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Buffalo Bills in 2007, and linebacker Josh Jones played in some preseason games for Jacksonville in 2012), none has had the impact Hargreaves is expected to.

According to NFL.com’s analysis, “With top-notch ball skills and exceptional instincts that drew praise from Alabama’s Nick Saban, Hargreaves possesses the football makeup to become a Pro Bowl corner.”

Hargreaves — whose sister Chanelle graduates this spring from Wharton after a sterling volleyball career and who also will attend Florida — grew up in Miami and Greenville, NC, where his dad Vernon II was an assistant football coach at the University of Miami Hurricanes and at East Carolina University, respectively.

In 2010, Hargreaves II took a job at the University of South Florida in Tampa, eventually enrolling his son at Wharton.

Hargreaves did not play football until high school, but was clearly a natural and excelled from the start.

According to various NFL draft experts and analysts, as well as most mock drafts, Hargreaves should be a top-10 pick as arguably the purest cornerback in the draft (although FSU safety Jalen Ramsey is rated a notch higher on most boards). ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper, in one of his most recent mock drafts, has Hargreaves going No. 14 overall to the Oakland Raiders.

“Hargreaves lacks some measurables, but the tape doesn’t lie,” Kiper wrote, alluding to the one knock on the former Wildcat — his 5-foot-11, 207-pound frame. That did not stop Hargreaves, though, from earning all-Southeastern Conference honors every year as a Gator, nor does the former Wildcat see that as a negative.

“Playing in the SEC, I’ve covered Amari Cooper (currently with the Oakland Raiders), I’ve covered Odell Beckham (New York Giants), Jarvis Landry (Miami Dolphins) and Kelvin Benjamin (Carolina Panthers),’’ Hargreaves said at the NFL Draft Combine last month. “You gotta compete. At the end of the day, it’s all about competing. Height, size, that doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, if you can play ball you can play ball.”

Hargreaves can certainly play ball. He was an All-State pick every season he played at Wharton, and excelled everywhere coach David Mitchell put him. On special teams, he returned kicks when called on and blocked a handful of field goals and extra point attempts. He also filled in at quarterback and wide receiver, rushing for 237 yards and seven touchdowns as a junior and adding 313 yards and three more touchdowns receiving that same year.

“He could do it all,’’ Mitchell said.

It was as a lockdown corner, however, that Hargreaves achieved fame, with nine career high school interceptions and more than 203 tackles while twice earning All-American honors, winning two national titles on Team Tampa in 7-on-7 and earning MVP honors as a senior at the prestigious Under-Armour All-America Game in St. Petersburg.

Hargreaves was a freshman starter at Florida, and a sensation his first two seasons. He proclaimed himself to be the best cornerback in the country prior to his junior season, and went out and totaled 33 tackles, 4 interceptions and 4 passes defended.

So, where will Hargreaves, who is lauded for his quick-twitch athleticism, aggressiveness and 39-inch vertical jump allowing him to get his hands on passes intended for taller wide receivers, be drafted?

While Kiper (and CBSSports.com) has him at No. 14 in mock drafts, he also said on a national conference call that Hargreaves could be in the mix to go to the Baltimore Ravens at No. 6. Most recently, however, he has been more critical of Hargreaves and his chances at an All-Pro career.

Drafttek.com says Hargreaves will be taken 8th by the Philadelphia Eagles, WalterFootball.com has him going No. 10 to the New York Giants, and SBNation.com has the Chicago Bears taking him at No. 11.

Chances are, however, that local fans of Hargreaves are hoping that NFL.com analyst Charles Davis and Sports Illustrated’s Don Banks are correct:

They both have Hargreaves lasting until the No. 9 pick, where the hometown Tampa Bay Buccaneers could address a glaring need and snatch up the local kid.

The NFL Draft will air live on the NFL Network, with Round 1 tonight at 8 p.m. Rounds 2-3 will be held Friday, Apr. 29, and rounds 4-7 will be held Sunday, Apr. 30.