Anthony Egan knew his first head coaching job wouldn’t be easy.
He was inheriting a Wesley Chapel High (WCH) team that had gone 7-33 the previous four seasons. Five of those seven wins were against teams that were either 0-10 or 1-9.
In 2013, the Wildcats only scored 68 points all season en route to a winless campaign.
“Change Chapel?”
Yes, please.
“When I first came to Wesley Chapel, I heard guys like (senior running back) Ellrie Allen and some of the seniors saying, ‘Changing Chapel,’” Egan says. “We cut the ‘ing’ off and made it our own.”
The “Change Chapel” mantra is paying dividends, as the Wildcats head into the toughest stretch of the season, starting with tonight’s home Class 5A, District 8 game against Anclote.
The Wildcat players have clearly bought into shedding their image as a losing football team. In fact, Wesley Chapel is now 6-0, the Wildcats’ best start since posting back-to-back 10-0 regular seasons way back in 2001-02. The Wildcats are 4-0 in 5A-8, tied for first with upcoming opponents Zephyrhills (Oct. 21) and River Ridge (Oct. 28).
Wesley Chapel won its first two 2016 games against two teams with the deepest tradition of playoff football in Pasco County, knocking off Land O’Lakes 13-3 in the season opener on Aug. 26 and following that up with a 34-21 win over Pasco on Sept. 9. It was the first time since 2007 WCH had beaten the Pirates.
The Wildcats were just warming up. In its next three games, it outscored opponents 137-28, beating Ridgewood (42-22), Gulf (50-0) and Fivay (45-6). Last week, the Wildcats rallied from a 28-20 fourth quarter deficit to beat Hudson 39-34.
“Week one, we had about 90 percent buy in” Egan says. “Now we’re at 100 percent,” Egan said.
New Coach, New Attitude
It started with Egan. He had two coaching runs, at River Ridge High as well as a short stint at Hudson. He’s a 2003 River Ridge graduate. Last season, when Egan was still at River Ridge, the Royal Knights devoured the Wildcats in the first half, 35-0.
“We were up big but Wesley Chapel came out in the second half and outscored us 21-7,” Egan says. “I saw a lot of athletes, a lot of guys moving around fast and I knew this was a place I wanted to go.”
Egan was set on finding a head coaching job somewhere after serving as a defensive coordinator and line coach for several years. It wound up that the only place he applied was Wesley Chapel; he was hired in January.
“What I saw right away was a good group of respectful kids ready to work,” Egan says. “We had 40-50 kids in the weight room, 40-50 all through the summer.”
In the spring game, Wesley Chapel thumped Weeki Wachee 54-20, showing off the steady running game that was the hallmark of the Knights’ attack the past few seasons. The Wildcats seemed to be on their way.
“As soon as Coach Egan came in, you could feel it in the air — there was that hunger,” senior quarterback Jacob Thomas said. “This was not going to be the same Chapel. We weren’t going to do what we’d been doing for years and years.”
A Perfect Mix…
A few new players have been contributing to the Wesley Chapel turnaround, including highly-regarded junior defensive back Isaiah Bolden, a Florida State verbal commitment and 4-star recruit, according to the Rivals.com.
Though he transferred in from Jacksonville-area Bartram Trail (to be with his father), Bolden is not new to Wesley Chapel — he went to Thomas E. Weightman Middle School and played football for the Weightman Wildcats. He had moved to the Jacksonville/St. Johns area for high school to be with his mother, where he developed into a top recruit.
“It was different, real different when I came back from Bartram Trail,” Bolden says. “I just wanted to see where I’d fit in.”
He has fit in just fine. Last season, Bolden had a 108-yard interception return for a touchdown for the Bears, and those skills were in full effect against Pasco, when Bolden ran a kickoff back 95 yards for a TD.
First-year running back Dexter Leverett is another transfer having a big impact. Leverett played for Eastside High in Taylors, SC, as a freshman but spent a whole year on the sidelines, waiting for his chance. After transferring to Wesley Chapel for 2015, he was on the team but ineligible to play.
He now leads Pasco County in rushing, with 906 yards (7.6 yards a carry) and six touchdowns. Leverett’s 906 yards is more than the Wildcat team rushed for the entire season in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Teammate Malik Melvin is tied with Leverette for the team lead with six rushing touchdowns, while contributing 297 yards.
Thomas, the senior leader at QB, continues to excel, even if he isn’t throwing the ball as much as he is used to.
Last year, Thomas threw an average of 33 times a game for a county-best 1,825 yards and 17 touchdowns as a junior for the Wildcats, but he has sacrificed his prolific numbers, throwing only seven times a game this season, for the sake of the team.
The 6-foot-4, 180-pounder has completed 17 of 42 pass attempts, but almost half his completions — eight, to be exact — have gone for touchdowns, including three to junior WR Justin Trapnell and two to freshman RB Keith Walker.
“If I don’t buy in (to Egan’s gameplan), then who does?” Thomas said after the win over Pasco. “We are going to run his style (of offense), I knew how it would be but he makes the calls and we execute them.”
“Jacob’s been great, he’s been patient,” Egan says. “He’s a big kid that’s still waiting on that first (college) offer. He can really hit receivers when they’re open and that’s what the running game (sets up). He is such a good leader, he could hand off 60 times and pass two. It’s all about winning. He’s worried about the team and winning.”
That’s what it is all about at Chapel these days.
Change, indeed.
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