Tag: wiregrass ranch high

Wiregrass Ranch High Band Earns Best In State!

At an event where there is no scoreboard and your fate lies in the hands of judges, you really never know. But Josh Hobbs, the Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) band director, was pretty convinced that of the five finalists for Florida’s Class 4A State Championship, his Bulls were among the best.

“We thought we had a good chance to be in the top three and we would have been excited about that,” Hobbs said.

The Bulls had turned in one of their best runs of the season at the State semi-finals to make the finals, and the band was even better at the finals.

He still wasn’t expecting what happened next.

First place.

State Champs.

Boom!

“It was surreal,” Hobbs says. “It was shocking. We were flabbergasted.”

The Bulls’ performances were history-making. While acclaimed as one of the area’s best bands for years, on Nov. 23 the Wiregrass Ranch Marching Bulls became the first Pasco County group ever to capture a Florida Marching Band Championship.

“It is a first for the school, and a first for Pasco County,” says Hobbs.

The Bulls capped a great season with a magnificent and grueling final day. They had to compete against 15 other high school bands in Orlando for the semifinals, and then after being one of five teams selected to move on, had to load all of their instruments and uniforms to drive to Daytona Beach for the final that night.

They were up against perennial powerhouses in the high school marching band world, including Seminole, the defending champions, as well as Bradenton’s Lakewood Ranch and Orlando’s University High.

No problem.

The Red X

Gone are the days when a marching band was primarily entertainment under the Friday Night Lights. The band performs at every football game, but beyond bringing excitement to the bleachers, the crowd provides an opportunity for the band to do a live run-through of its show in front of an audience, honing the music and marching skills needed to be competitive against the best high school marching bands in the state.

Hobbs, who is in his second year at WRH after coming over from Wesley Chapel, credits both the students’ hard work and the design of the show for their State Championship win.

The show, called The Red X, depicts a plague. That may not be your typical marching band fare, but Hobbs says the band members, section leaders and drum majors all bought into it and made it great.

“They were super excited about it and worked really hard,” he says. “We had a great leadership team to get everyone on the same page and stayed really focused throughout the year to set small goals, to achieve our big goal, which is to get where we did.”

Music in The Red X included Linkin Park’s “In The End,” Alanis Morissette’s “Uninvited,” plus classical pieces, an orchestral piece and a band piece.

“They had a great theme and they really sold it,” says Tom Viking, the fine arts program coordinator who oversees all fine arts programming in kindergarten through grade 12 for all Pasco County Schools. “They played well and performed well.”

Months Of Rehearsals

Rehearsals for the show started last May. Color guard and percussion met over the summer to rehearse, and the entire band had two weeks of band camp before the 2019-20 school year started. Every day at camp, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the band practiced.

Students started with the fundamentals of marching, learning how to stand, how to step, how to play warmups or toss a flag. Then, they started learning the placements and continued practicing two or three hours a day, at least three days a week, throughout August, September, October and November.

With 140 band members, plus support staff and volunteers, this adds up to tens of thousands of hours of work.

Hannah Kim is the band’s senior drum major and flute soloist. She’s been in the band her entire high school career and hopes to continue playing in college this fall.

Kim says what it takes to reach that pinnacle is “a lot of endurance and consistency.”

First In Class & Even Beating The Bigger Bands

“I happened to be there that night and saw all of the bands, which was really cool,” says Viking. “It was a tight margin.”

He explains that bands are divided into five categories, based on how many students are on the field, not the size of the school, which is how schools are typically classified for sports classifications.

WRH is a 4A school, the second-largest category behind 5A in Florida.

“Not only did they win their category statewide, they placed third overall,” explains Viking. “That means of the 5A bands, only two scored higher than Wiregrass Ranch.”

There are several adjudicators and each judge studies one component very carefully, he says, such as footwork or music, design or color guard. Adjudication is meticulous, and bands are judged precisely in many categories.

“Wiregrass Ranch has been in the finals before,” says Viking. “They’ve been in the hunt, and this time, the stars aligned for them.”

After making it to the finals her freshman and junior year, Hannah says it was exciting to not only reach the finals her senior year, but to finally pull off the big win.

“It feels amazing,” she says. “Honestly, I just feel so proud. We work hard every year, and I felt like all our hard work was recognized.”

Her unique perspective included watching the band perform from the drum major platform, seeing the show take shape from its very beginning, but she also got to perform in the show as the flute soloist.

“It was a cool experience. When I got drum major, I was a little sad because I was going to miss marching on the field and playing the flute,” Hannah explains, “but it was awesome to get the best of both worlds.”

Kudos To The Director & His Support Staff

“Josh Hobbs is home grown in Pasco County,” says Viking, taking pride that Hobbs not only has chosen to spend his career in Pasco, but also graduated from Wesley Chapel High (WCH), where he participated in the marching band.

In fact, Hobbs’ former school also competed this year. WCH was in Class 2A when Hobbs led it, but moved up to Class 3A this year. The Wildcats also made the finals, finishing fifth in the state for its class.

At WRH, Hobbs has the benefit of significant support, including a strong band at John Long Middle School that feeds into the high school.

“He’s got a great staff that works with him, a great middle school program, and a great group of parents,” says Viking. “It’s a special thing.”

Viking says the typical Wiregrass Ranch High band kid probably started in the band at Long as a sixth grader, and many of the students have performed together ever since.

“It’s a lot of hard work through a lot of years,” says Viking. “They’re passionate about what they do and the team members they do it with.”

This year, Hobbs says all that hard work paid off.

“The skills these kids build through the fall — time management, discipline, and working harder than they ever knew they could work — and then to be rewarded the way they were, makes it all worth it.”

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On & Off The Field, Former Wiregrass Ranch High Star Chris Faddoul Stands Out

Former Wiregrass Ranch High multi-sport standout Chris Faddoul continues to excel on & off the field at Florida A&M University, where he led the nation in punting average.

Seemingly everything Chris Faddoul did while a student at Wiregrass Ranch High led to success. A fantastic student, an on-campus leader and an athlete who excelled at football, soccer, tennis, track & field, and heck, even table tennis (as a member of the school’s ping-pong club).

But in the two years since he’s graduated and moved on to college at Florida A&M University, Faddoul has narrowed his athletic scope to just football, and the results have been spectacular — on Tuesday, Dec. 11, the Rattlers’ starting punter was selected as a first-team All American by the Associated Press.

Faddoul is the first Rattler since Leroy Vann in 2009 to be selected to the NCAA Division I Football Champion Subdivision (FCS) team.

Add it to Faddoul’s growing list of athletic accomplishments. At Wiregrass Ranch, whether it was as a captain, quarterback, kicker and punter on the football team, a district champion long jumper for the track team, a standout scorer for the Bulls soccer team, which he helped to a state semifinal finish as a sophomore, a tennis player, who went 15-0 as a senior and reached the state series tournament after never having played competitive tennis before the season began, Faddoul excelled on the fields, courts and tracks across the area.

But for his coaches, past and present, the best attribute Faddoul may have on his talented resume is his character.

“Chris was genetically given the gift of great athleticism,” WRH athletic director Dave Wilson, the school’s soccer and tennis coach, says. “But, on top of that, you add the strongest work ethic you’re going to find … it’s just the character on top of all of it. He’s just this tremendous person, and you look to find where this kid’s faults lie, but you just aren’t going to find them. He is a coach’s dream.”

As far has his success on the football field is concerned, that has continued, as Faddoul has taken to the college ranks the past two seasons.

Faddoul was outstanding for FAMU in his 2018 season, ending the regular season as the leading punter in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

As a freshman, he averaged 39.6 yards-per-punt, with a long of 55 yards. But in his sophomore campaign, he improved in a big way, finishing the season with a 46.8-yard average on 41 punts, including 16 punts of 50 yards or better. He also pinned opponents inside their own 20-yard-line 17 times, with just seven kicks reaching the end zone for a touchback.

His per-punt average and single game average of 60 yards (against Fort Valley State, 9/1/18) are school records at FAMU.

Faddoul even took on the kickoff duties for the Rattlers’ final three games of the season, recording 12 kicks with a 56.7-yard average.

“Chris worked extremely hard during the offseason to improve his technique, and he has become a critical part of our game plan each week,” FAMU head coach Willie Simmons says. “He has been one of our team leaders (this year), and he’s a young man of high character.”

His successes at the college level were almost put in jeopardy by two leg injuries in his high school career, first breaking his leg as a junior, then tearing his ACL as a senior.

However, Faddoul’s drive for success meant the potentially career-ending injuries were mere bumps in the road.

“Those injuries, especially the ACL (tear), were either going to be the breaking point or the thing that I got past to come back stronger than I ever was,” Faddoul says. “The senior year injury took a toll mentally. An ACL injury can be a career-ender for some players, but I love athletics and for me, there was no question how hard I was going to work to get back.”

Faddoul credits his athletic prowess to genetics from his father, Ghassan, who represented Lebanon at the 1976 Summer Olympic,s competing in the long jump and javelin, as well as playing basketball and college football in Virginia.

It was his father’s competitiveness that the younger Faddoul says drove his love of athletics and desire to keep competing, no matter what.

“My Dad has always pushed me and set the bar a little higher for me,” Faddoul says. “He always expected me to do well and then do a little bit better. I loved that push. He made me want to be better and it gave me a competitive edge that made me drive to be my best.”

Meanwhile, Off The Field….

It wasn’t just the athletic fields, tracks and courts where Faddoul excelled as a leader. He also was a standout student at WRH, something he also has continued at FAMU, where the sophomore is focused on his major in Biology and carries a 4.0 GPA with plans to attend dental school.

He also has served as president of FAMU’s Special Olympics planning club. Faddoul garnered some national acclaim when a video surfaced of him his senior season at WRH, gifting a football-team signed helmet to his classmate Andrew Hayne — a friendship Faddoul has maintained since middle school.

“Andrew has been a friend since middle school,” Faddoul says. “Every time I saw him in school back then he would yell, ‘Fad-doodle,’ at me, run at me and give me a hug. We’ve been great friends since then. He’d look for me each Friday so I could give him my jersey to wear for the (school) day. It was always special for me to see him there supporting me each game.”

The character part of Faddoul’s makeup also includes a maturity that is impressive for a 19-year-old. When he made his choice to attend FAMU, over his other college football scholarship offer to attend Valparaiso University in Indiana, he showed maturity beyond his years.

“Obviously, I’m a Caucasian attending an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities),” Faddoul says. Although that didn’t play a role in my college decision, I was a little worried that I might impede, or interfere with the other students who were coming here to immerse themselves in the cultural experience of attending an HBCU. But, this experience couldn’t be better. Everyone, from the coaches, to the faculty, to my fellow students, have welcomed me with open arms. I’m really at home here.”

Fears Felt Miles Away From Parkland

Students at Wiregrass Ranch (above) were some of many in Wesley Chapel who took part in a national walkout to honor those slain at Stoneman Douglas High. (WTSP)

As students across the country react to the Valentine’s Day school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida, about 13,000 people participated in Tampa’s “March For Our Lives” on March 24.

Students at schools in Wesley Chapel came out to the event, after many also attended candlelight vigils on February 19 and walk-outs on February 21, remembering and honoring the victims, while showing solidarity with those affected by the shooting and calling for changes to make schools safer.

At Cypress Creek Middle High School, a lockdown caused by an announced “active threat on campus” on March 13 inspired sophomore Brina Gutierrez to write this opinion piece for the school’s newspaper, the Cypress Creek Howler. As it turns out, there was no threat to the campus, but police responded after a student reported seeing a suspicious person walking near the school with what might be a firearm.

Here’s how one student reacted to what might have been a routine procedure just a month before (this piece has not been edited):

The way I thought I was going to react was not how I reacted.

March 13, 2018, almost exactly a month after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre occurred when 17 precious lives were lost. I was working on a memorial for the lives lost for a commemoration event our school had plans for the next day when on the intercom I heard the bone-chilling words:

“Teachers, we have an active threat on campus.”

My mind went blank. Panic began to overwhelm me. I wasn’t in my normal classroom, so the teacher whose room I was in rushed to make sure the door was locked, and cover the windows with paper we had just gotten twenty minutes earlier for the use of the memorial project we were working on, unaware, this was about to happen.

I could feel tears begin to rush down my face and didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t react. I didn’t know where to start or what to do. Everyone seemed to be moving sluggishly as if it were a drill. It just didn’t seem as if we were acting quickly enough. I was both mentally and physically unprepared for this such event.

The day had been normal, besides the slight chill that the air held, which was unusual from Florida’s normal weather. I had recently become more comfortable with the idea of school being safe again and suddenly, that idea shattered into a million pieces for me.

There was nothing I could do to be emotionally or physically ready for this. Time slowed down, seconds felt like minutes. My mind became slightly more coherent as I snapped into action, adrenaline coursing through my veins. I was flipping a table over to act as a barricade and shoving the usually heavy desks with such force that I’ve never had before.

After blockading the room, I immediately began texting my sister, who was in the other building. The fear I felt for her was so immensely palpable I could almost taste it. I didn’t know what was going on or if she was even alive. I didn’t know what was happening. I quickly texted her to see if she was okay and you can not imagine the relief I felt when she texted me back she was alright.

I was quickly ushered into a supply closet and in an attempt to make more room for people, I squeezed myself into a cabinet that was barely a foot high. In that room, I felt every emotion go through my body, but the most dominant was the absolute terror I felt. That terror gripped my soul. It dawned on me at that moment, I wasn’t ready to die.

I had no certainty of what the threat was, but I knew this wasn’t the way or day I wanted to go.

The moment I found out there was no active shooter, I felt like a million pounds lighter. From there, slowly the terror began to let up. Though people were returning to their normal attitudes and actions from before the lockdown, I still couldn’t fathom the idea there was even a potential threat at my school. I still can’t.

The moment I was reunited with my sister and family was a euphoric experience.

Whether or not the threat had merit or not, we need to be proactive with school safety. I can’t continue to have the fear that the place I go to ensure a good future, could also so easily end my future.

This isn’t about whether or not we should have more strict gun control laws. Take the politics out of it for a minute, what all of this is really about is us as students, and you as parents ensuring we are safe at school.

I just want to feel like I can go to school without the threat that I may not go home that same afternoon. I’m supposed to feel safe at school and somewhere along the line, someone failed us. Never again.

We got lucky this time, but what if next time we aren’t as lucky?

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Penn State is the choice for Miner

Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) football star Jordan Miner, one of the top players in the Tampa Bay area and arguably Pasco County’s best, is taking his talents to the Big Ten. Miner, a rising senior defensive back for the Bulls, announced on July 6, during a live broadcast on Spectrum Sports, that he would play college football for Penn State University.

Miner will make it binding in February on National Signing Day, and next summer will return to a region of the country where most of his family still lives.

“Well, 95 percent of our family is within a couple hours of Penn State,” Jordan’s father, John Miner, said. “Penn State felt like a family atmosphere and Coach (James) Franklin was very engaged throughout the process.”

Rated a 4-Star recruit by the 247Sports recruiting service, Miner had 29 college scholarship offers, including 10 from Southeastern Conference teams and five from the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference.

Penn State, the Big Ten champions last year, went 11-3 and were ranked as high as No. 5 in the country before losing a 52-49 thriller to USC in the Rose Bowl.

Mark Tate, a Penn State alum, connected Miner to Coach Franklin. Tate was Miner’s AAU track coach in elementary school, when Miner lived in Ohio, and was an assistant coach on the Team Tampa 7-on-7 team that won the under-15 national title in 2016. Miner was one of the standouts on that team.

“I’ve known Coach Tate since I was a kid,” Miner said. “I knew he played for Penn State but I didn’t know much about the program.”

Even though he’s entering his senior year, Miner won’t turn 17 until the end of this football season. He started grade school in Ohio, where if a student turned 5 during the course of the school year, they could start kindergarten. He’s always been one of the youngest players on the field and in the back yard.

Football is in his blood, as brother Jaye, also a former WRH standout, is playing for Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

Jordan was called up to the WRH varsity team at age 13, after he scored five TDs in his second junior varsity game. “When you’re 13 on varsity you’re not as physical as the other kids,’’ Miner said. “So you have to outsmart them and learn the game better than anyone else.”

Despite his age, Miner used his speed and agility to become one of the team’s top DBs, receivers and return specialists. In an October 8 game last season against Wharton, Miner scored on a 53-yard touchdown reception, and then returned an interception 95 yards for a TD.

Two days later, he received a text message from PSU defensive backs coach Terry Smith. Smith made an offer, Miner posted the news on Twitter and, “it blew up from there.”

Miner has scored on a run, pass, interception return and kick return. “Jordan is the ultimate team player,” WRH head coach Mark Kantor said. “He gets us up and motivated to play at a high level, and he made a great choice to play for Franklin and Penn State.”

The Bulls visit Clearwater Central Catholic for the Pre-Season Classic on Friday, August 18, and then open the regular season at home against Zephyrhills High on August 25.

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WRH Bulls Football Team Preps For Tough 2017 Schedule In Spring Game

New WRH Bull Raymond Woodie III (6), follows a block by Jordan Miner (1) on the way to a big gain in the 33-27 spring game loss to Tampa Catholic on May 19.

The Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) football team will arguably be one of the top two or three teams in Pasco County, but that does them little good when it comes to making the playoffs because they play in Class 7A-District 8, which also includes Hillsborough County powers Plant, Sickles, Gaither and Wharton.

So why not cap the spring football season against, well, another tough Hillsborough County team? That was third-year head coach Mark Kantor’s thinking as the Bulls fell behind 33-13 in the fourth quarter before rallying back and falling just a little short in a 33-27 loss to Tampa Catholic (TC) on May 19.

“You don’t know what it’s like going against them (Hillsborough County teams) until you actually line up against them,” Kantor said. “These kids are seasoned guys now and they’ve learned so much.”

Spring offered some challenges for the Bulls, who are coming off their most successful season after a 7-3 record earned them a spot in the Class 7A playoffs last season, their first postseason appearance since 2010.

To get back to the playoffs, one of the Bulls’ primary focuses in the spring was on replacing multi-facted quarterback Chris Faddoul, who signed to play for Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. Faddoul made the lion’s share of the Bulls’ pass attempts in 2016, was third on the team in rushing and was their primary punter and place kicker. Replacing him is like replacing 3-4 players, but the Bulls have a deep roster (43 for the spring) and a lot of candidates.

Junior Grant Sessums, who threw only 28 passes in 2016, took all of the passing attempts in the spring game against TC. He was harried by the Crusaders’ defense and threw thee interceptions, but also threw for two touchdowns and ran for another.

Rising junior Raymond Woodie III comes over from playing QB at Carrollwood Day School (CDS), but played free safety in the TC game, picking off a pass and running it back 40 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter.

Woodie, a contrast to Sessum’s pocket-style passing, threw for 543 yards and four touchdowns as a sophomore for CDS, and already boasts 16 college offers from the likes of the University of Southern California, Penn State University, Michigan State University and the University of South Florida.

His recent transfer to WRH left him out of the quarterback spot for the spring game as he learns the playbook, but Woodie could end up sharing time under center with Sessums.

“He (Woodie) adds another dimension,” Kantor said. “He’s tough, athletic and wants to help the team.”

He’ll also strengthen a running game led by senior Daquion “Da Da” McGee, who rushed for 1,063 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns last year but found tough sledding against TC, rushing 13 times for minimal gains.

His counterpart in the backfield is fullback Chase Oliver, a 5’-9”, 210-lb. sledgehammer.

“Chase is a throwback football player,” Kantor said. “If he played in the ‘60s, he’d be an All-American.”

On the Bulls’ first drive against TC, Oliver steamrolled a Crusader defender for 11 yards and a first down. On the second drive, he caught a short pass and rumbled 54 yards, clobbering defenders to set up a short score. He finished with five touches for 82 yards in the spring game, although he never found the end zone.

The WRH coaches are careful not to run Oliver too much, as they also need him on defense, where he starts at linebacker. “It’s challenging (playing both ways) but I have to lead by example,” said Oliver, who is emerging as one of the team’s veteran voices. He says he was pleased with the late charge by the Bulls vs. TC.

“You can’t go to sleep, you have to play a complete game,” Oliver said. “I like the way we fought back from 33-13.”

Speaking of veteran leadership, the Bulls’ QBs will have the luxury of having a senior-heavy receiving corps. Leading receivers Adrian Thomas and Jacob Hill return after more than 400 yards between them in 2016. Rising senior Jordan Miner is a threat at wideout and at defensive back. Daniel Biglow and Shamaur McDowell also are good-sized, veteran receivers.

McDowell, Miner and Woodie give the Bulls the most recruited trio of teammates in Pasco County.

The Bulls also got a great showing in the spring game from senior Devaun Roberts. He set a high bar for himself against TC, picking up two sacks, a tackle for loss, a fumble recovery, a pass defended and a quarterback pressure from his defensive end position. “This is my first year at defensive end,’’ Roberts said. “I’m used to playing tight end though, so now that I’m lined up over the tight end a lot, I know the blocks. It felt good to get in there and scare that quarterback. We’re going to do well this year.”

Behind Roberts are two big, set pieces who certainly look like dominant linemen. Lenczden, whose measurements are not listed on the roster, is roughly 6’-6” and 260 pounds. Senior Nkem Asomba is listed at 6’-5”, 265. “He’s actually a basketball player, football is new to him,” Kantor said of Asomba. “He’s shown some athleticism and that he can play this sport.”

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