East Bay High School Girls Flag Football 

What it means to me!

I played rugby in college and in the army.  Glory comes in giving it your all, giving it your best.  No matter, win or lose, know that you gave it your best effort and nothing less. 

What I like about coaching girls flag football?  It is a sport like rugby.  There are no professionals.  There are no college scholarships at the end of the season.  We play for the love of the game and nothing more.

At the end of the first and unofficial season of 2005-06 the girls asked me to be their coach.  That meant a lot to me.  Some of these girls were my students and it meant a lot to me that they respected my values and abilities.   I accepted the challenge.  I love mentoring and coaching, and I love to do my best, win or lose.  Winning is always an elixir!  To me, winning is not always the final score.  It is doing your best.  Memories and respect come from doing your best with sportsmanship, winning and losing gracefully, not necessarily what the score is at the end of the day.

My First Season, 2006-2007

The first is always memorable.  What did I enjoy most?  We had a losing season, 5-6, as far as the record shows.  But we won!  This team consisted of the Senior Class President, the Junior Class President, and other officers.  This team had over 14 National Honor Society members.  This team was predominantly cheerleaders.  Are these your dominant athletes?  I don’t know.  What I do know is that this team consisted of “girls” off the field, but on the field they were just as tenacious as any boys’ team.  This group of girls believed!  They never gave up.  In its first official season they made the first official district championship tournament.  They won their first official district semi-final game.  And they made it to the first official district championship game.

In my opinion, Riverview High School was by and far the best team in our district.  RHS made it to the state quarter-finals.  Athletically, I think Newsome High School had the second best team.  East Bay, probably had the third best team and beat Newsome, finishing second in the district!  The team never gave up.  Facing a talented Riverview team, East Bay broke records and scored last in a 55-12 defeat.  Never give up!

This team laid the foundation for all future teams.  This team should take some credit for all future successes.  Remove the foundation of any structure and the rest comes crumbling down.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS:  coming from a 12-0 deficit in our first game to win 13-12 in the last few seconds of the game against King High School with a Morgan Penick pass to Julie Rolfe; coming from behind against Bloomingdale High School and winning in the 4^th quarter 7-6; beating a talented Newsome High School team 7-6 in overtime; in the Newsome game Ashley Norton physically stopped the extra point conversion; winning our first district game; making it to the first district championship game.

My Second Season, 2007-2008

What is most memorable?  We had a winning season and we won the District Championship.  This team was my best athletically. I should have had most of my starters from the previous season return.  Some had injuries from other sports and others had “senioritis”. Only two starters returned.  This is understandable.  Just prepare for the future.  I had tremendous turnout which turned to my advantage.

In just our second official season, we accomplished a winning regular season at 6-3.  We made it to our second district championship tournament. And this time we won!

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS:  coming from behind in our season opener against Bloomingdale and winning in the 4^th quarter 13-7; Janielle Rodriguez made a crucial 4^th down conversion and later a 4^th down TD to win the game; beating Newsome 32-12 in the district semi-final after Newsome beat us in the regular season, 13-12 in overtime; winning our first district championship against Riverview High School in overtime, 12-6; Amy Lemus stopped Riverview on 4^th and 1 and Janielle caught the winning TD; playing our first play-off game and never giving up.

2008-2009 Season

What a great season!  We had a lot of starters return and played with a freshman QB.  We finished 9-3, our best to date, won the District Championship back-to-back, and made it to the 2nd Round of Regionals.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS:  not knowing what kind of team we would have and then opening the season with a 50-0 win; down 19-6 at the half against Lennard and beating them 32-19; the 4th and 1 defense holding Newsome on the 1 yard line in the District Semi-Final; coming from behind with a remarkable tipped pass to Janielle Rodriguez for the go-ahead score and then holding Bloomingdale on 4th and 2 as Andrea Benedetto snatched the flag and sealed the victory; AND my wife giving birth to our first child, Katie!!!  Thank you players, coaches, parents and fans for a fantastic season!

2009-2010 Season

Another great season!  This was my 4th season, a season where freshmen from my first year were now seniors.  Only 3 girls played all 4 years; Andrea Owens, a 4-year starter and Edleen Diaz and Janielle Rodriguez with a year on JV and 3 on varsity.  We finished 11-3, our best to date and won the District Championship 3 consecutive seasons.  We became the only team in Hillsborough County to make the district championship game the first 4 years and the only team in the county to win 3 district championships!  We became the first Hillsborough County team to enter an in-season tournament, this one at Matanzas High School.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS:  Playing stiffer competition and winning 3 out of 4 overtime games; going to the Matanzas tournament with the players singing ALL THE WAY OVER and ALL THE WAY BACK; never losing a season opener; hosting our first district tournament; winning 3 CONSECUTIVE DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIPS!; watching 3 remarkable ladies grow from freshmen to seniors.  Once again, thank you all for a wonderful season!

2010-2011 Season

This was one great season.  We did not win our 4th district championship but we came close.  We are still the only team to play in all 5 district championship games (5) and 1 of 2 county teams with 3 district championships.  We participated in our second out-of-county tournament, this time in Tallahassee, where we played with the best and came away with a 2-1 record.  Our only loss came to #1 Alonso on a last second TD.  We had a Pinko's Pre-Season Poll ranking of #10 in the state, our highest ever.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS:  Water bottle fights!; Tallahassee tournament and beating Apopka, and playing Alonso to the last minute; 6 defensive shut-outs, most ever; going undefeated in district play (1st time); a great senior night, blowing out Armwood 42-12 and having Bay News 9 cover the game.

2011-2012 Season

We are already making history and the season hasn't even started!  Thanks to the district AD Lanness Robinson and assistant AD Jennifer Burchill East Bay will be the first county team allowed to play an in-season, non-tournament, out-of-county game!  We also plan to attend the Tallahassee Capital City Classic, our third consecutive tournament.