Plant Panthers gunning for first district championship since 2018

TAMPA, FLORIDA- Anytime you pull up to Dad’s Stadium at Plant High School, the water tower that sits behind the home stands reads ‘Plant High School, Home Of State Champions’.

When your high school football program has won four state championships over the last 20 years, expectations will always remain high.

For the Plant Panthers football team, the time to return to being a playoff team is now as they’ve found plenty of success under second-year head coach Hank Brown.

Now the Panthers are sitting at 6-2 with one Class 4A-Metro, District 7 game left to go and according to Brown, reasons for the program’s winning ways is because of their senior class.

“The number one reason for our success this season is the players’ determination, dedication and desire to get better each and every day—and this has really been led and championed by our seniors,” Brown said. “The team and coaching staff have been laser focused on achieving our collaborative goals as a group not just for an individual player. The results are exactly what you see week in and week out from these guys.”

Plant has always been known for quarterbacks in the past, with players like Robert Marve, Aaron Murray, Phillip Ely, Colby Brown and Tucker Gleason coming through the program.

This season is no different when it comes to stellar signal caller play for the Panthers, as they’ve been platooning quarterbacks Trey O’Malley and JC Mirasola at the position.

O’Malley has seen more time under center, completing 79-of-135 passes for 1,216 yards and 12 touchdowns. Mirasola has played well in the time he’s received, throwing for 427 yards and five touchdowns.

With a bevy of weapons across the board like running back Waltez Clark (529 yards rushing, 407 yards receiving) and wide receiver Jaquez Kindell (568 yards receiving, six touchdowns), the Panthers have had no issues on the offensive side of the ball.

“We have been blessed this year in our quarterback room,” Brown said. “We have been rotating between Trey O’Malley as the starter and JC Mirasola. The emergence of Waltez Clark comes as no surprise as he has continued to rise from his freshman varsity year. Not to mention our captain Jaquez Kindell. These guys are not only students in the classroom but students of the game.“

Brown, who has coached with the Panthers since 2004, has accumulated a combined record of 12-6 in a mere 18 games coached at Plant. The former University of Central Florida Knight has a chance to fully turnaround a program that went 4-6 in 2019 and 2-6 in the 2020 Covid-19 season.

The start of the rebuild under Brown began last year with competing, but Plant is now on pace to capture a district title that seemingly looked far away just a couple years ago. A win on the road Oct. 28 versus Alonso would secure the district title for Plant.

“Being that it was my first year at the helm last year, our No. 1 goal and task was to create a culture for our team post-covid in a very competitive district,” Brown said. “The foundation and focus of myself and my staff was to instill a family culture that cultivates student athletes to be the best that they can be as a person, student, player and teammate for the sake of our Plant Football family.“

Overcoming the slow start to the season with losses to Tampa Bay Tech and Berkeley Prep was adversity Plant had to face early on. Despite the slow beginning to the season, Brown’s group continued to work under the motto ‘#KeepClimbing’ and the best is yet to come when it comes to the regular season finale.

“Winning the district for the first time under my watch would be a true testament to my dedicated coaching staff and the team’s relentless work ethic,” Brown added. “I could not be more happy for this team and this senior class. The best part will be the ending.”

Andy Villamarzo can be reached at andyvillamarzo@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @Andy_Villamarzo.