By Brian McLaughlin (follow on Twitter @BrianMacWriter)
Palm Harbor Sports
The excitement in the Palm Harbor football camp is high, and anticipation of Friday’s regular-season opener at Osceola (in Seminole) is at a crescendo. The varsity has won both its preseason warmups – in spring against Tarpon Springs, and last week at Boca Ciega.
Now it’s time for the games that count.
PHU DEFENSIVE BREAKDOWN: The story
PHU OFFENSIVE BREAKDOWN: The story
The ceiling in the history of Palm Harbor University football is eight wins. That was achieved in 2012 when the program went 8-2 in the regular season, making the Class 8A state playoffs before falling at Vero Beach. The previous season, 2011, saw PHU win its first-ever playoff game – one of only two in school history (the other being 2020 when all teams made it during CoVid).
The Hurricanes knocked off Port St. Lucie Centennial (in 2011) and fell in the second round to finish 7-5. In all, the two-year span produced 15 wins – still clearly the top two-year run in school history.
Well, there is a chance this record could get topped this year to set a new standard in this program that’s barely over a quarter-century old. But this group is 0-0 as of this writing, and not a damned thing that counts has been accomplished on the field yet.
Last year this team looked destined for a rebuilding season but went 6-4. Even with key injuries, a ton of inexperience, and tough games on the road – the 2022 team managed a winning season, its first since 2016.
PALM HARBOR FOOTBALL HISTORY: A year-by-year breakdown of the program’s history
“The team has been working hard since the beginning of the summer,” head coach and offensive coordinator Mike Mullaney told PalmHarborSports.com. “They’ve been very disciplined in how they’ve approached each practice since camp started.”
Well, this year, there’s tons of experience, six games scheduled to be in front of the typically rabid PHU home crowd, and a team that has bought in. If the injury bug will finally stay away? This could be a special year – but the key word here is “could”. We will know by Thanksgiving if it worked out.
Mullaney, defensive coordinator Matt Lepain, assistant coach Jon Adkins, and former staff coach Ryan Vaught (RIP) were part of that first successful run more than a decade ago. Lepain was the head coach, and Mullaney was the assistant then, but both have always been unselfish enough to consider each other co-head coaches and obviously are good friends.
Chemistry on the team and on the staff is seriously a strength at PHU.
So, what are the similarities between the 2011-12 run and what is happening now?
“This year’s group is already where I had to get the first group (in 2011-12),” Lepain told PalmHarborSports.com. “When I came in, and Mike (Mullaney) was a big part of it, we asked a lot of questions of the previous staff. What needs to change? We sat down together.
“The biggest thing was … we needed to be tougher, and that’s what we instilled that first year. Practices were really hard, games were hard. I mean, we were in pads going full tilt on a Wednesday of a playoff game – that’s how we got there, and we weren’t going to change that. This group this year? ‘It’ was already there in the spring. We have a really good group. Barring injuries and mentally screwing up, we can be good.”
Palm Harbor football is never going to have a bunch of future Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles, or Miami Hurricanes, though there have been impressive individuals who have come through – including two future NFL Draft picks.
The program generally wins with what it has, and other programs have poached the seasoned talent at PHU all through its short history as a football program.
This year, nobody left for other local schools in the offseason.
“Yeah, we have a ton of experience this year and are working together very well,” four-year starter and cornerstone captain Gunner Fodor told PalmHarborSports.com. “We have leaders all over the place, which makes everything much easier.”
The Hurricanes open with two challenging road games at typically strong Osceola and talented St. Petersburg then hosts six of the last eight games – including against critical league foes Steinbrenner and age-old rival East Lake. Worth noting: Some (all?) PHU supporters call East Lake “East Pond”.
Palm Harbor’s sports fans should make sure to be there for these big community affairs (see the schedule posted below).
If PHU wants to make the state playoffs, those East Lake and Steinbrenner games are critical. They’ve been massive roadblocks in the past.
“We’ve all grown from even our freshman year, and we’ve all known each other since we were kids in elementary and middle school,” senior co-captain Alex Schmid told PalmHarborSports.com. “People ask me, how’s the football team going to do, is it going to be as usual? I shut those people off. I don’t tell anybody that we’ll be 10-0, but anything can happen, and I believe good things will happen this year.”
DATE H/A PHU OPPONENT
(NOTE: All games kick off at 7:30 p.m.)
25-Aug A Osceola
31-Aug A St. Petersburg (Thursday game)
8-Sep H Sunlake
15-Sep H Tarpon Springs
22-Sep H Countryside
29-Sep A Sickles – DIST
6-Oct OPEN WEEK
13-Oct H Steinbrenner – DIST
20-Oct H Seminole
27-Oct H East Lake – DIST
3-Nov A Dunedin
