By Lenaia Powell
There is no question that our football program is one of the best in the state, as evidenced by our previous state championship titles. This year, however, the team fell short in playoffs, taking an L in the second round. While this is a let down for the student population of Apopka High, as well as the team, we are still proud of our student-athletes and know that this will only be a temporary setback. Even Coach Anderson, a Defensive Line Coach, continues to joke around as he normally would, expressing that his hope in the team is far from depleted.
“In today’s atmosphere with retirement (graduation) and free agency (transfers), it’s hard to build depth at certain positions. With that being said–this is Apopka, and we will still have players who love their community, love their school, and want to work hard on the field, and in the classroom. We will still win a bunch of games.” said Anderson. When asked about his feelings regarding how far the team got in playoffs, he sarcastically described how far HE got, saying, “Well I am not allowed to cross the 25-yard line on either end of the field, but I think I made it to the 23 a couple times while coaching the players during the game. Looking back, if I had trained harder on my 3 to 5-yard sprints I could have probably made it to the 17-yard line and back before the refs threw a flag.”
On a more serious note, varsity players since freshman year, Defensive End Mychal Austin and Linebacker Stevie Billings-Larson were quite disappointed with the results. Unfortunately, this year was their last run in high school.
“I’m not happy that we lost second round,” said Stevie. Mychal agreed, saying “I’m not satisfied (laughs), it could have gone better,”.
They both had higher hopes for their last high school game, “It’s definitely not the way that I wanted to end my high school career, but I wouldn’t have traded it for anything else,” says Stevie. “It’s kinda sad [the game] being my last, but I’ll go to college and have four more years,” input Mychal.
And while they believed that the team should have gotten farther, both of them gave some sort of positive outlook on the end of the season. “You know the effort that the guys gave and the closeness and brothership that we showed… I’m extremely happy with that,” Stevie shared, pertaining to the high school team this year. Both athletes are looking forward to playing in college, hopefully going far, with Stevie heading to the University of Miami and Mychal looking to start as a sophomore.
In addition to being Mychal’s girlfriend of about three and a half years, Mimi Jaimes is a fellow athlete at our school, having recently finished her second year on the varsity volleyball team. She has been there since freshman year to support him, just as he has for her. “I really have supported him a lot, I’m gonna be honest. I would stay up late, make sure he’s okay… Making sure he actually does his work.”
“It’s good, I have a little extra motivation, with someone who has the same goals as you, it’s good support,” says Mychal in regards to having Mimi to support him.
Mimi also was able to provide her viewpoint as an Apopka High School student, not as one of the player’s girlfriend.
“I expected us to go to states, which everyone kinda did. We have a really good football program and a good football team,” she stated.
Despite not meeting up to everyone’s expectations, our football team has not lost their impressive reputation, and next year they will be sure to step up. Whether that will be on account of the coaches or the player’s motivation, however, is still yet to be determined. In the meantime, we wish our retiring seniors the best of luck in college, hopefully achieving the goal that they were aiming for this year.