After many highs and lows, the football team just finished their season with a round-one loss in the regional playoffs. Although they were not able to make a deep playoff run, they were able to win their district as they are now back to back district champions. Even though they won districts last year, they have a completely new team; the team had ten starting underclassmen which is something not often seen in high school sports. 

“In the past years we have had very mature and developed teams with mostly upperclassmen starting so it has been a big difference to now be starting so many underclassmen,” offensive coordinator coach Larry Fitz said.

With such young athletes, there were not big expectations for the team this year. So when they started the season on a three-game winning streak, it offered a big morale boost for the team. 

“Coming into the season there was a big shift from the year prior. Once we got our first win and saw how well we performed we started to feel more comfortable with each other and the culture of the team changed,” senior cornerback Amare Sanders said.

After winning the first three games at home, the Raiders felt that they could go up against anybody. However, that was not the case. They lost two games in a row, playing two away games against two very tough opponents.

“After those two losses we were a little upset because we felt that we were the better team in both of the games and in a way those losses fueled us into the coming weeks,” freshman quarterback Brendan Beery said.

The Raiders were then able to go on a four-game winning streak, including wins against three district opponents. Following this, however, they suffered a very frustrating loss against the 10th best team in Florida, and would head into the playoffs with a record of 7-3.

Even though the team felt very confident going into the playoffs and had practiced hard all week, they were not able to advance to the next round as they had a disappointing loss against Monsignor Pace, ending their season.

“I am so proud of this young team and especially proud of the seniors for pushing through all season long. We are going to continue to work in the off season and I can not wait for next year,” head football coach Earl Sims said.

With the 2023 football season now behind them, the Raiders will look to continue to improve and build off what they accomplished.