Land O' Lakes Football Players Hone Skills Over The Summer

Spring practices for high school football teams concluded in May and preseason workouts cannot officially begin until August.

For some players, however, there is an outlet during that downtime.

The Pasco County 7-on-7 Summer Football League affords teams an opportunity to look at the skill of their players for the upcoming season.

Sunlake High School Coach Bill Browning and Brian Wachtel, who takes over at Land O’ Lakes after an offseason coaching shakeup, are both taking long, hard looks.

Sunlake is coming off its best season in its four-year history, narrowly missing out on the playoffs while winning a school-record eight games. Meanwhile, Land O’ Lakes intends to extend its county-record playoff run to 15.

“Our biggest goal is consistency,” said Wachtel, who previously coached at Mitchell and Ridgewood. “Land O’ Lakes has a tremendous football program and the community support has been phenomenal.”

For Browning, the summer league means letting Cameron Stoltz and Josh Zifer battle it out as a replacement for Jacob Jackson, who passed and ran for more than 2,000 yards with 30 touchdowns as a senior.

“We’re working on some depth and getting back into the swing of things,” said Browning, the Seahawks’ only football coach in school history.

As always, there are newcomers intent on moving up the ladder to take the place of graduated players. That includes a handful receivers from Sunlake and Land O’ Lakes that have taken part in the summer league which runs through the last week in July.

“It’s just getting a lot of guys’ feet wet,” Browning said, adding that the 30-play scrimmages “go pretty quick, but it’s worked out well.”

Wachtel also is eager to see how his quarterback fares in the highly skilled league that features quarterbacks, running backs and receivers taking on an opponents’ secondary and linebacking units. Aside from the centers to snap the football, linemen on both sides of the ball are excluded.

For the Gators, there will be a signal-caller this fall not named Weatherford for the first time in nine seasons. Drew played at Florida State; Joe went on to line up for the University of Central Florida, and Stevie ended his prep career missing last year’s playoff game due to disciplinary reasons.

Stepping in as the frontrunner is Ryan Bird, who looked sharp in recent scrimmages against Pasco, Wesley Chapel and Wiregrass Ranch defenses.

“He’s doing a really nice job,” Wachtel said. “Ryan is a competitor and he’s very smart, so he understands the system.”

Although he is taking part in the summer league, heavily recruited Land O’ Lakes tight end Kent Taylor, the team’s leading receiver, has already shown what he can do.

Second-year Wesley Chapel coach Ben Alford, a former Pasco quarterback, wished the summer league existed when he played. As a coach, he relishes the opportunity to give some of his key players extra playing time before they get back to preseason practice in August.

“It’s fun,” Alford said. “It kind of let’s you see how we’re doing and how other teams are doing.”

Maybe so, but Wachtel was quick to point out that defenses may see something different from the Land O’ Lakes offense come next fall.