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SOUTH TAMPA’S ORIGINAL SPORTS EMPORIUM & EATERY
SportSmanShip is what counts
’s First Sports Ba a p m r Ta
fnf tampa bay 2019 presented by
Plant Panthers @PlantFootball plant.mysdhc.org 2019 SCHEDULE AUG. 23: at Armwood AUG. 30: at Gaither SEP. 13: Tampa Bay Tech SEP. 20: Bloomingdale SEP. 27: at Gonzaga
OCT. 4: Steinbrenner OCT. 11: at Palm Harbor Uni. OCT. 18: at Wharton OCT. 25: Alonso ■■ In 2018, the Plant defense held five of NOV. 1: Robinson its 13 opponents to fewer than 7 points.
KEY PLAYERS: Tucker Gleason (Sr., QB), Dylan Barry (Sr.,
DB), Mekhi Bell (Sr., DB), Christian Carvajal (Sr., LB), Jackson Hacker (Sr., QB), Trevor Haire (Sr., P), Frank Murphy (Sr., WR), Zae Gillespy (Jr., DB), Ben Hestorff (Sr., LB), Judah Norwood (Sr., WR), Jaedon Anderson (Jr., OL), Ty Love (Jr., OL), Hayden Reed (Jr., RB), Nathan Powell (So., DB), Nick Powell (So., LB).
I Est. 1978
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n early June, Plant High head coach Robert Weiner stepped away from the wedding of one of his greatest players, former University of Georgia star and NFL quarterback Aaron Murray, to talk about his team’s upcoming season. That talk begins, understandably, with another great quarterback in Plant senior Tucker Gleason, who committed to Georgia Tech in March, picking the Yellow Jackets over Georgia, Duke, Illinois and Cincinnati, among others. “I think we know what a good (quarterback) looks like, and (Gleason) is as good as anybody in the country,” Weiner said. “We can talk a lot about the physical attributes and about how he has the most concise throwing motion I’ve ever seen, but that doesn’t really get to his best trait, which is the ability to absorb, process and apply information.” One thing the Panthers can count on in 2019 that was a huge question mark headed into 2018 is their defense. Weiner’s affinity for how his defensive group performed last season – and for the ones that return – is easy to see. “We lost 10 out of 11 starters on the defensive side of the ball headed into 2018,” Weiner said. “We knew we really liked the kids we had, but they were so inexperienced. Every week they got a little better and a little better … and now we have eight of them back this year on defense. So we went from being in a famine to now we’re in a feast, and they have experience and great leadership coming back.” Leading the way for that group is junior safety Zae Gilliespy, who already has offers from Wisconsin and Colorado State after racking up a team-high 103 tackles, 12 pass deflections and two fumble recoveries in 2018. He’s joined by senior linebackers Christian Carvajal (102 tackles, 14 tackles for loss) and Ben Hestorff (98 tackles) and senior safety Dylan Barry (64 tackles, 10 pass deflections. Up front, Plant also has a game-changer in senior outside linebacker/defensive end Jackson Hacker, who led Plant with 15 sacks in 2018.
HEAD COACH: Robert Weiner ASST. COACHES: Bo Puckett, Greg
Meyer, Mike Walsh, Hank Brown, Josh Celerin, Mic Conteh, Scott Decamp, John Few, Sean Love, Billy Minahan, Tyler Rhodes, Alan Rothermel, Ty Thomas, John Toomer
2019 ROSTER 1 Frank Murphy Sr. 2 Christian Carvajal Sr. 3 Hayden Reed Jr. 4 Tucker Gleason Sr. 5 Jackson Hacker Sr. 6 Zaequan Gilliespy Jr. 8 Baldwin Barnes Jr. 13 Dylan Barry Sr. 14 Judah Norwood Sr. 15 Bryson Martin So. 18 Alex Munson Sr. 19 Elijah Cook Sr. 20 J. Fernandez-Mclean Sr. 21 Steve Vaillant Sr. 21 Fuller Saunders Jr. 22 Ray Desanto Jr. 23 Mekhi Bell Sr. 24 Ben Hestorff Sr. 25 Nicholas Powell So. 26 Nathan Powell So. 27 Migeon Mckinnis Sr. 29 Christopher Pisciotti Sr. 30 John Owens So. 31 Matthew Rogero Jr. 32 Larry Jackson Sr. 32 Malik Byrd Jr. 34 Jayson Reddick Jr. 35 Luca Caianiello Sr. 36 Miguel Torres Jr. 37 Rontavious Thomas Sr. 37 Ave’on Smith Sr. 38 Billy Capote Jr. 39 Sean Mcfadden Jr. 40 Tyreese Clark Sr. 41 Preston Lavine Jr. 43 Evans Taylor Jr. 45 Nick Gordon Jr. 48 Andrew Moore Sr. 49 Trevor Haire Sr. 50 Morgan Ross Sr. 51 Zack Antoniou Jr.
53 Aidan Lindsey Jr. 54 Elijah Sejour Jr. 55 Alex Cuervo Jr. 56 Ty Love Jr. 57 Brooks Bak Jr. 58 Campbell Gibson Sr. 58 Sonny Burnett Sr. 59 Dorian Ice Sr. 61 Kellen Reilly Jr. 64 Blake Mathenia Sr. 65 Rod Miller Jr. 66 Aidan O’dell Jr. 67 Cameron Trommater Jr. 68 Rashaad Mcleod Jr. 71 Aidan Giansante Sr. 74 Chad Staley So. 75 Matthew Sherer Jr. 76 CJ Lorences Jr. 77 Jaedon Anderson Jr. 78 Louis Alcala Sr. 80 Austin Johnson Sr. 81 Cole Cusmano Sr. 82 Quin Thomas Jr. 85 Frank Dolsak Sr. 86 Parker White Jr. 87 Marquise Jackson Jr. 87 Zack Taylor Sr. 88 Davis Versaggi Jr. 88 Ryon Perry Sr. 89 John Decaro Jr. 90 Prince Newsome Jr. 90 Erik Villalobos Sr. 91 Mario Gonzalez Sr. 92 Cyris Cintron-Soto Jr. 93 Philip Mcgrew Jr. 95 Justin Carlisle Sr. 95 Dom D’alessandro Jr. 95 Tyler Grubbs Jr. 97 Dylan Perrigault-Eng Sr. 97 Christian Maxie Jr. 98 Kyle Rodgers Sr.