Sandbergs Looking to Connect This Fall for Canes

Just three days removed from a disappointing 6-5 setback to Lakeland that ended Manatee High’s best baseball season in 43 years, Chase Sandberg was back with the school's football team looking to solidify his standing as the Hurricanes’ free safety.

"He wasn’t there the first three weeks," Manatee head football coach Joe Kinnan said following last Friday's spring football game. "On Monday, he was on defense doing some real good things and hitting people. On Tuesday, he was over there flying around."

However, Sandberg’s left shoulder once again started to bother him.

"They scoped his shoulder, where he had the labrum, and it still bothers him," Kinnan said. "I think that it’s going to be one of those situations every time that he hits. On offense, he doesn’t have that problem. With what we’re asking our safeties to do and (some defensive adjustments from last year’s second straight Class 5A-Region 3 championship team), he would be involved more with the running game with what we’re doing."

By moving over to the offensive side of the ball, Sandberg received the opportunity to rekindle the chemistry he and his younger brother, Cord, developed in the family backyard. Cord Sandberg, who is 15 months younger than Chase, was the Canes’ starting quarterback last year as a sophomore and an integral part of the baseball team’s run to the Class 5A state semifinals.

Cord’s knowledge of the offense and his own abilities was apparent on Friday night as he directed two touchdown drives in the first 4:12 of an eventual 56-6 spring-game win over visiting St. Petersburg Gibbs. The vaunted left-handed college prospect took a series off to give Brodrick Yancy time under center before returning.

Four plays into what would be another Manatee touchdown drive, Cord found Chase for a 7-yard gain late in the first quarter. It was the first meaningful completion between the two brothers, who always dreamed of playing for the Canes and sharing a sideline with their father, Chuck, a longtime Kinnan assistant.

"This is the first time that I’ve ever had him at receiver, besides the backyard," Cord said. "He’s a smart kid and he knows the plays. I’m going to be able to trust him to run the right route and to know that he has the intangibles to get open. I like having him at receiver."

Cord would complete each of his last two attempts, including a 26-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Taylor with 3:24 left in the second quarter, after finding his brother for an 18-yard pickup early in the second quarter. While Cord had called it a night after completing seven of 10 attempts for 143 yards and rushing for 30 yards on five carries, Chase wasn’t quite done displaying himself.

After a 1-yard touchdown run by Taren Cotton with 1:37 left before halftime staked Manatee to a 33-0 lead, Cord was able to take a bad snap on the PAT kick attempt and throw a two-point pass to Sam Mason. He also did some long snapping in the second half.

"(Chase has) a baseball future, too," Kinnan said. "He has offers for baseball, but if he ends up playing college football he’s probably a better wide receiver than he is a defensive back."

Unlike his taller and heavier younger brother, the right-handed Chase has yet to receive a football scholarship offer. That can change as long as the Sandberg-to-Sandberg connection resonates with the Manatee faithful this fall.

"I’m just out here trying to help the team," Chase said. "Obviously, my goal is to sign a national letter of intent to go to college and have my education paid for. It’s definitely my goal. It’s been my goal since my freshman year."