Sports
Murphy, Boca Ciega Hope Lack of Mistakes Leads to December Games
The Pirates football squad lost a lot of games to playoff teams in 2010 because of one play. With a renewed attention to detail, Boca Ciega's players hope sweat in May leads to playoff games in December.
The 2010 was a terribly frustrating season for Boca Ciega's football program. Sure, the team had a losing record at 4-6, that's frustrating enough for any school.
But it wasn't just the losing record that got to the Pirates. It was how they lost. All six Pirates losses came to teams that advanced to the playoffs. The first three losses were by one point. The fifth loss was by two points.
Just one play in each of those losses. One play. One snap. One block. One field goal. One tackle. That was the difference between winning and losing. Between a winning season and a losing season. Between playing in the playoffs and paying to watch some other team play in the playoffs.
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The sting of that season is still a bitter taste in the mouth of Boca Ciega defensive tackle Johnny Murphy.
"There was always that hump," Murphy said. "We had games. But there was that hump. That one mistake, that one play, that one mishap. It was devastating."
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Devastating enough for the Pirates to get a new football coach, Antez Brinson. The former Lakewood offensive coordinator saw first hand how that one mistake cost Boca Ciega. Brinson's Spartans took advantage of that one error to beat Boca Ciega last year 14-13.
Brinson has instilled upon the Pirates that eliminating those costly errors in games begins in spring practice. He's made a pointed effort to get that theme across to his players: Good, hard, solid practices in May mean playing in December.
It also means eliminating mistakes.
"Everyday, we are working on cutting down mistakes," Murphy said. "Everyday, we work so we won't have that hump in games any more."
While it's been a tough transition with a new coach this spring, Murphy says he can see change in leadership already paying off.
"It's been hard work for us, coming in with a new coach but we're sticking to it," Murphy said. Brinson "is a good fit. We're all working together. We're all working on stopping mistakes. We've been doing that from the get-go."
As Murphy and Brinson like to point out, that will lead to December games for the Pirates.