Observer Preps 2017 Football Preview: Winter Park Wildcats

Out back on the campus of Winter Park High, players run through their drills.

The heat and humidity makes everything sticky, but there they are in full pads — facing off against one another and Mother Nature. 

Practicing in such weather is always grueling, but probably the worst part for players is the wait before the season itself actually starts. 

Players crave for real game time when they can finally put all that practice to the test and line up against an actual team — and no one sees this more than head coach Tim Shifflet.

“The kids have been working hard,” Shifflet said. “We get excited when the season starts, because after a while you get tired of hitting each other — you have to find some other color jersey to hit.” 

The Wildcats finally enjoyed some live action last Friday when they hosted — and beat — Edgewater in the annual Kickoff Classic at Showalter.

Despite it being the first time players have been able to line up against an actual opponent, the game still didn’t count where it matters the most — the standings.

The start of the regular season Friday, Aug. 25, against Lake Nona is when things get serious, and Shifflett will break in some new guys in hopes of another solid year.

“After last year’s success, we’re trying to build on that,” he said. “This is a new group of guys, so they have to make their mark. They’ve worked really hard and done everything we have asked of them since the end of last season — which is really when we started training for this season.”

Last season, the Wildcats went 9-4 overall and won the district with a 4-0 record. After back-to-back wins against Wekiva and Timber Creek in the state playoffs, the Wildcats run came up short in the third round against Seminole in a 48-31 loss.

Many players from that district-championship team graduated, leaving Shifflet with five returning starters on offense and four returning starters on defense.

On offense, Shifflet will look to seniors such as quarterback Cameron LeGree, receiver Brian Gomez and offensive lineman Donovan Barden to run the balanced attack.

Behind center, the offense will run through the well-versed LeGree, who put up impressive numbers last year. In 163 pass attempts, LeGree completed 108 tosses that went for 1,258 yards while picking up 12 touchdowns to seven picks in the process. Those numbers gave LeGree a 96.1 quarterback rating.

Out wide, LeGree will have a few options in the passing game to help get the Wildcats down the field. Receiver Brian Gomez had one heck of a year last season during which he caught 37 passes tfor 272 yards and three touchdowns. He had one of the longest catches of the season of 73 yards.

Senior Cameron Brown, who nabbed six receptions last year for 67 yards and a touchdown, will join Gomez as another possible threat down field. A fun fact about Brown: He threw one pass last season, which was completed for a 44-yard touchdown.

In the backfield, Shifflet will switch out a few running backs, but big man Paul Coutinho will be the guy carrying most of the load. Coutinho, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 230 pounds, is a wrecking ball. During his sophomore season last year, Coutinho rushed 36 times for 118 yards and found the end zone five times.

On the defensive side of the ball, Shifflet is working with an even more inexperienced crew. Leadership for the Wildcats will come in the form of the linebacking core of senior Juanye Tillman and junior JJ Valle-Smith.

In his junior year, Tillman crushed offenses at the outside linebacker position with his 74 total tackles and 1.5 sacks — which culminated in 18 sack yards lost. Included in his solid year was a blocked punt, one quarterback hurry and two passes deflected.

At the safety position, senior Cullen Honohan will agitate opposing receivers and stymie the passing game.

In 12 games last season, Honohan picked up 95 tackles — five of which were tackles for loss. He also grabbed himself a pick — which he returned for 30 yards — while assisting on a sack and notching a quarterback hurry.

“Every year is really about the seniors and the captains — and how they want to go out,” Shifflet said. “I let my seniors and my captains dictate, and we coach them up, and they’re going to go out there and play on Friday night and hopefully at the end of the day, we end up back where we were last year.”