VERO BEACH – The past four-and-a-half months have not been pleasant for anyone involved with the Vero Beach High football team.
Vero Beach lost the Class 7A state championship in the worst possible way: a Hail Mary pass and PAT kick as time expired enabling Lake Mary High to come away with the crown.
The final seconds made the rounds on the sports highlight shows, including some nationally.
“Really the way we lost on a Hail Mary. It was like a one-in-a-million situation in a pouring rain storm,” Vero Beach quarterback Wonderful “Champ” Monds IV said. “That’s probably the worst part about it.”
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The final sequence of plays have repeated on what seems like a continuous loop inside the head of Coach Lenny Jankowski.
“It will probably never go away,” he said. “I wake up at night about it. It surely happens during the day. But it’s something in competition that happens.”
Monday, Jankowski was inside a trailer adjacent to the football practice field. Outside was a long group of potential players awaiting equipment.
Spring football practice has sprung at Vero Beach.
“Everybody is excited to get back at it,” Jankowski said. “Obviously when you lose in the last game of the season it’s a long waiting game.”
A new start with 102 prospective players
Monday, Jankowski welcomed 102 potential players for his varsity and junior varsity teams.
Some are holdovers from the team that went 14-1 a year ago. Others are newcomers to the program. A few are transfers from other schools.
Jankowski addressed the lone loss of last season at the postseason football banquet following the season.
There won’t be residual effects; just lessons learned.
“Here’s what I know: there’s not one run play, there’s not one completion, there’s not one tackle, not one interception, one coaching decision that carries over into this season,” Jankowski said. “Regardless of how that goes, we’ve got a great group, a great group of coaches. We’re really excited about spring. We’re anxious to get back at it.”
With the defense in red jerseys at one end of the field, the offense in white tops at the other end and the quarterbacks in green, Jankowski and his large band of assistant coaches put the players through drills.
It was a welcomed feeling.
“Growing into a young man, you’ve got to be able to get past things. You’re going to go through adversity,” Monds said. “Of course playing the sport again and getting back to practice is going to help. You’ve got to be able to get past things like that.”
In these changing times on the high school sports scene, coaches and players interact more during the offseason whether it be offseason workouts or just socially.
“What’s different when I first got into this, we’re around our players a lot in the offseason. There’s a strong brotherhood with players, coaches and everybody involved. We’ve been around each other,” Jankowski said. “But getting something going for real is something you definitely look forward to.”
Reloading after graduating 30 seniors
The stark reality is Vero Beach goes into spring workouts minus 30 seniors from last season.
And not just seniors in the sense of 12th graders, either. Many were leaders and took the majority of the snaps during the 15-game season.
Guys like Traveon Townsend, Jordan Crutchfield, Jonathan Hillsman, Austin Banzhaf, Xavier Stinson, Efrem “EJ” White, Lance Stone, Micah “Champ” Smith, Romeo Vargas, Bobby Burbic, Maqarie Philip, Sebastian Polynice and Jarvis Jacobs are among those who graduated.
“You replace it with the offseason work we’ve put into this point and you develop that kind of leadership,” Jankowski said. “It’s not going to happen overnight. But our program is at a point where we don’t have a lot of bad in the program. All that work that those leaders who have graduated put in, it trickles down to guys who are expected to fill in and their role will be increased a little bit.
“We’ve got great leaders coming back.”
One is Monds.
A starter as a freshman who guided the team to an 8-4 season, reaching the regional semifinals before losing to Orlando Dr. Phillips.
Last year, Monds suffered a couple of injuries, one in Week 1 that sidelined him the rest of the regular season and one in the second round of the playoffs that kept him out two weeks until the state final.
Monds returned for the title game and went 11-for-20 for 200 yards and two touchdowns.
“I’ve been working on my leadership all throughout the spring in conditioning and weight lifting,” he said. “I knew that role was going to be brought on to me. I was already working on it when we had seniors. I’m excited to be able to take on that role.”
Ranked as one of the top quarterbacks in his class, Monds reclassified and will be entering his senior season this year. He has yet to make his college decision.
“It’s a blessing and I’m very excited to be in the position I’m in,” he said. “A lot of schools have been pursuing me. I’m starting to narrow down on where I want to go. I hope to make a decision soon.”
Recapping last year’s title game
OK, a quick recap of last year’s title game.
Ahead 27-19 Vero Beach had the ball at its own 40-yard line with 72 seconds remaining in regulation.
After three kneel downs and a delay-of-game penalty moved the ball back to the 19-yard line, Vero Beach elected to take a safety.
The ensuing kickoff went 45 yards to the Lake Mary 35 where Lake Mary’s Jahvon Robinson returned the ball 23 yards to the Vero Beach 42-yard line with 8 seconds left.
“We had one bad communication amongst coaches – obviously ultimately my fault – and then once that happened with the injury to our long snapper, the problems we had on the punt team, we recognized and realized we had to play for one play,” Jankowski said. “So we were able to get that accomplished. We didn’t want to risk – with a backup long snapper and two starters who were down on the punt team – a situation where we gave them an easy one.”
Lake Mary quarterback Noah Grubbs heaved a ball down field into triple coverage. Somehow Barrett Schulz caught the pass at the 4-yard line and lateraled to Tavarius Bundridge Jr. (or Bundridge took the ball away from Schulz) and went the final 4 yards for a game-tying touchdown. Lucas Parker kicked the tie-breaking PAT with no time left and a miracle comeback of scoring nine points in the final 22 seconds was complete.
“All things that let up to that in that last minute and whatever I take full responsibility,” Jankowski said. “I take responsibility for all losses. In all those situations – defending the Hail Mary, time management – all that stuff was rehearsed to the Nth degree.
“All of it played out, other than the one bad communication amongst coaches, it all played out, except for the end. Because of the way it ended, all of that is bad from a coaching standpoint.”
Vero Beach pulled out miracle win in semis
What’s difficult to remember is Vero Beach pulled out a miraculous win in the state semifinals the week before.
In the second overtime against Miami Palmetto High, Vero Beach scored a touchdown and kicked an extra point. White connected with Hillsman for a 10-yard touchdown and Riley Swanson kicked the PAT breaking a 38-all tie and giving Vero Beach a 45-38 lead at the Citrus Bowl.
Palmetto came back with a rushing touchdown to pull within a point, and the Panthers decided to go for two.
Sophomore defensive back Jamarion Hillsman made a huge hit to break up the Palmetto pass on the conversion and Vero Beach escaped with a 45-44 victory.
“Seven days earlier we won a game on a play from the 3-yard line where the team goes for two,” Jankowski said. “I would say at best that’s a 50/50 play. They called the perfect offensive play against the defense we were in. And our kid makes an incredible play. And we win the game, and there’s this indescribable feeling of victory.
“Seven days later you lost on a play from midfield in a driving rainstorm where you have it defended. Things happen and it goes the way it did, that’s the difference and the agony of defeat.”
The loss in the state championship game will sting.
“Like I said at the banquet, I have kids of my own, when you contribute to disappointment – and these guys are like my own kids because I’m around them more than I’m around my own – it’s an indescribable emotion,” Jankowski said. “That’s probably the best way to describe it.
“But this I know about what we have going: We’ve got an unbelievable group of kids, unbelievable community, parents, coaching staff.
“I’ve been doing this in my playing career and in coaching, every loss stings. There’s really nobody to talk to about that feeling.”
The start of spring practice will ease some of the pain.
“There’s nothing that carries over,” Jankowski said. “The way that game was played and the way the season played out, we had an incredible 14-1 season. We averaged over 40 points a game. We had 8.6 yards per play call. We played great defense, really good on special teams. Beat some of the best teams, not just in the state but in the country.
“Even within that game, there’s so much great that happened that gets lost in the story. So you hate that for the individuals involved.
“Getting a start at anything helps.”
Rebuilding the offensive line that graduated eight seniors and the linebacking corps are two of the main areas of concern heading into spring practice.
“We had some younger guys who logged minutes, but that was a senior-heavy position,” Jankowski said of his offensive line. “Our linebacker group was a senior-heavy position.
To help, defensive end Jake Tell transferred from Jensen Beach High and linebacker Deion Jackson came over from Legacy in Port St. Lucie.
“We don’t get a lot of transfers, but typically the ones we do get are usually pretty good or pretty serious, most of the time both,” Jankowski said. “A lot of the time it has a big impact. We’ll see how that works out.”
Vero Beach got a jump on spring practice with its offseason workout regimen. That helps the newcomers when it comes to the basics of a practice session.
“Because you are able to do so much in the offseason, it’s good to get how you are supposed to practice and what football practice is supposed to look like,” Jankowski said. “And getting players to understand and value practice where it all happens. This gives us an opportunity to do that in the purest form. You’re not concerned with preparing for an opponent, you’re working on the fundamentals and details and all that kind of stuff.”
Vero Beach will practice Monday through Thursday until May 21, when it will play an intersquad game 6 p.m. at the Citrus Bowl, in lieu of a spring classic.
All will help with the mental recovery of last year’s devastating loss.
“It was a rough last game of the season,” Monds said. “We definitely went through a lot of adversity in that game. I feel like it’s only going to make me and my team better as a team. I feel like it was a great learning experience, but you’ve got to finish the next time.
“The team is going to be perfectly fine this year. We’re going to be great in every spot. The transfers we’ve got in and the kids we already have from last year learning from all the seniors, we’re going to have a lot of intelligence on the field.”
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Spring Football: Vero Beach regroups after ‘Hail Mary’ state title loss
Reporting by Dennis Maffezzoli, Special to Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
