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Lake O football programs hope to reach state
By
Lindsay Jones
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
BELLE GLADE ? The baseball hat star wide receiver Deonte Thompson so often wears is maroon and gold to show his loyalty to Glades Central. But the words embroidered across the front - "Muck City" - are to show his pride in an area far bigger than school boundaries.
Ten miles north on State Road 441, Pahokee players are wearing the same hat, but the colors are red, white and blue.
Muck City isn't a real city. It has no borders, no designation on the Florida map, but the football players and fans that live here in this 30-mile stretch of Lake Okeechobee's southeastern shoreline, know their "city" is home to some of the very best high school football in the state.
Especially this year.
The four schools that form "Muck City" - Glades Central (Class 3A), Clewiston (2A), Pahokee (2B) and Glades Day (1A) - have each advanced to the third round of the playoffs.
With wins Friday, Clewiston, Pahokee and Glades Day can each earn a spot in the state finals Dec. 1-2 at Dolphin Stadium. Glades Central needs two more wins to make it to the Class 3A championship Dec. 8.
The schools usually reach the post-season but it's rare that all four are still alive after two rounds. And with each school having a realistic chance to play in Miami, these teams know this year could be special.
"Now that we're all here and still playing, people are really noticing," Clewiston coach Larry Antonacci said.
And while no coach wanted to look past Friday's games, it was hard to ignore the December possibilities.
"It would set a place in history for the Muck," Pahokee coach Leroy Foster said. "It would show that in the classifications we're in, we're the best."
At least one of the four schools has advanced to the state final in 25 of the past 35 years. But never before have all four advanced to the state final in the same year.
"That's a lot of rich tradition out here around the lake," said Glades Day coach Pete Walker, a Clewiston native who previously coached the Tigers. "These guys now, they're playing for the legacies that were laid out long before they got here."
With that tradition, Walker said, comes great respect among the programs. Aside from the one or two weeks a year when one team plays another, coaches and players lend their support to their neighboring teams.
Public address announcers frequently update Muck City scores and coaches and players are on cellphones right after games.
"I've got (Pete Walker) programmed into my Nextel and he's got me in his," said Antonacci, who was the offensive coordinator of the Glades Central teams that won state championships from 1998-2000.
Coaches also have a strict policy of not giving out game footage on each other and have offered support in other ways. Glades Day provided ice to Clewiston for a game this season and the Gators also sold game balls to Pahokee for the playoffs.
"When we're playing each other, it's on," Walker said. "Then when the game's over, it's back to being friends. What we've got is special."
Part of the camaraderie stems from the schools' isolation from coastal Palm Beach County. Clewiston, in Hendry county, is the farthest from West Palm Beach, but even the Belle Glade schools are at least 30 miles from the nearest suburban areas like Royal Palm Beach and Wellington.
The distance is not just felt in miles, Foster said, but in the level of respect afforded Muck programs compared to coastal counterparts.
"It's kind of an 'Us vs. Them,' mentality," Foster said. "The east coast teams look down on us, never give us proper respect. Our kids are constantly playing with a chip on their shoulder."
For players, the isolation breeds a special kinship they don't believe exists at schools in other parts of the state.
"We're out here by ourselves, and that just makes us closer together out here in Muck City," Thompson said.
In the summer, players scrimmaged against each other at 7-on-7 tournaments, and players from Glades Central and Glades Day share breakfast at a Belle Glade Baptist Church most Saturday mornings during the season. Glades Central and Pahokee players met for dinner before the annual Muck Bowl, and many said they'll sometimes run into players from the other schools while at the movies or at local restaurants.
For some, the relationship is even closer. Pahokee quarterback Anthony Sheppard and Glades Central fullback Max Brown are cousins and best friends who speak daily.
"I just hope we can both get to Miami," Brown said. "It's a family thing, but it would be a family thing anyway, because I feel like all the teams out here, including Clewiston, are like family."
