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American Heritage won a state championship this season after a two-year drought and head coach Pat Surtain is happy his program is back where he feels they belong.
“It feels great considering these last two years where we didn’t win our ultimate goal even though we won a lot of games. We went 22-4 in that span but at Heritage, that’s not the standard we set for ourselves. Finally being back on top of that mountain, it feels really good.”
Coach Surtain knew early on before the season even started that he had a special group and his team delivered.
“I thought we had a good team coming back with our seniors returning and with the young guys who we thought were really good ball players. Just the way they worked in the summer with all the adversity we went through, I knew they had a certain chip on their shoulder with how we lost last year by three points to Northwestern. Going into the season the guys knew what they had to do and they went out and did it.”
American Heritage got revenge on the team that took them out of the playoffs the prior season, Miami Northwestern.
“If we take care of the ball, we can beat anybody in the country. In last year's game (vs. Northwestern), we had four turnovers and you can’t turn the ball over against a team of that magnitude. Coming in this year, we stressed taking care of the ball and creating turnovers on defense. If we did that, we would have a very good chance to win and that is exactly what we did.”
This championship season was not without its ups and downs as Heritage did temporarily lose their starting QB which led to a couple of losses.
“It kind of humbled us because we thought we won the state championship before we did. We still had a season to play. We learned from those games and it made us a better team down the line. These guys have been great the whole year and they have handled every bit of adversity put in front of us and that is why we are state champs.”
As for a moment that stands out when coach Surtain looks back on the season, one in particular comes to mind.
“The semi-final game (vs. Tampa Jesuit), we were down 13-0 and the kids battled back. We got a field goal and went down 13-3, and then 13-6, and we just kept plugging away and eventually, things turned our way - even turning the ball over five times and having a punt return on us for a touchdown. Usually when you do that, you never win those games. It’s just a credit to those kids for just hanging in there and we finally got our breaks and were able to win it with a last-second field goal at the end. We played a **** of a schedule throughout the year, one of the toughest in the state if not the country, and our guys just persevered. I think that the Tampa Jesuit game was just the culmination of everything, to pull it out at the end was a tremendous moment for us.
Heritage was led to the title by one of the best defenses in the country anchored by two 2022 4-star defensive ends in Richard Thomas and Marvin Jones Jr.
“I don’t know if you’ll find a pair of bookends probably in the entire country as good as those two guys. They compliment each other well. Marvin had 15.5 sacks - I’m not sure how many Richard had, but they compliment each other well. Both of them get after the passer, both of them are strong at the point of attack in the run game, and they are a perfect fit for what we like to do on defense.”
Heritage is always going to pride itself on the defensive back play and their up and coming stars are no different.
“Both (Earl Little Jr. and Jacolby Spells) are tremendous competitors. They challenge themselves and they work at their craft. I think Jacolby is more of an outside guy whereas Earl loves to play in the slot. He likes to be more physical in there. It’s the entire unit. We also have Daemon ***an who came on and had a **** of a year for us as a sophomore. Then we have Damari Brown who started the year off on fire but then he got hurt. We expect him back and we expect big things from him. We pride ourselves on being ‘DB High’ and we’ve had some guys over the years and this next crop coming up is no exception. They are going to be really special for us.”
Coach Surtain also gave his take on Miami’s new defensive backs coach hire, Travaris Robinson.
“That’s my boy. We go back a long way. **** of a DB coach. The things he’s done at Florida and South Carolina with his DB’s, the track record speaks for itself. I’m sure he’ll go to Miami and do a great job also. I don’t like what they did to my boy Mike Rumph, but he’ll still have a helping hand in what they do over there. I think they found the right guy in T-Rob. He’s a great recruiter and he’s from this area so I think Manny did a great job with that hire.”
Coach Robinson will be in charge of coaching up one of the players who helped lead American Heritage to the state championship, Miami 2021 5-star signee James Williams.
“The most important thing is to just stay on him. T-Rob is not someone to sugar coat things, he’s real firm in his direction, he is going to coach you hard, and I think that’s what a kid like that needs. He doesn’t need anybody to lay off of him. He needs to be pushed and I think T-Rob will do that.”
“It feels great considering these last two years where we didn’t win our ultimate goal even though we won a lot of games. We went 22-4 in that span but at Heritage, that’s not the standard we set for ourselves. Finally being back on top of that mountain, it feels really good.”
Coach Surtain knew early on before the season even started that he had a special group and his team delivered.
“I thought we had a good team coming back with our seniors returning and with the young guys who we thought were really good ball players. Just the way they worked in the summer with all the adversity we went through, I knew they had a certain chip on their shoulder with how we lost last year by three points to Northwestern. Going into the season the guys knew what they had to do and they went out and did it.”
American Heritage got revenge on the team that took them out of the playoffs the prior season, Miami Northwestern.
“If we take care of the ball, we can beat anybody in the country. In last year's game (vs. Northwestern), we had four turnovers and you can’t turn the ball over against a team of that magnitude. Coming in this year, we stressed taking care of the ball and creating turnovers on defense. If we did that, we would have a very good chance to win and that is exactly what we did.”
This championship season was not without its ups and downs as Heritage did temporarily lose their starting QB which led to a couple of losses.
“It kind of humbled us because we thought we won the state championship before we did. We still had a season to play. We learned from those games and it made us a better team down the line. These guys have been great the whole year and they have handled every bit of adversity put in front of us and that is why we are state champs.”
As for a moment that stands out when coach Surtain looks back on the season, one in particular comes to mind.
“The semi-final game (vs. Tampa Jesuit), we were down 13-0 and the kids battled back. We got a field goal and went down 13-3, and then 13-6, and we just kept plugging away and eventually, things turned our way - even turning the ball over five times and having a punt return on us for a touchdown. Usually when you do that, you never win those games. It’s just a credit to those kids for just hanging in there and we finally got our breaks and were able to win it with a last-second field goal at the end. We played a **** of a schedule throughout the year, one of the toughest in the state if not the country, and our guys just persevered. I think that the Tampa Jesuit game was just the culmination of everything, to pull it out at the end was a tremendous moment for us.
Heritage was led to the title by one of the best defenses in the country anchored by two 2022 4-star defensive ends in Richard Thomas and Marvin Jones Jr.
“I don’t know if you’ll find a pair of bookends probably in the entire country as good as those two guys. They compliment each other well. Marvin had 15.5 sacks - I’m not sure how many Richard had, but they compliment each other well. Both of them get after the passer, both of them are strong at the point of attack in the run game, and they are a perfect fit for what we like to do on defense.”
Heritage is always going to pride itself on the defensive back play and their up and coming stars are no different.
“Both (Earl Little Jr. and Jacolby Spells) are tremendous competitors. They challenge themselves and they work at their craft. I think Jacolby is more of an outside guy whereas Earl loves to play in the slot. He likes to be more physical in there. It’s the entire unit. We also have Daemon ***an who came on and had a **** of a year for us as a sophomore. Then we have Damari Brown who started the year off on fire but then he got hurt. We expect him back and we expect big things from him. We pride ourselves on being ‘DB High’ and we’ve had some guys over the years and this next crop coming up is no exception. They are going to be really special for us.”
Coach Surtain also gave his take on Miami’s new defensive backs coach hire, Travaris Robinson.
“That’s my boy. We go back a long way. **** of a DB coach. The things he’s done at Florida and South Carolina with his DB’s, the track record speaks for itself. I’m sure he’ll go to Miami and do a great job also. I don’t like what they did to my boy Mike Rumph, but he’ll still have a helping hand in what they do over there. I think they found the right guy in T-Rob. He’s a great recruiter and he’s from this area so I think Manny did a great job with that hire.”
Coach Robinson will be in charge of coaching up one of the players who helped lead American Heritage to the state championship, Miami 2021 5-star signee James Williams.
“The most important thing is to just stay on him. T-Rob is not someone to sugar coat things, he’s real firm in his direction, he is going to coach you hard, and I think that’s what a kid like that needs. He doesn’t need anybody to lay off of him. He needs to be pushed and I think T-Rob will do that.”
