Booker football must believe before it can win again

Heads were bowed. Shoulders were slumped. Hands were planted firmly on hips.

All the signs of a disheartened, frustrated team were there.

Rarely is body language more telling than the scoreboard, but on the evening of Aug. 27 at Booker High School’s Fred Gilmore Field, it told quite the tale.

The Tornadoes’ first junior varsity football game after the school’s decision to cancel its varsity season, and their first game under new coach Lance Hoeltke, was hard to watch. At times, it was downright sad to see a group of young student-athletes laid so low.

Riverview thoroughly dismantled Booker, 63-7, from the first whistle to the last. More than anything else, it revealed the belief that needs to be built among these players.

Hoeltke and his staff’s greatest challenge will be guiding their players to believe in themselves. Only then can this program start winning again.

“After a game like that, it's hard not to let competitive spirit come out of you,” Hoeltke said. “If you're a competitor, you're obviously not pleased with any kind of outcome like that.”

Photo by Jack Nelson

Their much-anticipated debut was a dissonant symphony of botched snaps, shed tackles and coverage breakdowns. It began with Riverview returning the opening kickoff all the way to the end zone despite initially bobbling the ball.

By the end of the first quarter, the Rams were up 28-0. Their lead had grown to an even more commanding 49-7 once halftime arrived.

A running clock during the second half helped stop the bleeding. Spirits, though, were visibly low among players despite Hoeltke and his staff’s efforts to lift them up.

He informed officials midway through the fourth quarter his team no longer had enough players to put 11 on the field because of minor injuries, and the game was called early.

“Just 23 players accounted for every snap of the game on our side, and that's a lot to bear against a very organized Riverview team with so few practices under our belt,” Hoeltke said. “All that considered, I’m very proud of the way the guys went out there and competed and played as hard as they could given the circumstances. It’s something to build on.”

In no realm could these student-athletes have been expected to play winning football from the get-go, or even be all that competitive this season. No criticism can justifiably be levied against them considering what they’ve had to endure over the past few months.

Former coach Carlos Woods was suspended June 10 and dismissed mid-July without an explanation given to players or their families. Woods is also involved in an active criminal investigation by the Sarasota Police Department. 

Hoeltke was hired July 29 before the FHSAA season began Aug. 14 with Week 0, and the school cancelled its varsity season Aug. 12.

Photo by Jack Nelson

Asking these players to have unwavering belief in themselves after that saga would be beyond unreasonable. Some of them — at least — are probably still questioning what they can believe.

It won’t be easy to re-instill that belief, but it’s a process Hoeltke and his staff must embrace.

“That's always the challenge as a coach, and that's all part of culture,” Hoeltke said. “One of the biggest opportunities as a coach with a football team is learning how to deal with adversity, and we're dealing with adversity from multiple angles here.”

The fact that they still want to compete for Booker already says a lot about their character. These are good kids who got caught in a bad situation, and like their coaches, want to move forward.

They know about the program’s success in recent years. They want to win, too. 

Winning, though, won’t happen until they believe they can win. That’s one of the fundamental rules of not just football, but of all sports.

Freshmen and sophomores make up most of the team, according to Hoeltke. The mix of experienced players with first-time players is 50-50, he said. The program saw more than 20 players transfer out before the beginning of the season.

It’s in the nature of younger players to bow their heads or slump their shoulders — to doubt themselves in tough times like Aug. 27. That doubt has to be replaced by belief, and it’s up to coaches to facilitate that.

“Helping these young men understand how you deal with adversity requires a lot of good conversations,” Hoeltke said. “And a lot of wise reactions when you don't get the kind of response that we need to have from everybody.”

Photo by Jack Nelson

These student-athletes went through plenty of adversity before this season even began — more than some go through in their entire high school football careers.

But Booker’s players will only face more. Their loss to Riverview likely won’t be the only time they’re behind on the scoreboard when all is said and done this fall.

Winning teams are laden with players prepared to handle adversity. They can respond well to it, and often do, because they know what happens if they don’t.

Hoeltke thought about the importance of that response when he gathered his team Aug. 27 next to the scoreboard after the game.

“The message was, ‘Hey, maybe we need something like this in order to fuel that competitive spirit,’” he said. “There will come a time when this will not happen again, but we've got to start somewhere. The goal is to get back up.”

He and his staff are re-building from the ground up. Belief among the players — most of all, in themselves — has to be the foundation.

Only then, once belief is restored, can Booker football win again.