Streaks Hope To Grab A Win

The intensity was ratcheted up a notch on Wednesday during Sebring's football practice, as seniors pondered the final time they'll put on the pads as a Blue Streak.

"I'm not thinking about it this second, but it's in the back of my mind," Sebring senior JC Howard said. "It's going to be weird to take off that jersey and walk out of that locker room for the final time."

Sebring head coach Jared Hamlin remembered back to his college days, when he said players would view that last practice as a time of reflection.

"You're mind goes over 100 million things during those final days of football," Hamlin said. "You remember all the different games and plays that you were apart of during not only the season, but through the years of playing.

"I looked back when I was first called and played my first down as a varsity player all the way to the present. It gave a bit of perspective of how far I had come as a player. I'm sure that is what some of our seniors are going through right now, as for many of them, this will be the last time they play football."

This week's practices were a bit more enjoyable after last week's 14-13 win over arch-rival Avon Park which ended a seven-game losing streak that had Hamlin and his coaching staff critiquing their performance as coaches during film study just as much as the players.

"We always critique our play-calling and how we manage a game during film sessions," Hamlin said. "The tendency during a losing stretch like this is to second guess yourself, but when we went back to the film and broke it down, I was satisfied for the most part in how we followed the game plan."

Sebring's defense played its best all-around game in weeks, as they forced four second half turnovers that proved to be the deciding factor in last week's one-point victory.

"Our run defense played about as good as they have all season," Hamlin said. "Avon Park came in with a great game plan against us in stopping our run and Alonzo Robertson really hurt us with some big catches over our defense.

"We made the adjustment in playing one less guy in the box to cover Robertson and forced them to beat us with the run. With that adjustment, we were able to make some key plays and finally forced some turnovers that led to the win."

Tonight, the Streaks (2-7) play their season finale against Port Charlotte (4-5). The Pirates dropped a 28-7 decision to Charlotte High School and have lost three of their last five games.Sebring and Port Charlotte shared a common foe this season in DeSoto, and the Streaks fell 48-12, while the Pirates dropped a 29-13 opening season loss to the Bulldogs.

Hamlin doesn't look at the comparisons of their clashes with DeSoto, rather at where the two teams are at this point in the season and how he'll prepare to end the season on a high note.

"Every team is different than they were at the beginning of the season, so we can't take much stock in how they did and how we did against DeSoto," Hamlin said. "We're using this final game to end the season on a positive and hopefully build on next year.

"Port Charlotte is a good team but we've seen some things on film that lets us believe we can do certain things on offense against them. And if our defense plays like they did on Friday, then we should come out on top."

Heading into the final game, Hamlin believes his team has made great strides in the second half of the season, even though the record doesn't necessarily reflect it.

"I'm excited about tonight's game and the opportunity to go out and give the seniors one last victory and end the season on a two-game winning streak."

Blue Streaks vs. Pirates

at Firemen's Field

TONIGHT at 7:30

COST $5