Seahawks retool, restock
By PETE SISK
Special to the Breeze
“Next man up.”
That’s the phrase in the game of football. A player graduates, transfers, or quits the game, someone else steps into the position.
At Cape Coral High School, “next man up” is in full swing.
Coach Larry Gary’s Seahawks took some heavy player losses after last season’s 9-3 playoff team hung up the pads and helmets.
The team’s top two tacklers, Colin Loethen and Angel Torres. The leading receiver, Rasheen Bailey (13 touchdown catches). A chunk of the offensive line. Not to mention Dylan Bontrager, the quarterback who threw for 2,413 yards and 23 touchdowns, and ran for 300 yards and six more scores. All lost to graduation. As were Bontrager’s two backups.
On top of all that, running back Jordan Lewis (seven TDs) transferred to Ida Baker.
With so many key players gone, some may be taking the Seahawks lightly this season.
The Seahawks have seen preseason predictions that don’t sit all that well with them.
As far as Gary and Cape Coral are concerned, overlook the Seahawks at your own risk. They don’t mind playing the disrespect card.
“They didn’t pick us,” Gary said. “That’s what it is, disrespecting us, and teams like North Fort Myers getting picked ahead of us. Sure, they have improved themselves, but they’re stepping them up above us.”
It’s not as though the cupboard is bare at Cape Coral. Junior Issac Washington returns to anchor the ground game. CJ Lewis, Hunter Bontrager, and Keashawn McCoy are still around to catch passes. Lewis (three interceptions in 2014) and McCoy are also back prowling in the secondary on defense.
And the Seahawks picked up a new quarterback by way of transfer. Maurice Flournoy, who played in the offensive and defensive backfields as a sophomore at Island Coast in 2014, has been taking snaps at quarterback with the first team for Cape this August.
Jordan, Cape Coral’s quarterback in the spring game win against Dunbar, can slide back over from receiver if needed.
Otherwise, Gary didn’t go into a lot of specifics on key players for this season.
“This is what I told the guys: I’m not going to call out names, because after I get done spitting out names I get mad at myself. I always leave somebody out. As a unit, we’re doing fine on offense and defense.
I’m just trying to fill in the spaces that we lost, and hopefully the group of veterans that returns will get better.”
While Flournoy might not have the same passing style as Bontrager, Gary expects to continue to balance the offense between the ground game and air attack.
“It will be” a smooth transition, Gary said. “We’ve just got to continue to work.
“We’re still going to keep our same offense. Just take what the defense will give us.”
The Seahawks are going to be thrown into the fire in a hurry. There’s no easing into the schedule. Cape faces Fort Myers in its preseason game a test Gary said he wanted right off the bat – then opens with Sarasota and South Fort Myers before the District 6A-10 opener against Port Charlotte.
“The first three games that we play, it’s going to be tough,” Gary said. “We play our kickoff game with Fort Myers, then we open up with Sarasota. Then, the second week, we go to South.’?It’s hard to find an easy game on Cape’s schedule, which also includes district games against Ida Baker, Island Coast and Charlotte before closing with archrivals North Fort Myers (also a 6A-10 foe) and Mariner back-to-back.
“Other than the open date, our schedule’s tough. One of the toughest I’ve seen since I’ve been at Cape. Our district is really tough, and some of the teams that we played that aren’t as strong, we’re not playing them. We replaced them with powerhouse teams. With good teams, that’s how it is.”
The Seahawks kickoff the new season on Friday in a preseason classic at Fort Myers, followed by the regular season opener at home against Sarasota.