Through thick & thin: DP football’s hunt for state title started four years ago

Just as carbon deposits found under the surface of the earth can, over the course of millions to billions of years and with the appropriate amount of pressure and heat applied, form a diamond, a championship team can be formed with patience and adversity. 

Just ask the final four-bound Dr. Phillips High football team.

“The opportunity to get to this point — being just one win away from the state title game — means a lot to us, because we know how hard we’ve worked to get here,” Dr. Phillips senior linebacker Kramar Brown Jr. said. “We’ve gone through a lot together, and in those moments, we didn’t quit. We learned from them and have just been building ourselves into the team we are today. We’ve been molded over these past few years into this diamond. It took a lot of pressure and heat to get here, but thanks to the support we’ve given each other through the years, it’s showing now that this diamond is coming to form.”

Tough times make tough teams

Dr. Phillips (12-1) — after topping the visiting Vero Beach High (8-4), 21-14, in what ended up being a slogfest for the Region 3 Championship — is one of the final four teams alive competing for the Class 7A state title. However, if you would have told the Panthers seniors this after their freshman or even sophomore seasons, they might have believed you but with the caveat that it would have taken an incredible amount of growth. 

Four years ago, when the current senior class first donned the Panthers’ blue for legendary coach Rodney Wells, it wasn’t the refined piece of high-end football you see being played these days at Bill Spoone Stadium. Rather, it was the first piece of pressure, adversity and molding these football players would face on their four-year journey to becoming a state-championship contender. 

As freshmen, in 2021, this group was part of the Panthers’ (4-6) first losing season with Wells as coach and the first losing season in more than a decade overall — the 2010 team forfeited its 14 wins, and the previous losing season came in 2004. 

It was a similar story for this group in 2022. DP finished again with a 4-6 record, but this time, they were a Hail Mary stop away from beating West Orange High, winning the district title and making the playoffs. 

“This is, maybe, the most special group that I’ve had the pleasure of coaching, just because of the challenges that they’ve fought through,” Wells said. “From going 4-6 as freshmen and sophomores — I don’t even want to talk about the Hail Mary loss to West Orange here during their sophomore year when all of these guys were playing for us — this group was able to bounce back last season and get things headed in the right direction.”

With most of the same cast of play-makers sticking together and trusting the process Wells and his staff have preached since the start, the 2023 season was when the shine from the diamond started to peak through the muck and the Panthers saw some of the success they’ve been working toward; finishing with a 7-5 record and reaching the second round of the playoffs. 

“It was a big moment for these guys last season, to win a playoff game and make it to the second round,” Wells said. “Not only did it give them confidence, but coming into the summer they were (angry) and could see the vision we’ve been preaching to them — which was all about finishing strong, getting to the next level and ultimately putting another state championship on our belt.”

Now, as seniors, this group has seen the light at the end of a four-year-long tunnel and is two wins away from doing what only one other Panthers football team has ever done: Win a state title.

“It’s been a lot over these past four years,” Panthers senior quarterback Stanley Anderson-Lofton said. “We’ve been through the struggles, we saw what being a 4-6 team for back-to-back seasons was like. We know what it’s like to take a step forward and see what success feels like after we went 7-5 last season — but also how much it hurt to lose in the second round. So, it’s just a blessing to be in the position we are today and I want to give thanks to God for allowing us to go through this journey and get to this point.”

‘Go be great’

Despite being able to recognize the amazing journey this group of seniors — and, really, the entire Dr. Phillips team — has been on these past few seasons, one of the main reasons the Panthers football program has consistently been great under Wells’ stewardship is the collective group’s ability to keep the standard, well, the standard. What that means is simple: Reaching the final four isn’t the standard, and neither is reaching the state championship game. 

The standard is winning it all, and the Panthers know that maintaining that standard starts with their preparation during the week. 

“To achieve our goal, we just have to keep practicing hard and improving each day,” Brown Jr. said. “It all starts with how we come out to practice on Monday, making sure we’re working hard, and if we can lean on that energy through the week, I have no doubt it’ll show on Friday and the week after at states.”

As the leader of the offense, Anderson-Lofton agrees with his fellow senior, Brown Jr., and knows everyone needs to lock in mentally to prepare for its first road playoff game of 2024. 

“We just need to make sure everybody is keeping the main thing the main thing — winning the next game,” Anderson-Lofton said. “That starts with us coming in every day ready to work and not lolly-gagging. Even though we have fun and can be not serious at times, we’ve matured a lot over the years and have grown to understand that there’s a time for everything. Right now, it’s time for us to lock in to get what we want.”

Wells, who led the 2017 Panthers to a state title and reached the championship round the year prior, knows what title teams look like, and when asked what his team needs to do to win these next two games, he didn’t hesitate to point out the laundry list of ways his team needs to improve.

“We have to go be great,” Wells said. “We have to be better in all three phases of the game. We have to tackle better. We have to communicate better. We really have to finish better. We went into the halftime of the Vero Beach game up 21-0 and didn’t score a point in the second half. That’s not something that we can do if we want to win a championship. We have to take advantage of the big-play opportunities we get. Going back to the Vero game, Maliki (Wright) — and I don’t mean to pick on him because he has been great this year for us, always out there making plays — dropped what would have been a pick-six in the first half, that probably would have sent us into halftime up 28-0 and virtually closed out the game. So, that’s something else we have to do better, execute those big chances we get.”