{"id":8292,"date":"2017-05-01T10:36:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T14:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/?page_id=8292"},"modified":"2017-05-03T11:07:40","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T15:07:40","slug":"miami-southridge-returns-to-spring-practice-for-first-time-since-winning-title","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/projects\/miami-southridge-returns-to-spring-practice-for-first-time-since-winning-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Southridge returns to spring practice for first time since winning title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Posted May 1, 2017<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By LUIS GONZALEZ<\/p>\n<p>Last season, the school\u2019s spirit t-shirts read \u201cReturn of the Empire.\u201d Combining a few Star Wars movie titles as expectations were met when the school won the 8A state championship.<\/p>\n<p>Going into next season, the school looks to prevent a new force from awakening.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8287\" style=\"width: 409px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8287\" class=\"wp-image-8287\" src=\"http:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Southridge-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"399\" height=\"270\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8287\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miami Southridge\u2019s offense and defense huddles for a break before heading into drills in spring practice on April 26, 2017 (Photos by Luis Gonzalez).<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Miami Southridge High Spartans started spring practice this week, taking the first steps in their title defense.<\/p>\n<p>You will not hear the word \u201ctitle\u201d from Coach Billy Rolle this early on in spring.<\/p>\n<p>The first coach to win state championships at three different high schools in Florida, had few words at practice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got nothing to say. I ain\u2019t feeling nothing with this team,\u201d Rolle said.His silence serves as a motivational tactic to keep his team from getting a championship hangover, according to players<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, he has faith in us. He just don\u2019t want to say that right now,\u201d cornerback Chris McDonald Jr., who will be a junior in the fall, said<\/p>\n<p>One of the biggest concerns in the team\u2019s road to a fourth state championship is in the secondary.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/215846283\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Cornerbacks Coemba Jones Jr. and Shawn Davis are off to play college football at Albany State University and the University of Florida, respectively. Safeties Antwan Collier and Billy Gibson Jr. will be playing at the University of Central Florida and Oregon University respectively, next season.<\/p>\n<p>With an entire new secondary, it will rely mostly on the shoulders of McDonald.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8288\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8288\" class=\"wp-image-8288\" src=\"http:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Southridge-2-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"368\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8288\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wide Receiver Mark Pope leads receivers in ladder drills during Miami Southridge\u2019s spring practice.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cMcDonald is a guy garnering a lot of attention in 2019 and, for Miami Southridge, he is the key,\u201d contributing writer for Canesinsight.com and the Miami Herald David Perez said. \u201cThe defense as a whole is stepping up with Diamante Howard going into a bigger role, but McDonald has special speed and versatility and Southridge is going need that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is an iron sharpens iron mentality in daily practice for McDonald, who has had four-star (according to 247sports) and University of Miami commit Mark Pope challenge him in practice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChris is a younger guy, so we\u2019re just out here competing and making each other better.\u201d Pope said. \u201cI told him \u2018I ain\u2019t going to go play with you, I\u2019m going to go out there and make you better.\u2019 And he said the same thing, \u2018I\u2019m going to make you better.\u2019\u2026 I told him \u2018Every team we play, I want you on the best receiver.\u2019 You know, because he has the talent and he has everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To help relieve some of the pain in the secondary, sophomore five-star outside linebacker (according to 247sports) Diamante Howard will be transitioning to Strong Safety next season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hardest part is my hips,\u201d Howard said on his transition to the new position. \u201cReally, with linebacker, we don\u2019t really work on our hips like that. So now, I got to stay focused to work on my hips. That\u2019s my hardest transition. My vision is great, but yeah, it\u2019s just my hips.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8290\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8290\" class=\"wp-image-8290\" src=\"http:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Southridge-5-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"272\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8290\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Southridge\u2019s offense receives a play during scrimmage during spring practice.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>After losing running back Bentavious Thompson, who is leaving to play football at UCF, the Spartans needed to bolster their offensive line to help make it easier on the new back.<\/p>\n<p>They did just that by bringing in Killian transfer, offensive tackle Delone Scaife.<\/p>\n<p>The three-star (according to 247sports) and Miami commit, already was vocal with his teammates during drills in practice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the loss of seniors like Cody Bowes on the line, Scaife will provide the type of versatility needed on the line,\u201d Perez said. \u201cHe\u2019s blown up this offseason with an invite to The Opening [a national camp, hosted by Nike, that only select talent get invited], and will have to blow up next year for their run game to have success.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8289\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8289\" class=\"wp-image-8289\" src=\"http:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Southridge-3-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"368\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8289\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Offensive Lineman Delone Scaife goes through drills in Southridge\u2019s spring practice.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been kind of bumpy, but I\u2019ve gotten used to it,\u201d Scaife said. \u201cI had to get used to the O-line, get to know them. I\u2019m kind of excited. It\u2019s my senior year, my last spring, so I\u2019m kind of ready.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With last year\u2019s Offensive Coordinator David Cooney leaving the program to become an offensive quality control analyst for the University of Miami, it is too early to hold accurate predictions.<\/p>\n<p>However, sheer talent remains with the Spartans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChampions show consistency and right now, no 8A team has the returning talent that Southridge has,\u201d Perez said. \u201cThey lose talent on defense, but with a top wide receiver in South Florida Mark Pope, one of the top [class of] 2019 talents in Diamante Howard, and a coach who has multiple championships, Billy Rolle, it is hard to imagine Southridge not being in the thick of things come December.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Posted May 1, 2017 By LUIS GONZALEZ Last season, the school\u2019s spirit t-shirts read \u201cReturn of the Empire.\u201d Combining a few Star Wars movie titles as expectations were met when the school won the 8A state championship. Going into next &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/projects\/miami-southridge-returns-to-spring-practice-for-first-time-since-winning-title\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3284,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"sidebar-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8292","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8292"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8319,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8292\/revisions\/8319"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}