Hope Springs Eternal

Spring symbolizes a time when things are energetic, alive, and optimistic. At Marco Island Academy (MIA), third-year head football coach Lew Montgomery is taking advantage of the spring practice window to assess what kind of team he might have in the fall. Two things he knows: his facilities are markedly improved and his numbers are going up on an almost daily basis.

 "I said it in the fall," Montgomery said, "that I believe when the facilities got completed, it would be a game changer. And it has been. And we keep adding kids - four more came out Friday.”

The MIA football team has had its challenges. Facilities were pretty much non-existent before this spring. Most recently, they were relegated to practicing in the outfield of Tyler Beck Memorial Ballpark, the baseball field behind Tommie Barfield Elementary. The field came under scrutiny last year because it wasn’t fit to play baseball on, let alone practice football. With the completion of the brand new on-campus Manta Ray Field, Montgomery now has a great place to practice. Unfortunately, due to real estate limitations, the field is not big enough to be used as a regulation football field. So the Rays will continue to play their home games at Winterberry Field.

In addition to a Cool Turf field, there are locker room and weight training facilities incorporated into Manta Ray Field. And the fact that everyone can see them on campus, going through their drills, is a big plus.

"The facilities,” Montgomery said, "not only has it made us physically stronger as a team, but with it being right here on campus, the other students see us after school. There's a good crowd that watches us. It just makes it the place to be."

Numbers have been a challenge for the MIA football program since Marco Island Charter Middle School dropped its football program several years ago. MIA has struggled to field a competitive team ever since. In fact, the Rays have had to end their past two seasons early because attrition has left them with numbers too small to safely field a team. Montgomery sees that changing.

"We have numbers,” he said with a smile. “Students have been joining the team as the week's gone on and we've not lost anybody. So I'm adding, not subtracting. The energy is great around here.”

While the boys are practicing on the south end of the field, the girls are busy practicing for an upcoming powderpuff football game on the north end of the field. Montgomery loves the activity.

 “The girls have been out here right after school practicing,” he said, "and it's been awesome to see all the different students and all the different organizations out here utilizing the field at the same time. And I think that's what is going to draw in the kids and give us the numbers that we need. We have the student body to be successful. We just need to let them know that they're football players and by doing it right here under their noses, they see it, they see that they can be part of it. We encourage them to come out and very quickly, they fall into the fold. So the facilities have been a game changer on so many levels. Not just physically but the energy that it brings to the school. And I think some of these kids are going to really step up. We're seeing a lot of underclassmen coming out. And that's going to be the heart of the team. We've got numbers, we've got youth, and we're starting to get a little bit of experience as well. And thank God we've got a little bit of size now. Yeah, we finally are not going to be averaging 130 pounds across the front line. We're going to look good."

Given the lack of a feeder system for his team, Montgomery is hoping the school’s new lacrosse team will feed athletes into the football program. He said MIA has a tradition of multi-sport athletes.

“A lot of these young guys played multi-sports,” Montgomery said, “Gage Rice is an example of that, going from basketball right to lacrosse and then right from lacrosse into the weight room. I want them to love football. But I want them to love being part of a team first. I think lacrosse has been a blessing to us. Every one of those kids is physical. And not only that, they were running around, learning angles. They’re learning to run in space and to deal with contact. We can help support lacrosse and lacrosse is going to support football.”

Many states, especially in colder climates, do not permit spring football practice.

"I think it's great that Florida has set aside May specifically for spring football this year,” Montgomery said, "everyone is out here and totally plugged in. We’re getting a good gauge of where we're at now so that it's going to carry on through the summer months in the weight room.”