Lennard (FL) football will lean on youthful talent

Longhorns set to hookem' in new Class 3A-Metro

RUSKIN, FL – Lennard Longhorns head coach coach Matt Kitchie enters his seventh season at the helm of the program and the turnover from last season will play a factor in 2022.

A slew of seniors have graduated from last season’s 2-8 team and now the Longhorns will have to look towards making a turnaround this summer/fall with a very youthful squad. Kitchie points to the youth movement being the focal point, as he sees a lot of underclassmen likely to be in starting positions for Lennard.

“We have had a lot of turnover from last season,” Kitchie said. “We will be very young (with) only eight seniors. We are excited for some of our young players. We believe we are building for a solid team in the next few seasons. We expect a lot of freshmen and sophomores to get playing time and grow into solid players in the future.”

The Longhorns already played in a pretty difficult district last season within Class 7A, District 11 but now Lennard will enter the 2022 season in a new Class 3A-Metro, District 6. Lenard’s new district includes neighboring teams like Bloomingdale, East Bay and Spoto. Don’t count Kitchie being a fan of the new redistricting and reclassification of Lennard, with the Longhorns’ head coach believing the team should have been labeled under the suburban class and not metro.

“I am not a fan of metro and suburban,” Kitchie said. “I really feel that we are in the metro division even though we are a suburban school, I think they didn’t think out really who should be in those divisions. I also think it limits the entire state from quality match-ups. For example Lakeland will never have to play a team from Miami. Venice will never get to play a team from Hillsborough County.”

Lennard graduated 2,000-yard passer Gavin Henley and now will lean more on an experienced wide receiving group to lift whomever is under center for the Longhorns. Wide receiver/defensive back Duval Galite and Devin Harrison are two players expected to contribute along with Dominic Smith and Anthony Hunt going both ways.

“My goal for the season is that our team improves daily,” Kitchie added. “We may not measure our success and wins and losses but more important is how the team grows and how individuals grow into great men and good football players. All of our kids we are looking to have a great season.”

Andy Villamarzo can be reached at andyvillamarzo@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @Andy_Villamarzo.