Sebring faces arduous 2022 regular season slate

The Blue Streaks play Clewiston, Clearwater Central Catholic and Lake Wales this season

SEBRING, FLORIDA – Just one score separated the Sebring Blue Streaks from playing for the 2021 Class 5A state championship when they fell 12-10 to Merritt Island in the state semifinal.

Sebring went 9-4 in 2021.  / Photo courtesy of Sebring Blue Streaks

Now the Blue Streaks are back with plenty of talent to backup making another deep playoff run, but Sebring will be playing a tough 2022 regular season slate of games. LaVaar Scott’s team will kickoff the season at home versus IMG Academy White before going through a stretch where they’ll face Clewiston, Lake Wales and McDonald (OH).

“We have a very challenging schedule,” Scott said. “We have some new faces in very important positions. Get better each game. Compete each rep. Win the winnable games and give yourself a chance to pull the upset in the underdog games. Grow as men.”

When it comes to new faces on offense, one of them isn’t junior running back Travis Kerney, who rushed for a team-high 1,038 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2021. With last year’s quarterback Cam Kimbrell having transferred to Cardinal Newman, the signal caller position will be a position up for grabs in camp.

The Blue Streaks’ staff will have to replace to key players on offense.  / Photo courtesy of Sebring Blue Streaks

The team’s top lineman on offense is senior Luke Swaine, who helped pave the way for over 2,000 yards on the ground last season. Senior Wilney Francois should see his fair share of touches on offense for Sebring. JC Sanchez is back heading up special teams as the kicker after knocking down 68 points worth of kicks in 2021.

The Blue Streaks’ defense is a senior-laden group, led by defensive end Kadin Baker (36 tackles, six sacks in 2021), free safety Jalen Knighten, outside linebacker Tyler Blevins (100 tackles in 2021), outside linebacker Joshua Carter (97 tackles in 2021) and junior middle linebacker Josiah Taylor (120 tackles in 2021).

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— joshua carter (@joshua20107585) December 14, 2021

“This team has the potential to be good,” Scott added. “The defense which gave up 5.5 points a game has a chance to be just as good. Our offense needs to see improvement along with our special teams.

“We have a good portion of last year’s team back, but we lost some key seniors. Time will tell if this team can be just as good. Are schedule is like last year, which was very tough on the front end, but it prepared us for the run. We will see.”

It will be a totally new district when it comes to opponents for Sebring, as Scott points out the program will face teams they haven’t faced in over a decade. Sebring will be playing in the new Class 3A-Suburban, District 11 with Okeechobee and Westwood.

“Our new district is kind of weird,” Scott said. “We are playing two teams we have not played for over 10 years. We have to do a lot of research.”

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