A Winning Tradition: Lakeland\"s Bill Castle

by: Richard Scott
© More from this issue

          
When you’ve been in coaching 36 years, 35 at the same school and 30 as the head coach, you see a lot of players and teams come and go. Some are more memorable than others. Some kids, some teams, some seasons, they all start to run together. Did that Smith kid play tackle or guard? Or was that his older brother? Was it the 1991 team or the 1992 team that was so fast? Was it the second state championship or the third state title that overcame all that adversity?

Some teams and players are so unique, though, they stand out in a truly special way. For 60-year-old head coach Bill Castle, this season’s Lakeland (Fla.) High School football team will always stand out among the 35 teams that came before on Castle’s coaching path.

The 2005 Lakeland High School team didn’t just win the Florida Class 5A state football championship by beating Fort Lauderdale’s St. Thomas Aquinas 39-10. Lakeland didn’t just win a second consecutive state title, either. The Dreadnaughts went all the way in a big way, starting the season ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today and remaining on top all season, winning the national prep title.

As if that’s not enough, the 2005 team traveled the path to Lakeland’s fifth state title in a way no Lakeland team has ever done before.

“All of the teams we’ve had that have won state titles have had some of the same things in common,” Castle says. “This team was very strong, strength-wise, and some of those others were, too. But character-wise, this could be the best group I’ve ever had.

“Not only are these guys good athletes and good players, but we’ve just got an awful lot of good kids – kids with a lot of faith, a lot of kids with strong spiritual walks, a lot of real neat kids.”

Some of that is just a matter of good family backgrounds, much like when Castle inherits kids with natural size, speed or ability. Some of it, however, can be attributed to Lakeland’s attention to building young men as athletes and people. Castle knows it’s not enough to just build physical strength and speed when success is also a matter of mental, emotional and physical strength.

Many of today’s most successful high school and college coaches know they can no longer afford to assume character as they did with past generations. So many of today’s children don’t have a man in their life to teach them right or wrong until they come in contact with a coach will to be that man. Some children simply aren’t taught the values of discipline, responsibility or accountability until they become part of a team sport.

Castle and his coaches understand the importance of those lessons. The program’s mission statement is for everybody to become a better person by being part of the program. That’s why Lakeland’s 2005 national championship team tried to live by the slogan, “I am responsible.”

“We wanted everybody to feel responsible for their actions on and off the field,” Castle says.

For example, the team cuts practice short on Wednesday evening and meets for study hall. After 45 minutes of study time, the players get a 5-minute break. Players are then given a choice between attending a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes or go back to study hall. Castle brings in speakers from the community to speak on various character issues and the coaches also give “code of honor” cards to players as affirmation for various character traits.

“When you deal with high school kids you can’t separate the fact that you’re a big part of their life,” Castle says, “so you need to be a role model in terms of character building. But this year I’ve got to say we had a bunch of kids who were very mature and had a lot of faith and character and a lot of good personalities.”

Those qualities were an important part of this year’s team finding its own personality after the loss of two assistant coaches and a core of eight quality seniors from the 2004 state title team. Three ended up signing at Florida State, Georgia Southern, Florida Atlantic and another walked on at Auburn.

“They had all been two-year starters, and one of them started three years,” Castle said. “That was a good group.”

When preseason practice opened, the Lakeland coaches found themselves working with a balanced mix of seniors, juniors and sophomores who were ready to be coached. “We didn’t change our preparation or do anything real different,” Castle says. “We had to start over at quarterback and he got better as the year went along, but all we did was add a few wrinkles here or there. Each team is a little different year to year and you have to adjust to what those kids do better than others. “Some years you have a play that just ends up being your play that year. The next year you try to run it and you’re just not as good as it. Every team is a little different and you have to work with that.”

The Dreadnaughts also found themselves ranked No. 1 in the nation in the USA Today Top 25 before they had even put on the pads for practice. Like any coach, Castle worried that his team might become complacent after winning the 2004 state title or get caught up in the hype and hoopla surrounding a national No. 1 ranking.

“But it’s a real tribute to them that they were able to maintain their focus and play one game at a time and stay hungry,” Castle says. “It’s so hard to go 15-0 especially when you’re getting everybody’s ‘A’ game. Everybody’s gunning for you. Everybody wants a piece of you. Everybody was excited about it but our kids handled it great. They handled it with a lot of maturity and they did a great job of not looking ahead or losing their focus. Either you’re getting better or you’re getting worse and this team got better as the year went along.”

For all of Lakeland’s attention to building young men from the inside-out, Lakeland’s success is also built on a strong foundation of fundamental football in all three phases of the game.

Lakeland’s base offense starts with the I-formation and then expands to the spread, with the option as the Dreadnaughts’ bread and butter. Thi is regardless of the formation, the personnel or whether the ball is snapped directly to the quarterback or out of the shotgun. The entire package is multiple, but the emphasis is definitely grounded on a strong foundation of physical football. While many of today’s spread offenses often struggle in short-yardage situations, when the Dreadnaughts need a yard to score or pick up a first down late in the game they have the confidence they can line up and push the ball forward.

“We want to be physical first and finesse second,” Castle says. “There comes a time when you’ve got to be physical and physical teams have a way of dominating games. If you can be physical you can add finesse.”

The idea is to adapt to each situation. On their first offensive play in the state championship game the Dreadnaughts got the look they wanted from the opposing safety, called a play-action pass and went over the top for a 56-yard touchdown.

“If I can find something better, we’ll change in a minute,” says Castle, who calls his team’s plays. “What works one week against one team isn’t something we’re going to necessarily cram down the next team’s throat. We might not even run it at all. A lot of people script plays but we go into the game and we’ll call our plays based on what’s going and what’s not going. We call plays by feel.”

Being multiple gives opponents a lot to prepare for, but it also requires that Lakeland spend considerable time and attention to execution and assignments in practice. To better handle that challenge the Dreadnaughts rarely go both ways on offense and defense. In fact, in 2005 only one player played both sides of the ball, as a tight end and defensive tackle. “We get about two hours of reps as an offense focused totally on offense, the defense totally focused on defense,” Castle says.

The Dreadnaughts play defense out of a 4-3 base scheme that emphasizes technique and not giving up the big plays instead of taking chances.”We’re not as sold out on eight-man, all-out pressure as much as a lot of team’s today,” Castle says. “We’re going to stay in our base, stem our fronts do things like that instead of relying “Castle”.

Castle and his coaches have found their defense can be just as aggressive and forceful without blitzing and giving up occasional big plays. Instead, they’d prefer to make opponents drive down the field a little bit at a time and eventually turn the ball over or punt.”Our defense was tremendous the past two years,” Castle says. “We’re a gap-control defense with our linebackers running downhill, reading their keys. Our front four, it’s not like we’re sitting and reading. They’re coming off the ball, reading on the run. We’re still attacking. In the state title game they came up with six big turnovers, four interceptions. Anybody who wins the state has to have a great defense.”

The Dreadnaughts have also learned to win with special teams. The entire staff is devoted to special team, with each assistant assigned to a particular area. A former college kicker also volunteered to help with the kickers, who improved throughout the season. In the state championship game, senior punter Justin Burdette helped put St. Thomas Aquinas on its heels in the fourth quarter with a 70-yard punt that stayed in the air a long time.

“When I look back we’ve had a lot of tear-jerker losses in the kicking game so it’s critical for us,” Castle says. “Some teams only work on it a couple of days a week but we work on it every day of the week. We rep all of our kicking game everyday and try to prep for it. Sometimes you’re only as good as your kickers but we work awful hard on it.”

Castle and his staff attempt to keep as many players involved as possible, focusing on building a sense of team instead of a star system. That approach was obvious when the standouts from the state championship game kept pulling teammates into their post-game interviews to share the spotlight.

“Coach Castle preached before the game, team unity, team unity,” running back Jamar Taylor said. “We had to play together, and everybody did. Everybody trusted the guy next to him to do what we had to do so we could win the ballgame, and that’s what we did.”

NEW BOOK!

Digital Download - 304 Pages of Football Forms for the Winning Coach