Seminole High football team aims for new heights

SEMINOLE, Fla. - The Seminole High School football team is coming off its best season in nearly two decades. 

"It was amazing to be a part of that, but it's not what our end goal is as a team," said junior quarterback Brody Dushane. 

Though 2023 was the Warhawks best season since winning seven games in 2005, the team still managed to finish with a (4-6) record. 

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"I know we only won four games, but we were in closer games and had tougher battles," said junior kicker Mason Starke. 

Even if the years have not been kind to the Warhawks, there may now be reason for renewed optimism thanks to head coach Auggie Sanchez. 

"You can just tell the difference in the confidence from the first year I was here, the first day I was here even, to now. These kids are totally different," Sanchez said. 

Two years ago, Sanchez, a former University of South Florida linebacker and Pinellas County native, took over as the head coach at Seminole High. Over those two years, he has been trying to lead the Warhawks back into the light while transforming the team's facilities and gaining new equipment. 

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"We've come to work here, rolled up our sleeves and have changed what this place was," Sanchez said. 

But if football is a game of numbers, the Warhawks just don't have them. 

"We just need people, in general," said Dushane. "We can form you into football players. [Auggie] is pretty good at that. He has done that to a lot of people."

When spring practices began at Seminole a few weeks ago, only 16 players showed up for the first practice. The Warhawks knew something needed to change. 

"It was almost like a full-on recruiting fair in the hallway with our kids going into classrooms trying to get friends out," Sanchez said. 

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Getting a few extra bodies on the field by the end of Spring camp, the Warhawks still don't quite have the numbers they want but are still confident that the results will come on the field regardless. 

"I'm very hopeful that this group right behind you is going to be the one that changes that," said Sanchez. "But, it is a results-based business. I think everyone wants to be a part of winning."

Regardless of the results this Fall, however, what the players and coaches at Seminole are doing goes beyond wins and losses. 

"If you build it, they will come. That's the old saying. We're just trying to build it," said Sanchez. 

With the building blocks now in place, Sanchez and the Warhawks head into the summer confident the 2024 season will be one to remember. 

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