Cardinal Mooney celebrates first state football title in 51 years with ceremony
SARASOTA — As the fireworks exploded over John Heath Field at Austin Smithers Stadium, one after the other, someone joked to Jared Clark that his football budget was, quite literally, going up in smoke.
Clark smiled. The way the head coach of the Cardinal Mooney football team may have looked at it, Tuesday night's celebration was 51 years in the making.
With winning a state title Cardinal Mooney’s goal since the first day of spring practice, this was the observance of a mission accomplished. Nine teams from throughout Florida won state football championships in 2023.
For the first time since 1972, Clark’s Cougars were one. His state title medal hanging from his neck, the Mooney graduate was asked if the victory has sunk in yet.
“I’m not sure,” Clark said. “It’s certainly sunk in more than it did Friday. I’m not sure it’s ever going to completely sink in.”
Tuesday night’s hour-long ceremony, attended by Mooney faithful amid chilly temperatures, included a video montage of the Cougars’ march through the state playoffs. In one clip, Clark is delivering a pre-game pep talk, asking his players if they were willing to “lay it on the line” for their brothers.
In attendance were several members of Mooney’s first state title winning team. Under head coach John Heath Sr., the 1972 team finished the season undefeated, and to a player, it was both a team and family.
“We became a family,” said Rich Pierro, a sophomore on the team. “We formed these lifetime bond relationships. These are my brothers. It’s a special relationship.”
“It’s time to pass the torch to the new guys,” 68-year-old Jim Ramer said, “and I’m so happy for Cardinal Mooney, and we’re going to continue to support them.”
At the ceremony was 91-year-old Ginger Judge, the team mom on the ‘72 team and the mother of Cougar players Daniel and Tim.
“They got a good coach, they got a good spirit, and they got a good school,” she said. “All of it comes together.” On the field, China Smith Sr. noticed a similarity between the two teams, both of which played their title games on the same day, December 8, separated by 51 years.
“They play together like we did,” he said. “They’re a machine.”
But it was a machine that needed time to warm up. Three victories to start the season were followed by a 35-7 loss to Riverview, a setback which created doubt in the minds of those Cougar players of yore that this squad had the wherewithal to compete for a state title.
Mooney quickly erased those doubts, winning three straight while outscoring its opponents 140-27. A loss to Bishop Verot merely was a bump in the road, as the Cougars won their final six games, scoring 297 points and allowing 67. Clark credits a talk given by former Florida head coach Urban Meyer before the Cougars season opener last year against Booker.
Meyer spoke of “solving the mystery” to winning a championship of any kind. After the 28-point loss to the Rams, the Cougars, Clark said, solved that mystery.
“I think what his message was,” Clark said, “is that everyone has a role to play, whether it’s an offensive lineman, the special teams’ guy, or someone who comes in for a handful of plays. Whatever it is, everyone has a role to play, and it’s important that we all play those roles, and they embraced it. They embraced their role and they worked their tails off to prepare us for Friday nights.
“The reason we peaked at the right time is because we solved the mystery. Everybody realized we could do something bigger than ourselves here. We just have to play our role and we have to do a great job. There’s no question, if anybody watched us play at the beginning of the year and watched us play in the playoffs, it was a different team. I think it had to do with people settling into their roles. Accepting it, and just being the best at it.”
And by winning a state title, Clark said the bar has been raised for future Cougar teams.
“And they better live up to it,” he said. “There’s no question, (all the former players) will be watching. Those guys care. The senior class that’s leaving now, they’re going to come back and make sure these guys are doing it the right way.
“Listen, I don’t know that we’re going to win a bunch of state titles, but I will tell you this. No one is going to outwork those guys. And I will say this, it’s a lot of fun to be a Cardinal Mooney Cougar.”
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: After winning state football title, Cardinal Mooney celebrates with fans
