Unrivaled rivalry

Smith knows the importance of St. Thomas vs. Lakeland

Today’s players at St. Thomas Aquinas can’t possibly truly grasp the historical significance of playing Lakeland in a high school football state championship game.

After all, they were 8 years old, at most, last time the two faced off.

“In reality, they don’t,” said George Smith, the longtime Raiders football coach who still serves as the school’s athletic director. “They’ve heard stories or whatever. It’s not even really about that. This is another game that you play to try to get to your goal.”

St. Thomas is focused on Friday’s 8 p.m. kickoff at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium for the 7A crown, but even though a win would tie St.Thomas for the state record of 11 football titles, this game will become part of a larger series. And Smith sure can provide that historical context. He was there for all of it — the four title game meetings over five years last decade.

It’s hard to believe now, with St. Thomas going for a fourth championship in five seasons and eight in the last 12, but before that run, Lakeland was the team Aquinas couldn’t get past for state supremacy, dropping three consecutive finals from 2004 to 2006.

It even had national implications. Two of those Dreadnaughts teams were national champions (2005, 2006). When St. Thomas got to exact revenge, in 2008, the Raiders won their first of two national crowns.

That, however, is not how Smith viewed the 56-7 beatdown his dominant 2008 squad delivered to Lakeland.

“Revenge is something that has never crossed my mind,” he said.

But it sure had to feel satisfying after nothing but heartbreak against the Dreadnaughts before that. The series reached its peak in 2006, when Lakeland won a 45-42 double-overtime final.

The Raiders came back from down 35-14. Down a field goal in the second overtime, facing fourthand-goal at the 1-yard line, Smith went for the win. Jeremiah Harden took the handoff and was stopped just shy of the end zone. Lakeland won.

Smith recalls: “We had to come back to get into it. To lose it like that… Two teams that didn’t want to quit. That was an epic game.”

St. Thomas was that close to knocking off a team that would split a national title with Southlake Carroll in Texas. The Raiders came back, winning the 5A championship against Kissimmee Osceola in 2007, crushing Lakeland in 2008, winning it all again in 2010 and 2012 and notching a three-peat from 2014 to 2016.

Before the wild one in 2006, Aquinas had to take its earlier lumps against Lakeland, and they weren’t pretty. The 2004 and 2005 games were won by a combined 70-17 Dreadnaughts advantage.

Lakeland coach Bill Castle, holding that post since 1976, still leads his team to this day. Smith and Castle remain close.

“When I got out of coaching in 2011, he was the first guy to call me,” said Smith, who described every interaction he’s had recently with Castle. “They’ve just been special situations between two old guys that are still involved in high school sports.

“I have a lot of respect for him, and I think he feels the same way about me as I feel about him.”

When MaxPreps did a top 50 high school football coaches of all time, the website put Smith, with a 361-66 career record of 34 seasons, at No. 12 and Castle at 19.

In its top teams all-time list, the 2005 Lakeland unit was 21st. Aquinas’ 2008 and 2010 teams were ranked 30th and 34th, respectively.

The Raiders and Dreadnaughts also met three consecutive seasons from 1996 to 1998, with St. Thomas winning the middle matchup en route to a state title in 1997. The 1996 battle was in the championship game. In all, Lakeland leads St. Thomas in their all-time series in state finals 5-2.

For Lakeland, this is the school’s first return to a title game since that 2008 defeat, but Smith said this team, which MaxPreps ranks sixth in Florida and No. 44 nationally, is like those old ones.

“They look just like they did back in ’04, ’05,” said Smith, as Aquinas is second and 13th, respectively, in those same rankings. “Great running back [ junior Demarkcus Bowman], tough kids on the lines. Typical. They’re going to come after you and try to beat you up.”

There are connections to those days for current assistants to Raiders coach Roger Harriott — Bryan Baucom, Jay Connolly, Jim Gazzillo and Wes Carroll, who was the quarterback of the 2006 team that orchestrated the comeback to force overtime. While there will be reminiscing, they are focused on assuring Friday night becomes a lasting memory for the right reason.

Said Smith: “They are thinking about the task at hand, and it’s a big task. Trust me.”

JOE CAVARETTA/SUN SENTINEL Former St. Thomas Aquinas football coach and current athletic director George Smith looks back at the historic state football rivalry between his Raiders and Lakeland.