TACKLING FLORIDA
DREAM CHASER Coquitlam athlete heading south despite racial unrest, COVID-19
Aaron Tung’s parents would have had their angst-filled moments about their son venturing 5,300 kilometres to chase his high school football dreams in normal years.
Normal years, for the majority of us, mean every year other than this one.
That opportunity for him didn’t come in one of those years. It’s coming now and Tung, a 6-4, 300 pounder who was a two-way Grade 11 lineman for Coquitlam’s Centennial Centaurs this past fall, is slated to leave early next month to get things started for himself at Clearwater Academy International, a small private school in Clearwater, Fla.
He’s on his way to Florida as the Sunshine State finds itself as a hot spot for the novel coronavirus outbreak. On Saturday morning, The Miami Herald reported 9,585 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Florida in the previous 24-hour period, breaking the state’s single-day record of 8,942 set on Friday.
Tung is also on his way to the U.S. with racial tensions at the forefront, and he’s the son of an Asian father and a Black mother. That’s a lot to unpack.
“In the middle of a pandemic, I’m sending my son, who’s a person of colour, to a school in a Red State,” said mom, Denise, referring to Florida’s Republican Party ties to President Donald Trump in the midst of replaying the facts aloud.
“I won’t lie. I’m losing sleep over all these layers. I trust that the people in charge there will take care of him. It’s a small school, so I think they’ll be relatively sheltered. I believe that football will be what helps keep him safe.”
Aaron, 17, added: “There’s a bit of nervousness, but my parents have deemed it safe. If they think it’s not safe, I won’t be attending the school.”
Denise and husband, Wilson, have been hammering away at Aaron about washing his hands and all the other things that provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has been telling B.C. residents for months. Denise says they’ve had “many conversations about what sort of things he can expect,” regarding the racial unrest in the U.S.
The Tungs have peppered the Clearwater Academy football coaches and school officials with questions, and have been promised strict protocols regarding COVID-19, such as extensive cleaning routines of the campus.
There are only 250 students enrolled from preschool to Grade 12.
Clearwater Academy opened in 1984. They started a football team in 2008 when they joined a six-man league. They worked up to traditional 11-man football in 2016.
You’d think a private school looking to make a name for itself would be especially careful. You’d think they’d be especially careful with its football program, since it’s a chance for the school to increase its profile.
Tung will have people in similar backgrounds there to lean on, too. Clearwater Academy has recruited heavily in B.C. in its bid to make inroads. The roster for this coming season they’ve posted at maxpreps.com includes four other players who lined up with teams from B.C. this past season: running back/cornerback Tremel States-Jones (Surrey’s Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers), two-way lineman Vishaan Narayan (New Westminster Hyacks), running back/safety Jhavoun Blake (Rutland Voodoos) and offensive lineman Jackson McEwan (Victoria’s Mt. Douglas Rams).
Tung said that coaches from Clearwater Academy approached him during the Centennial season via social media.
Last fall with Rutland was Blake’s Grade 12 season. He’s doing Grade 12 again at Clearwater Academy. Tung says he’s doing Grade 11 again there. It’s common enough in high school sports that it has its own term: reclassify.
It’s supposed to give you a chance to be more advanced athletically when you head to university. Landing a scholarship is part of Tung’s decision to head south.
Florida is one of the top states for high school football. For instance, Florida had 14 schools in maxpreps.com’s top-100 national rankings for the 2020 season, which trailed only Texas (17) and California (15).
Clearwater Academy went 8-2 last season and maxpreps. com had them ranked No. 22 in Florida to end the season.
“The level of play there is something that really jumped out at us,” Wilson said.
Tung is athletic enough that he was Centennial’s punter for a stint. According to www. bchighschoolfootball.com, he averaged 39 yards a punt for six attempts over three games this season, with a long of 53 yards.
“I’d go back and line up to punt and the other team would be yelling, ‘Watch the fake,’” said Tung, who’s the oldest of three siblings. Centennial went 0-7 in the regular season last fall.
Denise is an elementary school teacher and the academics at Clearwater Academy “intrigued” her with small class sizes (10-12 students in some cases, according to the Tungs) and what the school refers to as “tailor-made programs for each student” on its website.
Clearwater is on Florida’s west coast, about a 35-minute drive west of Tampa. Clearwater is one of the hubs of the Church of Scientology, the controversial movement created by L. Ron Hubbard. Clearwater Academy has been tied to Scientology in various reports. The Tungs say that they have asked and were informed the school does not teach Scientology.
The Florida High School Athletic Association posted on its website on June 25 that it had made no changes to the sports calendar for 2020-21. Football teams can start practising on July 27 and playing exhibition games on Aug. 12.
Clearwater is in the Pinellas County and as of Saturday morning the county had 5,713 confirmed COVID-19 cases over the course of the pandemic. Miami-Dade (31,562), Broward (14,046) and Palm Beach County (12,928) are among the counties in Florida hit the hardest.
I’m sending my son, who’s a person of colour, to a school in a Red State.”
Denise Tung