Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Coach aims to finish turnaround
PAHOKEE — Draped around a long, silver chain on his neck, the rings clank against each other as Orson Walkes strolls out of the locker room.
Walkes takes a great deal of pride in the keepsakes, vestiges of Pahokee’s football dominance in the 2000s, when the school captured four state championships in five years. He was an assistant during the Blue Devils’ dynasty run.
“Every once in a while I put them on [my hand],” Walkes said. “I have friends that tell me wearing them all at one time is showboating, and that’s never been my attitude, but I am a proud coach.”
Now, Walkes is hoping to add one more to the collection, albeit in slightly different circumstances as the team’s head coach. In his first year leading the Blue Devils program, Walkes, 41, has the school on the cusp of another state title. Riding into Orlando with a perfect 13-0 record, Pahokee will take on fellow unbeaten Baker at 1 p.m. today at Camping World Stadium in the Class 1A state championship.
“It feels great,” Walkes said. “It’s been a long time coming for the program.
“The community is excited. I can feel the buzz. It’ll be a ghost town come Thursday.”
Indeed it has for the Palm Beach powerhouse. After capturing its third consecutive state championship in 2008, Pahokee stumbled massively in the ensuing years. The program hit bottom in 2011, finishing with a 2-8 record, capped off by a lopsided 70-0 loss to bitter rival Glades Central in the Muck Bowl.
The team showed slight improvement over the next three years, finishing 15-15 during that span, but was never able to get anywhere close to its prior heights.
Last season, the school took a giant leap forward under new coach Alphonso Smith, but that jubilation was short-lived. After closing out the regular season with an 8-2 record and a district title, Smith was removed from his coaching position by the school district after facing allegations of “inappropriate conduct.” The team was subsequently eliminated from the playoffs in the first round.
Smith’s departure, though, opened the door for Walkes to step in and guide the program.
So far, the Blue Devils have dominated like the teams of old. Pahokee finished the regular season with a perfect 10-0 mark, highlighted by a 27-14 win over Glades Central, its first Muck Bowl win since 2008. With three straight playoff wins, Pahokee finds itself just one win away from its seventh state title, which would tie Glades Day for the most in Palm Beach County history.
“This has been humbling, but like I tell people, it’s nothing that I didn’t expect,” Walkes said. “I knew the quality of talent we had on the team. I knew all I really had to do was get a quality group of coaches around the kids.
“In my mind, it was a simple fix; or I should say, there was nothing to fix. We just had to get it in the right direction.”