Hillsborough's Garcia "like a duck out of water"

There is almost a surreal feeling this week at Hillsborough, where the Terriers have just wrapped up a 6-4 regular season. The reason? For the first time in more than a decade and only the second time since 1993, Hillsborough's football program is not headed to the playoffs. "I'm like a duck out of water," longtime Terriers coach Earl Garcia said. "This is all knew to us. The coaches meet every afternoon, and we just sit around and look at each other."

Since falling to Tampa Bay Tech last week -- a defeat that knocked Hillsborough out of the postseason -- Garcia has met individually with all of his assistants and all of his players. This mission, in his words, was to "debrief the season, see what we did right, what we did wrong and what we've got to do to get better."

In reality, Hillsborough wasn't all that bad. The Terriers' losses were to Armwood, Chamberlain, Plant and Tampa Bay Tech -- four teams with a combined three losses. Still, Garcia said "we probably got what we deserved this year. We were an average football team with a couple above-average players."

Hillsborough's non-seniors are off until the Monday after Thanksgiving. Then, it's back to work in the weightroom. In the meantime, Garcia said he plans to attend tonight's Jesuit-Tampa Catholic game and next week's Chamberlain-Gaither playoff matchup. He has friends coaching in both games.

"I don't like this feeling at all," Garcia said. "And I know our players don't like this feeling. I know that for a fact."

--KEITH NIEBUHR

Comments

[Jeff R Son]

Coach, get back to pounding the ball. I know it's tempting with the QB and WR's you had, but you were under 50% efficiency. I learned one thing in life, when trouble comes, do what you do best. RUN THE BALL! You'll be back.

haha wonderful plants next to fall off