Kudos For Jackets, Wildcats, September 8, 1970

By WAYNE STOKES

Sports Editor
Daily Commercial
September 8, 1970

A good Tuesday afternoon after Labor Day everyone.

What this means is that it won't be long until the last remnants of Summer will have faded away into the chilly morns of our wonderful Florida winters. Winters in Florida brings out the best in everyone, it seems because they never get too cold for anyone but yet they always hold the promise of good football happening. This is why winter is to be my favorite time, because of the excitement that the football season holds in store.

Coaches Palmer and Lofton deserve a hearty host of kudos for their super jobs turned in last Friday night, as both schools traveled to Orange County to participate in football jamborees and both emerged with glorious respect by their Class AA foes.

Regardless of the obvious snub given our local products by the major news media located in the backyards of both Jamborees, it was a fine moment for little Wildwood High School, who played the shirts off Oak Ridge and Evans, both highly regarded Metro Conference powers.

Wildwood, only a Class B school, played Oak Ridge to a 0-0 standoff, and handed Evans an 8-0 whitewashing.

In the Tangerine Bowl Jamboree, Leesburg's Fighting Yellow Jackets served notice that they are back on the scene in force again this year, holding statewide Class AA powerhouse Edgewater, to a scoreless deadlock, and stopping Boone, 6-0.

The Jackets played a solid brand of football in the Jamboree, exhibiting their strong defense, which is counted to be one of the best around. From the strong front four of Hicks, Johnson, Gilbert and Mosley, through the linebacking trio of McEachern, Scott, and Ryan, into the four deep secondary of Guthrie, Ezell, King and Chatman, things appear on course for another head knocking Leesburg defense.

Playing in miserable conditions to operate on offense proved no handicap to Andy Carlton and Co., as they worked their game plan to perfection. Carlton showed tremendous poise against two powerful opposing lines and played a whale of a football game at his quarterback spot.

His offensive line played superbly, keeping Andy untouched while in the pocket , reminiscent of the Fla. Gators last year. Hicks, Johnson, McEachern, Scott, Gilbert, and McClelland played a great game in both quarters against physically larger foes.

The receiving game appeared at first indication to be even stronger than last year, overall, and that would be a boon to any coach's hopes. Tim Wesley and Jerome Kerrison showed a lot of pass grabbing savvy working from their wideout spots, as did strong safety Kenny Hicks, who scored the only touchdown from his tight end position.

Both backs, Guthrie and Ryan, turned in solid efforts, with Guthrie showing a bundle of drive and determination on his ball toting chores.

With the season opener against DeLand up for Sept. 25; Coaches Lofton, Dabney, and Wettstein have plenty of time to polish up their artillery for what could well be the locals strongest test of the year.
 

Resources

WAYNE STOKES

Sports Editor
Daily Commercial

www.dailycommercial.com
September 8, 1970

Article provided by:
Gerald Lacey
Staff Writer
Carver Heights Quarterback Club
1986 Varsity Jackets Football Lettermen #82
Class of 1988 Leesburg High School 

leesburgyellowjacketsfootball@yahoo.com
www.leesburgyellowjacketsfootball.com

Gerald is a professional Internet marketer and social media marketing expert. His online business ventures and websites generate multiple streams of income annually. His consulting clients include best selling authors and international speakers.

Gerald is the CEO/President of Lacey LLC and OmariWholesale, Inc. He runs his entire business from his home where he is able to spend quality time with his family and friends. He is passionate about helping individuals to build and monetize their personal brand online

Orange -Black Clash Here Tonight. February 11, 1970

By WAYNE STOKES
Sports Editor

Daily Commercial
February 11, 1970

Anxious to show off their considerable wares to the home folks tonight, Leesburg's Fighting Yellow Jackets play their annual Orange and Black preseason intrasquad game. The pigskin picnic is one of the main money sources of the Leesburg Dad's Club and kickoff time is slated for 7:30 p.m.

Memorial Stadium is the site of the fund raising activity and the game has the promise of exposing some of the finest high school football talent in the state.

With the regular season opener still two weeks away, Coach Wilbur Lofton told the Dad' Club last night, "We will be looking for four or five more football players tonight to give us the depth and balance we need for the upcoming season".

With several key spots on the Yellow Jacket varsity still shallow in solid football players, tonight's intrasquad clash will offer the younger boys an opportunity to impress their coaches under game conditions. This fact alone should be reason enough to expect a spirited effort tonight.

Leesburg has a lot of potential this year, as evidenced by their fine performance in the Tangerine Bowl Jamboree Friday night. If a few more back up players can be uncovered to fill in adequately for the two-way performers on the Jackets, then 1970 should be a very good year.

Every boy on the squad is slated for duty tonight, if available, and the proceeds from the game goes for a very worthy cause.

Game time is 7:30. See you at Memorial Stadium.

Article provided by:
Gerald Lacey
Staff Writer
Carver Heights Quarterback Club
1986 Varsity Jackets Football Lettermen #82
Class of 1988 Leesburg High School 

leesburgyellowjacketsfootball@yahoo.com
www.leesburgyellowjacketsfootball.com

 

 

Gerald is a professional Internet marketer and social media marketing expert. His online business ventures and websites generate multiple streams of income annually. His consulting clients include best selling authors and international speakers.

Gerald is the CEO/President of Lacey LLC and OmariWholesale, Inc. He runs his entire business from his home where he is able to spend quality time with his family and friends. He is passionate about helping individuals to build and monetize their personal brand online.

Lofton's impact went beyond the field

This article appeared in the Orlando Sentinel on Jan. 14, 2004.


By JOE WILLIAMS
Former Leesburg football coach Wilbur Lofton loved the retirement home he and his wife, Ethel, built in 1996 in the small town of Reliance, Tenn. To Lofton, fishing in the pond on his property was like heaven on earth.
"He loved his home here," Ethel Lofton said. "Reliance is just a little community, up in the mountains. There are no businesses, no stoplights. The only reason it is a town is because it had a post office, which it doesn't even have any more. We bought the land here in 1987 and for the next 10 years we came up here, camping and working on the land.

"It was like a jungle, but we cleared it, we built a pond and the house. He loved it up here."




Wilbur Lofton, 68, perhaps the most successful football coach Leesburg High School has ever had, died at his home Dec. 21 after a yearlong battle with colon cancer.
"There are a lot of people who know the Xs and Os," said Buford Robinson, Leesburg's former principal, who gave a young Lofton his first head coaching job in 1966. "But he had a special relationship with the players. He knew how to motivate the players."

Lofton's most successful year at Leesburg came in 1969 when he led the Yellow Jackets to what was then the Class A state championship game in Tampa Stadium where they lost to Tampa Blake 27-6. Leesburg also made it into the state playoffs under Lofton in 1971. In 1980, he led Tarpon Springs to the state playoffs.

His 36 years of coaching also included stops as head coach at Tifton (Ga.) High School, three years at Hudson High School and 13 years at New Port Richey Gulf. His first coaching job came at the University or Georgia in 1960, where he worked with the freshman team. That team included future Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton.

Back in his years at Leesburg, Lofton had more to worry about overcoming than opposing teams.
It was the late 1960s, and while many schools and teams were dealing with racial unrest, Lofton wouldn't have any of that on his football field when students and athletes at Carver High School, the black school in Leesburg, blended with Leesburg's white student body.

"He brought us together, taught us to love one another, to respect one another," said Mike Napier, the senior quarterback on the '69 team. "Everybody in Leesburg was excited about our football team, black and white. There were no racial problems."

Kenny Mitchem, a senior slotback and strong safety for the state finalists, said the movie Remember the Titans, which was about a Virginia high school football team and how it dealt with integration, reminded him of how Lofton handled the situation.

"We were fully integrated that year [1969-70]," Mitchem said "The first thing Coach Lofton did was he pulled us to one side. And he pulled the black players to one side. He told us, we were going to be a team and we, as football players, were going to be the leaders of our school.



"He treated everyone equally."

Leesburg went 9-1 through the regular season in '69, losing only to Lake City. It then beat Auburndale 12-0 and Belle Glades 36-23 to reach the state title game.

But the run towards the state runner-up berth did not happen in just one season. Lofton's ability to motivate players helped build the Yellow Jackets football program from the day he became head coach.

"The first thing he did was call all the males into the auditorium and he asked everyone to stand up who was playing football. Twenty-three guys stood up," Napier said. "Then Coach Lofton challenged us to take pride in our school, in what we do, to be champions, to be winners. Anyway, we ended up with 40-some-odd guys out on the team.

"He was a great teacher, a great motivator."

Napier, who eulogized Lofton during the funeral service, remembers Lofton as a disciplinarian who stressed fundamentals but loved his players.

"I said, the Lord God knew Wilbur Lofton as Coach Wilbur Lofton," Napier said. "He touched thousands and thousands of lives. Green Bay had [Vince] Lombardi. Miami had [Don] Shula. We had Wilbur Lofton. He was the one who motivated us and challenged us and made us men."

Resources
Joe Williams of The Sentinel Staff
Orlando Sentinel

Article provided by:
Gerald Lacey
CEO/President
Lacey LLC and OmariWholesale, Inc.

http://www.leesburgyellowjacketsfootball.com/
http://www.myebooksresell.com/