- November 4, 2024
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As an emotional Flagler Wolfpack 14U team gathered together to hear head coach Curt Schalit deliver one last post-game speech, after a 13-6 championship loss to the Maryland Seahawks on Friday, Dec. 12, in Plant City, more than Wolfpack supporters, who were the largest support group, hung around to congratulate the underdogs of the tournament.
When the Wolfpack went out for the coin toss against the Seahawks for the championship, the Maryland players refused to shake hands with the Wolfpack captains.
“I told my boys that they may not respect them now, but they will, when it’s over,” coach Schalit said. “I don’t teach my boys that. That was crap.”
After the game was over, the Maryland team, who thought they were going to blow Flagler out, did respect the Wolfpack, and they found themselves celebrating alone. Reporters and fans swarmed around the second place team, who was the Cinderella story, to congratulate them for being a class-act program throughout the entire week. From the way they trained to how they did homework in study halls at night, the Flagler Wolfpack impressed many, even in a losing effort.
“We played some really big physical teams, and I told the guys that you can’t measure character and effort, and we had more than anybody else out there, for sure,” Schalit added.
The Wolfpack went into every game of the tournament, being outweighed by an average of 600 pounds and on the offense and defensive line, but that didn’t stop them from beating a team from Virginia 6-0, Chicago 12-7 and Detroit 18-15, all who were undefeated and dominant teams.
“Most of the teams we played against had beaten all their opponents by large margins,” Schalit said. “Nobody thought we could beat those guys, but we just kept finding ways to win.”
Coach Schalit delivered an emotional postgame speech, which was the last time he would speak to his football team, since he has decided to retire after 10 seasons of being the Wolfpack head coach.
“I’ve been most of these guys’ father figure for a long time,” he said. “If I tell those guys to run through a wall, they’d do it, and I would do the same for them. To go out 15-1 and come within a play to win the national championship was an amazing run. I wasn’t emotional about losing, but about the way that these young men were going to handle the next few years of their lives.”
While the Flagler Wolfpack may not have won the championship, they may have received a greater lesson that will carry them through the rest of their lives: Character is priceless.
“Our boys received their second-place trophy, surrounded and cheered on by 100s of supporters from as far away as a seven-hour drive,” said Marie Guarino, a players’ mother. “The other team was getting their first-place trophy alone. This is the first time in my life I can say the second place team will be remembered forever, and no one will remember the first-place team.”
