Our guest for this week’s ITG Next Florida 4 Questions with the Coach feature is Chris Harvey, the head football coach at Clearwater Central Catholic High School. He led his team to the Florida high school Class 1M state final last season, falling short of the goal of winning the first ever state title in school history, as well as the history of Pinellas County. Here is more from coach Chris Harvey.
Q. Coach Harvey, you have quite the back story of how you arrived to this point as head football coach at Clearwater Central Catholic. Can you share with us the places and people you worked at and with along the way?
A. Coming from a small town in West Virginia, my coaching career started when I was a player at the University of Miami from 1999-2004. Playing for so many great coaches, specifically Art Kehoe and Don Soldinger, I knew that I wanted to have the impact on people the way they had on me.
I coached for my alma mater, Man High School, in West Virginia in 2004-2005 before taking my first college job as the defensive line coach at Glenville State College. I returned to my high school for one year before I was blessed to have the opportunity to take an assistant strength coach job at Florida State for the great Bobby Bowden. I can honestly say there is no greater man than Coach Bowden.
I spent five seasons in Tallahassee before leaving and taking the offensive line job at the University of North Alabama. After only one season and a coaching change, I was offered the defensive coordinator position at Fairmont State University. In 2015 I came to Clearwater and worked for my father-in-law, John Davis, for a year at CCC before taking over as head coach in the winter of 2016. Seven season later, here we are.
Q. Your team came up a little short in last year’s Class 1M state championship game against Chaminade Madonna. Can you talk about the game? It seems like things just didn’t go your way from the start.
A. First off, you have to tip your cap to a team like Chaminade Madonna. They are very talented, disciplined, and a well-coached team who has deserved the success they’ve had over the last five or six years. The greatest thing about our team this year was their willingness to fight and never give up. There were games throughout the season where things may not have gone our way, but at no point in time did they quit.
In the the state semifinal game, being down late in the fourth quarter and being able to finish the way they did, to even have an opportunity to play in a state championship was a true testament to their character. I think we matched up well with Chaminade as far as talent was concerned; I just feel like their depth and their ability to play people on one side of the ball was really something that gave them the advantage.
Q. That loss by Clearwater Central extended a streak of no football state championships for Pinellas County high schools. That seems incredible, considering the quality of talent within the county programs, doesn’t it?
A. It really does. A lot of good teams have come out of Pinellas County in the past. Things just haven’t gone the way any of them may have wanted. As you know, winning a state championship is hard, and only happens with a little bit of luck. Being able to stay injury-free and keeping your team together for a long run is hard.
I do think the layout of the county has a lot to do with it. There are a lot of schools in a small area. Even after not being able to finish the deal this year, I truly believe that we will be the first team in Pinellas County to win the state championship, and I think it may be sooner than later.
Q. Talk about the returning starters and rising playmakers on this year’s Clearwater Central football team. Do you think you have the team to get back to the state championship game and finally end that streak?
A. It’s always hard to say at this point in the year how good you will be the next season. We lost three very good offensive lineman who had played a lot of football for us, and replacing those guys is going to be tough. I am a firm believer that football games at all levels are won up front. If your offensive and defensive lines can control the line of scrimmage, you’ll have a lot of success.
With that being said, we return a quarterback, Jershaun Newton, and a ton of weapons for him on the offensive side. Our defensive back end returns a lot and could be the best we’’ve ever had. Like I said, it’s hard to say right now, but I think if our guys continue to work the way they are now, the sky is the limit.
