Charlie Tate still asks why?
He wonders if he missed some signs. Could he have done more? He worries about his players.
“We were duped,” Tate said.
The Blue Devils were more than duped. When longtime, popular assistant coach Tommy LeJeune allegedly committed suicide in January, it opened up a can of worms that included allegations of child pornography and embezzlement and left a proud football program reeling.
The tragedy also brought the team closer together.
With spring football kicking off on Thursday for most teams across the Tampa Bay area, Winter Haven is ready to move on and focus on football again. In three weeks, the Blue Devils will host Class 8A runner ups Apopka.
Tate has a playbook to prepare his team for that game. There is nothing in the Winter Haven playbook to prepare his program for the tragic events that have unfolded.
That’s where Tate leaned on faith, and football.
“We’ve been through a tough few months with the loss of an assistant coach that we all loved,” Tate said. “Some craziness was attached to all that, but for nine years, Tommy was a heck of a football coach and a good friend and we’ll miss him. We’re just coming out of that.”
Click on the video icon to see how Winter Haven is preparing for Spring football and moving on.