LHS Coach Castle: ‘I've Never Recruited Anybody'

By SOLANGE REYNER

THE LEDGER

LAKELAND | Midway through the high school football season, Lakeland's program has certainly stolen the spotlight.

 

But not for the team's perfect record — 6-0 heading into today's game against Hialeah.

 

Or for the exciting performances put on each week by all-purpose athletes Raheeme Dumas and Ricquan Southward.

 

Instead, the conversation has centered around the controversial transfers of three students into the Dreadnaughts program. And, for the most part, a perception that Lakeland recruits and cheats its way to championships.

 

But that's not the case, Lakeland coach Bill Castle told the Ledger on Thursday morning.

 

Sitting in the video room in his back office, Castle, donned in Lakeland attire and recently finished with a home-cooked lunch, talked publicly for the first time about how frustrating the past few months have been for his players, for his storied program and for him.

 

"I've never recruited anybody," said Castle, who in 2008 was named the greatest coach of the first 100 years of Florida high school football. "And I'm not going to apologize for kids' coming to my program because we've been successful. I've been in the Lakeland community for 40 years and the people in our program that really know me know that we do things by the book and try to do things the right way."

 

The issues started in June when the Florida High School Athletic Association started an investigation into whether those transfers — all starters who came in from George Jenkins in January — broke rules to enroll at Lakeland and to play football there.

 

The FHSAA ruled all three ineligible in mid-September for falsifying information and failing to make a full-and-complete move per FHSAA bylaws. During that investigation process, the association also said it found evidence that two players from the 2010 season had competed when they weren't properly enrolled at the school.

 

That meant the forfeiture of all games those two played in last year, which amounted to the entire season.

 

Castle, who has kept quiet throughout the entire ordeal, was visibly upset Thursday — and for several reasons.

 

The situation has put a gray cloud over the program's success.

 

And Castle, who has a 343-75 overall record, thinks that all the hard work he and his staff have put into making the players better is being overlooked and downplayed.

 

"I understand it goes with the territory, but people think that if you have success, there has to be a reason besides working 365 days a year to have a successful program," Castle said. "I'm just upset with the hits our program is taking when we've worked so hard. Everybody is just assuming stuff."

 

And he's upset with The Ledger for continuously putting the articles on the front page.

 

"One time, OK. But repeatedly? I'm disappointed," Castle said. "There are more important things in this world than the transfers of three high school students for it to be on the front page."

 

The situation has been a difficult one to deal with, especially for the players involved, Castle added.

 

And that's the most important thing he's still concerned about: his athletes.

 

"There are some things you can't control and you can't control people's opinions. My motto is to coach the team, so I try to put everything aside and coach the team," Castle said.

 

"The last thing I want is another distraction. These are teenagers and our job is to help them grow and mature."

 

The FHSAA said Thursday that it thought no one on Lakeland's coaching or administration staff had any knowledge that students broke FHSAA rules.

 

"We don't think Lakeland's staff, administrators or coaches are complicit in this issue," Dr. Roger Dearing, the FHSAA's executive director, told The Ledger. "It's just where these kids landed. I don't consider these kids Lakeland kids. They are George Jenkins kids. I don't believe they did know about that, but the standard has to be … you must be fully eligible to participate."

 

 

 

[ Solange Reyner may be reached at solange.reyner@theledger.com or 863-802-7526. ]