Clearwater Central Catholic (Fla.) football ready to return back to form
CLEARWATER, Fla. – If you’re someone familiar with Florida high school football, you have assuredly heard or seen Clearwater Central Catholic in the mix for the state’s Class 1A state championship in previous years. The 2025 season, was a bit different for the Marauders as they were on the outside looking in when the state championship games kicked off at Pitbull Stadium in Miami back in December as CCC fell in the region final to area foe Carrollwood Day.
It’s a feeling that CCC head coach Chris Harvey , his staff and players haven’t felt since 2021 as the Marauders reached three straight state titles games from 2022 to 2024. “You know it’s crazy when you finished a season 10-3 and it was a down year,” Harvey said to Rivals at the team’s first spring practice on Wednesday evening. “It’s one thing to lose in a state championship game, but it’s another thing to lose before you ever thought you would.
I think its been something we’ve been chewing on. There’s days where we let it negatively affect our approach and other days where it strengthens it. I’m looking forward to see how we bounce back, five, six months after that.
There’s a lot of people out here who were a big part of that team last year. ” As the team took to turf for the first time this spring, CCC isn’t at exactly 100 percent with Harvey pointing out players like three-star cornerback Daveon Belhomme (college visit), 2028 wide receiver Luke Wilson (recovering from an injury) and a few others that are unavailable at the start of practice. Belhomme figures to be a major piece to the defensive puzzle for Harvey as the 2027 cornerback has offers currently from Florida Atlantic, Liberty and Wake Forest, where he was visiting on Wednesday.
Wilson was a major contributor in the Marauders’ passing attack in 2025, catching 31 passes for 583 yards and scoring five times. Now its Harvey’s job to figure out how to mesh the sophomore, junior laden squad together after losing 10 seniors, five of them being apart of the winningest class of CCC players in program history. “We lost 10 seniors from a year ago, but those 10 seniors, five of them had won more games than anybody in Pinellas County history,” Harvey said.
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