Last season Wharton Football posted a modest 6-5 record while dropping its first playoff game to Armwood under coach Robert Baham. After a one-year tenure, Baham decided to part ways with the program. In late March, principal Mike Rowan announced Abner Smith as the new Head Football coach. Smith was previously serving as the offensive coordinator at Apopka High school. At Apopka, Smith led his offense to 36 total touchdowns in a short lived 15 game season while also advancing his team to the 2022 FHSAA State Final game. Before coaching, Coach Smith played at the University of Tennessee at Martin where he was deemed captain of the team.
Wharton started off scorching hot while beating Bruce B. Down neighborhood rival, Freedom, 38-0. They have now dropped their last two to Tampa Bay Tech and Sumner and will take on Robinson this Friday.
Coach Smith believes that he was put into a young program and a goal for him is “to see the growth in the team by the end of the year.” On a 55-man roster Wharton will only graduate 6 seniors. He believes that “the seniors will need to accept the leadership roles in order for this team to have success. They will need to take the season game by game and not try to look too far into the future.”
Wharton fans can expect an incline in team productivity in years to come due to the underclassman’s experience this season. One of the underclassmen being Center/Tackle, Jayden Ramballi who has been on varsity for three seasons. Ramballi said that “Coach Smith is doing something that has never happened in his time at Wharton, focusing on developing his younger players and focusing on the future of the program.”
As the season encroaches the midway point, we can expect games to start getting closer and more competitive. Wharton will look to have a very promising finish leading into the next season. Take a Friday night to go support your cats!