Rays Gunning for Winning Season, Playoffs

Second-year head coach Rich Costante couldn’t help but be pleased after putting his young team through a snappy practice on a hot summer afternoon Friday, July 31, on the Marco Island Academy campus.

"We're ready to go,” Costante said. “We have a few new kids that have come in. We've got a decent couple freshman kids coming in. We've got some homeschool kids that are coming in. So it's going to be nice.”

The Rays lost 10 seniors from last year’s 4-6 team that went to the final four of the Sunshine State Athletic Association (SSAA), an offshoot of the Florida High School Athletic Association. MIA returns to the FHSAA this season.

“Those seniors all were pretty big contributors for us,” Costante said. "But with what we picked up from the incoming freshmen that have played extensively in the Pop Warner systems, and our underclassmen, who've progressed nicely, everyone's taken some big strides this year. And a couple of virtual kids that we've got are a nice addition. So we're excited.”

Costante is looking for more success this season.

“We were 4-6, which was tied for the best record in school history,” he said, “but it’s still not a winning record. That’s what we're shooting for. It's much more competitive this year. The teams are better. Last year we played in the SSAA; this year we're back in the FHSAA, but we're playing in the independent league. They broke the independent league up into basically a large and small division. Then each division is broken into north and south. We're in the small south division. There are about 18 schools. We're the furthest south team. Of those 18 schools, based on rankings after the regular season, the top eight teams will make the playoffs. Then whoever wins the south bracket plays the winner of the north bracket at the Villages in late November for the Independent League championship. So we have to qualify for the playoffs this year. But I think if we take care of business, the majority of our schedule is teams that are in our division and in the south division. So if we can take care of our business, take care of the games that we need to take care of, we should be sitting in a good spot to hopefully make the playoffs.”

The Rays lost a host of starters from last year's running back and linebacking units.

“We lost every one of our running backs from last year,” Costante said. "The only kid on the team that had any reps at running back last year was Tyler Hannah, who was a freshman last year. He was a fullback for us and he got two handoffs last year. So he's the only one coming back. But Anthony Abin is going to be stepping in at the tailback position. Hutch Hamilton is going to get some reps back there at the tailback position. Gavin Montgomery is going to get some reps at the fullback position. So we've got some bodies back there. We've got some beef. Zac Massie is our backup quarterback but can run with the ball if we need him to. Carter Good's legs have gotten a little faster. So he can run the ball a little bit too. I just hope he doesn't pull a Patrick Mahomes and try to run everyone over.

Costante is expecting big things from Good at the quarterback position. As a junior, Good passed for 1,335 yards and 11 touchdowns.

“He had a good year last year,” Costante said, "a real good year. I think he looks like he might be a little better this year. Statistically last year he had the second best season of any quarterback who has ever had it here statistically. This year, hopefully with some new things we've got going, some new concepts, things like that, hopefully he can have another good year, if not better, and maybe even compete for having 2,000 yards this year. No quarterback here has ever gone over 2,000 yards passing in a season. So Carter has a chance if he gets 2,000 yards to be the single-season record holder. I'm sure that's one of his goals. And leading us to our first winning season."

MIA looks to be as big up front as they’ve ever been.

"Our line is pretty good,” Costante said. “They're pretty much back from last year. We did lose two starters on the offensive line, and we have another defensive lineman who's out injured. But our line is going to be good. We should have about 10 to 12 linemen come season, which is great. Last year we had nine. So the numbers are definitely going in the right direction, that's for sure.

I'm thinking once the freshmen get in school, our roster will be anywhere between 35-40 kids, which last year we were playing with 27-28. That should be a good improvement."

Although his receiving corps lacks big numbers coming in, Costante feels they’re talented.

“We've got some good ones,” he said, "and we've got a couple new kids at the receiver slot that are going to look good. We're excited. We're excited about our offense. We should be putting up some numbers this year.

"The tough part is going to be filling in our linebacking corps,” he said. "We lost all four linebackers last year. Gavin Montgomery got a couple reps at linebacker last year, but not a lot of time. He got more at the end of the year, which was better. But he's the only linebacker that has any experience coming back. So we're going to be relying on our D-line and our DBs and safeties specifically to kind of pick up the slack until our linebackers get up to speed.”

Costante is happy that he will be playing a 10-game schedule.

“It's a little challenging,” he said. "It's a nice schedule. We've got ten (regular season) games now. First time in a long time."