Despite coming off a state championship with a star-studded cast of players and a No. 1 national ranking, few people outside of Manatee and Sarasota counties knew much about these Seminoles.
Those who missed the USA Today national rankings were likely oblivious to this once-in-a-lifetime team head coach Paul Maecthle was assembling.
Florida State receiver Peter Warrick celebrates after scoring a touchdown during the fourth quarter against Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2000 in New Orleans. Warrick's touchdown put the Seminoles ahead. (AP Photo)
Outside of the Sunshine State, most people didn’t know Peter Warrick from Peter Pan, and they had no idea he would become Peter The Great. Warrick, who would go on to star at Florida State and become the fourth overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft, was just another football player.
He wasn’t a household name like Southeast defensive back Jon Dowling became last summer or like this year’s local football celebrity, Manatee running back Mike Blakely.
Warrick did prove that whatever era you live in, if you have talent, it will eventually rise to the surface, and the right people will find you. It’s just not as much fun.
“We went out there and did what we had to do on God’s gift,” Warrick says. “During the summer before our senior year, we never had anyone come and tell us this is what you need to do. We worked hard, lifted weights and trained.
“Not many people knew about us, but when people don’t know about you, you go out and make a name for yourself, so that makes it better.”
Warrick would’ve been an Internet sensation these days. He quarterbacked his football team to a state title and was the point guard on the Noles’ state championship basketball team.
“He was the best athlete this area ever produced,” says long-time Manatee High receivers coach Chuck Sandberg.
The elder Sandberg has seen this media tsunami crash through the front door of his house with his son, Cord, a sophomore quarterback at Manatee who has yet to start a regular season game, but is already on the college football radar screen.
“It’s just unbelievable what is happening. The coaches want to look at kids who are so young. Didn’t Lane Kiffin offer a seventh grader? How do they find out about those players,” Sandberg said.
Colleges can discover kids at such a young age, which couldn’t be done in the mid-1990s, when newspapers and word of mouth were still the best means of getting prep football information out. High school football players today are the product of a technological revolution, and their sport will never be the same.
Though these kids play for fun and most will never see a big-time college field, there is big-time money being made off them. Recruiting websites, sports apparel companies and television networks are turning healthy profits thanks to their endeavors.
“People found that reporting on recruiting high school kids could be a money-maker, and there was an explosion,” Maecthle said. “The jury is still out on whether it’s good. Nike and other companies give these kids stuff at their combines. I guess they figure some of them will play on Sunday, and they are sending them a message: ‘Remember me.’”
