BRADENTON — Frank Waiters was in midseason form Friday night.
So were the Manatee Hurricanes.
And a national television audience got an eyeful of how high school football is played before a packed house at venerable Hawkins Stadium in “beautiful Bradenton, Fla.,” as ESPN’s announcers put it.
As Hurricane tailback Mike Blakely blasted through Tampa Plant for a 80-yard TD run in the second quarter, Waiters let loose, watching along with other jubilant Manatee fans cheering at the fence behind the Hurricanes sideline.
“THERE WE GO! THERE WE GO! OOOOOOH, YEAH BABY, THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!” shouted Waiters, whose son Garrett plays offensive line.
Any preconceptions people had about the Kickoff Classic being just another exhibition game had gone south long before.
The towering auxiliary lights brought in for the game, the satellite trucks along 32nd Street West, the field surrounded by sports signage — ESPN, Gatorade, Under Armour — gave Joe Kinnan Field a big game buzz.
That 48-10 beatdown Manatee laid on Plant was just a little payback for the Class 5A state championship game the Hurricanes lost 21-14 in December.
It was a statement game for Manatee.
The Hurricanes were ranked 19th in the ESPNRISE poll.
Plant was second.
The Hurricanes were 8th in the USA Today poll.
Plant was 6th.
That’s about to change.
“This is a playoff atmosphere and we crushed them,” said ex-Hurricane Austin Jensen, a redshirt senior safety at Florida Atlantic University who drove back from Boca Raton for the game.
“These kids are going to cherish this even if they don’t go on to play at the next level. They can say they played on TV. You’ve got the camera on you, it makes it 10 times better.”
It took Manatee a little while to get going.
Plant scored on the game-opening play and momentarily dampened the enthusiastic home crowd, already damp from a pre-game drizzle that finally quit at kickoff.
“We all thought — this is not good,” Ken Fetchko said up in the stands.
Then the Hurricanes struck right back with a long kickoff return and scored a few plays later.
Manatee fans were back in full roar.
“GO CANES GO! GO CANES GO!” went the familiar chant from the Marching ‘Canes band, their brass instruments glinting in the twilight.
“ESPN is getting its money’s worth,” longtime Manatee fan Steve Bowers said standing alongside Waiters, trying to make himself heard. “We’re putting on a show.”
A show that many preferred watching in person, instead of in the comforts of home.
“I want to see the real action on the field,” sophomore Malik Brooks said.
That went for Gene Witt, too.
The former Manatee County School superintendent played at Manatee back in 1948.
“They didn’t even have TV then,” Witt joked.
Pat Cline was yet another ex-Hurricane who preferred to witness what unfolded under ESPN’s bright lights in person.
“What a great thing for Manatee football to be on national TV,” said Cline, who played for the 1992 Hurricane state champs. “If every high schooler could go through this, it’d be the highlight of their career.”
Vin Mannix, local columnist, can be reached at 745-7055.
