Manatee players are disappointed by, but respect, coaches’ exits

It was raucous inside the Manatee High School weight room as first period ended Friday morning, just as it is basically every day as Manatee’s football team finishes the weightlifting class they share throughout the year.

John Booth called the group to attention, one day after the players learned James Booth, John’s twin brother and the Hurricanes’ offensive coordinator, was leaving to become the head coach at Plant City. The other news the Hurricanes’ head coach had to share was more stunning.

“The room got silent,” said Sir Williams, a cornerback and quarterback. “You could hear a pin drop.”

Booth told his team he was leaving after spring practice. He explained that he and his wife, Christine, had just had their fourth child, and he was going to take a job at Edward Jones as a financial adviser. For the foreseeable future, Booth wasn’t planning to coach football.

Juniors such as Williams have never known another coach during their time with the Hurricanes. Booth’s first season was in 2014, and the coach compiled a 28-9 record in his three seasons.

“He had other things. He has to take care of his family and whatnot. You’ve got to respect that,” Williams said. “There’s nothing you can do about it. I appreciate everything he’s done for us in the last three years. It’s going to be rough; it’s going to be tough, but, I mean, we’ve got to make do.”

Now, preparations for their senior seasons will continue amid uncertainty. Not only will the Hurricanes have a new head coach, but Manatee was already set to enter the 2017 season with two new coordinators after James Booth’s resignation and Chad Choate’s demotion as defensive coordinator last year.

“I think you just have to be a sponge,” senior A.J. Colagiovanni said he would advise players who are returning. Colagiovanni was taking in a spring practice weekend at Stetson where he’ll play in the fall.

“Absorb everything. ... The things you do from here on (out) aren’t going to be the same as what they were with coach Booth. You have to feel out all the new coach is telling you, and just absorb it, do it and just keep working harder. ... It’s a bond with a coach and his players, so there’s a friendship and there’s also a hierarchy so you have to find a balance with the new coach.”

The Hurricanes’ offense, in particular, excelled with Booth at the helm. During Booth’s final fall with Manatee, a campaign that ended with a first-round playoff exit, the team produced more than 4,300 yards of total offense.

“It gave me a lot of ability to make my reads, and to play the way that I play with an offense where I got to throw the ball a lot,” Colagiovanni said. “... It worked out well for everybody on the offense. Everybody got spread the ball.”

He’s developed athletes into college players, as well. Three offensive players in the Class of 2017 — Colagiovanni, guard Seth Walter and wide receiver Tarique Milton — are committed to Division I programs. In the Class of 2016, wide receiver Kavious Price signed with Kent State and kicker Nickolas Null committed to Cornell, and the year before that wide receiver Kelvin McKnight signed with Samford.

“He made the offense fun,” Fordham said. “He made us feel like offense was the best, like it was the place on the field to play because we did score a lot.

“This year I hope we do the same.”

Colagiovanni was a freshman when former longtime head coach Joe Kinnan was still at the helm. He was with Kinnan toward the end of his first season when he was promoted from the freshman team to the varsity squad.

Then Colagiovanni needed to adjust to a new coach, when Booth was hired. And he said he owes a lot to Booth, also a former Manatee High quarterback, into shaping his career that led Colagiovanni to signing with Stetson to play college football this fall.

“He put me in a lot of positions to succeed, and he mentored me with being my coach,” Colagiovanni said. “He mentored me just with everything in being a character. ... I don’t even know how to put it into words. He gave me a lot of things that I now, today, am able to do.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2017 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Manatee players are disappointed by, but respect, coaches’ exits."