New Manatee head coach Yusuf Shakir orchestrated one of Florida’s all-time great upsets

In the mind of former Tallahassee Lincoln head coach David Wilson, there are three games which stand above all others as the greatest upsets in the history of the Florida high school state championship games.

There was Pensacola Woodham over Miami Southridge in 1982, when Southridge had the No. 1 team in the nation.

There was Bartow over Jacksonville Bolles in 1996, when top-ranked Bolles saw a 27-game winning streak come to an end.

And there was 2010, when Yusuf Shakir coached Lincoln to a stunning upset of Seffner Armwood. It was a defensive struggle, which is just what Shakir liked, and the Trojans sprung a 17-14 win against a team that spent most of the season ranked in the Top 10 in the nation.

“I’ve been associated with Lincoln football for 26 years,” Wilson said. “For me, the best coaching job ever done at Lincoln High School was in 2010, when Lincoln won the state championship, beating Armwood.”

Wilson had his fair share of coaching triumphs during his 27 years as a hall of fame head coach in Florida. He piled up 213 wins, a pair of state championships and five region titles with the Trojans, so this is high praise for Shakir, who was named the new head coach at Manatee on Thursday. Shakir played for Wilson at Lincoln in the 1990s and then served as an assistant coach on one of Wilson’s two state championship staffs, coaching under the sort of legendary shadow that he’ll find cast by Joe Kinnan, another hall of famer, with the Hurricanes.

It would be hard for anyone to match the breadth of accomplishments with the Trojans that Wilson piled up, but there’s a reason Shakir the obvious choice to take over the program when the head coaching job opened up prior to the 2009 season. Wilson was an assistant principal at the time and singled out Shakir, who had just spent two years coaching at St. Petersburg Gibbs.

Nine people were on the committee involved with choosing the head coach. Shakir was a unanimous selection.

“A lot of people were familiar with him. He was respected,” Wilson said. “A lot of people felt like he was going to be a good candidate.”

For most of the last two decades, Shakir had been a fixture at Lincoln. He was a star linebacker for the Trojans before graduating in 1996 for a collegiate career at Wisconsin and Western Illinois. After graduating college, Shakir returned to Tallahassee as an assistant coach under Wilson until leaving for St. Petersburg to coach Gibbs for the 2007 season. Even then, Shakir only spent two years away from Tallahassee, returning to the Trojans as head coach in 2009 after leading the Gladiators to only their fifth playoff appearance in 40 years.

For eight years as Lincoln’s head coach, Shakir continued the tradition established by Wilson and Kyle Rice, who served as the Trojans’ head coach between Wilson and Shakir. He followed up the 2010 Class 4A title with a trip to the Class 7A championship game in 2012. Lincoln played in four nationally televised games during Shakir’s tenure, and the Trojans have won 15 straight district championships.

There was, though, never a singular accomplishment like the upset Shakir orchestrated against the Hawks in 2010. Armwood had averaged nearly 40 points per game throughout the regular season and outrushed Lincoln, 204-4, during the 4A championship. But with four seconds left and the game tied, the Trojans sunk a 37-yard field goal to turn an injury-riddled, 3-4 start to the season into an improbable state title.

“We were completely outclassed,” Wilson said. “They were loaded, as they always are.”

It took a spectacular defensive game plan from Shakir and an even more impressive effort to motivate his team.

As talented as Shakir was — he was a Division I safety at Wisconsin and Western Illinois — his greatest asset was his work ethic. He was always one of those players Wilson felt had a future in coaching. He’d spend lunch time as a student in the locker room, watching film and studying. He was a quick enough learner to switch to guard during his senior year and earn all-state honors on both sides of the ball.

He brought his knowledge to the sidelines and paired it with some unorthodox motivation tactics. Wilson recalls Shakir reading children’s books to his players during the weeks — stories like “John Henry” or “The Little Engine That Could” — to convey simple motivational messages.

It was enough to make him an excellent successor to one legend. In Bradenton, he’ll have another remarkable legacy to follow.

“He respects the past,” Wilson said, “but he’ll live in the present.”

This story was originally published May 25, 2017 at 6:04 PM with the headline "New Manatee head coach Yusuf Shakir orchestrated one of Florida’s all-time great upsets."