This highly coveted football recruit’s team is set for the playoffs. He won’t play.

He wasn’t leading the charge with the Braden River High flag as the team burst onto the field Friday night, nor did he draw any unusual attention during the coin toss.

Other than the loud cheers when the public address team announced his team or the sporadic chants from the student section, there was no indication of just how special Friday night’s football game involving Knowledge McDaniel was.

Even if it was his last as a high school athlete.

“It’s meant a lot,” McDaniel said. “It’s built me to where I am right now. The school means a lot to me, and they did a lot for me. It’s just home to me. Anytime I play for an organization like Little League, I always stayed with the same team and never switched.”

The Pirates defeated St. Petersburg High 49-31 on a bittersweet senior night for McDaniel, who had eight receptions for 74 yards with a touchdown and nine carries for 61 yards with two touchdowns.

An emotional McDaniel was embraced by quarterback Bryan Gagg near midfield and running back Brian Battie after the final buzzer sounded.

Because while Braden River is marching forward into the Class 7A playoffs, Friday was the end of McDaniel’s high school career following the saga surrounding his eligibility with the Florida High School Athletic Association.

The FHSAA ruled McDaniel ineligible, due to violating the association’s policy against receiving impermissible benefits from a booster club member, for his entire senior season on Aug. 8 during fall camp.

An appeal was heard Sept. 6 that made him eligible for only non-district games, before the Mackey Law Group in Bradenton took his case before the FHSAA at a mediation hearing .

During this time, ESPN’s Dick Vitale, a Lakewood Ranch resident who got to know McDaniel during trips to the Broken Egg restaurant where McDaniel worked, used social media to voice his opinion that the FHSAA and executive director George Tomyn should let McDaniel play without restrictions.

The mediation hearing left McDaniel with three choices:

▪ Accept an agreement to play the rest of the regular season but not the playoffs at Braden River;

▪ Transfer to Southeast High — the zone his grandmother moved into after getting evicted from her home during McDaniel’s junior season — and play the season, including the playoffs, if the Seminoles qualified;

▪ Roll the dice with the FHSAA Board of Directors Meeting held Sept. 23.

Hours after the mediation hearing resulted in McDaniel was cleared to return for the rest of the regular season with Braden River, the Section 3 Appeals Committee chairman, Tampa-area lawyer Grady Irvin, who oversaw McDaniel’s non-district games ruling, penned a letter to Tomyn.

Irvin implored Tomyn to use his executive power to reinstate McDaniel in full, and the reason for the original appeals committee ruling was fear the FHSAA would overturn it if they gave him a full season with the playoffs. Saint Stephen’s athletic director Lenny Paoletti resigned from his spot on the appeals committee following the mediation results.

The FHSAA sent a cease-and-desist letter, which alleged any further inquiries into McDaniel’s reinstatement for the playoffs or harassment of anyone with the appeals committee or FHSAA could result in expulsion from the association for the school, on Sept. 27.

Earlier this week, the FHSAA’s Public Liaison Advisory Committee meeting in Gainesville came to the conclusion that due process was given to McDaniel and they were satisfied with the result, according to an FHSAA spokesperson.

It wasn’t until Wednesday when the reality of his last high school football game started sinking in. McDaniel said he began soaking everything in.

For Friday’s game, he didn’t plan his usual pregame routine of getting in the zone by himself. Rather, he was choosing to be around the team in the locker room.

“I have to soak this in. This is it for athletics (at Braden River) for me,” McDaniel said.

As a freshman, McDaniel seemed destined for greatness at Braden River when he played running back in the Pirates’ spring game at St. Petersburg Lakewood.

In addition to the coaching at Braden River and other teams he’s played for, McDaniel credits former Florida State University, NFL and CFL quarterback Adrian McPherson, a legend at Southeast High, for developing his route running as a wide receiver on McPherson’s 7-on-7 team.

“He put up cones and taught me how to run routes,” McDaniel recalls of the early days of his transition into a wide receiver.

Becoming a go-to weapon in Braden River’s passing game as a wide receiver only enhanced McDaniel’s recruiting stock. He said he’s going to play running back in college, and he has several offers.

The 3-star recruit, according to the 247 Sports’ composite rankings, has offers from more than 20 programs including Ohio State, Georgia, Nebraska, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Missouri, Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa State and others.

“He’s made an impact on teammates and that’s what high school football is all about, having a chance to move on in life and find some success in college athletics through a great high school career,” Braden River coach Curt Bradley said. “He’s just an incredible young man, who’s overcome a lot and this is only going to make him stronger.”

In true McDaniel fashion, he was only concerned about the Pirates getting a victory over St. Pete High earlier this week after a practice.

That team-first attitude was on display when Braden River lost to Venice this season and McDaniel was struck by several punches when getting tackled to the ground by an opposing player. Rather than getting a personal foul penalty for retaliating, McDaniel handed the ball to the referee and returned to the huddle.

“I have eyes on me. I can’t be doing stuff like that,” McDaniel said. “It looks bad. Like how he got seen punching me. Imagine if I had retaliated, then it looks bad on both of us.”

Those eyes will see McDaniel playing at the next level, even if his high school career came to a close Friday with his teammates heading forward to the playoffs.

This story was originally published November 2, 2018 at 9:57 PM.