Palmetto Tigers were ready to play more basketball. But clerical error ended their season

Palmetto High wanted to spend the past few days preparing for a Class 6A regional quarterfinal game Thursday against Braden River High.

But a few hours after learning on Sunday that they had qualified for the regional tournament, the Tigers received word that a clerical error had been made and that their season was actually over. Wiregrass Ranch High would replace Palmetto as Braden River’s opponent.

“When I found out we were in the regional tournament, I was excited to get one more chance to put on the jersey,” Tigers senior Makenna Simpson said. “When I learned that we were out of the tournament, it was bittersweet that the last time I put on a Palmetto Tiger jersey was for a loss.

“It is so disappointing knowing that my season is over. I have played on this team for four years, and it has been an amazing journey sharing the sport I love with the people I love. I will miss the adrenaline rush before games, the pregame meals and, most of all, my teammates.”

The Tigers would’ve qualified for the regional tournament if they had beaten Manatee High last week in the Class 6A-District 10 championship game, which they lost 49-36. Palmetto High coach Brooke Corbett didn’t think that was a season-ending loss at the time.

After the game, she congratulated her seniors on what they had accomplished this season and told her players to be ready for practice on Monday in preparation for the regional tournament. She figured her team was close to the cutoff mark for getting in but would qualify.

After receiving a few congratulatory text messages following Sunday’s release of the brackets, Corbett looked at the bracket posted online and saw her team no longer listed. She reached out to her administration and said she learned Wiregrass Ranch’s strength of schedule hadn’t been updated based off the district tournament results. The improvement knocked Palmetto out.

“Unfortunately, this was a clerical error that has been fixed,” an FHSAA spokeswoman said in an email. “Wiregrass Ranch is the correct team to advance to the regional tournament. We apologize for any confusion.”

Corbett had already informed her captains the team had qualified for the regional tournament. She then notified them the team’s season was over.

“You felt the love and support on campus because of a lot of the administration and other teachers were like, ‘Oh, man, we were in, and then we were out,’” Corbett said. “The cool thing for me is people are watching, people are excited about what our program’s doing at Palmetto High. That they even knew that’s what happened (Sunday), that was cool.”

The Tigers’ not advancing ends what had been a remarkable turnaround season.

They won just one game in the 2017-18 season and just four games last season, Corbett’s first. The Tigers finished this season 17-8 and reached their first district tournament championship game since 2016, when they advanced to the regional semifinals.

“This is one of those seasons where, as a coach, I’ve got to remind our players we did some really good things,” Corbett said. “We got to the district championship game. If somebody had told even myself that last February, I would’ve been like, ‘We’re going to work toward that, but I don’t know if we’ll be there.’ It’s something to be proud of.”

The Tigers have a great opportunity to build upon their success next season.

Junior Diamond Mays and sophomore Miya Allgood averaged a team-leading 11.3 points per game apiece, with the former averaging 3.1 steals and the latter averaging 7.1 rebounds. Junior Cinye Jackson was also the team’s third-leading scorer with an average of 9.6 points.

Corbett hopes her players will use the confidence they built this season and their not reaching the regional tournament as motivation for next season, something it looks like they’ll do.

“It was very disappointing to have our season over because we still had so much more to give and a lot more energy to bring to the court,” Allgood said. “Going into next season, we are going to work even more than before, which means summer workouts and conditioning at the beginning of the school year, because we’re winning our district and we’re going to regionals.”