ORLANDO -- There aren't too many events where you'll see probable Hall of Fame receiver Cris Carter running aimlessly around a football field snapping random pictures with a digital camera, wearing a smile that won't quit and the sweaty glow of a successful coach and an even more successful father.
That's because there aren't too many stories like that of the St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders.
In the last 12 months, the Raiders have lived two Hollywood scripts. The first was Friday Night Lights, complete with the heart-sinking loss that ended inches from the end zone in the state final against a hated rival that will forever live in high school football lore.
This year's movie?
''Maybe Remember the Titans, I guess,'' St. Thomas quarterback Ryan Becker said, still in a state of disbelief after his team won the 5-A state championship 35-20 over the Osceola Kowboys.
Maybe, if only because it ends in triumph.
MOVING ON
These Raiders, led by a coach in George Smith who has lost more state finals (seven) than most coaches can even hope to play in, had lost three straight state finals coming in Friday's finale, none more painful than the double-overtime loss to Lakeland that ended the careers of a steely quarterback (Wesley Carroll, now at Mississippi State) and a nails safety (Major Wright, now at Florida).
The running back who was ruled short of the end zone last year, Jeremiah Harden, had to carry that pain throughout his entire senior season, having watched videos that appeared to show him getting the ball across the end zone barrier, and referees that refused to acknowledge it.
The team did its best to move on, printing shirts that said ''Don't Look Back,'' even though it was so fresh in their minds that it still appeared directly in front of them.
Moving on was hardly simple. Having lost Carroll to graduation, Smith had a quarterback from New York, Mike Mathews, who came to St. Thomas intending to play his senior season, competing with a junior in Becker, whose most memorable experience last season was watching the excruciating finish to last year's game from the sideline in street clothes.
SOLID SEASON
Mathews lasted all of one game with the team. After getting pulled in the Raiders' opener in favor of Becker, Mathews went back to New York, leaving much of the recovery process in Becker's young hands.
''I was shocked -- but not too upset,'' Becker said with a wry smile.
With a backfield loaded with talented runners, Becker managed a solid season, complete with 16 touchdowns to just four interceptions in the regular season.
And in Friday's final, with the Kowboys threatening to put together the kind of comeback the Raiders pulled off last year just to reach overtime, it was Becker who started what would be this year's most memorable play.
This time he wasn't running onto the field going from exhilaration to agony in a matter of milliseconds. No, this time he was running away from defenders and slinging a ball to Duron Carter, Cris's son, for a 51-yard touchdown pass on a play that was intended to do nothing of the sort.
''It was originally for the tight end,'' Becker said. ``But the tight end got jammed and there was no safety over the top. I had faith in my receiver, he made a great play on the ball and just took it home.''
Before Duron Carter crossed the goal line, he managed to stiff-arm Gerard ''Momo'' Thomas, Osceola's best player, to break free. It was just another well-placed moment in a flawlessly written script.
But Duron won't look to that as the game's most memorable play. No, with last year's final snap having been such a burden on this team for the past 12 months, it's only fitting that this year's final snap be the one the Raiders cling to.
''I'll remember the last kneel we took to win it,'' Duron said. ``That's final.
``It's great to have won. But you always have to look back and see how you felt in that last game. We're trying to savor our victory right now.''
Duron's dad certainly savored the victory -- perhaps even more so because the Raiders assistant coach never won a state title of his own, having lost one by a single point.
But this state title was enough to erase any painful past.
From broken hearts to full hearts in the span of a year.
Remember the Raiders.
