Pembroke Pines Charter’s Keidran Willis is the Broward Flag Football Coach of the Year

Pembroke Pines Charter’s five-year build with Keidran Willis at the helm reached new heights this year and now Willis is the Miami Herald’s Broward County Flag Football Coach of the Year.

Even greater heights might be ahead, too.

The Jaguars had never been to the Florida High School Athletic Association playoffs when Willis took over. Now, they’ve reached the postseason in four straight seasons and they won a playoff game for the first time this year, ripping off seven straight wins to reach the Class 1A championship, where they came up short against perennial powerhouse Tampa Robinson.

“When I took over the program, we had some talent but no direction,” Willis said. “This might not be the most athletic or the fastest team, but it’s the most committed to winning. They’re coachable and they deserve this.”

Pembroke Pines Charter is poised to keep winning, too. The Jaguars had three players make first-team All-Broward County — including Ava Rivera, the Herald’s Broward County Flag Football Player of the Year — and two were juniors and one a sophomore. The core of the offense — Rivera, the quarterback, and 1,000-yard receivers Madison Ojeda and Jocelyn Garcia — are set to return next year for the Jaguars to try to make another run at a ring.

Although Pines Charter couldn’t knock off Robinson this year, the Jaguars took as good a shot at the Knights as anyone. Pines Charter scored the only points on Robinson that the Knights allowed in the last month of the season and did it without Ojeda, who sustained a leg injury in the 1A semifinals and was replaced by an eighth-grader in the title game.

The present is great for the Jaguars, but the future might be even brighter.

“We had one of the most potent offenses in the state this year,” Willis said. “It was a great experience and a lot of people at our school are realizing how successful we were.”