Aquinas’ Harriott and Piper’s Short are the Broward 7A-5A Football Co-Coaches of the Year
One coach made some more history by guiding one of the most storied programs in the country to yet another state championship. One put a long-middling program on the map in his second season at a new school.
Now, St. Thomas Aquinas’ Roger Harriott and Piper’s Quentin Short are the Miami Herald’s Broward County Co-Football Coaches of the Year for Class 7A-5A.
Harriott’s Raiders extended their state record by winning a sixth straight state championship. Short’s Bengals won 10 game for the first time since 2015. Their accomplishments were wildly different and yet equally as impressive.
In Fort Lauderdale, St. Thomas Aquinas had an atypical season, losing three games for the first time in seven years, including the regular-season finale to Plantation American Heritage, before winning five straight postseason games for a Class 5A championship. Along the way to the 5A title, the Raiders overcame a two-touchdown deficit in the second half of the Region 4-5A championship against Atlantic and a second-half deficit against Bradenton Manatee in the 5A semifinals. Once it got to the title game, St. Thomas Aquinas blew out frequent foe Lakeland, 34-0, to win a record 16th state championship.
In Sunrise, Piper scored wins against Blanche Ely, Plantation and South Broward in the regular season, and then beat Doral Academy in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs before losing in Round 2 to West Broward. The Tigers’ 10-win season wasn’t just their first season with double-digit wins since 2015—it came just five years after they went winless in 2019. Before Short took over ahead of the 2023 season, Piper hadn’t even won more than five games in a season since 2018. Short was a near-unanimous selection by his peers as the top coach in Broward for this past season.
For the Raiders, the expectations will always be the same: win a state championship. For the Bengals, Piper has a chance to raise the bar in the coming years.
This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 7:00 AM.