‘We’re in the glory days’: How Patrick Surtain turned American Heritage into a juggernaut
The growing crowd at tiny Heritage Field rises to its feet while Plantation American Heritage dashes out of its locker room, through an opening in the fence and lines up in the end zone near the parking lot at American Heritage School in Plantation.
Marvin Jones Jr., Earl Little Jr. and about half a dozen other future college football players organize their 40 or so teammates, take their place at the front of the line and jog out toward midfield as part of a pregame stretching routine.
The fence at their backs this year is covered with nine posters to commemorate nine of the best players in program history — names of the nine former Patriots drafted in the past five years, accompanied by the logo of their NFL team.
There’s Sony Michel’s name with a New England Patriots logo — he was American Heritage’s first ever first-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and was recently traded to the Los Angeles Rams. There’s Brian Burns’ and a Carolina Panthers logo — he’s one of the NFL’s brightest young stars after going in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft and piling up 16 1/2 sacks in his first two seasons. There are Patrick Surtain II’s name with the Denver Broncos logo, along with the five other American Heritage graduates picked in the 2021 NFL Draft — a South Florida record and the most ever for any school other than Bradenton IMG Academy.
“Six in one year, which is crazy,” said coach Patrick Surtain Sr., who was a two-time All-Pro for the Miami Dolphins. “We challenge those guys, and those guys see the lineage that came before them and they want to live up to those standards. It’s almost like a culture thing: You come in here, you put in the work, you know you’re going to be a standout.”
This sort of legacy has come together fast. American Heritage didn’t win its first state championship until 2013 and now it has five. It didn’t have a former player drafted until 2017 and now it has had nine. St. Thomas Aquinas, the most storied program in the entire state, is now the only Broward County school with more state titles.
No one in Florida, except for IMG Academy, has more blue-chip recruits on its current roster, according the 247Sports.com composite rankings. In the Class of 2022, Little is another elite cornerback drawing interest from the Alabama Crimson Tide — just like Surtain II — and Jones is an elite defensive lineman, who may well follow Burns’ path to Florida State. In the Class of 2023, American Heritage has a pair of blue-chip wide receivers, another four-star defensive back and a four-star running back.
It gives American Heritage one its most complete rosters ever. It can ride star running back Mark Fletcher, just like it did last year, or it can ask quarterback Blake Murphy to throw to star wide receivers Brandon Inniss and Santana Fleming and the defense — led by Little, Jones and four-star cornerback Jacolby Spells, who has already orally committed to the West Virginia Mountaineers — is as talented as ever.
After falling short of the state championship in 2018 and 2019, American Heritage is among the favorites to repeat as the Class 5A champion in 2021, potentially on a postseason collision course with defending Class 6A champion Miami Central.
“We learned off the older guys that left a few years ago,” Little said. “We’re all just joint and we play as one. We like to soak in knowledge from each other, we give knowledge off each other, we feed off each other and we play as one.”
NFL expectations, lessons at Heritage
Little was in eighth grade when American Heritage won its most recent state championship before last year. American Heritage won back-to-back in 2017 and 2018, and Little got to watch one of the best secondaries in the history of high school football from up close.
Surtain II was the No. 1 cornerback in the country for the Class of 2018, became an All-American at Alabama and got drafted in the top 10 by the Broncos in April. Tyson Campbell was the No. 2 cornerback in the nation, started for three years for the Georgia Bulldogs and was a second-round pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier this year.
Little has always had an NFL influence in his life — Earl Little Sr. starred for the Miami Hurricanes, played eight seasons in the NFL and is now an assistant coach at American Heritage — but seeing Surtain II before him was a particular inspiration.
“Watching him in practice every day going at the receivers,” Little Jr. said, “that’s me, or it was eventually going to be me. It’s me now in the same shoes doing what he was doing.”
NFL High School
Little Jr. and Surtain II are far from outliers as the sons of former NFL players to come through American Heritage. Marvin Jones Sr. was an All-American for the Seminoles and played 10 season for the New York Jets.
Last year, Oronde Gadsden II, whose father played on the Dolphins with Surtain, starred at wide receiver, while Brian Blades II, whose father played for the Hurricanes and made a Pro Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks, played in the secondary. In 2019, Darryl Porter Jr., whose father played five seasons in the NFL, started at cornerback.
The future is bright, too: Star Dolphins coernback Xavien Howard sends his young children to American Heritage, Surtain Sr. said.
“They know that we have their boys’ best interest at heart, that we’re going to do everything to push them to that next level,” Surtain Sr. said. “We bring a knowledge that most other guys don’t bring, and we run things that they’re going to eventually run in college.”
The coaching staff is also littered with former professionals, including Surtain Sr., Gadsden Sr., Little Sr., Porter Sr., and retired linebackers Anthony Harris and Van Waiters.
It’s an unofficial tradition dating back to American Heritage’s hire of Mike Rumph in 2012. Rumph, who’s now an assistant recruiting director for the Hurricanes, took over as coach five years after his NFL career ended and quickly transformed American Heritage from rising contender to perennial powerhouse, winning back-to-back state championships in 2013 and 2014 before leaving for the Hurricanes in 2016.
One of Rumph’s first hires was Surtain Sr. Surtain II had been attending American Heritage since kindergarten, and Surtain II and Rumph got to know each from because their sons played youth football at the same park.
“I was familiar with the program,” Surtain Sr. said. “I saw that they were close.”
The 2013 championship, largely led by Michel, set the tone and American Heritage was off.
American Heritage’s next generation
The next two championships both featured NFL talent, too, and the 2020 team had a five-star safety leading its defense.
It’s easy to envision this group producing another half dozen or so NFL players, too. Jones Jr. is the No. 39 player in the country, Little Jr. is No. 100 and Spells is No. 251.
In the junior class, Inniss, who transferred in from TRU Prep Academy, is the No. 9 overall player and already committed to the Oklahoma Sooners and Fleming, a transfer from Carol City, is No. 186. Fletcher is No. 139 and has the Hurricanes and Crimson Tide both chasing after him. Star safety Daemon Fagan should help continue American Heritage’s tradition of defensive backs, too, as he’s the No. 207 player in the Class of 2023.
In the ninth year of its dynasty, American Heritage shows no signs of slowing down.
“I tell them, ‘We’re in the glory days of American Heritage football,’ because it’s going to keep going,” Surtain Sr. said. “We’ve got some more guys coming out this year who are going to quite possibly be in the NFL, and it’s the ultimate dream.”
