After a ‘journey to the top,’ Cardinal Gibbons football looks to stay among South Florida’s best
As the Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons football team took the field Monday for its first practice of the 2022 season, head coach Matt DuBuc had a chance to reflect.
This is his seventh year at the helm of the program, but his history with Gibbons football long predates that. He was a running back on the Chiefs’ 1990 team that lost in the Class 3A state finals — the only school’s title game before Dubuc took over as head coach in 2016.
After two years of falling to Plantation American Heritage in the playoffs — in the regional finals in 2016 and the regional finals in 2017 — Cardinal Gibbons broke through for its first state football title in 2018. The Chiefs have added two more titles since then, winning back-to-back in 2020 and 2021 for three titles in a four-year span with another trip to the regional finals in 2019.
“The journey to the top was probably a lot more fun than the ability to stay at the top,” DuBuc said. “That’s the real measure, and we’ve been able to stay at the top.”
The latest chapter of that journey to stay at the top began Monday morning, the first day that teams were able to begin practices this preseason. The first five days are non-contact drills only, with contact drills allowed to be implemented starting Saturday. Preseason classics will take place Aug. 16-20, with the regular season starting on Aug. 25.
“The pressure is now on us,” DuBuc said. “We’ve positioned ourselves to be in the conversation.”
The path back to a state title, to winning it all a fourth time in five years, will be tougher for Cardinal Gibbons after the Florida High School Athletic Association opted to split its football classifications into metro and suburban divisions.
After playing in Class 4A the last two seasons before the shift, Cardinal Gibbons is now in the same classification (Class 2M) as, among others, Plantation American Heritage (Class 5A regional semifinalist in 2021), Miami Central (Class 5A champion in 2021), Miami Northwestern (Class 6A regional finalist in 2021), Miami Killian (Class 5A regional finalist in 2021) and Miami Edison (Class 3A in 2021) in addition to Gulliver Prep (Class 4A regional finalist in 2021) and Booker T. Washington (Class 4A regional semifinalist in 2021).
Should the Chiefs be able to make their way to the postseason and make a run to the state championship game, it will play close to home. The state title games for the four metro classifications are being held at Inter Miami’s DRV PNK Stadium, a mere four miles west of Cardinal Gibbons High, from Dec. 15-17.
“Everything we do is a build to December,” DuBuc said. “We just want to be in the conversation at the end.”
Experience will help.
Gibbons returns six starters on both sides of the ball from last season’s team that went 11-2 and capped the year with a 21-19 win over Cocoa in the Class 4A state championship.
On offense, it begins with a trio of seniors in quarterback Dylan Rizk, running back Kamari Moulton and athlete Jesse Anderson.
Rizk, a UCF commit, transferred to Cardinal Gibbons last season from Delray American Heritage and immediately filled the Chiefs’ void at quarterback following the graduation of Brody Palhegyi, who was under center for both of their title runs in 2018 and 2020. Rizk completed 67.3 percent of his passes last season for 1,971 yards and 17 touchdowns. He also ran for eight touchdowns.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing in his first season with the Chiefs, evidenced by his 10 interceptions.
“He’s a team captain now,” DuBuc said. “We’re expecting him to lead, go out there, push everybody and take charge.”
Moulton, meanwhile, finished last season with 1,075 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns. Anderson, a two-way player and Pittsburgh Panthers commit, had 39 catches for 506 yards and four touchdowns on offense while also recording 28 tackles and an interception on defense.
Speaking of the defense, DuBuc’s biggest challenge will be replacing two of the top members of the Chiefs’ front seven last year in Tray Brown and R Mason Thomas, who combined for 167 tackles and 15 of Gibbons’ 30 sacks.
DuBuc pointed out senior Broc Weaver as well as juniors Harold Brekien and Chris Williams as the top players he expects to make a jump on the defensive line.
“We have a lot of depth on the D-line,” DuBuc said,” which I think is going to help us in the long run.”
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