With Soul Bowl and playoffs looming, a look at Ely football’s remarkable one-year turnaround
There was no guarantee that Michael Bailey would be coaching the Pompano Beach Blanche Ely football team this season.
The Tigers went 1-9 last season, his first at Ely, and were blown out or shut out (and in some cases both) in just about every game they played. Bailey said that he was fired about two weeks after the 2021 season ended and had to re-apply for the position.
“I didn’t see it coming,” Bailey said Wednesday, “but I think that was the best thing that could have happened to me as a young coach. It helped me re-channel my focus. It really lit my fire.”
Most people didn’t see what happened this season for Blanche Ely coming, either.
Ely heads into its annual Soul Bowl matchup against Fort Lauderdale Dillard on Saturday with a perfect 8-0 record, the farthest into a season it has ever gone without a loss since starting 9-0 in both the 2000 and 1990 seasons — only to see its perfect record squashed by Dillard both of those seasons.
The Tigers this year are district champions and are ranked just outside the top 25 in the FHSAA’s state power rankings (which determine postseason seeding).
They also have aspirations for a deep playoff run to cap a remarkable breakthrough season.
“What we’ve done, it’s a great feeling,” Bailey said, “but we’re not satisfied with this. We plan to keep going.”
Breaking down the turnaround
Just how big has Ely’s turnaround been?
Consider the numbers:
▪ Ely last season was outscored 322-63. Through eight games this season, the Tigers are outscoring opponents 264-70.
▪ Ely last season was shut out six times and eclipsed 20 points just once — that came in its lone win of the season, a 22-21 win over Boyd Anderson. Through eight games this season, the Tigers have allowed an opponent to score more than 20 points just once and has posted shutout wins over Boyd Anderson Coral Springs and Deerfield Beach.
▪ The 7-0 win over Deerfield Beach was Ely’s first over the Bucks since that 2010 season when they started 6-0 and was the only game this season in which Ely has scored fewer than 28 points.
Bailey said the highlight moment of the season so far came last week with its 47-12 win over West Boca Raton to clinch the District 10-3M title — Ely’s first district championship since 2013.
“Being able to do it in front of the home crowd made it even better,” Bailey said.
A bond with players
And to do it with a roster that has bought in and that Bailey has coached for most of the past four years was special, too. Bailey was the junior varsity coach at Deerfield Beach before taking the head coach position at Ely in 2021. Bailey estimated about half of Deerfield’s JV team followed him to Ely.
Senior quarterback Nah’Coy Daniels had guided the offense this season, throwing 20 touchdown passes while completing about 75 percent of his passes. He has his share of complimentary pieces around him in senior running backs Ke’shawn Jones and Marcus Williams, junior receiver Marcel Williams, junior running back Edward McIntosh and sophomore receiver Richard Hollis.
Senior defensive back Harlem Howard, a three-star prospect according to 247Sports, has 15 college offers and has been a stalwart for the Tigers’ defense.
“They were very familiar with one another,” Bailey said. “A lot of them played together for two straight years [before coming to Ely]. I worked at a local Boys and Girls Club as well, so a lot of them I’ve known pretty much their whole lives now.”
‘Bridged the gap’
Now, Ely has one final test on Saturday before the playoffs as it faces Dillard in the Soul Bowl in a contest between two of Broward County’s top public schools.
The Tigers have lost this matchup each of the past five years by a combined score of 241-30 and have been shutout in three of those five games, including a 35-0 loss last season.
Bailey is expecting a different result this time around. The FHSAA state power rankings have Dillard ranked as the No. 22 team in the state. Ely is 28th.
“We bridged the gap in a major way,” Bailey said. “We’re approaching it like any other game. What we’re mainly doing is just making sure our emotions are in check. We don’t want to make the game bigger than what it is, but we do want to make sure that we come in and we finish the job just like we’ve done the previous eight weeks. ... I think it’s an evenly-matched game. Two great ballclubs, two great coaching staffs. I’m excited.”
After that, the real work begins. The regular-season success, Bailey hopes, is just the start as the Tigers prepare for the playoffs.
This will be Ely’s first postseason appearance since 2019, but the Tigers haven’t won a playoff game since 2013. Ely won its only state title in 2002.
The postseason path won’t be easy, either. Ely will enter the playoffs as either the No. 2 or No. 3 seed in Region 3-3M based on the outcome of Saturday’s game. Dillard will hold the other spot, meaning a Soul Bowl rematch is a likely possibility for the regional semifinals. The winner of that game then will likely have to face Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas in the regional final.
But the opportunity is there, one that most likely thought wouldn’t be possible, so Ely plans to take full advantage of it.
“We can’t take these moments for granted,” Bailey said, “because it’s been so long since a team at Ely was even in this position. ... We don’t want to take it lightly because we’re not just playing for ourselves. We’re playing for Tigers of past generations as well and we want to make sure we show homage to them and put on a good show out there.”
This story was originally published November 2, 2022 at 2:25 PM.
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