West Broward football team bands together to make breakthrough playoff push for program

Thanksgiving morning is going to be a whole lot different this year for parents of West Broward football players.

Their boys won’t be home.

Instead, they are going to be at the high school participating in football practice.

And they’ll be darn excited about it.

“That’s all they kept yelling to me after the game last week was ‘Coach, we’re practicing on Thanksgiving, we’re practicing on Thanksgiving’ and I was excited for them,” West Broward coach Brian McCartney said. “The funny part is the parents were like ‘What? Our kids won’t be home Thanksgiving morning?’ and I guess I had to give all of them the bad news.”

But it was great news for those players and coaches.

At places like St. Thomas Aquinas, Chaminade, American Heritage, Columbus and a few others, there is almost always practice on Thanksgiving every year. But, following West Broward’s impressive 35-16 dismantling of Sunrise Piper in last week’s regional semifinal, the Bobcats broke new ground.

A program that had only one postseason win since the school opened its doors 16 years ago entering this year, now has two in the last two weeks and is in the regional final round for the first time.

That following a 34-7 thrashing of Flanagan in the first round and the Piper win in which they hit the Bengals with an early roundhouse punch, scoring four touchdowns to lead 28-0 after the first quarter.

The competition will ratchet up this Friday for the No. 3-seeded Bobcats (9-3) as they head south to take on top-seeded Miami Southridge in a Region 4-6A final at Southridge Park. But don’t tell that to this “Band of Brothers” as they like to call themselves, a close-knit group of players who, unlike so many other programs, have had a core group of players stick together and not run off to greener pastures.

Exhibit A would be four-star senior wide receiver Josh Moore who, a month ago, committed to the University of Miami. Moore could’ve gone anywhere he wanted over the last few years to chase a championship ring with one of the elite programs when he emerged as a top South Florida talent. But he chose to stay right where he started and planted his roots – West Broward.

“I stayed because West Broward became like a second home for me,” Moore said. “All of us, players, coaches, everything is so tight around here. We all have each other’s backs. Our motto around here is that ‘we’re our brother’s keepers,’ just a big brotherhood.”

Was he tempted to leave?

“Sure it was tempting,” Moore said. “But at the end of the day, I had to remember where I started from. When I first came here as ninth grader, nobody from those other schools knew me or wanted me. This was the only school that wanted me and showed me any love and so I’ve always wanted to show them the love back. Now, by all of us sticking together, being our brother’s keepers, we’re seeing that pay off with the success we’ve had on the field.”

It’s been a remarkable journey for McCartney. He took over just before the COVID season of 2020 and has patiently built his program up brick by brick. In an era of top players constantly transferring from school to school where coaches find it nearly impossible to keep kids together and “build the house,” McCartney has managed to do it.

He knows all about winning programs, having coached at Mayfield High School in Las Cruces, New Mexico under legendary head coach Jim Bradley (who won multiple state championships) before moving to South Florida with his wife a decade ago.

“It really is hard in South Florida to patiently build something like this,” said McCartney who initially coached under Josh Shapiro at Cypress Bay and Adam Ratkevich at Western before taking the head job at West Broward. “But I got blessed by having some great coaches that really care about kids. I’m not saying that other coaches don’t, but we really genuinely care about the kids here. I think it’s different for a lot of parents out there, they see some other coaches that are coaching but they’re really about wins and losses where we’re really about development and building character. That’s what I brought with me from New Mexico –faith, family and hard work.”

McCartney was specific to point out his two coordinators, Mario Perez (offense) and Kendall Charles (defense) as being a big key to this breakthrough season.

Besides Moore, other big-time contributors have been running backs Amos Bradford and Elijah Dewoskin, Kelvin Reyes (FIU commit), Zaheed Pierre (Eastern Michigan), Bryan Granger (multiple offers) and Shmar Akande (Toledo).

“I really believe our culture is different from other programs in South Florida,” McCartney said. “Not to toot our horn but I think God has just blessed us with some great coaches and great kids that want to work hard and really be around each other. It’s really something – they just love being around each other.”

How close this team is came into clear focus last week preceding the Piper game.

The Bobcats learned they would have to find a way to move on without Bradford, who was the only running back among BCAA schools to surpass the 1,000 yard mark this season with 1,067 yards.

Bradford was recently admitted to Joe DiMaggio Hospital where an unspecified infection has saddled him to a hospital bed where he still remains.

“We went out there and played for our fallen brother and will continue to do so this week,” Moore said. “Like I’ve been saying, that’s how things roll around here. We play for each other, we look out for each other and now we pray and play for Amos. It’s Thanksgiving so it’s time to be thankful for everything we’ve got.”

And that would include practicing on Thanksgiving morning.