Closing the gap: Southridge vying to clear final hurdle, win state championship
Sometimes a few yards make the difference. Or a few seconds. Or one decisive call.
The Miami Southridge football team could point to all of those elements for what kept it from playing for a state championship a year ago.
A fumble return by then-Spartans cornerback Joshua McDowell fell 3 yards short of a game-winning touchdown that would have sent Southridge to the state final.
A controversial ruling that McDowell fumbled just 3 yards short of the end zone, although video footage of the play later showed he appeared to have his knee down before the ball came loose, left the Spartans three points short in a 14-11 loss to West Boca Raton.
Southridge’s goal this offseason?
Make up the difference and be too good to ever land in such a predicament again.
“We just decided to continue to get better day-by-day, in the weight room, when it comes to team bonding, we’re going to do all the intangibles to make sure those inches, those calls, those yards and those gaps are closed,” Southridge coach Pierre Senatus said. “We’re going to make sure that when it’s done, we did everything in our capacity to make sure we’re in position to be the top team in the state this year.”
A painful loss like that can often be the moment that galvanizes a team and helps it clear the final hurdle to a championship.
Southridge appears to have all the tools to make this such a season.
The Spartans return the majority of their starters on offense and defense with some key additions and enter the season as one of the favorites in Class 6A. Southridge is chasing its first state title since 2016 and its fourth overall.
Senatus doesn’t just credit talent as a reason for confidence.
He’s seen his team’s determination to finish the job every day since the team regrouped following last year’s state semifinal loss.
“This team is player-driven more than ever,” said Senatus, who is entering his fourth season as Southridge’s coach and was part of multiple state titles as an assistant coach at Miami Booker T. Washington. “You could see the process and the connection and the players are delivering it.”
The Spartans’ combo of junior quarterback James Perrone and senior center Ryan Miret are at the forefront of that push.
Perrone, a three-star prospect who has received offers from schools like University of South Florida, Virginia Tech and FIU, is entering his third season as Southridge’s starter.
Perrone was the Miami Herald’s Offensive Player of the Year for Classes 7A-4A last season after throwing for 3,000 yards and 30 touchdown passes.
“This team’s looking as good as it’s been since I’ve been a part of it,” Perrone said. “We all have one goal in mind and that’s to win state.”
Miret, a three-star prospect and a state championship wrestler in the heavyweight division this past March, is an Ole Miss commit and anchors a deep offensive line, which includes senior 6-4, 290-pound tackle Shermari Bowens and should be among the state’s best.
“I would love to have two [state championship] rings in two different sports,” Miret said. “We look just as good or better than last year because of our added size and weight and our whole squad is faster, bigger and stronger and ready to go.”
Miret, the son of Southridge’s principal Humberto Miret, has been offered by multiple Power 4 schools (including Miami) even before he committed to Mississippi. An excellent student, Miret emerged as the backbone of the Spartans’ offense as a junior and said he is aiming to become even more of a leader this season.
“We have a lot of players that are eager to show their full potential,” Miret said. “They don’t even have to depend on the coaches to bring that out of them.”
With Miret leading a stout line, Perrone will likely have ample opportunity to showcase his skills as a dual-threat quarterback. He also will have multiple talented receivers including returning seniors Jhakari Johnson and Samuel Coleman as well as transfers Javarius Wright and Corey Swint.
“Those are the guys moving the needle,” Senatus said. “Guys like Miret, who has been part of this program for four years have gone through the lumps and felt the gut-wrenching losses with his teammates. We’ve had a flow of talent come in to fortify our core group and raise the floor.
“We wanna make sure you bring in the kids that come in with no entitlement and have the grind mind-set.”
McDowell has since graduated, but senior defensive end Kamron Wilson, who jarred the ball loose from West Boca quarterback Trey Moran on that heartbreaking last-second play, returns to lead the Spartans’ defense.
Wilson totaled 15 sacks and 28 tackles for loss and will lead a defense, which added a couple of key transfers, and Senatus expects to be even better than last season when it averaged just 10.5 points allowed per game.
Wilson, a Syracuse commit, leads a deeper defense, which should benefit from the return of senior defensive back Tyler Brown and linebacker Tyree Graham, a transfer from Homestead South Dade.
“The defense is going to be suffocating,” Senatus said. “We’re still looking at packages to make sure we put the best 11 on the field at all times. It’s going to be hard for offenses to come up with a way to handle them.”
The Spartans have had their share of rough seasons in the past.
But when the program has been at or near the top, there’s no shortage of community pride and tradition that harkens back to the early 1990s when the Spartans were twice state champions under legendary coach Don Soldinger and ranked among the nation’s best.
“The name on the front is always Southridge,” Senatus said. “When you put that on, it’s bigger than you, and we want the kids to know they’re representing something bigger than themselves.”
The key for Southridge, especially in an era with multitudes of players transferring from year to year, has been largely keeping roster continuity.
Perrone says it’s created a sense of pride and unity and he sees it from the core of players who have been a part of Southridge’s return to prominence over the past two seasons.
“Our mentality and overall physicality has improved,” Perrone said. “It’s my second year also with my offensive coordinator, Travis Moore, and we’re just more connected.
“Our team is filled with seniors who have been here three or four years, and I think this will be our year. It was all just about learning and trying to learn how not to fall in that situation again. I think we’re ready this time so look out.”
This story was originally published August 10, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
