Clearwater Central Catholic (Fla.) football ready to return back to form

CLEARWATER, Fla. – If you’re someone familiar with Florida high school football, you have assuredly heard or seen Clearwater Central Catholic in the mix for the state’s Class 1A state championship in previous years.

The 2025 season, was a bit different for the Marauders as they were on the outside looking in when the state championship games kicked off at Pitbull Stadium in Miami back in December as CCC fell in the region final to area foe Carrollwood Day.

It’s a feeling that CCC head coach Chris Harvey, his staff and players haven’t felt since 2021 as the Marauders reached three straight state titles games from 2022 to 2024.

“You know it’s crazy when you finished a season 10-3 and it was a down year,” Harvey said to Rivals at the team’s first spring practice on Wednesday evening.

“It’s one thing to lose in a state championship game, but it’s another thing to lose before you ever thought you would. I think its been something we’ve been chewing on. There’s days where we let it negatively affect our approach and other days where it strengthens it. I’m looking forward to see how we bounce back, five, six months after that. There’s a lot of people out here who were a big part of that team last year.”

As the team took to turf for the first time this spring, CCC isn’t at exactly 100 percent with Harvey pointing out players like three-star cornerback Daveon Belhomme (college visit), 2028 wide receiver Luke Wilson (recovering from an injury) and a few others that are unavailable at the start of practice.

Belhomme figures to be a major piece to the defensive puzzle for Harvey as the 2027 cornerback has offers currently from Florida Atlantic, Liberty and Wake Forest, where he was visiting on Wednesday. Wilson was a major contributor in the Marauders’ passing attack in 2025, catching 31 passes for 583 yards and scoring five times.

Now its Harvey’s job to figure out how to mesh the sophomore, junior laden squad together after losing 10 seniors, five of them being apart of the winningest class of CCC players in program history.

“We lost 10 seniors from a year ago, but those 10 seniors, five of them had won more games than anybody in Pinellas County history,” Harvey said. “So we knew we had to replace a lot of success, but we knew we were replacing with a lot of experience. Now, we’re banged up a little bit. We don’t have two of our top defensive linemen in this spring.”

We don’t have one of our top receivers in spring, but to me, though, the thing about spring is just how many different people can you give different opportunities? So we don’t like for injuries to be the reasons why we get experience, but it just happens to be the way it is this year.”

Opportunities will be there and one area of the team to focus on is the quarterback position as Harvey has two-abled right arms that he can go to at any given time.

CCC had Class of 2027 quarterbacks Khayse Barrett and Sean Hickey throwing the rock on Wednesday, with both seeing plenty of time behind center a year ago. Barrett saw more of the majority of action as the dual-threat threw for 1,938 yards and 20 touchdowns. Hickey saw time as well behind Barrett, with the passer going for 663 yards and five scores.

Both signal callers will have solid targets to throw to in Wilson and 2027 wide receiver Malik Newton (27 passes, 382 yards), who has offers from Rhode Island and Toledo. Another athlete that was on display that will be expected to have a big season is diminutive 5-foot-4, 140-pound running back Daveyon Epps, who rushed for 373 yards last season.

With plenty of experience back on both sides of the ball and motivation at their backs, Harvey is looking for this spring to help catapult them into the summer. CCC will be playing in a spring jamboree on May 16th at Lakeland’s Bryant Stadium against Tampa Jesuit and Orlando Evans, respectively.

“I think that it’s important to use it for what it is,” Harvey added. “A lot of people focus too much time on the spring on winning a game. Nobody’s ever won a championship because they won a spring game.”

But I think the most important thing is to put ourselves in a position to get better every day. For this day, day one, to be the worst day of practice, we have of spring. If we can do that, then I think that heading into the summer, we’ll be able to create some momentum for ourselves to be able to put guys in a space for success.”

More about Clearwater Central Catholic High School

Clearwater Central Catholic High School (CCC) is a Diocesan, coeducational, college-preparatory school within the Diocese of St. Petersburg. The school serves primarily the Upper Deanery of Pinellas County and is dedicated to the mission of educating students to excel in all endeavors while fostering a community of faith, service, and leadership. CCC emphasizes the development of creative leaders who are committed to service and inspired to excel in all areas of their lives.

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