Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 10-15-21

Feature
Sumner High School Football Coaches’ Deep Connection Leads To Success
BY MONIQUE STAMPS Sentinel Staff Writer
Sumner High School in Riverview has something special with its foot- ball staff. Head coach Alonzo Ash- wood, defensive line coach George Selvie, and defensive line coach Richard Clebert have deep con- nections to each other. The result is a team preparing for District compe- tition in two weeks.
No new school has had the suc- cess of Sumner High’s football team. Coach Ashwood attributes suc- cess to his coaching staff and the
school administration.
When Coach Ashwood came to
Sumner, there were no seniors and no players that had played in a var- sity game. He had a tremendous task ahead of him.
Previously, he had been the coach of Middleton High for five years. Looking for a challenge, he was hired by Sumner. After getting the job, he hired Coach Selvie to be the defen- sive coordinator.
George Selvie was a military kid that moved around as a kid. He re- ceived a football scholarship to USF. Coach Clebert had come to USF on a football scholarship the year before and was already on the USF team. The two became good friends playing together on the defensive line.
“We both started playing really young and Richard showed me the ropes, we had to communicate on the defensive line. We were four men acting as one,” says Selvie.
Head Coach Alonzo Ashwood
Selvie went on to play profes- sional football for the St. Louis Rams, Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, and our own Tampa Bay Buc- caneers.
After a two-year stint as an intern for the Dallas Cowboys, he started coaching high school football. He now has seven coaches on his staff, and they work well together despite the occasional heated exchange. Selvie states that all the coaches want what is best for the kids and growing our team.
Coach Richard Clebert, is the manager at Tampa Park full-time and is the defensive line coach at Sumner.
Clebert grew up in Little Haiti in Miami. Football was the positive in- fluence and provided the means to go
Defensive
Selvie, and Defensive Line Coach Richard Clebert.
to college.
In addition to his stellar perform-
ance on the field for USF, Clebert played for four teams in the Arena Football League, and was the starting nose guard for two Arena Bowl championship winners.
Clebert has fielded offers to coach from various programs, in- cluding an offer from one of his USF coaches, Bernard Scott.
However, Clebert’s priority is his family, wife, Allison and 3 chil- dren, and he wanted to be very pres- ent in his children’s lives unlike his own father.
The offers were politely declined. While taking his son to baseball practice, he ran into Coach Selvie who asked him to join him on the Sumner coaching staff. After initially declining, he decided to take the offer. He would still be there for his family and be able to pursue his love
of coaching.
Teaching and coaching kids
brings joy and satisfaction to Coach Clebert. One of his first moves was to get a donation from Tampa Park, the family-operated property.
When he showed the check to Head Coach Ashwood, the coach was stunned. Mainly because he had grown up in Tampa Park, living there until he was thirteen.
Coach Ashwood says “Back then the older guys (in Tampa Park) wouldn’t let you go wrong if you had potential. They wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”
Ashwood says that he is still in contact with many people that lived in Tampa Park back then. He and his friends from Tampa Park used to have “family reunions.”
Head Coach Ashwood gradu- ated from Hillsborough High School and went to FAMU on a football scholarship. He is the only one in his family to graduate. This year he cel- ebrates 23 years as a teacher.
Coach Clebert says that it was great to hear someone talk about Tampa Park hat knew about it and had actually lived there and appreci- ated its history.
Coordinator
George
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