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Local
Bay Area Clemson Tigers Coming Home To Take On The Alabama Crimson Tide Monday
RAY-RAY MCCLOUD SO/WR Sickles High School
BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor
When the 2 football teams take to the field at Raymond James Stadium on Monday night, it will be a homecoming for 5 of the Clemson Tigers. There are 15 players from Florida on the Clemson team.
According to its webpage roster, the University of Al- abama has 4 players listed from Florida.
The Clemson Tigers won the right to play in the Na- tional College Football Championship game by de- feating Ohio State. Satur- day’s Fiesta Bowl game was a blow-out for the Clemson Tigers (#3) as they defeated Ohio State (#2) 31-0. The game was in
TAVARES CHASE FR/WR
Plant City High School
Arizona.
The University of Ala-
bama (#1) won the right to play in the championship game by defeating the Washington Huskies (#4), 24-7 in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta. Both games were played on Saturday, New Year’s Eve.
Four of the players on the team are from Hillsbor- ough County schools. Ray- Ray McCloud, Jr. (Sickles High School), Deon Cain (Tampa Bay Technical High), Tavares (T. J.) Chase (Plant City High), and Jake Frugh- mogen (Plant High School). Artavis Scott of Oldsmar played for East Lake High School. Mc- Cloud, Cain and Frugh- morgen are all
ARTAVIS SCOTT JR/WR
East Lake High School
sophomores. Chase is a freshman and Scott is a junior.
Ricky Sailor, who coached McCloud and Cain through his youth sports program, Unsigned Prep, said, “I’m getting calls as though I’m playing in the game,” he told the Sentinel. “It’s not about me, it’s about the kids,” he said.
“I’m very excited for both players to come home and play in front of their family, friends and coaches. I know their nerves will be at an all-time high, but they are more than prepared for this moment. Welcome home Ray-Ray and Cain!”
McCloud (#34) said, of course he’s excited about
DEON CAIN SO/WR
Tampa Tech High School
coming home. “But it prob- ably won’t really hit me until I get there,” he said by phone. The team is ex- pected to arrive in Tampa on Friday.
The son of Lisa and Ray-Ray McCloud, Sr., said he feels blessed to be able to come home and play the National Champi- onship Game before family and friends. His parents do attend many of his games. “It’s a great opportunity for us,” he said. McCloud is majoring in Health Sci- ences.
Last year’s national championship game was played by the same 2 teams featured in this year’s game. Clemson lost to Ala- bama.
Tavares Chase (#18),
JAKE FRUGHMORGEN SO/OT
Plant High School
a freshman majoring in Sports Communications, said he believes the team has a lot more confidence this year. Although he has not seen much playing time as a freshman, Chase, the son of Tavares Chase, Sr. and Charlene Wash- ington, added that Clem- son has not had a championship in many years, and it’s about their time. “It would be great to get the National Champi- onship this year in our hometown,” he said. “Everyday I’m getting more and more excited about coming home for this game.”
Artavis Scott (#3) is also excited about the op- portunity to come home for such a popular game. “It would be great to win a championship in my home- town around so many peo- ple I grew up with and so many players I played with.”
Being the ‘senior’ player among the guys from Tampa, Scott said he reaches out to the younger teammates to see how he can help them as other players helped him when he came in.
What will Clemson have to do to win this game? “We know we’re playing a great team that we cannot take lightly. We’ll just have to execute and play our own game,” he said.
Artavis is the son of Johnetta Daniels and Marlon Daniels.
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