Bill Vilona, Special to the News JournalSat, November 29, 2025 at 6:44 AM UTC·6 min readThe final seconds were counted and Tate’s football team was ready for the moment.
Players doused coach Rhett Summerford with buckets of ice water in the 40-degree range temperature. The team danced and celebrated, then gathered full of smiles for a photo with the winning scoreboard as backdrop.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAll of it was part of a joyful embrace of the Aggies 35-14 victory against Tallahassee Chiles on Friday night at Pete Gindl Stadium that sends the Aggies into the Dec. 4 championship game of the large-school classification (Classes 4-7A) of the inaugural Florida Invitational Tournament (FIT).
The Aggies (10-3), who attained a 10-win season for the first time in 10 years, will face Dr. Joaquin Garcia High (10-3) of Lake Worth – located just south of West Palm Beach – for the first-ever title in this event at The Villages Charter School stadium.
The Villages is located near Orlando off the Florida Turnpike. The game is set for 6 p.m. central time. The Joaquin Garcia Bulldogs advanced with a 40-0 win against Westwood, a school in Fort Pierce, located about an hour north of West Palm Beach.
“It’s huge for our program and you can see what it means to these kids,” Summerford said. “You face adversity during the year and you just overcome adversity and that’s what these kids have done all year.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“It is something special. This team deserves all the credit. We have great kids at Tate High School. Our kids are fighters. They just found a way to fight for each other and fight as a team and I am just so proud of them.”
The Aggies last played a football playoff game in December in 2015 under then-coach Jay Lindsey, who took Tate to the Region 1-6A championship before falling to Seffner-Armwood.
Only three seasons ago, Tate finished 1-9 in Summerford’s first season as Aggies head coach.
This season, Tate lost sophomore quarterback Miles Delarosa to a season-ending knee injury in September.
From that point, the Aggies used different quarterbacks, formations, styles and gameplans. Sophomore running back Tanner Clark eventually took over the main role and he’s shined in this three-win playoff run.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“He can take over a football game and you don’t even know it,” Summerford said. “He is a quiet kid, a real workhorse, who does everything you ask, and I’m just really proud of him.
“Tanner was the best fit, because he’s a workhorse and you just let him run it. And we built some things around him to make us better. We have talent around Tanner and we figured out some stuff and we got better and better.”
“When our starting quarterback was hurt, I felt we were still a really good football team and we had to find our way a little bit. We started finding a way and getting better and better. And I thought, this team doesn’t deserve to go home.”
Clark quickly got the Aggies off to a good start. After Tate’s defense forced a quick series in the game-opening possession, Clark broke free on a 55-yard run through a gaping hole on Tate’s first offensive snap.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHe then peeled off 10 more yards and finished a 3-play touchdown drive with a 9-yard run.
On the ensuing possession, Tate junior linebacker Brody White perfectly read a pass attempt, stepped in front of the receiver and returned the interception 40 yards for a touchdown.
The Aggies then went to an onside kick that resulted in a fumble recovery at the Chiles 28. Tate overcame a holding penalty on the first play and finished a short drive when Clark ran for a five-yard touchdown.
“We got the opportunity to get an onside kick and we went ahead and did that,” Summerford said. “We wanted to play aggressive.. And when the other team looks at it and you’re up 21-0 it’s hard to come back from that.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I thought we moved the ball well all night long and hat’s off to our offensive staff for continuing to work on that. Our defense played lights out.”
The Aggies defense created a couple more turnovers, but the score remained 21-0 at the half.
On the first possession of the third quarter, Clark dropped back on a second-and-9 play, then hit receiver Maliek North in stride for a 54-yard TD pass.
After Chiles blocked a Tate punt and recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown, the Aggies answered right back on freshman Armaud Brown’s 48-yard TD run for a 35-7 lead before the fourth quarter began.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHere are three takeaways from the Aggies win.
NO FOOTBALL ON THANKSGIVING
Preparing for a Friday night playoff game the day after Thanksgiving always presents a challenge for high school teams on a week break from school.
Following Wednesday’s practice, Summerford told his team to forget about football and focus on being with family on Thanksgiving Day.
“One of our things at Tate is about being a family and I told the kids, I don’t want you to think about football,” Summerford said. “Wanted them to be with their family.
“And I told them, tell someone (on Thanksgiving Day) how thankful you are for somebody, whoever that it is.. and enjoy the day. They showed up (Friday) ready to roll.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY
In October, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) announced it was expanding last year’s experiment of a special rural school tournament for teams left out of the traditional playoff bracket.
The FHSAA said a new secondary playoff event, called the Florida Invitational Tournament, would now include two additional levels – Classes 1A-3A combined in one bracket and Classes 4A-7A in the other – to give more 32 more teams a chance to compete in post-season.
In Florida, more than 500 schools play football, putting the state behind only California and Texas for most high school football teams among all states in the nation.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSummerford became aware of the possibility his team could be invited.
“Do I like (FIT)? I love it,” he said. “The (main state playoff brackets) is still the state championship. That is the ultimate goal, without a doubt.
“But this type of football is fun. And last week… we had an interception that won the game (against Bartram Trail). I think it’s a great atmosphere and chance for your program to get better. It can’t mean as much as a state championship and I know that, but it sure means a lot to these kids and we’re happy with where we are at.”
IRONIC VISIT
Last December, Summerford traveled with senior receiver Christian Neptune, who now plays for South Florida, to the state all-star game that was played at The Villages Charter School where the inaugural FIT championship games will be staged.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“It is a beautiful place,” Summerford said. “I was able to get a good look at it and now we’re going to play there.”
It also gives more practices and pressure situations for Tate’s young roster.
“We played between seven to nine freshmen (Friday). You can’t buy those reps for anything. It’s great that we get more practice time with our team and we have a really young team. We have 25 kids who are sophomores and freshmen on the team. So you get those extra reps and man, something special is happening.”
Bill Vilona is a retired Pensacola News Journal sports columnist and now senior writer for Pensacola Blue Wahoos. He can be reached at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Tate football advances to FHSAA FIT Championship with win over Chiles
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