WESLEY CHAPEL — A while back, Bruce Patterson had a dream.
His Wesley Chapel Wildcats were at Lakeland for a playoff football game.
He told one of his coaches about it.
“Did we win or lose,” he asked Patterson.
“I don’t know,” the coach replied. “I just know we were in the playoffs.”
Well, turns out, dreams do come true.
The Wildcats, just three seasons removed from an 0-10 record, are in the playoffs, and they will be playing mighty Lakeland on Friday, Nov. 14 in the Class 5A region quarterfinals.
They will travel to storied Bryant Stadium in Polk County for the game of a lifetime for the players.
“We don’t know much about them,” said defensive end Kith Anderson, “But we know they’re a really good team.”
The No. 2-seeded Dreadnaughts (8-2) will present the largest gridiron challenge the Wildcats have faced in years. The program has won nine state titles and two national titles.
It will be a daunting task, though most observers would probably use the word impossible.
Not Patterson.
“Honestly, I want to go play Lakeland,” the coach said. “Some people might not want to. But Bryant Stadium is beautiful. I just see it as a steppingstone in the right direction, that we get the chance to go play a top five team in the state and a top 50 team in the nation, that we get the opportunity to go do that. I think that’s bigger than a lot of people think.”
It is another step in the revival of the Wildcat program. Patterson is the third coach for most of the seniors, hired in 2024 following the turmoil of 0-10 and 1-9 seasons.
The Wildcats went 5-5 in Patterson’s rookie year, and 6-4 this year, returning to the postseason for the first time since 2021.
“When we got coach Patterson, that’s when we kind of took off,” said receiver-turned-quarterback T.J. Aguilar. “He set a new standard. He treated everybody the same. There was no if you’re a star player, you get treated differently. Obviously, we lost a couple of players from that, but the standard is the standard.”
And the new standard has set a new tone. The defense, and some dramatic midseason changes on offense, has fueled the Wesley Chapel rise.
This season, the team had four shutouts, including a playoff-clinching 21-0 win over Land O’ Lakes in the regular season finale.
You have to go back to John Castelamare’s great teams in 2001 and 2003 to find a defense with that many shutouts.
“I knew we had a great defense,” said Anderson, who has a team-high 73 tackles and 10.5 sacks. “With what we had coming back, and how we played last year, we knew we were going to be able to capitalize. The defense was going to be much, much better.”
Anderson has been disruptive and has a knack for forcing turnovers. Last year, he had an interception that he returned for a touchdown and forced five fumbles, with three recoveries.
This season, he forced five fumbles and had five fumble recoveries, returning one for a touchdown.
A state track qualifier in the high jump, long jump and 110 hurdles, Anderson has been able to use the explosiveness required for those events into success on the gridiron.
“I would say that’s my biggest strength,” he said. “Not too many defensive ends can get off the ball as fast as I can, so I use it to my advantage. And then, I get to the ball.”
But Anderson says he’s not alone on a senior-laden defense that has scored at least once in the past three games.
Fellow senior linemen Jaden Wilson (30 tackles, 7.5 for a loss), Nathan Miller (six sacks) and Ian Bailes have helped shut down opposing running games, linebacker Shawn Kelley has been a force and defensive back Jaden Goodman (five interceptions) and junior Darian Borden (three interceptions) have held down the back.
But it may have been a change offensively that vaulted the Wildcats towards the playoffs. After last year’s starting quarterback Landen Holley transferred in the offseason, the Wildcats sputtered early on offense this season.
So instead of a more aggressive spread offense, Patterson made the change during the bye week in September to a Power-T, with the quarterback flanked by two backs in a tight formation.
That produced 271 rushing yards and four scores against Pasco, and while not terribly effective against the better teams, produced just enough in a 14-7 win over Ocala Forest, evening the team’s record at 3-3.
Down the stretch, the Wildcats grinded down opposing defenses, averaging 44 carries for 222 yards in their last four games, and scored nine touchdowns.
It wasn’t always pretty or even exciting, but beauty was in the eye of the ball holder — senior running back Tavion Cousin produced two 100-yard games, and 7-9 different players were getting carries each contest.
“It was a struggle earlier this year, but ever since we switched and we’re able to get all our athletes the ball, that’s when we started taking off,” said Aguilar.
Aguilar, the team’s leading receiver last year, has rushed for five touchdowns at his new position. He said he was happy to step in wherever needed. He said the transition was the best thing that’s ever happened to him, and it helping nudge the team into the playoffs just makes it even better.
For a roster with 25 seniors, getting to the postseason after its recent struggles may have seemed like a task even greater than beating Lakeland not too long ago.
But here they are. Ready to write the ending of Patterson’s dream.
“Two years ago, we were a 1-9 team, and we’re leaving as a 6-4 team making the playoffs. That’s exciting,” Anderson said. “And I really appreciate coach Patterson for that. He built his team into a playoff team and turned everything around. We’re ready for Friday. We’re going to play 100 percent.”