Blanton Breathes New Life Into Celebration Storm Football

By: J. Daniel Pearson

Historically, Celebration has struggled in football – recording less than a handful of winning seasons since opening in 2003. Those struggles continued of late, including a 1-9 season last year – causing not one but two coaching changes as Jeb Ebersole was hired to replace Jeremy Palmer only to see Ebersole let go a few months later because of non-allowable recruiting issues.

Celebration Athletics Director Chad Boudreaux brought in Chris Blanton just week before the start of spring football started and now believes the school has the right coach moving forward. “From the beginning I started to understand he was different,” Boudreaux said. “He gets hired a few days before spring ball starts and has just two assistant coaches , and yet he somehow put together a solid spring. He’s highly organized and is a no-nonsense coach that demands accountability but can deliver it in such a way that kids want to work and play hard for him. I think we were very fortunate to get him onboard and we are excited about the future of Storm football.”

Blanton is aware of Celebration’s previous struggles in football, but sees this opportunity as a blank slate. “History has never won an athletic event. We have immediately began putting in our system, our expectations and our values and players started buying in immediately. Our philosophy is you become winners by first believing you can win. And you win by doing things the right way. I don’t want our players to ever be comfortable, we constantly challenge them to go outside their comfort zone.”

Although the Storm return few starters in either side of the ball, Blanton says the talent for success is there. At quarterback, veteran Yanden Yaw has been the front runner in training camp to win the starting job but James Wise-Pauley has performed well in both the spring and early days of camp.

Blanton believes he may have a feature running back in sophomore Phillipe Costa, who ran for more than 100 yards and scored a touchdown in the spring game jamboree, but also has several other talented runners “that can bring different things to the table.”

At wide receiver, Blanton says sophomore Kobe Orr has turned some heads in training camp and will lead the receiving corps along with Sean Nuzzi.

Celebration returns senior captain Gavin Konopka, Keenan Betts and Anthony El Dib on the offensive line, but Blanton says like most football coaches in America that “depth is always a concern on the OL.”

The family act of Triston and Tyee McNeal and cousin Ryan NcNeal will make the Celebration secondary a family affair. All three are six-foot plus – giving the Storm one of the taller secondaries in the region.

Up front, Blanton has been excited about the emergence of DT Justin Berry calling the 6-2, 230-lb. junior a “force.” Betts will be an anchor on the defensive line; while several others – including Konopka will see action on both sides.

Dag Kradft and Zane Zelmanski have looked solid in camp at linebacker. Our goal is to play fast and aggressive on both sides of the ball,” Blanton said.

The FHSAA went away from their two-tier, two-year experiment of Suburban (1s-4S) and Metro (1M-4M) classes and returned to the enrollment-based classification system for 2024. Celebration finds itself in Class 7-A, District 9, where they will compete with perennial state power Dr. Phillips; as well as Olympia and East Ridge (Clermont). “It’s a tough district and a I know a lot our parents and fans weren’t happy about it, but again it’s something out of our control,” Blanton said. “You get better by playing good teams and although getting to playoffs may be difficult we looking to earn the respect of our opponents.”

2024 Storm Schedule

Head Coach Chris Blanton

Class 7A, District 9

2023 Record: 1-9