By John C. Cotey
St. Petersburg Times
Dec. 19, 2009

John C. Cotey's Top 10 Plant, Plant, Plant special edition

1. Bob Weiner
Well done. While we saw impenetrable obstacles such as Lakeland and Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas back in the summer, he saw opportunity. Now that he has beaten legends Bill Castle and Joe Kinnan, I say we get 10-time champ Corky Rogers on the phone and see if his Jacksonville Bolles team wants some of this.

2. James Wilder Jr.
After replaying his stunningtacularly splendidrific 41-yard touchdown run — you know, knock two guys backward, spin out of a tackle, stiff-arm another guy, score — I have discovered I have no words for it and need to make them up. Such as "stunningtacularly" and "splendidrific."

3. Phillip Ely
He's 19-0 as a starter. 'Nuff said.

4. Javonte Martin
This is why Martin, right, is called "Lockdown." Manatee star Ace Sanders, left, had one catch. Just one. And Manatee QB Brion Carnes was sacked four times, most of those the result of Martin's blanket coverage.

5. The bar
Raised.

6. Armwood
See No. 5. The Hawks have all spring and summer to work on taking back what was once theirs. Tim Tebow stopped the Hawks from winning a third straight championship in 2005. So, who's going to stop Plant?

7. Mike Blakely
What about this guy? It might be the Manatee senior-to-be who stops Plant next year, kind of like he nearly did Friday night.

8. National championship?
For fun: If Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas, the No. 1 team in the country, had beaten Manatee, then lost to Plant, could the Panthers have claimed the mythical national title? Just think, in back-to-back weeks, they would have defeated the No. 6 and No. 1 teams. The case would have been strong. Just saying.

9. Bad spots
Plant's James Wilder Jr. got a bad spot on a fourth-down run with 1:34 remaining, giving Manatee one last chance. But it wasn't as bad as the spot Manatee quarterback Brion Carnes got four minutes earlier on the Hurricanes' fourth-and-space-big-enough-to-slip-an-ATM-card-through.

10. Plant, Plant, Plant
I must confess — that chant is annoying. That, and I can't get it out of my head. The Top 10 is checking out for the holidays. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Plant, Plant, Plant … dang it, see what I mean?

John C. Cotey can be reached at cotey@sptimes