Prep football: Kinnan through with third-party promoters

photo by Tiffany Tompkins-Condie

Joe Kinnan didn't say Manatee's football team is done playing games outside of Florida.
The Hurricanes head coach just wants to steer free of middle men.
Manatee's scheduled trip to Seattle to play Skyline High was officially nixed Wednesday after the game's sponsor, Next Level Football, pulled its funding last week.
This isn't the first time Kinnan and the Hurricanes have had difficulty with third-party promoters.
Manatee was supposed to head to New York City next fall for a rematch with New Jersey's Don Bosco Prep before troubles arose with Halloy Boy Sports Marketing, which set up last September's Manatee Memorial Hospital Suncoast Challenge, a doubleheader played at Hawkins Stadium that featured Manatee, Don Bosco Prep, Tampa Plant and New Jersey's Bergen Catholic.
"I'm weary of dealing with anyone else in the future," Kinnan said.
Manatee opened last season with a trip to Olney, Md., to play Our Lady of Good Counsel, a game that was set up by Kinnan and Good Counsel head coach, Bob Milloy, and didn't involve any third-party help.
The trip included a tour of Washington, D.C. the day after the game.
"We could have done that with Don Bosco and should have done that with Don Bosco," Kinnan said. "The trip to Good Counsel was a great experience, except for the loss."
Kinnan said he turned down an invitation to a play in a Labor Day Weekend doubleheader in Atlanta because Manatee had already scheduled a home game that weekend to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.
The Hurricanes were supposed to play Maryland's Friendship Collegiate Academy in that game but may play Miramar, last year's runner-up in Class 8A, instead.
"All along, I wanted the Labor Day Weekend to be the Wounded Warrior thing for us," Kinnan said. "We've already talked to a lot of servicemen about it, have laid the foundation and have a lot things in play. That's going to happen."