Armwood High coach Sean Callahan looked out of his office door on a summer day in 2011 to see three boys and their mothers waiting to meet with him. It had become a familiar sight for Callahan, as would-be transfers often beat down his door to join a team fresh off its fourth state championship appearance in seven years. • One by one, Callahan called the families into his office. The first two were rising seniors looking to spend their last year of high school with an Armwood team that would go on to win a state championship that fall. But Callahan wasn't interested in taking on players he would only have for a short time, let alone for an already stacked team, and both were sent away. • Then Byron Cowart walked through the door.
By the time it was his turn, the veteran coach's patience was wearing thin, so he promptly asked Cowart where he was coming from.
"Jennings," he mumbled, referencing the middle school down the road in Seffner. Looking at the 6-foot-3, 220-pound boy in front of him, Callahan swore he heard Jesuit.
"Listen, just like the other two, nothing personal, but really I'm not taking any one-year guys," Callahan told them. "You should probably stay at the school you're at."
It quickly proved to be Callahan's favorite mistake.
Four years later, the defensive end with the size well beyond his years is the top recruit in the nation (according to two of the major services, Rivals and ESPN) and arguably the best prospect to ever come out of Armwood. Callahan took the raw talent and groomed it. Woodrow Grady, coach of the 7-on-7 squad Team Tampa and one of Cowart's mentors, taught the touted recruit how to brand himself.
Now, the most sought after high school player relishes the chance to put a quarterback on the ground, and he has recently been seen toting a Chucky doll, a tactic he uses to frighten his opponents.
In reality, though, he's Armwood's own Jekyll and Hyde.
"He always talks about being violent, but he's like a onion. You've got to peel him back," Grady said. "There's something sweet inside"
• • •
Tropicana Field was littered with more than 100 of the best high school football players in the nation during the Jan. 2 Under Armour All-American Game, but most reporters flocked to Cowart upon its conclusion.
"What did you think about No. 67, the right tackle?" one of them asked.
Cowart didn't really need to think about it. Overall, the offensive linemen were good, he admitted. But that didn't change his opinion about them.
"I went in the game not respecting any tackle," Cowart said. "That's the mind-set I have to have."
It's that very attitude that helped Cowart pile up 185 tackles and 29 sacks in four years on the varsity squad. Cowart, who moved to Seffner from Gwinnett County, Ga., as a seventh grader, dabbled in youth football leagues as a child but said he didn't really take it seriously until he began playing at Armwood.
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Explore all your optionsOnce he realized he had potential to play at the next level, Cowart put on 40 pounds — and grew an inch — making his college-ready frame even more attractive to recruiters.
But as far as Cowart is concerned, his size doesn't mean a thing if the attitude isn't there to go with it.
"Sometimes when I'm going against guys that I know, we'll go a play and I'll want to say, 'Good job' and all this stuff," Cowart said. "I have to bite my tongue, because nice Byron wants to come out, but he can't be on the field."
• • •
Try as he might to suppress it, sometimes Cowart's alter ego makes an appearance. In fact, it's that very side of Cowart that gives him a reason to be a fighter in the first place.
The recruiting process has come easy to Cowart, but that hasn't always been the case for his life off the field. For reasons Cowart still doesn't know, his father was sent to prison when he was young. He has only met his father twice, and his absence in Cowart's life — and recent success — still affects him, said Grady, who tries to be the positive influence Cowart's father couldn't be.
"Don't be fooled by Byron. He's big, and sometimes he can come off with bravado," Grady said. "Byron has called me many times and he's crying because he really doesn't know his father."
For as long as Cowart can remember, it has always been just him and his mother, Lacoria Wilson, on their own. When the pair first moved to Florida, they spent nearly all of Cowart's eighth-grade year living in a shelter. Once they got settled in their own place, Wilson, a nurse, often worked two and three jobs, Cowart said.
"Watching her make ends meet, I was like, 'Hey, if she can do it, I can do it on the field,' " Cowart said. "It showed me that I need to try and do something my dad didn't do, make her happy and take care of her."
Cowart realizes that his place in the spotlight gives him an opportunity to spread the kind of positivity he didn't always have growing up. Last summer he used it to bring awareness to Crohn's disease after his girlfriend's nephew, JoJo Ortiz, was diagnosed with it.
Most recently, Cowart met John Shulby and his father at the check-in desk on the second day of Under Armour practice. The three got to talking, and Cowart took off his cleats, signed the tongue and gave them to John, who has Down syndrome.
On the day of the game, after Cowart stepped off the stage with his MVP trophy, the first person he wanted to take a picture with was Shulby.
"He told me he'd be at my first game wherever I commit," Cowart said. "It'll be a lifetime friendship."
• • •
Just like Cowart's personality, the decision awaiting him is complex.
Cowart has been offered by nearly every prominent Division I-A program in the nation. As of two weeks ago, Cowart said, he was still truly undecided between his top three: Florida State, Florida and Auburn. Telling coaches no, and in turn letting them down, Callahan said, is still something Cowart struggles with.
Regardless of where he ends up, Grady is certain of one thing:
"Truthfully, I think Byron will be better in college than he ever was in high school, and I expect Byron to be better in the NFL than he was in college," Grady said. "The bigger the challenge, the more he works."
Because there may be two halves to Cowart, but those halves make one player with a whole lot of potential.
Contact Kelly Parsons at kaparsons@tampabay.com. Follow @_kellyparsons.