TAMPA, Fla. - When Dennis Iglesias and his football buddies get together, there’s a lot of trash talk.
Usually that talk centers around football, you know, the glory days.

But when you’re a Leto Falcon there’s not a lot of glory. Not in the traditional sense.

“I’m doing something that some people don’t even want to do,” Iglesias said.

It takes a special player to put on the Leto uniform. Mainly because they don’t win a lot. In fact, they go several seasons without recording a single victory. But they get their W’s in different ways.

“Having heart and never giving up,” senior James Moore said.

Some coaches don’t believe in moral victories. Robert Spann isn’t one of them. Leto’s head coach knows at his school you have to count the wins any way you can.

“I know that where we are now is not where we were when I first got here,” Spann said. “So there are steps that we’ve taken to become better.”

That was never more evident than when the last seconds ticked off the clock in the Falcons final regular season game against Robinson. They found themselves in unfamiliar territory - victory formation.

“It was surreal to see it on the kids faces,” Spann said. “In that moment, they realized the hard work pays off.”

There was a lot of emotions, especially for me because I’ve been there for so long and playing for so long.

This victory was years in the making. Six years to be exact. It was the Falcons first win on the field since 2014.

“We finally got some respect, you know,” Iglesias said.

“Nobody knows what we go through in and out of the week, so it means a lot to us,” Moore said.

Leto measures wins differently. The final score doesn’t always tell the full story. If you were to look at the Falcons results, all those losses, you’d assume the worst. You’d be wrong.

“We have such great young men on this campus,” Spann said. “We’re just trying to get them to realize that they have potential. So we’re just one step closer and we’re just going to keep pushing.”