Local teen breaks Gators' championship trophy

By: Preston Rudie

Tampa, Florida -- Plant High School tight end Orson Charles may be known as an outstanding football player, but now he’ll likely be better known as the person who broke the Gator’s 2006 BCS National Championship trophy.

It seems Charles was at the University of Florida this past weekend for a NIKE sponsored camp when he accidentally knocked over the handcrafted Waterford crystal trophy outside of football coach Urban Meyer’s office. Charles, through his high school football coach Robert Weiner, declined to talk about the incident on camera but his coach did tell Tampa Bay’s 10 News that the stand-out prep player felt bad about the whole incident.

A spokesperson for the UF Athletic Department says the school did have 2 of the 2006 trophies. He also says the trophy that was broken was insured and that the Gators have already begun the process of ordering a new one. The trophy has a value of $35,000.

Charles, who has more than a dozen football scholarship offers including one from Florida, will be a senior at Plant next season.