New independent football conference launching in South Florida

With the recent merger of the independent Gulf Atlantic Football Conference into the older and well-established Sunshine State Athletic Conference (SSAC), some teams opted not to go for the ride.

Instead they have decided to come together form a new conference that will launch this upcoming season.

Bring in the newly created Florida Independent Football Conference (FIFC).

The new conference will launch with four teams this season that includes Palmer Trinity, Highlands Christian, Hillel and Northwest Christian. All the teams are based in either Miami-Dade or Broward counties.

Palmer Trinity Head Coach Darin DiBello stated, “The mission of the FIFC is to provide a steady scheduling base for its member schools in the South Florida area and, importantly, establish a season-end goal of playoffs to generate enthusiasm for the member football programs.

However, travel issues seem to be one of the biggest reasons for formation of the conference.

Palmer Trinity, Hillel and Northwest Christian were all members of the Gulf Atlantic Conference that was created last season as a way to allow schools to compete with teams on each side of the South Florida coasts. With the recent merger it left too few schools in Miami-Dade to consider joining in with the merged conference of the SSAC.

“The GAFC merger left too few Dade Count teams, required too much travel and was thus untenable,” DiBello said.

Highlands Christian was not a member of the GAFC last season,  but instead was member of District 2A-8, before dropping out for the upcoming season and to join the new conference.

DiBello also said that Palmer Trinity athletic director Jake Von Scherrer will be serving as the acting commission for the FIFC.

And the future for the FIFC is to grow come to the 2015 season, meaning none of the teams will seek to be in a district when it is time to reclassify later this year.

“Several other schools have expressed interest [in the conference] and the FIFC expect to add two to four teams next year,” DiBello said.

All schools are still members of the FHSAA, but are recognized as independents for football.

The Varsity Message Board: Discuss your thoughts on the newly created FIFC here