2024 STORYLINES TO FOLLOW: How many defending state champions will be able to repeat?

Only a handful of state champions from the 2023 season will have an outright path to defend their state championships, while others will have to fight off others along the way.

Welcome to the 2024 Florida High School Football season with practices now underway around the state! We will present a plethora of storylines over the coming days that will impact the 2024 season as part of our 2024 Storylines To Follow series and we will update this as we go through the days and weeks leading up to kickoff of the 2024 season!

HOW MANY DEFENDING STATE CHAMPIONS WILL BE ABLE TO REPEAT?

The question is, among the group of defending state champions that are spread out among the eight classifications, which ones could likely repeat?

In all honesty, only three of the nine defending FHSAA State Champions have an outright chance to be able to repeat as state champions in 2024. The other six will have a puncher’s chance of repeating, all in part of how the classifications were assigned back in December.

Columbus (Miami) in Class 7A, Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood) in Class 1A, and Hawthorne in Rural all have clearer paths to outright defending their state championships from the previous season without any other defending state champions standing in the way. Columbus, Chaminade-Madonna, and Hawthorne won the Class 4M, Class 1M, and Class 1R state championships respectively in 2023.

St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale), Lakeland, and Mainland (Daytona Beach), who won the Class 3M, 4S, and 3S state championships last season respectively, will all be among a crowded field of what could be a very strong Class 5A classification. The same situation will apply to three teams in Berkeley Prep (Tampa), Cocoa, and Cardinal Mooney (Sarasota), who are the defending Class 2M, 2S, and 1S state champions, respectively. All three of these programs will have to fight their way to defending their state championship in Class 2A.

For The Master’s Academy (Oviedo) and Mount Dora Christian, their paths to defending their SSAA State Championship and SSAA 5A State Championship will become clearer depending upon the SSAA playoff rankings during the season come October.

As for the defending SSAA 8-Man state champion in Shorecrest Prep (St. Petersburg), they are considered by many to potentially repeat as state champions and do so with a great advantage.

Overall, get ready to see some new state champions crowned in 2024.

MORE IN THE 2024 STORYLINES TO FOLLOW SERIES

• New classifications will set tone

• How many defending state champions will be able to repeat?

• SSAA moves to 10-game schedule

• FHSAA playoff power rankings will shift more toward MaxPreps rankings

• Rural classification taking on new playoff format in test

• Where are the FHSAA State Championships going to be played at?