COVER 3 – STATE CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION: Three athletes that stood out from the 2024 Class 1A State Championship Game

Our Cover 3 feature on FloridaHSFootball.com will be a complimentary part of our Daily Drive Podcast with Christopher Lyke that begins on January 2, 2025. In this year’s week-long state championship extravaganza at FIU’s Pitbull Stadium, the Class 1A state title game started things off with Chaminade-Madonna giving a dominating performance over the Clearwater Central Catholic Marauders by a score of 42-7. The win by Dameon Jones and the Lions was their fourth straight state title and seventh in the last nine seasons.

Here are three players we felt had a breakout performance in the game itself from Wednesday night’s FHSAA Class 1A State Championship Game:

RB Derrek Cooper – Chaminade-Madonna

When it counted, Cooper was certainly a consistent rusher. His name was called upon 11 times on offense with 10 of them coming on the ground. In the ground game, Cooper found himself picking up a net of 92 total yards. The junior certainly has a bright future for the Lions and one more year to help Chaminade-Madonna gear up for a potential fifth consecutive state championship in 2025.

LB Jaiden Roper – Chaminade-Madonna

If there is any big star on defense, look no further than junior linebacker Jaiden Rope. While the Lions defensive front lines were busy doing their thing, Roper was sweetening the pot with 10 total tackles, two of which came on the CCC side of the scrimmage line. With an entire year ahead of him, the sky’s the limit on what Roper can accomplish. Even when he was not directly involved in the play his presence was felt on the defense.

QB Khayse Barrett – Clearwater Central Catholic

Out of all the players on both teams, the one player who produced the most yardage was Khayse Barrett for the Marauders. In a losing effort, Barrett‘s performance was very notable. Throughout the game, the sophomore showed why he could be one of the toughest players on the gridiron in the Sunshine State for the next two years beyond this season. While he did not have a scoring play, his numbers certainly stood out. On the ground, Barrett ran it 13 times resulting in 123 yards. Through the air, Barrett completed 10 of 18 passes for 98 yards and three interceptions.