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Well this just helped with the pick'ems for this week.

I re-watched that game last night. That was quite a game. May see if I can get it uploaded to YouTube tonight.

Venice vs Palmetto! Huge Matchup with the district title on the line!

Which game(s) has you excited? South Florida (8 games) Carol City(8-0) @ Central(8-1) 6AD16 matchup to decide the district champion. Central has won 8 of the past 10 meetings, including a 26-13 win last season. Coral Gables(5-3) @ Columbus(7-1) 8AD14 matchup that will decide the district champion. Columbus has won 14 of the last 19 meetings, including a 21-7 win last season. South Dade(7-1) @ Southridge(6-2) 8AD16 matchup. South Dade has won 11 of the past 17 meetings, including a 14-7 win last season. North Miami(5-3) @ Hialeah(7-1) 8AD13 matchup to decide the district champion. N Miami has won 5 of the last 9 meetings, including a 19-6 win last season. Western(7-1) @ Miramar(4-3) 8AD12 matchup. Miramar has won 8 of the last 9 meetings, including a 27-25 win last year. Western won 7-6 the previous year. 4ACocoa(6-2) @ 1APahokee(5-4) There is a history of interesting matchups between Brevard County and the Muck. Cocoa won 45-0 last season at home. Barron Collier(7-1) @ Naples(7-1) 6AD12 matchup to decide the district champion. "The Crosstown Showdown" rivalry game. Naples has won the last 19 games, including a 16-15 win last season. Charlotte(7-1) @ Port Charlotte(6-2) 6AD10 matchup. Charlotte has won the past 5 meetings. The last 2 games have been decided by less than a TD. Central Florida (7 games) Apopka(6-2) @ Wekiva(7-1) 8AD4 matchup. These teams have met 11 times. Wekiva has won only once...last year, 22-14. George Jenkins(6-2) @ Osceola(7-1) 8AD7 matchup to decide the district champion. Osceola has won the past 3 meetings in dominating fashion. Lakeland(9-0) @ Kathleen(5-3) 7AD7 matchup to decide the district champion. Rivalry game. Lakeland has won 23 of the past 25 games, including a 10-3 win last year. Kathleen won 14-7 the previous year. 7 of those 14 games were decided by 7 points or less. Tampa Bay Tech(7-1) @ Plant City(8-1) 7AD9 matchup. TBT has won 6 of the past 8 meetings, including a 62-21 win last season. Hardee(8-0) @ Desoto County(6-2) 5AD11 matchup. These two have split their last 4 meetings. Hardee won 34-0 last season. Rivalry game (Walter F Buck Carlton Trophy) Clearwater Central Catholic(9-0) @ Cardinal Mooney(8-0) 3AR3 matchup. CCC has won the last 8 meetings, including a 24-3 win last season. Venice(7-1) @ Palmetto(6-2) 7AD11 matchup. Venice has won the past 6 meetings, including a 42-16 win last season. North Florida (5 games) Buchholz(6-2) @ Bartram Trail(5-3) 7AD3 matchup. Buchholz has won 3 of the last 5 meetings. BT won last year 53-21. Lee(6-1) @ Fletcher(6-2) 7AD2 matchup. Lee has won the last 3 meetings, including a 20-6 win last season. Flagler Palm Coast(7-2) @ Mandardin(5-3) 8AD1 matchup. FPC has won 4 of the past 7 meetings, including a 24-17 2OT win last season. 4ARaines(7-1) @ 7ALincoln(6-2) Raines won 49-24 at home last season. Gulf Breeze(7-1) @ Navarre(6-1) 6AD2 matchup that will decide the district champion. Navarre has won 10 of the last 11 games, but the last 2 have been decided by one TD or less. Gulf Breeze won in 2016. Rivalry game(Public Peach Bowl Cup) Niceville(7-1) @ Crestview(6-2) 6AD3matchup and Okaloosa County rivalry game that will decide the district champion. Crestview has won 3 of the last 5 games, including a 35-18 win last season. Niceville won 30 in a row prior to that.

That has been for the district championship in 6A-3 the last few years...even when both were in 7A-1 in 2013 and 2014, this game always has had playoff implications on it. Here it is again.

As long as expectations at Apopka were high and the game was scheduled on a Friday and not a Thursday, 350 or more would make the trip from Apopka. Why do I state this? Based on experience. This year, at least 400 made the trip from Apopka to Bartram Trail for that game. Columbia would be regarded at least as highly as BT by the Apopka fan base. Plus, in 2012, 2013 and 2014 when Apopka traveled to Jacksonville to play Fletcher and First Coast in the playoffs, conservatively at least 750 Apopka fans (probably more) showed for each of those three games. The point is that Apopka travels well when it faces good competition provided expectations are high for the team.

VB back was James Stewart, C/O ‘91

I stumbled across a BullDawg magazine from the summer Herschel would have been a incoming freshman, where I worked going through some old records. What blew me away as I read an article that was playing up the arrival of Herschel as well as going over the starters for both offense and defense, was Herschel's size compared to the starting UGA offensive line.....to a man they were only 15- 20 lbs heavier than Herschel.......................keep in mind he also ran on the UGA track team later that year and I want to say ran anchor for the 4X100 team, in addition to running 100m........for man his size he was way more than a freak of nature! The game later that year against South Carolina saw George Rogers carry the ball over 40 times and I want to say Walker carried it over 30 times as well...............both were men among boys at the college level that year...............Rodgers again going on memory may have won the Heisman that year too! There was a big back at Vero Beach..(cant remember his name) I want to say 89 that went onto play at Miami.....had a lot of speed..the night I saw him was in the playoffs against Manatee but Manatee beat them like a drum with Chris Bilkie and Kevin Freeman...(both went onto play at Florida) running through and around the Vero Beach defense that night like it was swiss cheese......also how about Sammie Smith.....another big back with speed

Palmetto is a dangerous team, and don't think Marino hasn't had this one penciled in since the loss to Braden River. I don't know if you recall or not, but Palmetto was inside the Braden River 10 with a minute or so to go. Marino elceted to go for the win rather then the FG which would have sent it to OT on 4th down but came up short and subsequently lost the game because of it. To me they played the better game, just came up short on the scoreboard..............Palmetto had taken the lead with about 3 minutes left, but Braden River took the Kickoff back for a TD to give the lead back to Braden River......putting them in position at the end to tie or go for the win at the end of regulation. Manatee has a very good team, they just don't seem capable of putting a 48 minute complete game together.......has hurt them in each of the games they've lost. If they get some breaks which would keep them emotionally in the game for the entire game.......it could be huge...compound that with points for Manatee for a playoff position potentially being vitally important.....who knows what could happen? I see Palmetto as being in a great position to get a win against Venice.........Manatee is maybe a bit more of a stretch, but they're certainly capable of giving this Venice team all it can handle.

Teams from the Tampa area are strange when they play team from Venice. 2014 Hillsborough playoff team came to Venice with athletes and D1 guys all over and failed to win. It was a strange game and Venice squeaked one out if I remember . 35-29 Armwood then came and finished Venice off that year. 2016 East Lake again players at most positions were supposed to be better. 3-4 star guys vs 0 star guys. Venice handled them 43-14 Went to STA that year and got handled. 2017 St Pete came into Venice with D1 guys again. UF commit. Rb that was very good. Venice with more experience finished that game 49-13 TBT came to Venice with Pennix and WR who were D1 guys and somehow our lonely unathletic defense stopped them. Pennix I saw got to play on Saturday for IU at QB. Final 48-17 The common factor in all of these wins is.....Home Field for Venice. Remember the STA game was at Home as well. Venice needs to win both of the remaining 2 games and get some magic if they will make a run.

At 2,600 students, that's clearly 8A.

Bartram is up over 2600 students. Talked to my buddy who lives over there. Said he thinks they should be on border of going up@ColumbiaHighFan2017class

If bartram has grown enough to get moved up to 8a then i really hope to see them in playoffs this year, that way we can end their final season in 7a with a playoff exit and take the rubber match in our playoff series that started back in 2011

McTear ran the 9.0 Friday night at Showwalter Field in Winter Park. Saturday night Mainland's James Brown won the big school championship in an also blistering 9.2 seconds. James also doubled up as the long jump champ in both '74, '75. Won 100 in '74 too. Went to Ivy League (U of Pennsylvania) on basketball and track scholarship. Those 1975 100 yd times have always been a question mark. The timing equipment has drawn the most skepticism.

Yeah in the kickoff classic If we counting those then we have to count the beatdown img took in kickoff classic this year to a North Florida 7a public school And Carol City is a lot better this year than last year as a team, not to mention img was better last year than this year

Kathleen's 5-3 record is very misleading. They are literally 2 plays away from being 3-5 They lost 35-0 to Vanguard and 26-0 to Sebring, both games at home. Sure they will be jacked up playing their cross-town foe but Lakeland is 5 TD's better than them, and that may be generous only because of the rival factor.

So its been 11 years since a Sarasota County team has beaten Venice. 2007 Booker was the last team to do it. It has been 6 straight wins vs Palmetto. Last time Venice beat Manatee 3 times in a row you have to go back to 2007-08-09. Which has kids like Dri Archer Trey and Clay Burton on them. My point is after all of the success Venice has had it could be easy to stub your toe in these last 2 games. That Palmetto game away would be the one that matters most. Win and you are in a top 4 for playoffs. Lose and you now play the points game for playoff berth. That Manatee team is so up and down its hard to tell. They have the players to get wins. It just hasn't been the Manatee of old. In the end Venice should win both games. But any given Friday night with teenagers and social media that could change. Stay focused to the game plan and win by 1 or 50 still equally a W

Polls and rankings can be distracting and misleading. Lots of rankings go off what a select group of coaches/writers think and often miss many less known teams that are a level above teams ranked higher. Just cause someone thinks a team is number 1 doesn't mean they are. The only poll that really matters is the one at the end of the season when the championship is played. A Class 8A Champion doesn't always mean they are better than a Class 5A champion. I've seen some special 1A teams that could give 8A teams fits and win many of the games they played. Off hand Pahokee and Madison County come to mind. Don't believe it, just look at their past history's. justsayin...

100th meeting coming up between Hardee and Desoto. Hardee leads series 59-35-5. Not counted was a game in 1909. Hardee comes in with an 8-0 record. Desoto is 6-2. 1. 1921- DeSoto County 6-0 2. 1922- DeSoto County 14-9 3. 1923- DeSoto County 9-6 4. 1923- DeSoto County 14-0 5. 1924- Hardee 20-0 6. 1924- DeSoto County 20-0 7. 1925- Hardee 10-3 8. 1926- Hardee 20-0 9. 1927- Hardee 7-0 10. 1928- DeSoto County 18-0 11. 1929- DeSoto County 12-6 12. 1930- Hardee 13-12 13. 1931- Hardee 13-6 14. 1932- Hardee 18-0 15. 1933- Hardee 40-0 16. 1934- Hardee 13-0 17. 1935- Hardee 20-0 18. 1936- Hardee 13-0 19. 1937- Hardee 6-0 20. 1938- Tie 0-0 21. 1939- Hardee 18-7 22. 1940- DeSoto County 13-0 23. 1941- Hardee 18-6 24. 1942- DeSoto County 7-0 25. 1943- DeSoto County 6-0 26. 1944- Tie 7-7 27. 1945- DeSoto County 19-18 28. 1946- Hardee 20-0 29. 1947- DeSoto County 25-14 30. 1948- DeSoto County 33-8 31. 1949- DeSoto County 6-0 32. 1950- Hardee 20-19 33. 1951- Hardee 27-19 34. 1952- Hardee 19-7 35. 1953- Hardee 53-0 36. 1954- DeSoto County 27-0 37. 1955- Hardee 15-0 38. 1956- Hardee 19-0 39. 1957- DeSoto County 7-6 40. 1958- Hardee 40-0 41. 1959- Hardee 35-13 42. 1960- Hardee 40-14 43. 1961- Hardee 33-20 44. 1962- DeSoto County 13-6 45. 1963- DeSoto County 20-6 46. 1964- Tie 14-14 47. 1965- Hardee 41-0 48. 1966- DeSoto County 26-7 49. 1967- Tie 27-27 50. 1968- Hardee 20-13 51. 1969- Hardee 40-20 52. 1970- DeSoto County 14-0 53. 1971- DeSoto County 40-13 54. 1972- DeSoto County 47-7 55. 1973- DeSoto County 40-0 56. 1974- Tie 13-13 57. 1975- Hardee 27-7 58. 1976- Hardee 21-7 59. 1977- Hardee 15-6 60. 1978- Hardee 6-0 61. 1979- Hardee 14-6 62. 1980- Hardee 21-14 63. 1981- Hardee 40-6 64. 1982- Hardee 14-0 65. 1983- Hardee 21-7 66. 1984- Hardee 14-7 67. 1985- DeSoto County 21-17 68. 1986- Hardee 20-0 69. 1987- DeSoto County 28-24 70. 1988- DeSoto County 21-7 71. 1989- DeSoto County 34-28 72. 1990- DeSoto County 14-7 73. 1991- DeSoto County35-15 74. 1992- DeSoto County 16-12 75. 1993- Hardee 14-6 76. 1994- Hardee 14-0 77. 1995- Hardee 60-6 78. 1996- Hardee 42-20 79. 1997- Hardee 47-28 80. 1998- DeSoto County 20-14 81. 1999- Hardee 54-6 82. 2000- Hardee 41-0 83. 2001- Hardee 56-21 84. 2002- Hardee 40-21 85. 2003- Hardee 50-0 86. 2004- Hardee 19-7 87. 2005- Hardee 16-12 88. 2006- Hardee 10-7 89. 2007- DeSoto County 17-0 90. 2008- DeSoto County 21-20 91. 2009- Hardee 28-6 92. 2010- Hardee 14-12 93. 2011- Hardee 42-6 94. 2012- Hardee 21-13 95. 2013- Hardee 26-7 96. 2014- DeSoto County 23-18 97. 2015- DeSoto County 17-14 98. 2016- Hardee 34-3 99. 2017- Hardee 34-0

1923 Arcadia Bulldogs

1909 Wauchula Wildcats