Leaderboard

The 2018 Florida High School Football has come to an end this past weekend and with it we've crowned a repeat champion. Congrats are in order for Chaminade-Madonna for not only playing the most difficult schedule in the classification but for one of the most dominant post-season runs for all classifications. For the second year in a row the Lions only gave up 3 points in the south end of the 3A bracket and only gave up 13 points total in all of the 3A playoffs. While the trophy and the accolades go to the Lions there was actually some really good football played in the classification as a whole. Here is my final Class 3A rankings now that the finals are behind us: 1) Hollywood Chaminade Madonna (11-2): The Lions repeat as champions thanks in part to a very strong senior class. 9 of the 11 starters in the secondary hold multiple power 5 offers and the offense continued its relentless assault in the state championship game putting up 38 points. By the time national signing day rolls around the Lions could have as many as 20 of their 23 seniors sign to play college football somewhere in the country, even if it's not at the power 5 level. Looking into 2019, the Lions are once again stocked with talent: DB/WR Dedrick Stanley II, RB Thadius Franklin, WR/DB Ronny Boudreu, WR Jordan Cash, OL/DL Willie Moise, OL/DL Joseph Habinowski, WR/S Elijah Cannon, WR/DBJosh Jenkins, DE Jamal Johnson all hold power 5 offers or are committed to a power 5 school. 2) Clearwater Central Catholic (12-1): For the 2nd year in a row the Marauders only loss came to Chaminade-Madonna. Outside of the two losses to the Lions, the Marauders have taken their program to the next level to the tune of a 44-5 record since 2015. While the Marauders graduate QB Rory Hicks, WR JerJuan Newton WR Brett Seither, DT Kennedy Roberts the Marauders are probably in the best position of any 3A team going into 2019 due to the amount of depth they are returning including their entire offensive line and 8 out of 11 on defense. CCC also returns numerous college prospects highlighted by RB/DT Jerzhan Newton, WR/DB/RB Makkah Jordan, LB/RB Melvin Jordan, WR/CB Giacarlo Margareho, WR/CB Brandon Kennedy, OL/DL Kayson Romalle, Ol/DL Isaiah Edwards and LB Harrison Thomas. 3) West Palm Beach King's Academy (11-2): The Lions of King's Academy were a trendy top 5 pick early in the season, but after an exciting regular season and a tremendous playoff run they are a top 3 team in 3A to me. The Lions deserve credit for being the only team in 3A score a TD on Chaminade's defense and are a very well coached team. Expect to see quite a few of the Lions players on the all-state team including Qb Justin Wake. Looking into the future, King's could make another run in 2019. While they lose some big time seniors, they have some strong leadership coming back with Issac Scroggins, Presley Almond, Jayvon Wynn and a few stout linemen also returning. 4) American Heritage Delray (9-4): The Stallions return to powerhouse status is well on its way thanks in part to a strong 2018 campaign. The Stallions had some big time wins early in the year against Belen Jesuit, Monsignor Pace and Pensacola Catholic. The losses to University School and Glades Central were expected, but the loss to Bishop Verot still confuses me. The Stallions will be hit hard due to graduation going into 2019 particularly with the graduation of DE Mike Morris, Dallis Small and a few others; however, the Stallions return a fair bit as well going into 2019 including QB Zach Bohannon, Jamal Potts and Hayden Griers. 5) Florida High School (8-4): The Seminoles were the early season favorite to get to Orlando and came within 2 points of achieving that goal. The Seminoles were one of the teams impacted by hurricane Michael midway through the season, but despite coming up short the season was still capped with a second consecutive regional championship. The Seminoles should be good going into 2019. Like most other 3A programs, they lose a fair amount to graduation but have enough to be a playoff worthy team going into 2019 behind Willie Taggart Jr and a host of other talented play makers. If I were rounding out a top 10, this is how it would look: 6) Tampa Berkeley Prep- Regional Final run for the Bucs. Josh Youngblood lived up to the hype. Good team coming back in 2019. 7) Orlando First Academy- Regional Final run coming up short 1 point. Strong season for the Royals. 8) Pensacola Catholic- All eyes will be on the Crusaders who, if they stay in 3A, will be a top 5 team in many individuals eyes. 9) Baldwin- Excellent season for the Indians. Likely moving to 1A. 10) Tampa Catholic- Crusaders bring a lot back in 2019. Will they be 3A or 4A? --------------- With the season done questions have already risen about 2019. The truth is I cannot project 2019 since we do not even know who will be and will not be in class 3A next year. I will respond to a few questions I've received though 1) Will Jacksonville Trinity Christian return to 3A? JaxTCA won 4 championships in a row in 3A before moving to 5A. JaxTCA moved to 5A since they could not fill a 10 game schedule in 3A without significant travel. In 5A they are placed in a district which automatically gave them 5 games. JaxTCA may not have won a state championship in 5A (yet), but they've consistently been a top ranked program in 5A. JaxTCA could return to 3A, but they will run into the same problem they had 2 years ago. Who will play them to fill a 10 game schedule. My guess? They remain in 5A got now. 2) Will Chaminade move to 4A or 5A? Chaminade-Madonna has now been to 3 consecutive state championships and won 2 in a row. Many, many individuals are calling for them to move to 4A to face more competition. In reality, I see them remaining in 3A. Unlike Jacksonville Trinity who moved up due to not being able to fill a 10 game schedule- Chaminade can fill a 10 game schedule and remain in 3A if they choose, but their schedule will be ugly. It would probably end up being a schedule that looks like Miami Central, AH-P, Deerfield, Booker T, Miramar, Columbus and other powerhouses. Chaminade is graduating 23 seniors off of a 44 player varsity roster. Depending on who you believe, everybody in Miami is pounding the doors down to transfer to Chaminade. Just spending 5 minutes on twitter and the rumor mill is going crazy. My guess? Chaminade remains in 3A. There's no value in them moving to 4A since it doesn't solve the scheduling issue, thus they would need to move to 5A for some relief. I do not think the 2019 version of Chaminade, even with transfers and what they have returning, would be a great 5A team, they would just be another team in the mix. The reality though is that AH-D, the only team capable of competing with Chaminade in region 4-3A is likely to be in 4A next year thus Chaminade would not face any resistance what-so-ever until the state semi finals. 3) Who will and will not remain in 3A? No clue! We have no idea where the new cutoffs will be and we won't know until 12/21. My guesses? Baldwin, Taylor County, Ft. White move to 1A and a few of the lesser successful private schools in region 4 elect to go independent. Pensacola Catholic might be forced to move to 5A if that happens because their closest 3A region team would be Florida High in Tallahassee. Tampa Catholic and American Heritage are 4A schools based on the current cutoffs and I'm thinking will be 4A schools in 2019/2020, but if all the public schools go to 1A as reported by BigBendPreps the FHSAA will need to drastically alter the cutoffs for 3A due to lack of teams. The current cutoff is 291-680. I do NOT have the student population reports for 2018, but my best guesstimate would be cutoffs of 330-745ish as the cutoffs for 2019/2020. That would likely keep Tampa Catholic in 3A as the biggest 3A team, but American Heritage in 4A. I'll post on this thread again when tentative classifications are released!

Central has had a 7A population for at least 4 years. When the last re-class numbers came out they were projected to go but due to how the districts were estimated to be setup "8 or 9 teams" they stayed in 6A. I believe the basketball team plays in 7A.

If the FHSAA was smart, which from recent actions shows that they are not. They would put Carol City in 5A which they should be based on population, keep Miami Northwestern in 6A, and move Miami Central to 7 or 8A. if all 3 or at least 2 make it their attendance would go through the roof, because they will all go to support each other. As bitter rivals we all are, one thing is for certain we support each other...As crazy as that may sound. At least 150 MC fans went to Orlando this weekend. That's probably more than Armwood had. It's a shame that you have those 3 teams in the same district. But if you split them up a few folks may not be happy with that. That would only reduce a few other teams chances of getting to state where cakewalks have been as of late.

Does Central have 7A or 8A population stats? If so, then I totally agree with you. St Thomas and/or the 8A South teams would have their hands full.

4 John Wilkinson beat Corky Rogers in 2016 state title game which was his final game as coach of Bolles

Excellent job! It was been a pleasure reading your posts the entire season!!

#19 Pahokee

She actually hit 1st (as seen in video below) but it does not matter who hit who 1st... Men need to learn to walk away unless your life is in danger... and not mix these situations with alcohol either. he was in the wrong and there is no other way to slice that... HE SHOULD NOT HAVE DID THAT. With that said I think the kid made a very bad decision that has cost him a lot in his life... I also think people can change and be remorseful and rehabilitate and become upstanding citizens.

I wish someone would do a where are they now on this.

I remember back in the 00's when Madison would beat a D1 laden tallahassee Lincoln (5A or whatever the highest class was) and go to GA and beat Valdosta the next.... Now Madison a program and a coach I still highly respect basically are men playing against boys in 1A.

#9. c. Bradenton Southeast

Answer #2 is e. Cocoa I did the quiz before the title game and obviously this is no longer true now. Who wudda thunk Cocoa would become a passing team! Cocoa HS State Title Game Stats 2017 91 yds rush/62 yds pass(4completions/13attempts) LOSS 2016 425 yds rush/0 yds pass(0/1) WON 2010 131 yds rush/22 yds pass(1/1) WON 2009 316 yds rush/37 yds pass(4/4) WON 2008 115 yds rush/37 yds pass(3/14) WON TOTAL 1088 yds rush/158 yds pass

A classic.....(short promo of "Year of the Bull")

All right, thank you. I enjoyed that game very much although Jeff Carlson still hasn't gotten any better as a color man. The play-by -play announcer said that the games could be streamed for free for Spectrum customers, which I had no idea about. Lakeland really outplayed STA in that game, and I was glad to see them complete an undefeated season, and win the 7A title.

Columbiahighfan, thank you very much for posting this! Are all of the state title games available on youtube? Thank you again.

In 95 Northwestern started out 0-3. They lost to Miami High, Southridge, and Carol City. They never lost after that. NW was led by Nate Webster that year on defense.

#11. g Fort Meade

Why the #!#@ is the defense not working!!!!

A certain Blue and White team not named Armwood spoiled that celebration one cool, foggy December night a long time ago!

Then the FHSAA is a toothless Tiger. If that is truly the case, then the Florida Legislature should edit their legislation to allow transfers for academic reasons only if that is not already in the bill. Schools would then be forced to adhere to the rules of the legislation. Otherwise, if things continue as is, HS football will become nothing more than a recruiting tool that colleges have become. Colleges could now care less what a HS football player's academic ability is. I would imagine it's becoming the same in HS where the administrations could care less what a football player's academic ability is. A sad day in this country where playing with a piece of pigskin is more important than what is produced in the classroom.

Of course alot of these type examples depend on the circumstances, but in 1985 Manatee had to win the District championship via a 3-way Monday night Kansas City tie breaker at the Ram Bowl. Manatee won it and pretty much breezed to the state title.....(if memory serves me right I think Brandon HS had a helluva team that year in Hillsborough county, and played to the semi-finals) but my point with this was that both Sarasota or Riverview could have played for a state title that year all 3 teams were just that good....but back then only one team made it out of each district and Manatee was fortunate to win the tie breaker that Monday night in the Ram Bowl.

Back in the day, just making the playoffs was a big deal and most teams only pulled that off once in a while. Now we have some teams expecting to compete for a title every year and folks consider it an off year if they don't. Expectations are completely unrealistic and driving a lot of the behavior we see on many fronts today.

Scheduling does nothing to prepare a team for a mismatch of that magnitude. I guess if all those guys who got knocked out by Mike Tyson would not have gotten knocked out if they had only fought tougher bouts before meeting Tyson.

Even if they play a tougher schedule They just don’t match up. Schools like Baker need the stars and the moon to allign to have a chance. Madison was too good this year for anyone in 1A to give them a good game.

The catch is that any student at the charter school who don't play is off the count So it's easy to game the system (they kinda clever I wish we could do that)

But you can't compare Baker High School in Okaloosa County to Chaminade in South Florida. Baker is a public school and even if kids wanted to go there are transfer there simply aren't that many. Chaminade is in the fertile grounds of megalopolis South Florida. They probably start recruiting from the little leagues when the kids are about 10.

We really need at different system in place if one school has a disproportionate amount of students over another and they're in the same quote unquote class. I checked last year's numbers however in the schools were within a hundred students of each other give or take. That said I didn't know about the charter school thing so if they are opening their football team up to another several hundred kids in a charter school that is completely unfair because it's like doubling the size of the school.

terrible system. 1A should have been at a neutral panhandle field. Tally Lincoln would have worked good as a site

3 is Bartow who in 1996 knocked off number 1 nationally ranked Bolles at state

The answer to 2 is definitely e.Cocoa