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Miami-Dade County high school football has its very own version of “A League of their Own” this season. With county powers Northwestern, Central, Booker T. Washington and Columbus, to name a few, having taken over the landscape in terms of domination and stacking rosters with top talent on an annual basis, the likes of Reagan, Goleman Coral Park, Varela and other programs have been left in the dust. Rather than get discouraged, the “little guys” who weren’t so little in terms of school size, went out and did something about it. With Reagan coach John Lopez, assistant coach Jorge Rojas along with the GMAC leading the way, months of contacting other schools to get them on board, along with informing the FHSAA that they would not be participating in the state series when it came to football, eventually led to the berth of the Miami-Dade County Football Conference. All 12 schools will still continue to be very much a part of the GMAC, they simply will not participate in the FHSAA state football playoffs come November. “This gives us a chance to be competitive and to be honest a sense of fairness since the entire county has now kind of become an entire group of either ‘haves’ or ‘have-nots,’ ” said Lopez who is the only coach the Reagan program has ever known, starting it from scratch 12 years ago. “Speaking just for Reagan, being capped out enrollment-wise, we’ve always taken pride in just simply figuring out how to play with whatever comes in the doors. Obviously we weren’t the only ones with this problem. Other schools were in the same boat and that’s when we started to put together the idea of doing something like this.” A total of 12 programs joined up to form the conference that is split into two divisions of six, a south division and a north. Forming the south are Braddock, Coral Park, Sunset, Reagan, Varela and Ferguson. Goleman, Hialeah-Miami Lakes, Mourning, Krop, Hialeah Gardens and Westland Hialeah are in the north. Both out of the gate with 3-0 starts, Goleman and Krop would appear to be the two best teams in this group of a dozen. “Our kids are excited for it, our coaches are excited for it I’m excited for it and our school is excited for it,” said Goleman head coach Ariel Cribiero. “I’d like to think that teams and programs that do it the right way and build with their own kids that this is our way of rewarding those kids. We’re a magnet school, our kids are smart, going to Ivy League schools, not necessarily to play football. We want to give them a great experience and going to this independent league will give them that opportunity.” The set up will be relatively simple. Each team will play the other five in its own division and then four other games against teams from the opposite division for a total of nine games. The 10th game (including a bye week) will be played the final regular season week (Oct. 31-Nov. 2). “We will pair up the two sixth-place teams against each other, then the fifth place and so on up to third place,” Rojas said. “Whoever finishes first and second will qualify for our playoffs on that weekend as well. The two semifinals will be first place from one division playing second from the other division and vice versa.” The two semifinal winners will then meet in the championship game, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 9 at a neutral site, possibly Milander Stadium. “This new conference, it’s not going to be any different in that we’re going to come out with the same attitude every week play football the way we know how to play,” said Reagan senior quarterback Johnny Vega. “It’s a matter of knowing that we have to beat whoever is in front of us. But now we’ll shoot to win the championship in our conference and that’s going to be pretty cool.”

They are the Greeks of Tarpon... you have NO IDEA.

I actually expect this to be a close game tbh Pine Forest no slouch, while I feel Columbia gets the win we definitely won't have a easy battle to get to 4-0

PF is good to an extent, I just don't expect them to make it too deep in the playoffs. A lot of speed on the offensive side of the ball but the qb and offensive line are inconsistent. Defensively they're undersized but a solid group. I expect Columbia to win but I'm hoping Pine Forest at least keeps it close.

There's a small private school in Oviedo, Florida, the Masters Academy. They don't play in FHSAA sanctioned district; they're in what I believe is called the Sunshine Conference, or something like that. The school would be a 1A or 2A school if you based it upon student enrollment. They recruit and do it very well; their team is loaded and could give most Florida schools a run for their money. In their first game this season, they pulled their starters before the end of the first period; the score was 48-0 at the time; final score 62-13. I watched Masters play a pre-season, non-tackle scrimmage with Winter Park, a team with quite a few Division 1 recruits at the skill positions. Masters was every bit as good as WP, if not better. When you say "The reality is that none of them consider themselves recruiting schools. They consider themselves schools with great football programs that people are just naturally attracted to because they are winners or send athletes on to the next level", I can't believe their fans are that naive. They know exactly what's being done; they're just happy they aren't on the receiving end of having talent stripped away. Then, to truly be hypocrites, they'll denounce schools like IMG who admit their actions and goals.

This is exactly what high school football is supposed to be about; playing for your neighborhood school against another neighborhood's high school football team. It's not supposed to be about who can assemble the best all-star team by raiding programs and recruiting their best players. Rather than make a new conference for 30 or so schools that respect school boundaries, why not have the recruiting schools establish their own conference and leave the FHSAA state tournament to the traditional high school football programs? This way the kids would be playing each week against competition that they actually have a chance of beating, and the recruiting programs can play for the national ranking and play the IMGs and St Frances' of the football world.

Didn't Vero only beat AHD 7-3?

I get it. Seen it first hand. All I can say is at least its not as bad here as some programs I know of within a 30 mile radius.

I am going to keep this blunt but I am going to be 100% honest as always and I apologize if this is going to far.... I knew people very close to this situation. Atif a former Tarpon Great RB was fired because the Greek boosters did not want a black head coach.... He was pushed out on some trumped up BS about him allowing a player to practice after suffering a concussion... That player who will remain nameless was the QB but the QB battle was intense.... The other kids parents were out for sabotage once their kid didn't win the spot (or maybe it was the same kid) Either way the QB was told to go on the sideline while the team was practicing and throw the football around.... something a player is not supposed to do after a concussion... When Atif saw it he went to the kid and told him he had to go in the locker room or take a seat. No activity... Too late damage was done. The parents were out there filming the whole thing. Sent that information to the Principle and county AD. Atif was suspended and then fired over some entrapment set up bs.... He has since won a super bowl ring with the Patriots and Tarpon is getting beat 88-0.... You reap what you sew.

Greater Miami Athletic Conference

seriously??

Just trying to give you something to think about haha

Like the kind of train wreck that might lead to an 88-0 beatdown, huh?

Pahokee will not beat a good 1A team running the offense that they are running, sorry 561_Fan, but it isn't going to happen!!!!

Some times it's not up to the schools. I think in Hillsborough County the County AD makes all of those decisions - which is why a school like Leto is still in a district. So, as coaches it's easy to know when it's time to move. But, sometimes those decisions are out of their (or even a school's) control.

I think Madison could beat IMG or any powerhouse. If they had more players.

Chaminade-Madonna has a full schedule. They don't have an open date. Don't fully rely on MaxPreps FWIW.

Has Vero ever beat a team that went on to win the championship that season?