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A journey that began in late 1998, a year before Rick Darlington became head coach, ends tonight. I will attend the Apopka vs Wekiva game at Wekiva this evening with a somewhat heavy but also happy heart. Heavy because, a chapter of my life that's lasted 26 years is about to end. Happy because despite a very bad season this year, I have been blessed to be a fan of a team that made the playoffs 24 consecutive years and in that time period won three state titles from seven tries. While there are teams that have done better over that period, I can honestly say that it gratifies me that my beloved Blue Darters did it the right way. If we win tonight and make the playoffs I shall not attend if we draw Venice. I can't bring myself to make the long drive for a game that we would have, at best, a 5% chance of winning. If we make the playoffs and draw a Tampa Bay area team, most likely Plant City, I will attend game one of the playoffs as the commute would be significantly shorter and Apopka, while it would be an underdog, would at least have better odds of winning. In my humble opinion, the school's brain trust (coaches and administration) need to take a hard look at this season. For I believe that for the future success of the program some bold, hard decisions will need to be made. Regardless, I will always have a special place in my heart for the Apopka football program and though I will be far away, I will watch my fair share of games online from a distance. Go Darters, so long and fare well!!

IMG openly recruits on a national level and is fine playing a national schedule with no interest in the FHSAA playoffs. The same cannot be said about the First Academy as they want to openly recruit, play a national schedule but also desperately want a state championship in the FHSAA. Their appeal to lift the suspension for this season was just rejected by the FHSAA board 10-0 which I applaud them for. A Christian school that cloaks itself in righteousness and virtue should not be rewarded for cheating to win.

Is it a brand new field? Or did they come up to Hillsborough County, find a field they liked, and convince that field to move down to Venice for a season or two?

I'm not a journalist and won't pretend to be. However, it occurred to me just this morning that Friday's 5A semifinal matchups are a snapshot of what took place 19 years ago. Four teams were on a collision course back in 2005, and those same teams are set to square off in 36 hours; St. Thomas Aquinas at Manatee, Niceville at Lakeland. If you believe in the effects of planet alignment, then these games are not to be missed. Lakeland, Manatee, Niceville and St. Thomas Aquinas combine for 30 state titles. Considering that approximately 128 schools have AT LEAST one title to their name, that's highly impressive! When it's all said and done, one of these teams will add one more title to their school's war mantle. On the Line STA - Unprecedented 6th title in a row. No other school has accomplished this feat and if the Raiders go the distance, they will truly stand on an island all to themselves for the already storied program. Manatee - Return to glory and a chance to halt the Raider's potentially record setting season. Niceville - The Eagles have a chance to dethrone two-time champion on the road but will have to do so in a hostile environment. Lakeland fans never forgot and you will be welcomed with the same atmosphere we were treated to in 2005. Lakeland - A chance to extend the Naughts' winning streak and chance at another 3-peat against the Raiders or long overdue redemption against the Hurricanes. This is probably the first time this season where I've been truly excited. Good luck to all the programs tomorrow and travel safely!

For those interested in data, here are some numbers to consider: 460 teams played under the FHSAA umbrella this year. 240 (52%) teams qualified for the state playoff series. That seems like a lot. My view is that if you didn't make the playoffs, look in the mirror first before blaming others. Here is the breakdown of quarterfinal games across classes 1A-7A: #1 seed vs. #8: 28-0 #2 seed vs. #7: 25-3 #3 seed vs. #6: 21-7 #4 seed vs. #5: 18-10 higher seed vs. lower seed: overall 92-20; about what you expect. This suggests that the seeding system is fairly accurate, especially not giving a top 4 seed and home game automatically to district winners. You don't deserve an automatic top 4 seed by winning a piddly 3- or 4-team district. It would be a different story if districts had 7 or more teams. Comparing this year's quarterfinals under the enrollment-based classes vs. last year's Metro-Suburban classes, the median (half higher/half lower) margin of victory in both years across all quarterfinal games was 26 points. In 2023, 30% of the quarterfinal games had a running clock, whereas the total was 34% in 2024. It will be interesting to see if the remaining games are more or less competitive than last year. On to the region semifinals...

It's just been announced that TFA and Miami Central will play each other in the In-Ella-Ja Bowl.

I am working on compiling schedules as we speak. I am using multiple resources (everything from Team Twitter accounts to even Hudl -- believe it or not I am finding full schedules there). I have some help in getting them compiled in to a master spreadsheet. I hope to get these posted quickly as possible.

I retired over 5 years ago. So, while I have worked on projects since then, I have been gloriously idle most of the time after having worked since I was thirteen as for me adulthood started in the small family business my mom ran in Jamaica. I am moving to Panama for the final chapters of my life. It reminds me of the Jamaica I lived in as a little boy before the island got dangerous in the mid to late 1970s. Sadly, I see some of the same flashing red lights here that I observed during my teenage years in Jamaica in the 1970s. As a retiree, I want to live out my final years in relative peace and quiet. I have never been a huge political guy though I have fairly strong opinions. I have not because I ultimately don't think that most politicians have the best interest of the electorate at heart anymore than CEOs of large corporations have the best interests of those that use their products or services do. Now in the case of CEOs, they don't represent us, so there's no particular fiduciary duty on their part aside from not selling us harmful products or services without fair warning that using them in the wrong way may be hazardous. In the case of politicians there is a fiduciary duty to at least, as far as is possible, reflect the will of those that put them in power. When the latter is not so, things tend to fall apart. I will have spent 41 years and 7 months in the USA before I depart. So, it will more likely than not represent the county where I have spent the greater part of my life. In my time here, I have found that I have been treated fairly by the great majority of those that I worked with, as well as those that I had personal relationships with. While I was not native born, I can say that this county has been an integral part of who I am as a person. I will miss all of the friends and acquaintances I have made over the 26 seasons I have been an avid high school football fan.

Facts. For example. When I was coming up all I knew was Dillard. My entire mother side went to Dillard. When I got to high school I went to Dillard, played for Dillard, graduated from Dillard. since I started in my first game for Dillard in 07 I have not missed a game home or away since then. So for the last 17 years. Every Friday night, Saturday night, or on rare occasions mon or Thursday nights I’ve been blessed there. Working 40+ hour work weeks, taking care of my grandmother whose in her last stage of Alzheimer’s, taking care of my son who was autistic. wether it was walking, catching the city bus, the train (when we played Boynton in Boynton back in 2016), or catching a ride (when we played pahokee in pahokee on a Monday night). I’ve been blessed to be able to make it to every game. and that’s because I love my my school through & through. Bad years & good years. I bleed blue & gray like a crazed maniac lol, and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Just a quick scan this is what I got for week1. It’s gonna be a monster. Any other recommendations and explanations why? Monarch vs Bolles Southridge vs Columbus Bishop Verot vs Jesuit Tampa Bay Tech vs Venice Lake Mary vs Norland Vero Beach vs Eau Gallie Miami Central vs Raines First Academy vs Milton,GA AHP vs St Joes Philly STA vs Mater Dei,MD MNW vs Orange Lutheran,CA Chaminade vs St Frances Academy,MD

I miss the Sunshine Network

Not mentioned, but probably highly relevant, is the impact of Miami Central- who won every single game other than Lakeland on the field- having their record flipped to 0-9. Lakeland, understandably, was WAY head of everyone else in 5A BEFORE the reversal of Central's record. Then they were barely ahead going into the playoffs and now it is what it is. Secretive formulas/processes should be presumed fraudulent. If they're not fraudulent, the FHSAA could simply reveal all of the details etc.

WHO DAT??? .....TAEVION SWINT!!! Just got home, but if you were a neutral spectator in the stands tonight scouting these two excellent backs I think it was pretty clear who was the dominant one. Our rallying cry this time of year is "ONE MORE MONDAY" and we achieved that goal. Finally, a big shout out to OHS Vargas as a finalist in the pick ems, as not only our kids believed but he did too. The rest of this great group of pickers all struck out. Those calling this an "UPSET" must of not seen the same game I did tonight. Yes, Armwood is terrific and has playmakers all over the field throwing the ball, running the ball and making catches. Unfortunately, lots of people forget that one of the winning formulas lies in the trenches and we pounded these folks into submission; it was a slow physical beatdown as this didn't come out of thin air but what I heard many Armwood fans saying after the game. So please, don't act like it was a fluke because all the pundits have not ranked us properly. GO KOWBOYS!!

Could simply be a due process issue . . . i.e., if the matter just now came to the attention of the FHSAA, they would have to give the school notice, the school would have to be given time to investigate (I'll write more about that process later) and respond, appropriate board might have to meet, possible appeals, etc. While I'm generally not in favor of allowing "guilty" teams to participate in the playoffs, I also understand the general presumption of "innocent until proven guilty" and realize it would be tremendously unfair to punish a team for their presumptive transgressions and make them miss the playoffs only to have the school go through the process and not be deserving of punishment.

Boy, do we need more fans like you. Good luck to you in the next chapter in your life and hope along the way our paths will cross again; I still owe you that beer. As I have previously told you, my wife and I are currently looking at options for relocation which will end my involvement with Kowboy Athletics over the past 60+ years as a player, coach and fan. I as well will certainly follow them from a distance, just won't be as plugged in as I am now. The world keeps turning.

Hey everyone... thank you for you understanding what is going on with me via what @nolebull813 has shared! A lot has been going on here and just to kind of give to you all simply: 1. Had to put down our cat before Helene. It was hard. 2. Before Milton, my truck hydroplaned turning onto the interstate on the on-ramp, and hit a semi that was illegally parked. Sadly FHP hit me with a ticket anyway. Lost my truck as it was totaled by insurance and even with negotiating still didn't get enough to get a replacement vehicle. 3. The website is struggling financially. I have been below water. I don't want to go into all the details for now, but changes are coming as I look for other work. Right now this is not even keeping the bills paid. Honestly, I have serious regrets about ever launching the app and listening to the person who told me I needed an app. You all have been fine coming to the forums and website without an app. I also should have never done away with the subscription service completely, but in this part, this is a blessing in disguise as there is a new way to do this without making it hard on everyone. Still I still have some financial constraints and will need some sponsors to get to Miami for the state championships this year. 4. The bright side is I have been continuing to do the live stream of shows on YouTube each week. Recently as of yesterday became a YouTube Partner Program and I have some options to explore using X (Twitter), and Facebook. I am also looking at some other options as well but don't want to reveal what my plan of action is going to be yet going forward after this season. That is all for now, but if you have questions or want to chat with me, leave a comment or send me a message on here. Thanks! Josh

So my question is....If Norland has to forfeit to AHP, Does that mean I get rewarded the win on my pickems? Cause I took AHP! I'm close to the bottom I need every win possible! lol @nolebull813

I’m gonna start drinking for my picks!!!!! GOOD HEAVENS

I might start drinking to do my picks.

1- Franklin County (2-0) After an 0-10 season last year, Franklin County is off to a 2-0 start. They should stand strong at the top of the rankings since they are the only school in the county.

Dillard would have to win 9 in a row just to get a glance!!!

It's been many years since I've done a top 25. I just don't have the energy now days. Thank you for your outstanding effort. Most of us older crew appreciate your energy and effort.

I don't see Dillard on this list. Now you know Dillard High gone have something to say about this list lol.

IMG has historically started really slow. They lost to Miami Central in week 1, and lost to Columbia and AHP in kickoff classics. Gotta get them as early as possible before the kids can memorize the names of their teammates

To celebrate the new season and the contributors to this site, I offer this poem... Any perceived slights, omissions, or misrepresentations are strictly unintentional. If you're pressed from time, skip ahead to the last two lines. In the spirit of "Twas the Night Before Christmas"; with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore and Joshua Wilson... 'Twas Week 1 of football, and all through the state Board members were fired up for the opening slate The coaches all studied their rosters with care In hopes last year's players had not transferred elsewhere The players were all clad in blues, whites and reds While visions of NIL deals danced in their heads Me in my team gear, with Junior in tow Had just settled in for the band's pregame show When down on the field there arose such a clatter I put down my nachos to see what was the matter When, what to my wondering eyes should appear The head man, with eight assistants pulling up the rear I looked at the leader, and thought, 'oh my gosh!' For I knew in a moment it must be St. Josh Full of bluster and wild takes, his posters they came And he whistled and shouted and called them by name Now NoleBull, now Darter, now Julian and Ray I Now Perspective, now Dillard, now Longtime and Nulli Now post away, post away, post away all But first a little advice, for each of y'all Members on this site should be thought of as "brothers" Remember Josh's Rule Number 9 - don't attack others You can dream about transfers having to sit out a year For now, we can be thankful the football season is here Look at things logically; take out the emotion One thing we'll never see is relegation and promotion The FHSAA voted, and enrollment classes are here Wonder what the Metros will whine about this year? The new classes could produce some results quite odd But some friendly advice - bet the house on Chaminade Computers don't play football, but MaxPreps is king Don't understand why large districts aren't the thing Now we're relying on MaxPreps to pick the top teams Knowing the secret formula happens only in your dreams More and more teams are moving to the SSAA Who wants to be stuck in a district with Central or STA? Guess it's coincidence so many elite players end up on a few teams Surely no recruiting, inducements or other shady schemes? Let's hear it for the coaches, who do it without much pay Hopefully their dedication will be rewarded some day Now there's green grass and bright lights; get ready, let's go! You could be stuck at home watching some boring show And then like a Rocket, he was off in a flash But I heard him exclaim as he took off in a dash 'From Apopka to Vernon, and schools large and small Good luck to your team; now let's play some ball!'

They do get First Academy week 2 and they loaded up on the NIL deals and transfer portal thanks to Coach you know. Remember Winter Park and all the smoke the last few years and then last year Leesburg and all the smoke now the smoke is at First Academy. They had 2 coaches of other programs quit because they were doing stuff morally wrong and the FHSAA still doesn't care. They have coaches 30 minutes away driving kids to school. By the way that's illegal but no one cares anymore. Wild Wild West. Jones and Apopka won't be easy. I wasn't overly impressed with Edgewater in the spring but they did load up on recruits err transfers. If you ain't cheating you ain't trying. Let the best cheater win.

Correct. Player to player but also “coach to neighborhood to player” a lot of ways to INITIATE transfers. There’s some on here that love these super teams. I think it’s ruined HSFB. 80% (if not higher) of teams in the state will have no chance of winning a state championship.

It’s good to see jambun back defending the honor of officiating.

I did the comparison for all the classifications. The FHSAA "Football Sport Manual 2024-25 Edition" date 9/24/2024 clearly states that semifinal round seeding and host site determination will use the rankings from the end of the regular season: 4.7.2.2.2 State Semifinals (a) Dates and Times. See the football webpage at FHSAA.com. (b) Bracketing. Teams will be seeded based on the FHSAA MaxPreps Rankings at the conclusion of the regular season. The one (1) seed will play the four (4) seed and the two (2) seed will play the three (3) seed. (c) Host Schools. Teams with the highest regular season FHSAA MaxPreps Ranking will be designated “home” team. As posted above they did not adhere to that rule and continued to re-compute rankings after each round. The rankings from after the regional finals on 11/29 were used instead. Matchups in classes 6A, 5A, and 4A were affected by this change. However, host sites are generally the main concern and nothing changed here as luck would have it. Only the opponent at the host sites changed. 1st # after school name is ranking of 11/29. 2nd # is ranking at the end of regular season. 7A 1 Venice 1 1 2 Lake Mary 2 2 3 Dr. Phillips 3 5 4 Columbus 5 8 6A 1 W Boca Raton 1 2 2 Buchholz 3 4 3 Osceola 4 7 4 Southridge 6 6 5A 1 Manatee 1 2 2 Lakeland 2 1 3 Niceville 3 3 4 STA 4 10 4A 1 AHP 1 1 2 Jones 2 2 3 Naples 4 7 4 St Aug 5 5 3A 1 Raines 1 1 2 Eau Gallie 2 2 3 Northwestern 3 3 4 Booker 8 18 2A 1 Gasden Co 1 1 2 Card. Mooney 2 2 3 Cocoa 3 5 4 BT Washington 5 8 1A 1 Cham-Madonna 1 1 2 Card. Newman 2 2 3 Clearwater Cen 3 4 4 TCA 7 11

It's a tradition rich program that gets overlooked mostly since we have made multiple trips to the state finals to only have won 1 state championship. I get it and I respect that, but I joined to primarily create awareness for the program as this is the 18th STRAIGHT year we are in the playoffs. I know others have more but not many can match that. The coaching staff does a terrific job not only in the win-loss column but most importantly developing great young men. Outsiders can also claim we scoop up all the talent in Osceola county to form an All-Star team but nothing could be further from the truth. GO KOWBOYS!!

There’s maybe 4 games out of the 100 (lol) that NoleBull has chosen, that might be considered locks!!!!!! DarterBlue said it right, “ this round will separate the boys from the men!” I mean I could see a 5-15 easy……Have fun boys!

I think 5-seed Dillard has a chance to upset 4-seed John Carroll.

More surprised than anything. I'm just throwing darts here, trying to stay in the game. I really enjoy this site and the input and banter that everyone shares. I especially still love, HS Football.

Well guys it's here the fhsaa did it they punished TFA according to the Orlando sentinel tfa will forfeit all 8 wins will be playoff ineligible for the next two seasons (2024 and 2025) and will be fined 36,000 dollars TFA will appeal this punishment

Not a good outing for our team, as we were extremely lucky to get this win against a good Lakewood team. Rain did adversely affect both teams each fumbling the ball a couple of times in the wet conditions as it was wet throughout the entire contest. Neither team was effective in the first quarter which ended 0-0 with little offensive output. That all changed in the second quarter as we got our running game going and good fortune had us leading at halftime 21-0. These are 16, 17, 18-year-old boys so don't presume to know what the mindset was going into the second half but undoubtedly it wasn't good. Lakewood managed to claw back to 21-19 mainly thru the air as they hit big play after big play with WR running free all over the place with defenders completely out of position. We managed one more good drive with some excellent runs by both Sinophant and Swint to increase the lead to 28-19. With the help of personal fouls, facemask penalties and poor coverage they quickly drove down the field and settled for a FG to make the score 28-22 with about 6 minutes on the clock. On the ensuing possession we did nothing which they were banking on and had to punt it back to them. Again, with big plays plus a couple of major penalties they drove the length of the field and got inside our 5-yard line with 2 minutes left. Those last 2 minutes were an eternity as we got 3 straight stops then a penalty gave them a new set of downs. Luck was on our side as they dropped a couple of passes in the endzone which most likely would have given them the W. This defensive performance is the worst I've seen all year and hope we don't have a repeat in the playoffs as it won't get the job done. Will give props to the Lakewood QB as he took several huge hits throughout the game but stayed tough and escaped pressure the entire second half to extend plays and hit big play after big play against a secondary continually out of position. Counting our blessings as the W should ensure home field for the two opening playoff games. Next two weeks of practice better fix these problems that have raised their ugly head. Don't like criticizing a win, but simply giving an honest assessment from an honest old man that simply want his team to be successful.

Darter, you and Ray can both stop attending high school football games, but neither of you can stop posting and contributing to the discussions on this board. Nonnegotiable.

South Lake just clinched 6a district 6 championship tonight! 4-0 in district play! first district championship since 1996!

I make a motion that all the games this past weekend be stricken from our records! The stress of the hurricane left me perplexed & impaired in all directions of thinking & decision making…….I have 3 solid witnesses: my wife, my pastor, & my cat.

Due to weather impacts, Georgia has added another week to its regular season and pushed the playoffs back a week to allow for makeup games that cannot be played during the regular season. Hopefully the FHSAA is thinking proactively, as one can imagine potential problems with unplayable stadiums, lack of officials, etc. In any event, thoughts and prayers sent from those of us in the panhandle.

By 9-1 you mean 6-4

In the spirit of Halloween, Jesuit is Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde!!!! SMH. I’m gonna start not drinking the Darlington koolaid…..HE’s NOT AT APOPKA ANY MOE!!!!!!

As I recall, the spread was 33, so Lely really needed that last TD to cover.

@DILLARDBOYZ954

I'm good in Tallahassee no damages and I have power.

When Venice plays, there is always more questions than answers

I was at the slaughter on Friday in Ft Laud. I’ll help you all out here: 1) Gibbons is far from those State Championship teams. Their DL is not only small but far from athletic. They got beat up & pushed back to where the RB on half of the carries wasn’t touched for 8-10yds. 2) Grubbs almost looked sub par because he had no rhythm because they ran 80% of the time. He over threw receivers & missed his targets(downfield). In warmups he didn’t throw one errant pass. Talent. 3) Don’t get excited about the Rams D yet! Gibbons skill positions are the worst I can ever remember seeing. A good offense is gonna put up some #’s on the Ram’s D. 4) it’s really hard to determine how good or not, Lake Mary is. They just didn’t have enough resistance to prove anything.

Back by popular demand, I will be running the pick up this year. Week one will be up soon. Coconut Creek/Northwestern (Thurs) Berkeley/Clearwater Central Catholic American Heritage/Milton,GA Miami Central/Lakeland Jesuit/Bishop Verot Deland/Madison County STA/Bishop Gorman,NV Chaminade/St John Bosco,CA Lake Mary/Cardinal Gibbons Tampa Bay Tech/Venice

Back for my 6th season from Fort Pierce, but watching games from Miami-Dade up to Cocoa on any given Thursday & Friday night.

Tbh I’m with you. As an avid Dillard high alum, former player & fan. So many years I wished that we had the transfer portal & the championships that came with it of a Miami central , Miami northwestern , Sta. To see Dillard high when a state title in football in my lifetime would be one of the proudest moments in my life. but at the same time I’m also old school where if you wanted to be the BEST you beat the best. I come from an era “90’s” where there were no super teams (To my Knowledge). There was pride and tradition to play for your HOME school & bring success to said school. now everyone wants microwave success aka super teams. No loyalty to the school what so ever everyone just load up at 1 school and make winning the championship as easy as possible.

I agree with you in principal but like anything, there's more to it than that. I was shown messages in confidence. To take action would violate this confidence. There's also my place, which it is not my place to take this action as there is a good relationship between our coaching staff and the staff of this other team. Finally, I do believe these players acted on their own in this case and not based upon direction from their coaches. This is only a gut feeling so I could be wrong. Anyway, the right people know about this and I leave it up to them. I am also proud that our coaches don't recruit, don't believe it is in the spirit of HS sports, and would rather go with the players that want to be there. We will never win a title this way but it makes what we do win that much sweeter. I don't really know how anyone can feel proud of a bunch of rent-a-players winning games for them.