gatorman-uf

As a person who told you the IMG game didn't matter, I am going to tell you this game doesn't matter either. We have to stop putting stock in preseason games. Coaches and teams go into these games with varying levels of goals. For some teams, it is getting everyone lined up correctly. For some teams, it is being as vanilla as possible so as for your first real game has no real film to study. For some teams, it is about 9 months of off-season work and only tinkering with the system. Whatever the case, move on quickly. The real games start now.

I know I am living in the past but what happened to Plant, how did they collapse so fast? I know they had 2 bad years, but they are coming off a decent 6-4 season. I mean they won against teams they should and got beat by better teams. It just feels weird that a team that had such a long tenure of success isn't even in the conversation anymore.

Someone told me that Suwannee is having 2 more football transfers come to Columbia soon. Unsure of the names.

Another senior transfer for Columbia. This time from Suwannee.

So Columbia is district champs going undefeated, additionally beating UC, GC, and MC (trying not to use the full name), but losing to Buchholz, Trinity, and Deland, so my prediction (based on nothing other than names and recent history) has Columbia going 6-3 (maybe 7-3). That is probably good enough for a #2 or #3 seed in the region.

@ColumbiaHighFan2017class I see Columbia's schedule on MaxPreps is Buchholz Union County Trinity Christian Orange Park Middleburg Gadsden County Ridgeview I know they are still looking for a 10th game, so what two games are missing from what they already have confirmed? I am guessing Madison County, but am unsure of the other.

Maxpreps ratings suck because it all depends on schools putting in their official scores. In Florida, that isn't a big deal as the FHSAA mandates it, but if you are playing teams in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia, well schools might put in the pre-season games and it throws the whole thing off. I went through this last year as I tried to tally the RPI and FHSAA wasn't very helpful (it all came down to out of state teams and their opponents schedules).

https://www.mainstreetdailynews.com/sports/local-sports/tyler-jefferson-suit-up-columbia

Players have been doing this for a while. They imitate what they see pros/college athletes doing. Eventually we will see 8th graders and 5th graders doing the same.

Never in a million years does he push Madison into their proper class based on size. He is/was one of the most vocal proponents of the suburban/metro split.

How many states don't consider themselves football states? Alaska? Maine? Vermont? New Hampshire? I am willing to bet nearly 40 states consider football to be their primary high school sport. How much do we consider fair for a coach to earn as both a teacher and head football coach (staff of 9 others), including any supplements available for coaching other sports? Just as a note, the average teacher salary in Florida is $51.1K with the state legislature/governor trying to force districts to have a $47.5K as a starting salary. I stay away from the politics of that. As for athlete to student ratio, I find it is usually 10 to 1 on average across most sports (or at least that's the goal of most districts).

Do coaches encourage football players to be wrestlers anymore? Or is it weightlifting and track only? With an occasional basketball/baseball player? One of the things I like about small schools (private or public) is that numerous kids play multiple sports, maybe it makes it less overall quality because the kids aren't specializing in one sport year round, but there is something cool to see a kid truly dominate in 3 sports throughout the year. I bring up wrestling because the NCAA Championships are on and I went to wikipedia to look up the nearest D-1 wrestling program, the nearest one is in South Carolina. Does the South hate Olympic-style wrestling that much? No programs in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, or Florida. Florida should add a men's and women's wrestling program, I am sure the state of Florida produces enough talent to feed a program like UF. Some kids would probably like to stay a little closer to home.

What stops them doing a multiplier (Other than their own reluctance). I don't recall a state statute or FHSAA policy against it, just a reluctance from them. It wasn't the best solution, the best solution remains a promotion/relegation pyramid which basically accepts transfers happen, but NOBODY put a real promotion/relegation plan on the table (don't talk to me about the haphazard plan that they put together 3-4 years ago).

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/opinion-florida-high-school-football-plan-is-racist-14069396

Nm

Hahahaha.... hahahaha.... hahahaha.... hahahaha.... This won't be fixed for years, if ever. The legislature is only focused on raising base pay (starting salary). 31 counties still hadn't reached the goal amount of $47.5K, because the legislature didn't actually put enough in the budget to make it happen, thus leading to people thinking teachers would all be at the $47.5K number, but many were not. Yes, in more expensive counties where the starting salaries were already above that, the districts and unions had more flexibility with the money, but if your county was at 39K, they might have gotten to 43K and made experienced who were at 43K earn the same amount as new teachers. Basically, for some counties, you are compressing the entire salary schedule one salary level. Over many years it might decompress, but if the state legislature turns around and does the same compression, you undue it all again. If they ever get all counties to the $47.5K, they then will set a new goal of $55K, which will again compress the salary schedules. This is the new norm. The state legislature does not care about experience, tenure, or knowledge. They would prefer the opposite for teachers so that they don't build any social/political capital and speak out.

Yes

Private School

Lowndes County has 2 public schools (Lowndes and Valdosta), but the City of Valdosta has their own school board/school, so what Captain Morgan suggests still applies as City of Valdosta and Lowndes County have their own school board and would be single schools.

I try not to bash people that I don't know, but how the hell is Jon Santucci becoming the voice of HS Sports in Florida. I feel like every article he publishes is a hooray for this metro/suburban split with no thought process about who is hurt by it or if the system actually addresses any of the issues that coaches are talking about it. My favorite part of one of his articles "People who felt the previous classes made it easy to predict the state champion won't be able to make that argument anymore. " He then mentions Metro Class 2 and 11 state caliber team, of course, he doesn't do that for any other metro area, because we all kind of know the who the 3-4 teams actually capable of winning the state championship are. He tries to bolster how good Suburban Class 4 is by listing 17 teams, including: Creekside (8-3) this season, their first 8 win season since 2011!!!!! Lake Minneola (6-4) this season, and beyond a state runner-up in 2020, has been mediocre. Lehigh (7-3) lost in the second round of the playoffs to the state powerhouse known as Tampa Wharton and generally have been mediocre over the past 8 years. Nease (9-4) last season, got crushed by Gainesville Buchholz, but haven't had a winning season since 2015 (until this year)! Ponta Vedra (his spelling) (4-6) haven't been past the first round of the playoffs since their magical run in 2016. Their defeats in the recent playoffs have come at the hands of suburban teams. Viera (5-5) haven't made it to the playoffs the last 3 seasons. Why does he do this? He has to try and drum up support by giving hope, but we already know what teams are likely the final four or probably the final 2. Look, I accept this is the new reality. It is a shame that it is only football (as of right now) as the same logic applies to all sports.

Every couple of years, a newspaper writes a similar article. https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2022/03/08/do-florida-high-school-football-coaches-deserve-better-pay/

Executive Director Tomyn did mention it during the meeting.

I guess I would rather make 250 happy than the 15 or so programs that this new program makes happy. I think sports should be enjoyed by all and how they enjoy it is going to be different for everyone. Some schools/communities want to compete on a very high level. They are year round programs, they started in 6th grade and continue through 12th. They view football as a way onto the next level (college). I think that is great. I also recognize there are lots of programs, who aren't that level of committed and even if you gave them the best coaches at these top level schools, they aren't becoming elite programs. They simply don't have the school/community support, the demographics, or the money, but they recognize that football can be more than championships. It is about learning to play the sport, being part of the team, pushing yourself. If a championship happens to be involved, great, but for many of these type of programs they are happy to play 10 games and maybe win some, let them compete for a championship, I promise you, we have given state championships to teams that would be worse than the winners of my lowest classification, and if we do so what? Does it really take away from your school's potential state championship? If so, how?

Ummm, the rural small school requirement wasn't to ensure that every school won a state championship that previously hadn't. The original requirements were that your county/city had to be recognized as rural by a specific state agency and had to less than 500 students (eventually increased to 600 to ensure enough schools in classification). Yes, Union County won state championships in 1996 at 3A (which was really 2A, since there was no 1A at the time). Yes, Madison County has most likely manipulated the system to become a 1A school. Yes, Pahokee won a 2B state championship (go look at the schools in 2B, it is almost every team in 1A now). Yes, Taylor County won a state championship back in 1997, at 3A (2nd smallest classification as there was no 1A at the time). Fort White was 3A, but their enrollment has dropped them below 600 (as did several teams that same year). Classifications have been based on size. Schools will sometimes move up and some will move down based on enrollment, so finding fault that a team now meets the classification standard and you don't like it because it will make it harder for your team, seems very cry baby-ish.

Pahokee has always been "rural" 1A school. The first few years of 1A though they did not want to make the trips for district games so they chose to be in a higher classification.