SPCjessica2004

I've seen your show before which is why I stopped posting on other forums, because you and your yolk flat out ruin them. In 2011 when Berkeley Prep lost to American Heritage Delray the argument was that American Heritage would beat anyone in Tampa. The argument was AHD wouldn't beat Armwood. AHD and Armwood played in 2012... Armwood went splat. Point is- don't be rude. You have your opinion, I have mine. Yours isn't more right than mine. I never said you were wrong, you said that to me- I said I disagree. I also said I consider Rockledge is be about the quality of TBT and Hillsbrough, another arugment I won't back off of.

I consider TBT and Hillsborough to about what Rockledge is. CCC beat Rockledge at Rockledge, Chaminade smashed CCC. My opinion? You guys are looking at the Central and Plantation results, that was before the new OC was hired at CM.

I stand by my original statement, they would beat any Tampa Bay team.

American Heritage needs to move up to 4A, that's all I'm saying.

This is the most ridiculous thing I've seen in a while!

Badbird, According to the 2 year breakdown for classifications Class 3A is defined as 291-680 students. According to the student population report listed: American Heritage Delray: 865 Tampa Catholic 763: I have a MAJOR PROBLEM with teams being over the limit by 10% or more. I understand it's not the student population, but the individual athlete, but the rest of the 3A schools are in between 450-575.

Tampa Catholic and American Heritage Delray have no business being in 3A.

CCC's best days are ahead of them. Chaminade-Madonna has and would roll effortlessly against any Tampa Bay team and about 95% of the teams in Florida- I called the final score to be 49-14 in another thread. Chaminade vs Oxbridge is a fair fight.

I really like that concept. It allows teams to compete against teams with similar means while also keeping teams with similar success rates together.

Now, that I agree with 100%. Class 3A usually has 2 national powerhouses, 2 really good teams that beat everyone else but can't beat the 2 national powerhouses and then a group of average to slightly above average football teams and then the merry minimums.

And then there were 4... the final 4. Congratulations to everyone who has made it this far. In Class 1A-4A if you're a Final 4 team, you're officially a "State" team. Many teams started the season with high aspirations; however, these are the 4 top teams. The next question is- who advances to play for the State Championship in 2 weeks? Let's look.. Clearwater Central Catholic (11-0) vs Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna Prep (9-2) Maxpreps has Chaminade-Madonna ranked #13 and Clearwater Central Catholic #34 in the state of Florida. The Storyline: When the season started Chaminade-Madonna was expected to be not only a top 3-5 team in Florida, but a top 25 team in America. The expectations were probably a bit to much for the Lions program as they were smashed by both Miami Central and American Heritage (Plantation); however, then something happened. The team put selfishness and pettiness aside and started to buy into the system that Coach Daemon Jones was promoting. It worked and the proof was in the pudding after effectively ending Miami Booker T. Washington's season 35-21. The Lions haven't given up a single point this post-season and more impressive have rarely had to use their starters in the second half. Coach Jones has preached that the early season struggles would lead to end of season success. While the expectations were high for Chaminade-Madonna, the opposite is true for CCC. The Marauders were upset in 9 overtimes in the 2016 regional final by Melbourne Central Catholic. The Marauders then graduated a ridiculous 9 division 1 athletes and followed that up with 8 underclassmen who transferred to rival schools. After a 21-14 loss to Clearwater High School in Spring even more players transferred out and it looked like the program may finally give up it's crown as a top football program to cross town rival Calvary Christian who benefited from the CCC defections. CCC started the season strong with wins over Berkeley Prep and Tampa Catholic; however, when the Marauders went to Rockledge and won 21-13 they began to turn heads. The Prediction: For Chaminade, this season is very simple. State Championship or bust. This is one of the most stacked rosters in recent memory for any high school in Florida. For CCC the season is already a resounding success regardless of the result on Friday. The goal was to stabilize the program, finish with a winning record, make the playoffs and put up a fight against Calvary Christian and Tampa Catholic. CCC beat both teams twice and in the process should have a very impressive 2018 due to the fruit of their labor, but 2017 is the year of the Lion. Chaminade won't play around with CCC nor should they, this one will be over by the end of the 1st quarter. I'm going 28-0 at the end of 1, 42-0 at the end of 2. Chaminade-Madonna 45, CCC 7 Oxbridge Academy (9-1) vs Florida State University High School (7-5) Maxpreps has Oxbridge ranked # 15 and Florida State University High School #113 in Florida The Thunderwolves of Oxbridge Academy have enjoyed resounding success in 2017 and should expect more as they march toward Orlando. Florida High (AKA FSU School) has overachieved pulling upsets against Ft. White and Taylor County (Perry). Oxbridge started the season with a respectable loss to PA powerhouse Archbishop Wood and has followed that up with a string of impressive blowout victories. Oxbridge is coming off a resounding win against a team some (myself included) felt could give them a game or upset them in Melbourne Central Catholic. The Oxbridge defense which has been spectacular all season surrended only 7 points against an electric MCC offense. In face, the Thunderwolves have 4 shutouts and 3 games of only giving up 7 points. More amazing is that the most points Oxbridge has given up all year is 14 points against the PA team. The Prediction: On paper, it's hard to find this one being close at all. Like the game listed above, this should be over by the end of the 1st quarter; however, I do remember a wise man once telling me that if you're a high school football team in Florida and you're playing a game after Thanksgiving you can't complain about your season since it has been pretty good. FSU School has had a good season and the fans will have reason to celebrate their team, but Oxbridge is having a great season with a chance to have a special season. Oxbridge 55, FSU School 7 Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Columbia, I'll take a look!

I couldn't disagree with you more. Chaminade is the best team this year and Oxbridge is right on their tail. You're only looking at the here and now and what's reported on message boards, you need to look at what's going on in the background. Chaminade had to cash a lot of I-O-U's to afford the athletes on their roster. They need to win this year.

The issue I have with the setup and proposed setups is that they're based on student enrollment population. I'm going to call a spade a spade, we live in a world of backdoor recruiting. Trinity Christian has less than 500 students, yet they have how many D-1 kids? Chaminade-Madonna goes from being the poster child of 1-9 teams making the playoffs and getting their butt kicked 3 years ago, to now a team with 9 power 5 division 1 guys. CCC has won how many regional championships in an area that is known for its parity among private schools? It goes on at public schools just as much as private schools and you have to do it to compete these days. The FHSAA IMHO has turned a blind eye toward the issue since it's next to being uncontrollable. Now, as I've pointed out in years past- for every Chaminade, Trinity there are 2-3 private schools wondering how they'll finish a 10 game season with 17 players total. I think simply looking at reported numbers is a good way to start looking at grouping teams into classifications, but there has to be a better way of giving teams a chance to win without having machines in their face. We tend to treat high school football as college football, I'm guilty of it. We say things like "This team sucks" and "those guys suck" but the tone is far more than a neighborhood rivalry, we now have people reading maxpreps without ever seeing a team and determining their worth on message boards and declaring that other teams have no chance. This is what high school football has become to most people, it's a business now. Hey, I'm the first one to raise my hand btw- because I've said some nasty things about teams I've never seen. Point is this, if we're going to to find a way to classify teams has to take into consideration more than population- it has to take into consideration all schools- not just your top 5 teams and break it up in a way that there's competition. So, it's probably got to have a formula that's part enrollment based, part success based.

Hmm, think you need to wait another week because there's going to be some blowouts in the state semi's..and when I say blowouts, I mean far worse than what you've seen so far.

Also, IMHO, two of the better players for Chaminade in their Junior class are DE Cameron Williams (Florida Committ) and Te'cory Couch (Tenn committ). Marlin Mayo is very solid as well. Chaminade also has an outstanding Fr QB in Thad Franklin. They've used him more at WR. The starting QB is a Jr. as well. My hubby loves 51, the 6'4 320lb guard.

THink you need to dig a little deeper for CCC, they have a lot more than 1 prospect. But, CCC graduated 9 D-1 guys going into 2017 and then lost their top 5 returning juniors (including superstar Amari Burney) to rival school Calvary Christian. In addition, they picked up 7 transfers from PHU who hung around for 1 month before 5 of them transferred back. The fact CCC is 11-0 and hosting a state semi final is a miracle. Again, CCC's best players are in their Freshmen and Junior classes, but it's a moot point for purposes of this game. Running clock in the 2nd quarter, maybe 1st quarter.

Clearwater is about a 4 hour bus ride from Hollywood barring traffic. It turns into a 5 hour bus ride when you factor in stopping to feed the team at the halfway point (probably in Charlotte). It's not an ideal drive for Chaminade, but it will have 0 impact on the game. CCC is a good football team, damn good actually. The problem is, to beat this Chaminade team you have to be better than damn good. University School and Doral Academy are damn good teams too and Chaminade ran through them like a hot knife through butter. At the start of the season I said Chaminade would win the Class 3A state title this year. I also said that CCC, while capable of having a solid season is probably looking at a special 2018 season since their best athletes and players are in their Freshmen and Junior classes. Johnnie Newton will be a man-child his Junior year, Kennedy Roberts will be a power 5 defensive end and they don't get much more special than Jerjuan Newton, the QB Rory Hicks is also really, really good. Richie Illaraza is going to be one of the top WR's in the state at some point.. CJ Catia will be a top DB/WR hybrid and my husband thinks CCC has some impressive looking linemen that will be in the college recruiting scene. I also really like the other Jr. WR who actually lines up as a safety Brett Seither (6'5 guy 200, very quick). The issue is, these are all things to come in 2018 after another offseason in the weight room and coaching. In other words, while I think they will all happen and CCC will have a crazy-loaded 2018 roster, it's all potential at this point.. Chaminade has all of these pieces right now, and is playing with a sense of urgency right now because the way the team is built they need to win right now- similar to Oxbridge. Chaminade has paid their dues and are now reaping the rewards. I have Chaminade winning 45-14.

You're good! It'll be one of my off season topics to explore :-)

Very interesting storylines for when the offseason starts, but again- I don't want to go to far off course as there are still 8 teams playing in 3A and want to make sure they get their fair due for still being in it.

Nole, Good question and one that nobody seems willing to speculate on. The popular census is that he heads back down South to his roots. I personally would like to see him stay at MCC. He was part of Doug Socha's American Heritage team as the D-Co, when Socha was let go he became the HC. I think he can build a program and he's young enough to become one of the greats in HS if he chooses to. MCC has a beautiful campus and good financial connections to the community (They're in big with Mike Erdman who sent all his kids there). They are also finishing building a nice fieldhouse. MCC also has a built in advantage of being the only private school in a large area- yeah, there's Melbourne Holy Trinity; however, MCC is really the only viable football private school in the entire county. It's a long drive to get the athletes from Cocoa/Rockledge/Merritt Island and they do have to compete with a solid Palm Bay Magnet and quickly rebuilding Melbourne High School, but the program is well recognized enough to attract big names I think the pieces are there for 2018 to be a better than average team, but they won't have the big weapons they do this year. The bigger program is scheduling. The only teams that will play them are powerhouses and they won't have the Collazo's and Hardy's out there. This is why I see them struggling in 2018. But, I don't want to get a head of myself while the season is still on going.

Yes, Keith Hindlsey is still the coach at AHD. AHD has some young talent that they need to develop, but nobody would confuse this AHD team with the AHD team that Sizemore had. The QB for American Heritage Plantation this year was the QB at AHD back in 2015. Many MCC fans aren't sure if he'll stick around for the rebuilding job at MCC after this season. This MCC team is a result of Mike Riazzi doing a great job building the program and then Sizemore taking them to the next level. After this year, rebuilding is all on the current staff/administration.

The head coach of that American Heritage team was Stacey Sizemore, the guy at MCC now. Oxbridge vs MCC will be a great one this week, I totally agree- this will be one of the top games in the state.

I need to check to see if the MCC vs Oxbridge game will be streamed anywhere. It doesn't look like NFHS streaming is covering it, maybe space coast daily?

Figured I haven't done a mailbag session in awhile- now is a good time to do so. Question #1: For a person (or people) who cover one single class maybe you should come down to Oxbridge and see how many kids we DIDN'T HAVE PLAYING THIS YEAR that are NOW PLAYING. Also, we are NOT DE-EMPHASIZING FOOTBALL stop spreading that rumor. The football team will be just as good next year as we are this year. Sorry 3A! Response: Okay, I had to modify the message a bit as I had to take some words out. I don't "cover" class 3A- I don't actually cover anything. I'm not a paid reporter (neither is my husband or brother). Just a simple woman giving her thoughts on things after consulting with her family. We love football and while we can no longer make trips from Orlando/St. Pete to West Palm Beach due to children. As for De-Emphasizing football, this isn't me saying this- this is everybody in the world saying it because of the Palm Beach Post article that was written about a year ago. If there's evidence (or articles or fact) to the contrary then it needs to be said. Many others, not just myself, have said the reason for the sense of urgency Oxbridge is showing is because they know this is their best chance to win states for a while. Nobody ever said Oxbridge was going to suck. Bottom line, I wouldn't talk about next year when there's plenty of this year left. Question #2: Calvary fan here. We've had a good season, what do you think we need to do to beat CCC on Friday and how to you project us going into the future? Hi Calvary fan here! You've had a great season honestly. You made the playoffs for the 2nd time in school history and you won your first road playoff game, that's an amazing first step for such a young football program. Nobody is saying Calvary can't beat CCC, after all you do have Amari Burney and Deandre Ferguson 2 of the top players in the state. I feel Amari is one of the top overall players in the country. Projecting next year is tough since I don't know what your schedule will be. While you still have Ethan White, who I feel is one of the best offensive linemen in the country you graduate Amari, Deandre, Jacque Sarnoff and your starting QB Alex Laccube. CJ Burge has the talent (but not experience) to be a very solid 3A QB going forward. I also think Smash Lopez is a blast to watch. The big question is wither River Wood transfers back to Calvary or not. My understanding is that he transferred out of Calvary, that's a huge loss since he would have been a 3rd team all state RB at the pace he was going. I see Calvary being in the playoff mix, but CCC has all of their key pieces coming back in 2018, Tampa Catholic has all of their key pieces coming back in 2018. Both teams will get a crazy amount of transfers for the simple fact that kids want to transfer to programs that already have a foundation. Calvary got a lot of transfers last year when Amari and Deandre transferred in because they had built something, I don't see a selling piece to get kids to want to play for the program in 2018..at least yet. A win over CCC Friday could change that mentality. Question #3: Any love for Taylor County? Yes! I've made new Bulldogs friends this week. A trip to Taylor County is on my agenda in the future as I hear Johnson's bakery is amazing! As a coffee loving woman, I must also try Toasted Mug/Parkside Cafe. Oh, you probably meant the football team huh? okay..okay..okay! This is a big game for Taylor County for the simple fact that I think FSU Schools is a worthy opponent. Both teams have beat them teams they should beat and lost to teams that were clearly better than them. I freely admit, I don't know much about the teams once you go north of Winter Park and know next to nothing about Panhandle teams. I do know about Justin Wentworth and the Williston team though, he's the former OTC defensive coach who always seems to have a very good game plan. Taylor County put up a great fight on the road, but FSU Schools is coming off a huge win vs Ft. White. I'm going Taylor County though. Question #4: Should Chaminade just starting preparing for Oxbridge right now? My understanding on how Chaminade does things is that their coaching staff starts breaking down the following week opponents on Wednesday afternoons. So, up to this point they've focused only on Benjamin; however, the coaches will do some very basic legwork on Calvary and CCC. The coaching staff at Chaminade is very disciplined, so while I'm sure somebody has collected film on Oxbridge- I don't think they've looked at it in-depth yet. Another key factor is that there are 2 weeks from the State-Semi's to the State-Finals. Question #5: Have you thought about doing a weekly podcast with your family? Sure have and it almost happened, but when you have kids you can't commit to anything. Plus, I want to write for fun not for work. Question #6: Any chance you will extend your coverage to other classifications? Probably not. I just can't get to all of the games I'd like to go to so I really stick with the Tampa private schools since I grew up there and attended St. Pete Catholic (who WILL become a good football team again..one day). Since I've become friendly with most of the coaches and parents over there, there's a personal investment to write about those teams. There are just to many schools in 5A up, I've also found that those aren't nearly as forgiving as the smaller schools. Case and point, I made a mistake regarding Oxbridge and was politely corrected by MuckCityChamp and I received 2 E-mails that were negative regarding Oxbridge suspensions. I don't consider either of the E-mails hate e-mails. Had this been a 6A team with a sizeable fan base, it would have been personal attacks.