SPCjessica2004

Hurray! Football, football, football! It starts this week and based on the feedback I've gotten every team is going to be better, strong and accomplish more in 2018 than 2017. I can't possibly provide thoughts on every football game I would like to, but here's the big 3A match-ups I'll be looking forward to this week: GAME OF THE WEEK: Chaminade-Madonna vs Deerfield Beach Two of the top teams in the nation square off for an opening week game of significant interest not only to those in South Florida but those interested in seeing how Chaminade starts in 2018. In 2017 the highly ranked Lions started off with a thud as they were overwhelmed by a deeper Miami Central team. I truly believe the 2018 version of CM is better than the 2017 version for two reasons 1) The team is deeper along the lines which hurt them against the powerhouses last year and 2) experience. Damon Jones is sort of a legend in the South Florida area, but even he needs times to build chemistry. This CM team is the perfect blend of experience, toughness, talent and conditioning. While this is a big game for the Lions, the Bucks of Deerfield could also benefit from a big win to get the proverbial "overrated" money off their bank. Deerfield has consistently been one of the more talented teams in the area but that hasn't translated to success on the field. A win for Deerfield would probably be considered an upset since Chaminade is the favorite here, but the Bucks has enough play makers and depth to give the Lions a 4 quarter game. Prediction: Chaminade 27, Deerfield 17 Clearwater Central Catholic vs Tampa Berkeley Prep Berkeley Prep made the state semifinals in 3A back in 2016 but did not make the playoffs in 2017 but it wasn't for lack of effort or talent. Berkeley Prep lost 4 games by a TD or less. I expect that to change this year as the Buccaneers have one of the most electrifying QB's in the state in Joshua Youngblood. Berkeley is also home to one of the top linebackers in the country Jr. Jaylen Harrell. As is typical of any Dominick Ciao coached team the Bucs are very strong across both the offensive and defensive lines. CCC really doesn't need an introduction since they've become a household name in 3A making the playoffs 19 of the past 22 years, winning 6 regional championships (1 state finals) and not suffering a losing regular season since 1996. The 2018 version of CCC is also loaded with power 5 potential. Brothers Sr. JerJuan and Jr. Jerzhan Newton both return along with Qb Rory Hicks, WR Brett Seither TE/DE Kennedy Roberts and a host of talented playmakers. Perhaps the biggest steal of the off season was Sophomore Makkah Jordan transferring in along with his brother Melvin giving CCC even more weapons to play with. CCC is also very young as the team only has 8 seniors on a 45 player roster. Prediction: CCC 28, Berkeley prep 20 Florida High School vs Blountstown 2017 State Finalist in class 1A meets 2017 class 3A State Semifinalist. This should be a good one as both teams are expected to have strong seasons. FSU School (Florida High) was bolstered by key transfers Willie Taggart and Raymond Woodie; however, they also return quite a bit of star power behind WR Javan Morgan, QB Bryson Hill and a most of a secondary that had a strong season. While preseason picks are just that- educated guesses based on hype, star power and potential- many (myself included) have Florida High as a favorite to be in the state finals this year. Blountstown hit lofty heights in 2017, but only return 3 starters on each side of the ball in 2018 with a varsity roster of 27. The Tigers do have weapons such as Qb Treven Smith and Alex Veldez that the Seminoles will need to account for. Prediction: Florida High 35, Blountstown 13 Other games I'll be looking at: MCC vs IMG Academy (Varsity). I've got MCC by 14. Ft. White vs Suwannee. I've got Ft. White by 10. Taylor County vs Bradford. I've got Taylor County by 7 Tampa Catholic vs Gibbs. I've got Tampa Catholic by 28. Calvary Christian vs Umatilla. I've got Calvary Christian by 45. King's Academy vs Pope John Paul II. I've got King's by 28. Calvary Christian Academy vs LaSalle. I've got CCA by 14. Lakeland Christian vs Tenoroc. I've got LCS by 30. Cardinal Mooney vs Bishop Verot. I've got Cardinal Mooney by 3. St. Pete Catholic vs Carrollwood Day. I've got Carrollwood by 14.

To be honest if they don't do the rankings, FloridaHSFootball.com is a nice choice since at least Josh and his team will take the time to get peoples opinions and then make a decision.

Thanks Spy! I heard Chaminade dominated the game from start to finish but a mental mistake allowed Columbus to score late. Tampa Catholic defeated Tampa Robinson. Orlando TFA knocked off Lakeland Christian. MCC came up just short against Gulliver Prep. Berkeley Prep pounded Victory Christian. CCC knocked off Wiregrass Ranch. Calvary Christian knocked off SPC. I saw King's Academy had a good KOC as well. Florida High dominated. I'll do a week 1 preview later this week. I think Chaminade vs Deerfield Beach and CCC/Berkeley will gather most of the small school headlines, but Ft. White deserves some love as does quite a few other programs.

I wanted to create a thread dedicated to 3A football KO Classics. Last night I'm aware of 2 games that occured or at least sort of occured. Berkeley Prep hosted 2A Victory Christian and Ocala Trinity played Gainesville Bucholtz. Berkeley Prep is always one of those teams that you have to watch out for because they have a great coaching staff under Dom Ciao. They usually also have 2-3 superstar type players. Last night, BP knocked off Class 2A State Semifinalist Victory Christian 21-7 in a game that was delayed 45 minutes before kickoff and ultimately stopped at halftime due to lightening. Berkeley Prep QB Joshua Youngblood had a great game accounting for 140 yards passing as Berkeley scored TD's on all 3 offensive possessions. Both TD passes were to RJ Garcia who constantly was side open without a body within 20 yards of him. Last year was disappointing for Berkeley Prep, but this year should see them return to the playoffs and be in contention for a 1st round bye. Hopefully OTCfanOcala can fill us in on the OTC game. I heard the varsity team played well in spurts against Buchholtz. If anyone else played, spill the beans!

I've been in favor of combining 2A and 3A and lowering the cutoff cap from 636 to 580, this would be the new 2a. This gives the new 2A a healthy amount of teams. This also helps the new 3A (currently 4A). It also cuts 1 class. My understanding though is that the FHSAA doesn't appear to have much if any interest in cutting football classifications. I would take a long hard look at 2A/3A.

My big 3 that are missing are Palm Beach Dwyer, Palm Beach Central and Lakeland. Now, I'm willing to accept that Dwyer and PBC are transfer loaded and it may take time to reflect that in a computer poll, but there's no excuse for leaving off Lakeland. It's also a pre-season poll and most of the metric right now is probably based off the last few seasons results and the expectation that coaches have uploaded proper rosters, many have not.

I normally do not believe people actually laugh out loud when they type LOL, but in this case I believe Pipe Dreams really did laugh although I don't think it was a 'haha' funny laugh.

I would have given them the benefit of the doubt before yesterday and wrote it off to a preseason poll, but after the events of yesterday they are probably now a touch to high. I also agree with Apopka being a touch to low.

Maxpreps has released their "official" preseason top 25 in Florida for all classes this morning. It still lists Oxbridge Academy as #11 in the state. As we know Oxbridge will not be fielding a team in 2018. Essentially, everybody below Oxbridge will move up 1 spot- so I've included Rockledge who was ranked #26 since they will be the new #25. 1 IMG Academy 2 St. Thomas Aquinas 3 Cardinal Gibbons 4 Wekiva 5 Chaminade-Madonna 6 Deerfield Beach 7 Northwestern 8 Venice 9 American Heritage (Plantation) 10 Miami Central 11 Oxbridge Academy** (Will not be fielding a team in 2018) 12 Immokalee 13 Braden River (Bradenton) 14 Carol City 15 Armwood 16 Columbus (Miami) 17 Trinity Christian Academy 18 Bartram Trail 19 Plant 20 Vero Beach 21 Dr. Phillips 22 Cocoa 23 South Dade 24 Apopka 25 Clearwater Central Catholic 26 Rockledge To me- this is a pretty solid list for a preseason top 25 even if it's mostly pulling information from 2017 to populate these results. I haven't listed the teams by class, but it looks like there is a healthy spread except for 1A and 2A. All other classifications are accounted for. As always, this is just message board fodder/rankings to discuss. They've also posted their classification rankings.

Look at FAMU's schedule. I don't know a lot about them, but looking at their recent history and expectations of their program for 2018 from twitter/message boards and general communication with some friends at NFC- in what world are they living putting Trinity Christian, CCC and Jax First Coast on the schedule. Those 3 teams will demolish them. I understand scheduling one of them as a measuring stick game, especially Trinity since it's good TV exposure for the team- but all 3 of them?

Charlie Dean transferred from Plant to Hillsborough High School.

Tampa Catholic travels to Crestview this year. I'd like to piggyback off of OldSchoolLion, what makes them great this year?

LB Trevor Dorris has trasnferred from Palm Harbor University to Calvary Christian. Calvary has put together a nice team this off season. Hats off to Coach Crume.

OldschoolLion, Years ago I used to drive my family from the South Orlando area to the American Heritage Delray/Oxbridge games. We would load the SUV and make a day trip out of it. It would be me, my husband, brother, father and brother-in-law. This very topic came up. We ultimately determined it's because the teams in the Tampa area protect their territory. When we went down to Palm Beach nobody seemed to care about transfers or if they did care they didn't let on they cared. Teams in Tampa take it personally when kids transfer out of a program and are quick to point fingers in the media/social media. I actually think it has lightened up a bit but you still have these situations that crop up where one team builds a stacks team and gets a ton of media exposure, but those teams seem to sizzle out around week 6 and the traditional powers (aka the teams people are tired of reading about) take over and have their typical 3rd-4th round playoff runs. Largo has done a great job of accumulating talent, but the jury is still out if it will amount to anything more than a message board post in mid July.

Largo has a lot of talent, but not a lot of coaching from what I'm told and what others feel. Individually they're as good as any team you can build. They play East Lake in week 2 which will tell us everything we need to know about Largo. Ranking wise they're either #3 or #4 in Pinellas County in the eyes of most Tampa area people I've communicated with. In addition to the names you listed, they also have a QB who threw 2k yards and 22 TD's for rival Northeast High School transfer in which resulted in an article being written: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/high-schools/2018/04/27/talent-piles-up-at-largo-at-northeasts-expense/ Here's the Spring game presser from their loss to Pinellas Park: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/high-schools/2018/05/18/five-takeaways-from-the-pinellas-park-largo-spring-game/

Mike Gregory has stepped down as the head coach at Tampa Catholic. Jeris McIntyre has taken over- he's a TC alumni and was team captain for Auburn in 2003 before playing 3 years in the NFL. Jeris will inherit a team that is a shadow of its former self from 2017 due to a significant graduating class and then losing 11 players who transferred out of the program. TC still has a very good 1-2-3 punch of RB's in Sr Jalen Bussey, Sr Caleb Tate and Jr Qunicy Hipps Jr. The Crusaders also have a potent WR core with Chris Murray, DJ Taylor and TE Austin White. The WR's double as CB's and S's. My immediate feedback? It has been a tough off-season for Tampa Catholic. The program is clearly having to rebuild itself from within but I can see light at the end of the tunnel. TC will play 2018 as part of Class 3A but with an anticipated enrollment of 780+, expect TC to be forced into 4A for 2019 unless the FHSAA changes the cutoff numbers. Article link: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/high-schools/2018/07/11/tampa-catholics-mike-gregory-steps-down/

Agreed! Rankings at this point in the year are message board fodder and watercooler talk. I like seeing them to see how different computers come up with different rankings. Maxpreps top 25 in Florida is almost totally different than Massey going into 2018 and I'm sure Calpreps and Lazl will also be different as well.

Chaminade didn't need a bunch of transfers in 2017. Jason Milgrom did a great job turning the program around and building a solid core. Even without the transfers, CM still had a lot of Milgom's players left as we go into 2018. Now 2019 and on is on coach Jones and the administration to continue to let guys in.

Oh, I know it's ugly. Very few Tampa teams have ever won in the muck; however, my point was more- TC"s best teams historically were 2007-2008-2009. Those 3 years I would have liked to see them play a muck area team. Not saying they would have won, but it would have been highly competitive.

Good question! Tampa Catholic I don't think has ever played Pahokee or Glades Central. I do recall the 2006 Tampa Catholic team losing a heartbreaker to Clewiston 10-7. The 2007 Tampa Catholic team was a beast outside of losing to CCC 15-14 on a last second hail mary (it was televised). They went on to get revenge against Clewiston by shutting them out 33-0 en route to their first state finals appearance against Madison County. The 2007/2008/2009 TC teams were the deepest teams they ever had. Hindsight being 20/20, TC at their peak would have been great competition for the Muck, particularly that 2008 team.

The 2018 version of Chaminade is much better than the 2017 version to me based on the fact that coach Jones has a year under his belt at CM. Remember, last year CM fired their OC about halfway through the season- that's when they program turned around and lived up to expectations. I see the 2018 version hitting the ground running.

To me one of the reasons for defensive lapses is depth. I look at JaxTCA vs American Heritage (Delray) in 2014/2015. 11 on 11, the teams were even. I believe the scores were 0-0 at half in 2014 and 7-0 in 2015. JaxTCA had superior depth, AHD wore out which lead to blowouts. Even JaxTCA vs Chaminade was competitive until TCA's superior depth took over. I'm sure there are other reasons (complex offenses, lack of preparation, coaching philosophy) but that's what I've noticed.

Yes, that 2009 TC team was awesome. They finished 11-2 and smashed pretty much everybody...but they lost to Jesuit who, record wise was solid but didn't have anywhere near the talent level of TC. That TC team beat CCC, beat Chaminade-Madonna, beat a loaded OTC team, beat a loaded Lake Highland Prep team twice. They gave Bolles a game for a half as well in the state finals. The 2015 version of Jesuit was really good, they had a Junior Malik Davis- but TC was was as loaded with Devan Barrett. TC was competitive, but Jesuit blew the game open in the third quarter. The 2013 game was the one where TC was super loaded against a Jesuit team that was the definition of average. That Jesuit team was out in the first round, they had a freshmen Malik Davis. Jesuit struggled all year, they lost to Largo, CCC, Hardee. The TC team made the state final 4 and punched Trinity Christian right in the mouth before fading in the 4th quarter. That TC team had 0, none, nadda business of losing to Jesuit..and yet Jesuit hung around and stole it in the 4th quarter. That TC team had TJ Harrell, Jacob Rios and Tre Watkins with Kyle Ploucher at QB. I'll break that series down later this year.

Wanted to follow-up on Tampa Catholic losing their star QB, made headlines today as it's now out in the media. In addition, TC also lost one of their key offensive linemen 6'4, 310lb Tyus Gibson who I wasn't aware of that they lost. That's 2 big linemen transfers out of TC to area public schools. Here's the presser below: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/high-schools/2018/06/26/tampa-catholic-qb-kiael-kelly-now-at-rival-jesuit/

Columbia, TC plays at Crestview this year actually- how are they looking?