Hwy17

Form what I was told by those at the Webber University camp, Lake Wales was every bit the equal to Jesuit. I know, that was camp and this is the season, Lake Wales hasn't been challenged, etc. I will give Lakeland a nod but I really expect a close one that can go either way and a LW win won't hit me as a shocker.

Private schools by design have to have a way of attracting students or close up shop. Getting them to come there while still in middle school or just finishing 8th grade is just part of how a private school has to function. Big difference than going after an athlete already attending another high school.

How so? I got no problem with the private school saying come here to an 8th grader who hasn't played a down of varsity before. Most likely that kid is going to play JV as a freshman anyway.

Here's what I see: Bartow a couple of years ago was 0-10. The years just before were not much better. Then they hire a competent head coach. Overnight he turns the program around and now they are winning. Bartow is 7a. They didn't have to go to 6A to start winning. Some schools choose to go independent, Bartow did not. It's examples like this that has me convinced that most schools need a leadership change to be successful. Not some gimmick.

Give it up. I've been telling @gatorman-uf this for years now. He's convinced and no changing his mind.

When I private school gets a kid as an incoming freshman or before, I don't view it as recruiting players. Especially if that kid plays a year on the JV team.

Not to mention the fact that Florida has a right to privacy law as well as an anti-stalking law. FHSAA is lucky they haven't been sued the way they handled some of those past investigations. Think twice before you go snooping around someone's home or interrogate a minor without their legal guardian present.

Madison competing in the same class as STA? Get real! That's like saying Mount Union College should be in the SEC.

I believe this game will be close; I say Lakeland by 3

Tampa Bay Tech (2) Baker (3) Venice (10) Jesuit (8) Jones (4) STA (7) Miami Central (9) Chaminade (5) Creekside (1) Foundation (6)

Agree. All 3 options suck because none address the real issue, transfers.

It's all good

I picked Dillard

Ah, ok...

@LakelandGator We needed this one.

I think we all did

STA by 14

Apopka 1 Cocoa 8 Bishop Verot 4 Columbia 6 Bartram Trail 5 Lakeland 7 Gulliver Prep 3 AHP 2 Dillard 9 Venice 10

Haines City ended their losing streak

I've heard Sarasota is good this year.

Fort Meade is good this year

Venice (10) Pontre Vedra (2) Edgewater (7) Bloomingdale (4) Valdosta (8) St. Francis (6) Deerfield Beach (5) Vero Beach (1) Trinity Christian (9) Godby (3)

Not good whatever the reason

Sofa usually wins due to some penalty called.

Here's the issue; Catholic schools are more common in places like NY. Here in Florida the FHSAA was formed back in the 1920s and private schools were allowed in because there just wasn't that many of them. Don't know how long you have lived in Florida but most issues, not just this one, have arisen because of rapid and uneven population growth in this state. It wasn't all that long ago Florida was a small Southern state.