Hwy17

Not this Pahokee. They are a decent team that can beat average to weak 8a teams, but they are a far cry of the Pahokee of the early through mid 2000s. They made a average, one dimensional Baker team put up quite a few yards on them. According to a reliable source, Baker's Oline barely averaged 200 lbs. 

You can defend the FHSAA all you want Josh but the fact is the whole urban and rural tag is just so it's not called public and private. You just acknowledged that teams "stack" their rosters, or in other words recruit. So instead of dealing with that which would fix most of the problems with all of the teams being independent, they completely revamp the entire playoff system. How about just enforce the rules that were already in place. We all know that will never happen because there is ZERO transparency with the FHSAA. They set standards then change with no reason or protocol whatsoever. When the whole rural class was talked about they discussed a class with 32 teams and they said they would NEVER allow a class under that(32) so that's how the 600 limit came about to have enough teams. What happens 2 years later, 2A and 3A are operating under 32 teams. They could very easily say 1A is the lowest 36 teams in school population, then you wouldn't have schools manipulating enrollment numbers to get under a certain number. I could go on and on about the incompetence of that organization but that's enough for now. You let me know where I'm wrong Josh.

Coaching has rewards on and off the field.
Watching that one player get better and better, that needs more help than you believe you can give him is special. 
 
Had a kid, Zack, he was big and heavy and clumsy and slow and hardly any coordination at all. Started playing at 12 because his dad made him. Was the very last player picked for any team. I personally took it upon myself to teach this kid to believe in himself. At the start of the season he only played because the rules said he had to. Easy out and right field player that you hoped the ball wasn't hit to. Practice by practice I worked with Zack on hitting and fielding. Everyday, I would pitch to him. He began to hit the ball more and more in practice but not in the games. He still lacked the confidence. Little by little he began to field better. His depth perception was getting better. 
All this work was slow and painful at times. Very little improvement at times, but we kept at it every practice. Near the end of the season, we were playing the first place team, we were the second place team, and the score was tied. 2 runners on, one out, and Zack was coming up to bat. He hit the first pitch, a grounder, hard straight at the second baseman. The second baseman muffed the grounder allowing the runner on 3rd to get home, but Zack was thrown out at first cause he was a slow runner. We have a 1 point lead in the last inning. Zack is playing right field when a deep fly to right center is hit. No one, including myself gave Zack a chance of catching it, but Zack ran his hardest and something amazing happened, Zack stretched out his body on a full lumbering run and caught the ball. It was an incredible catch. That was the first out of the last inning. The team started chanting "Heavy Z, Heavy Z." and It was called "The Catch" by the team. We beat the first place team by 1 run that day, and that was the day Zack became a member of the team.
 
Zacks dad came up to me at the end of the season and told me I gave him and Zack one of his greatest gifts.
6 weeks before the season, Zacks dad was diagnosed with cancer. 6 months after the season his dad died. He never missed a game except when he was to sick at the end of the season, but he was there when Zack made "The Catch".
 
Coaching is a serious job. You never know who or how you may impact a players life so do the best you can. Never give up on someone that you can help. There is no greater reward for me than to have a player come up to me years down the road and call me coach. I don't see Zack very much anymore because he joined the Army, and god only knows where he is, but I do know one thing. He will always remember "The Catch" and getting his nick name, Heavy Z, for the rest of his life, and when he remembers, he will smile.

A win over a category 4 team is worth 35 points; a loss to a category 1 team is only 30.  Do you schedule the powerhouse team you might lose to or go schedule the average team that somehow got in the playoffs and you feel good about being able to beat?  See my post above.  

So essentially you saying broward county has more talent to go around to let several teams be competitive while Jax has majority of talent at 2 programs

I love how people justify their recruits err transfers by saying others do it more.  Cocoa got tired of getting their ass beat by BTW and went out and tried to stack the deck in their favor.  We will see if it pays off on Friday.  

It would escape from the Privates due to limitations on how many financial aid packages the Private can afford, and just how deep a roster they really want/need to be super competitive. That, and the fact that not all kids may be interested in what the Privates have to offer.
 
Dade/Broward is kind of unique in that the size of this urban area leads to a unique concentration of talent within a relatively small geographic boundary. Only the Tampa, Orlando and Jax metro areas could hope to compete for that kind of talent. Jax has Bolles and Trinity Christian, but Tampa has several Privates competing for the talent there and none have monopolized the landscape the way a Aquinas or recently a AHP has. And, until recently with Bishop Moore, the Orlando area Privates have not seriously made having a top flight program a priority. 

After AHPs HC left they can't recruit like they did down in Miami that's why!!!
 
IF any school public or private wants to recruit or get all these transfers let them but they should be forced to play up two classifications!!!!!!

AHP's roster was never Miami loaded.  FHSAA does not allow "recruiting" ( transfers galore to a private school I'll give you) and most of their roster are kids within 8 miles of the school.
 
Geez...Really gets under your skin eh?  
 
If it makes you feel betterAHD and AHPs  programs have basically peaked.  Maybe 1 or 2 more strong years.  Things are going to be changing over there......  Not going to get into details but I would say by 2018 '19-ish their rosters and depth won't be as D1 loaded.  I'll just leave it at that.

BrowardHandicapper: It was a thread on the Flvarsity board that Cocoa bragged about how many transfers in they were getting.   https://flavarsity.forums.rivals.com/threads/cocoa-tiger-football.7965/#post-60069
 
 BTW, prior to 2013 AHP rarely got past the first or second round of the playoffs, 1998 the one year they made a title run.  

I'll give it a chance.  In fact, my school will probably not be effected at all, and maybe even benefit from the new system.  I never though it right that 3 team districts exist where a team can get into the playoffs with a 1-9 record while a 7-3 team in the next district sits out.  Also, some early round match-ups usually are tougher than the later rounds because of district vs district format.  But truthfully what bothers me the most is how the state legislature and the FHSAA have all but made recruiting legal and the trend that has been going on for the last five years or so where there are a few schools that benefit by seeing how many transfers they can get and thus compromise the whole purpose of having classification in the first place.  

I don't like it either.   Larger districts would have solved the problem.  3 district per region, champs and runner-up in,  the remaining 2 spots going to the 3rd place teams with the best overall record and a point system to tie-break.  It worked before.  

I'll give it a chance.  In fact, my school will probably not be effected at all, and maybe even benefit from the new system.  I never though it right that 3 team districts exist where a team can get into the playoffs with a 1-9 record while a 7-3 team in the next district sits out.  Also, some early round match-ups usually are tougher than the later rounds because of district vs district format.  But truthfully what bothers me the most is how the state legislature and the FHSAA have all but made recruiting legal and the trend that has been going on for the last five years or so where there are a few schools that benefit by seeing how many transfers they can get and thus compromise the whole purpose of having classification in the first place.  

Which is what I'm saying.
 
Class 2a only is virtually a private school class with 1 public school that choose to be there instead of 1a due to travel.  Most independent conference schools would be 2a.
 
Class 3a is all private
 
Class 4a has 6 private schools.  Most of these would fit into class 3a with a small adjustment to the enrollment number (change to 1000). 
 
Class 5a has 5 private schools 
 
Class 6a  has 0 private schools
 
Class 7a has 1 private school (STA)
 
Class 8a has 2 private schools - Christopher Columbus and Belen Jesuit
 
IMO those last 8 would fit into class 8a well.  

This is going to be a complete disaster. We have the dumbest bunch of idiots running the fhsaa. The solutions are very simple.
 
1. Less classes.
2. Larger districts.
3. Champs and runner up make playoffs
4. Seperate public from private
5. Two champions bowls at the end of the playoffs. Optional participation. Can invite out of state teams if a champ bows out.

Hardee could realistically be a third round team in that group....and West Florida or Wakulla will be done in the first round. Dang.

Any input on Immokalee @ Hardee?

Back in the 80's & early 90's when my school use to play them, they always seem to have a few Seminole indians from the reservation on their team.  Everyone of them named Billy Ocseola. 

Hey Broward!...Here is the math.
 
Small Town football=Big time politics   Lol!

Opal in 1995 and Ivan in 2004.  Both hit the panhandle and flooded Alabama.

Sick of a team that shows up 4 years ago suddenly being crowned best team in Florida, is this what high school is coming to, guess I should just go make a academy who can recruit from all over the United states and make my all star team and suddenly I'll have best team in Florida despite fact their a lot of teams that put MONTHS of hard work just to be competitive and getting walked over by essentially hired mercenaries who come there just so they can walk into any college they want
 
Florida is the best football state in the nation, their best team shouldn't be some buy out academy that does nothing but hand pick players from where they want

On the other side of the coin you have the sports writers opinion  and i know a sports writer from south Florida covering teams in that area will never get to see a game played in north Florida but the may still have the option to vote in that poll. So i say they are all flawed some what, I like the mixture of human and computer polls to establish a ranking, Not that it means anything it's just fun to read and talk about. 

I would have liked to see Lake Gibson play Winter Haven last weekend. But, I'll agree with the 10 point spread. I just think it's going to be a bit lower scoring. Maybe 24-14 Dillard.

I agree with your assessment. However, there is one very instrumental factor to consider. How many Pahokee players play both offense and defense? How many Seminole Ridge players play both offense and defense? In a tough game the Pahokee players will wear down sometime around the end of the 3rd quarter. The Seminole players, ostensibly, will not. Also, losing a key player to injury will be more devastating to Pahokee than to Seminole simply due to the fact that Seminole has more key players to lose. I'm not making an argument, just stating some pertinent facts to consider in evaluating the performance of a 1A team against an 8A team.

The team I'd keep my eye on is Winter Haven.  8-3 last year but no playoffs.  Their 3 losses: to Osceola 27-18, to Kathleen 23-13 and to Lakeland 14-13.  The return a lot of players, including a really good QB and a veteran coaching staff.