DarterBlue2

They have a nice football stadium and generally good fan support. I watched a game up there with @Columbiafan several years ago.

It's a semi round robin format with the higher seeds getting a bye. It's really a minimum of four rounds and not five as losers get a second shot in the first round.

That's a very realistic scenario. The only fault I can find with the coach of the 8th ranked team is that he ran his mouth too much after resting his starters. As such, to maintain even a shred of credibility, the FHSAA may be forced to sanction the program, the effects of which would not be felt till the subsequent year. An appropriate punishment, if this team is perpetually good but not great, would be to force them to play in the elite 8 in the subsequent year even if their final ranking placed them somewhere between 9 and 15. This will likely end in hilarity. If they are going to have an open division, to avoid such a situation, it may make sense to determine the teams based on their rankings at the end of the prior year. Yes, I know that this will be unfair to some teams. But it will likely be to a minority of teams as recent history suggests that 4-6 of the elite 8 will likely be constant from year to year.

Some divisions will be watered down significantly. Some may lose, at the most, one team. As long as this new development is transfer neutral, I don't think, overall, that the division state title games will be any more watered down than what we recently saw in the Suburban/Metro classification. In fact, the state title games may well be at least as competitive as the last two years were.

7-4 implies losing in the first round of the playoffs. Based on the brackets in the south, I can't see Columbus going one and done in the playoffs. Maybe 8-4 or 7-5 with a loss to Palmetto or similar team in the second round if you have really dropped off a lot.

Apopka 16 Jones 14. Jones scored on an 80 yard bomb a minute into the game. There were no other scores in the first half but on its final drive of the second quarter, Apopka's offense which had been dormant the entire first half finally moved the ball and got inside the Jones 15, but time ran out. This was a harbinger of things to come as on the first drive of the second half, Apopka moved the ball downfield relatively easily and scored to tie the game, in a drive that took about 2:47. Apopka then immediately forced a fumble on the ensuing Jones possession and got the ball on the Jones 15. On third and 15 from the 20, Davison found his running back completely unmarked in the end zone and Apopka took a quick 13-7 lead about 4 minutes into the third quarter as the extra point attempt sailed wide right. Thereafter, and until the final four minutes of the game, Apopka took control as the Jones team seemed to tire. However, for the rest of the third quarter till past the halfway mark in the fourth, neither team scored. Midway through the fourth, Apopka went on a long drive that stalled at the Jones's four yard line and went backward via penalties thereafter. However, the APK kicker redeemed himself scoring a field goal off the drive to give Apopka a 16-7 lead. Jones trimmed that lead down to 16-14 with just under 2 minutes to go in the game on a nice play that must have went about 50 yards. After the Jones score, with just over a minute left in the game, Apopka fumbled the ball away at their own 43. Jones marched the ball downfield and got a first and goal at the Apopka 8 with around 36 seconds left in the game. But their drive stalled at the 8 yard line and on third and goal Jones decided to kick a field goal for the win with 12 seconds on the clock. The kick was blocked by Apopka which took a knee to end the game. Comments on Jones. They looked pretty good on both offense and defense. Their kicking game needs improvement as two field goal attempts including a crucial one were blocked. Interestingly, the kicker made both extra points scored by jones easily. Overall, I expect Jones to be as good as last year and possibly better especially if they pick up further transfers over the summer. Comments on Apopka. This is a good but very young team. Several of its starters will be sophomores from its undefeated freshman team from 2023. Early in the game, the offense sputtered while the defense was strong the entire game. However, the offense came into its own in the second half as TD the QB made better passes and better overall reads after a slow start. This Apopka team should improve as the season wears on. By how much will determine its fate in the playoffs. I am cautiously optimistic that the season will end well. But if it does not, I totally understand why.

Am I bad. If you go to their X page, I believe the 2024 schedule is up. Not sure how I ended up posting the 2023 schedule and not the 2024 one in the message.

Edgewater:

Sadly neither will happen.

Even if this works for the Rural class(es), I object strenuously to any such implementation in the other classes. So the intent is to have like 14-15 "state champs" with half of them coming from the lower echelons of each class? Or am I missing something?

@nolebull813 thanks for posting this. I took the time to leaf through the yearbook. It was quite informative, especially for a man originally from Jamaica. From beginning to the end of their journey, the graduating class shrunk by more than 80%. To put that into perspective, that's an alarming but understandable rate for the times. I have no idea how that graduating class fared in their lives. WW2 was not that far off; the Great Depression was dead ahead; and the USA was a lot less hospitable to those of us "not blessed" with a certain ancestry. I don't know what motivated you to post this, but want to express my appreciation to you for doing so.

Yeah, the percentages resemble a Boone, Winter Park or Lake Brantley in Orlando today.

So, Norland was an integrated school in 1971. Back then, the Northern part of Dade County was mostly white. The black population lived downtown or in Central Dade County where Miami Northwestern is.

What happened to Mays and Carver? Where did their kids go after they closed or merged into other schools? It's a pity Mays did not survive. Willie Mays was an iconic baseball player.

Back in 1971, Norland was most likely a majority white school. It may have been all white as I am not sure when the schools were desegregated in Miami.