DarterBlue2

Max Preps has been pretty bad historically. First, they used to allow any registered user to post scores which were not independently verified. But that is only the beginning. I have no confidence that they will be up to the new role assigned to them.

Don't quote me on this, but I believe Apopka has its KOC against Miami Booker T. Washington. Good idea, but I am not sure if this is the right year. We will see.

No, but I had a discussion with someone that saw them in the Spring and that person was impressed with them. I generally trust that person''s judgment and he ranks them at about the Western level. I excluded Western since they have had back to back decent years. As for Dillard they had a very good season last year and the most impressive game was probably the loss to Miami Central. Based on the results of your spring game, it looks like you are going to build on last year's improvement.

In South Florida, Dillard and McArthur are dark horses. In Central Florida, I think Spruce Creek is a live dark horse and I would not be surprised if they are a bit like Mandarin was last year (I am not picking them to win state at this stage, but I liked what I saw in the spring jamboree). I also think Mainland is going to have their best season since Houston graduated, but they don't qualify for dark horse status.

From what I saw in the spring jamboree, Wekiva will be decent. However, I think Edgewater is the best 7A team in the Orlando area going into the summer. The biggest knock I see is that Wekiva's defense is not nearly as good as the past three seasons. Now that could change over the summer. But going into the break, I see them as a first or second round exit in the playoffs. The offense has a chance to be better than last year, but unless they get major transfers over summer, the defense will just be good, but not special. Bishop Moore had a multiple play 85 yard drive on them to score the only points of the two quarters the two teams played. Last year there was no team in the State of Florida that I saw that could have scored that kind of touchdown against Wekiva. Scores against them last year were either off of big plays or short fields.

I believe Dillard will be too strong for Pahokee. Regarding the Columbus game, it should be very interesting. Two different kinds of football team. I could see it going either way at this point, and will give you a prediction as we get closer to this game.

You have got to keep soldering on. I know you have the resolve. Regarding schedules, Max Preps is not going to cut it. But I am sure you already realize this. On another note, for the first time ever, my home country, Jamaica, has a team in the women's World Cup. Now truth be told, a number of them are US residents and some of those were US born. But I will take it. Hopefully, they win at least a game and tie the MNT's performance in France, 1998.

Laz, good to see you posting. Hope all is well!

He scored a touchdown in the first NFL game I ever watched on TV. I was fresh off the boat when I saw him do that!

Happy birthday! My youngest celebrates his next week. And, he got you beat by a few!

Pretty impressive. To give up just one field goal all season regardless of strength of schedule is very difficult. Given they beat a Georgia state champion, I would guess that some of the teams they played in Florida were pretty tough. Of course, I don't know how strong Georgia football was compared with Florida back then.

Um, which school accomplished this record?

That right there is key. If you are not yet assimilated you tend not to come out for football. Given the fact that the game is only widely played in the USA, that makes perfect sense. It was not till some 13 years after I migrated to the USA that I became a football fan. Recent immigrants tend to stick with the sports that they grew up with.

Gosh, sorry to hear that. He was a comparatively young man, younger that the two of us.

Very true. He ran track and also played football at Seminole and had several college football offers. Instead he chose MLB having been drafted in the fifth round in his senior year of high school in 1977.

Seminole High School on winning the 9A Baseball title 1-0 over Coral Reef High from Dade. Tim Raines, an alum, is perhaps, the school's all time best baseball player. It was their first title in baseball since 1992.

Got you.

You would know more than I do as you coached there. I was going by what a relative who worked for the School Board there told me years ago. I am sorry if I promulgated false information.

Hopefully, it's effective.

I was at the semifinal. It was a cold evening with a wet, soggy field as rain had fallen before kickoff. The game was close through the end of the first half. Then Lincoln committed a series of errors in the second half, some, no doubt, induced by the conditions. Palm Bay took full advantage and pulled away for the easy win. Early in the season, it was either the kickoff classic or game one of the regular season, Edgewater had won a double overtime victory over Palm Bay at Edgewater. I was at that game too which was a great contest between two very good teams. Edgewater was to lose the 6A title game 14-19 on a hail Mary from the Norland QB with seconds left on the clock. That, too, was a great game and marked the coldest night I have ever been at a game in Florida as it was in the 30s up in Tally. On the field for Norland was Duane Bowe while Edgewater had Mike Walker. Both would go on to good NFL careers with Walker's ending early due to injury.

Two and a half months away. Then the season begins. New beginnings fueled by hope.

I believe Dillard will get to round two or three. Could go even further, but we will see how the season plays out.

Gateway could in theory be good. Poinciana not so much. My own feeling is that the better football kids that live in Gateway's zone go to Osceola which is much better at football. Osceola County has always had open enrollment (school choice) and the two schools are not that far apart. Poinciana is in a semi-rural part of the county with a large immigrant population. School is better suited for basketball or soccer for that matter, but the latter has not done well either.

You beat the 7-3 team I referred to above. That was not a bad Colonial team (certainly the best I have seen), and if I remember, the final margin of Hardee's victory was under a touchdown. I was actually at that game. Kevin (Sticky Fingers) Elliott was the receiver I referred to in my original post.

I see Southwest as being closer to Cypress Creek or Freedom and not so much Colonial. Southwest is an upper middle income area of Dade County, while Colonial is in a decidedly working class, lower/middle income neighborhood of the Orlando area. And while Hispanics are a majority of the enrollment, there are enough white and black kids there that it should not be that difficult to put together a team with enough talent to go .500 most years. Now to become a deep playoff threat, they would need to get transfers, but to have winning seasons at least half the time should be doable.