Sharkbait

Not sure of any. This camp was part of the Bishop Dullegan group but is now independent. This my son's 3rd year at the camp he loves it and the kids get to work with coaches from all over so the exposure is great. They usually have about 400 kids per camp with at least 1 coach per 10 players. You get players from all over Florida with some out of state players as well.

A game like that is tough to start the season with both teams still trying to get their feet under them. On the plus side a win can really propel to great things.

Down and Dirty lineman camp started today in Lake Wales. Great camp for the guys in the trenches. If you are able to make it they have individual competition (board drills, one one pass blocking/run blocking etc) and awards on Thursday for the first camp and Sunday for the second camp. I don't know if there are any slots left for the weekend camp if you have a player interested give them a call. There is a lot of D1 talent there so it is a good measuring stick for your guys. It will give you that football fix if you need one.

You guys are obviously doing a lot of things right you just have to find what it is that's keeping you from getting over the hump. Most schools would trade places with you right now and be ecstatic to have the quality of program you have. Some schools are only satisfied when they hoist a trophy and only 8 out of 600 schools are going to do that. There is a formula but usually your talent will ebb and flow over the years.

I imagine if you looked closely at all championship caliber schools from rural areas that they are all using a very similar recipe for success.

Those are gonna be some great games. If only I were closer and free on friday nights.

That is exactly what you will have to do to get to that next level. Columbia has a rich tradition and lots of talent but you are at a disadvantage to teams that can recruit. Get everyone(Coaches, Players, Administration,and Community) to buy in to the fact that to contend you are going to have to work harder than any of your competitors and not settle for less than the top. If you can cherry-pick your players it's less difficult to win but you guys will have to develop elite players and that starts with your youth league coaches being in sync with your high school coaches. The good news is y'all a very close.

Columbia is in the unenviable position of being a rural 7A school. It does make it tough to compete for titles with the schools that can recruit. On the plus side with a school with that kind of community support you can raise the money needed to hire quality coaches and keep state of the art training facilities. You will always be successful and be in the hunt for titles when the cards fall right and that's more than 90% of schools could hope for.

After watching the video I think that they are about to screw up high school football for a while. I felt like he was trying to talk everyone into a pyramid scheme or a time share condo. It baffles me that Nebraska is going to be the standard of high school football that we need to pattern ourselves after. Oh and 70% of the schools don't like the system as it is, I would imagine thats the 70% that didn't make the playoffs.

Okay here goes. Since sflacoach is picking up the check we will be dining at Berns Steakhouse. John Palmer -(Port St Joe) my son plays for him Sean Callahan-(Armwood) my alma mater Kerwin Bell-(Valdosta State) favorite player Steve Spurrier- made the Gators relavent Bobby Bowden- someone has to say dadgummit Lou Holtz- The most entertaining speaker you can find Tony Dungee- great man and we will let him bless the food Don Shula- legend Rex Ryan- when dinner is over gotta have somebody to run the streets with Wil Muschamp- Somebody has to park the cars and wash dishes

I don't mind the wildcard or seeding based on strength of schedule but I do believe in districts and district champs going to the playoffs. District play allows for local rivalries to mean something more than bragging rights. I do think the districts need to be more geographically aligned and with as equal a number of teams as possible. I also believe we need to keep geographic regions and not have Baker traveling to Ft Meade or Pahokee traveling to Vernon for an early round playoff game. It is very expensive for schools to make a playoff run its generally a financial negative. We also don't really have a way to measure how good someone is during the season without head to head match-ups or common opponent and that generally doesn't take place between the regions in 1A at least. Last year we did have an early match-up of the state finalists when PSJ and Trenton played in September but that rarely happens. By the way they will be playing again this fall on September 9th so make your hotel reservations now lol.

Who is paying for this dinner? If I have to pay I'm inviting light eaters.

The problem I see is that you don't know how good someone will be 2 years from when you schedule them. Should a school be punished for an opponent falling on hard times. District play has worked for years. Power shifts from region to region over the years and that's okay. What we don't need is a BCS type system for high school. We are all biased to teams in our particular areas and there's no reason to believe that whoever determining the strength of schedule and power rankings won't have a bias. If you want to introduce a wild card or something like that then we could take a look.

I'm not sure if I'd say NoFla is watered down as much as there are just so many more schools in the South and Central regions. North Florida has- 8A just 5 teams out of 89, 7A 13 out of 86, 6A 17 out of 79, 5A 26 out of 82, 4A 14 out 40, 3A 7 out of 29, 2A 6 out of 31, 1A 35 out of 40. The problem this creates for the larger schools is scheduling teams your size. You end up playing smaller schools and if you are way better your premier players are getting pulled before they get the work they need to be their best. When you get deeper into the playoffs you go against South Fla teams that have a battle every week. I think that makes sense.

Hey Cap I think the only thing I would do is maybe move Trenton to 1st tier based on last years performance. The 2nd and third tier teams are so close one play may be the difference. I know PSJ and Trenton will both have question marks but their meeting in week 3 should answer a lot of them. Blountstown is always well coached and tough so you can never count them out in the north. Darkhorse out of the south, Jefferson County just for old times sake.

In my opinion there needs to be some adjustments at all levels I just don't want to see teams rewarded for sucking.

Yeah but then how weak would 6A north be?

Yep, I think so. The teams consistently winning 3 or fewer games per year need to address whether it is coaching or lack of talent or whatever and decide if it can or should be fixed. It takes community support and a good bit of money to be successful in football. If you can't pay your coaches and assistants and have up to date equipment and facilities the players will be somewhere else.

Open enrollment is going change high school sports quite a bit. I think a lot of the smaller private schools and public schools with historically non-competitive programs are going to have to step it up if they want to keep football going. If a kid wants to play at the next level or just wants to be part of a winning team and they live close enough to another school that provides that opportunity you can't blame them. In the past families have had to move to the next county or enroll in private schools but with open enrollment this changes everything. I think we will see the rich get richer and the possibility of perennial losers having to drop football. I guess it will all play out.

I am sure all consistently successful teams are hated on some level by nearby schools and their fans, that's just the price for being good. Some teams are hated for dirty play and cheap shots but that usually depends on which side of the hit you are on. I personally try not to hold anything against the teams (players and coaches) but there are teams with notoriously obnoxious fans cussing and threatening refs and opposing coaches and players and generally being rude to opposing fans, I'm sure we all know some of those teams.

The 2015 Trenton team was unbelievably good. People get hung up on classification but there are 1A schools that can compete with anybody. The problem is in 1A it may be 10 years or more before there is another team that good. If you haven't watched them in person there is no way you can appreciate how good they are. I know our boys played 3A and 4A playoff teams this year and dominated them our only two losses were to Trenton and it was over in the 2nd quarter of both games. They had size, speed, quickness, depth and great coaching. You still have a lot of 1A schools that are having to start 8th graders and dressing 15 kids but the top ten programs should not be dismissed just because they are smaller schools.

Franklin County promoted their JV coach Randy Brock to replace Tim Mathis as Head Coach of Varsity. This is their 5th coach in 9 years.

Bragg would be great. It is a little dated but is a very good facility. Our boys played FAMU high there last year and it had a great atmosphere.

Orlando has a very nice facility but for the 1A championship it felt way to big and that was with two teams with fan bases that travel well. I feel that your team is in the championship game you attend no matter if it's in Pensacola or Key West (key west sounds good). Orlando is about 6 hours for us. Tally or Lake city are closer but a long drive for South Fla schools. Where you are playing your state championship game is a good problem to have.

Port St. Joe @ Florida High. See if a rough and tough summer gets these young guys ready to step up. The most interesting game will be Wakulla @ Trenton. Both teams have to replace some key guys. Just judging from scrimmaging with Wakulla at FCA camp last summer and playing Trenton twice my money would be on Trenton by a couple of scores.