Perspective

I think Plant joins the "almost club" with two such wins (67-7 over Lakewood in 2008 and 77-16 over Alonso in 2009). While I'm sure STA has a few lopsided opening round wins, I'll put my money on Cocoa.

Which begs the question: why isn't the Tampa Bay area considered to be "Central Florida?" It's really not part of either north or south Florida. For media purposes, I understand that the greater Tampa Bay area has its own identity, just like Orlando does. But when you're talking high school sports, it seems like Tampa Bay is more Central than South or North.

I may be missing your point. Wouldn't one of the signs of a good offense be the ability to come up with multiple plays, week in and week out, where the offense is able to get the ball to their best/fastest athlete in open space?

Hmmmm, almost sounds like one team wanted to slow the other team down a little bit.

Just curious . . . how far back did you go on this one?

I give Pahokee all the credit in the world for coming up with what may be the toughest schedule in the state this year. From my experience, having to play really tough games week in and week out takes its toll on even the deepest of teams. Injuries are part of the game, but when you match up against tough opponents (and, I suspect, in some, if not many of the games, teams that are bigger), players are going to get hurt. I really have no idea how large of a roster Pahokee has, but because they're a 1A team, I'm guessing they're not particularly deep. A combination of multiple losses and an accumulation of injuries could easily take its toll on Pahokee and keep them from winning a title despite their abundance of talent.

Thank you. So, to my point, almost half the teams returned for Day 2, lost their opening game in the tournament bracket and then had to pack it up and head home. The "guaranty" of playing only one game on Day 2 might not be enough to warrant a team on limited resources from paying for hotel rooms or mobilizing the squad for a return trip. Just something for the organizers to consider . . . especially if they truly want to make this a state-wide tournament. If nothing else, consider a loser's bracket, perhaps with the winner of the loser's bracket getting the final spot in the Elite 8. In other words, make it worth the effort for teams to return on Day 2.

Was it pool play on Day 1 and bracket play on Day 2? If so, I can kind of understand why a team from an hour away might not be real keen on getting all the kids together (some of whom may have to miss a second day of work) for what could turn out to be one 20-25 minute game (especially if they're matched up against a really strong team in the opening round). Smarter approach (in my view) for a 2-day tournament is to continue pool play onto the second day (so that traveling teams know that they'll get to play at least three more games on Day 2), then take a lunch break to set up the brackets and start bracket play after the break. If this tournament was set up that way, then I don't have much respect for the teams that didn't show up Day 2 (unless they made it clear to the organizers from the start that they could only play Day 1).

Why?

That's an impressive schedule.

That is one of the downsides, but it could possibly be offset by the fact that college coaches (from teams whose seasons have ended or even from teams that are in bowl games) could actually attend the high school games without having to leave at the end of the first quarter to rush back for their own Saturday game. They could even attend practices. Same with basketball: coaches could attend more games because their season will not have started yet. The other reason why some people wouldn't like it is because it would likely eliminate OOS games and, thus, the opportunity to compete for a mythical national championship. Not to get all melodramatic, but last week a kid from Tampa died during summer workouts. I just saw on Twitter that the same thing just happened to another a 15-year kid in Louisiana. Without opening up a political debate, the science behind global warming may ultimately lead the folks in charge of high school and youth sports to look more closely at when certain outdoor activities are taking place.

I like the idea of August and September games having a later start time (8:00, 8:30). Many times, that's about what time the games start anyway because of weather delays. But (and not to completely change the subject of this thread), I'm also the guy who thinks Florida ought to go rogue and switch football and basketball seasons . . . play the indoor game when it's hot and stormy outside and then play the outdoor game when the weather in Florida is just right for football. But, I'll save more on that for a later date.

Looks like Vanguard is the top team, with Columbia and Steinbrenner battling it out for bridesmaid honors. A lot of north/central Florida teams . . . not exactly a "statewide" tournament (based on teams participating). What's the scoring system? I see a few odd 7 on 7 scores. I'm guessing traditional scoring with 3 points for an INT?

But you can learn so much more useless information (that will no doubt change over the next two months) and waste so much more time if you just go to MaxPreps and start randomly clicking on various teams and their schedules.

I don't know yet. If I find out one way or the other, I'll post it here.

OK, I give up. I was trying to post a screenshot I took last night of a Twitter post from on the Tampa Bay Times sports reporters and I just can't seem to figure out how to do it (file size always too big). In any event, the original tweet came from a 10K.sam and it reads: "Dear Lakeland high school can y'all stop calling my people I am not going to Lakeland i am loyal to my school lake Gibson @LHSDreadnaughts" Interesting.

The problem is that not every school plays by the same rules, at least not in Hillsborough County. In theory, any family can move into a particular school's district and then be able to attend that school. Also, that same family can stay right where they are and their kid still has the right/ability to attend any other school in the district/county, with one major caveat: the school cannot be at or above capacity. So, a school in a less densely populated part of the County with a mediocre academic reputation/ranking, that is not at capacity, can accommodate an unlimited number of transferring students. Whereas a school in a more populated area with a strong academic reputation/ranking, that has been over capacity for years, can only accommodate a transfer if that kid's family moves into the district. And, of course, private schools can do whatever the heck they want to and, thus, can accommodate any kid they want to whenever they want to regardless of where the family lives. Free agency doesn't work unless all schools are playing on the same, level playing field and that simply isn't the case. My guess is that Lakeland, for example, would see far fewer transfers if kids who want to transfer into Lakeland actually had to move into the Lakeland district. That's not a knock on Lakeland; it's just a reminder that not all public schools are in the same 'boat.' That assumption is based on some quick research that indicates that Lakeland's student population is well below capacity. If I'm wrong on that, please correct me with the right info.

Pinecrest? Won the title in 1969 and then closed three years later.

#3 - Armwood ('03, '04 and '11 with an asterisk), Blake ('69), Jefferson ('10), Jesuit ('68), and Plant ('06, '08, '09, and '11).

What a coincidence that five players would all decide, independently and with no nudging, to transfer to the same high school.

Ray Ray's younger brother, Jordan, has a chance to earn the starting QB job at USF this year.

Yeah, that was one of the sites I had seen. Perhaps it would have been clearer if I had said that I had not found a 'proprietary website devoted exclusively to the Guy Toph Award' (like, www.guytoph.com).

Brothers Andre and Reche Caldwell. Both played at Jefferson High School in Tampa and both went on the play college football at UF. Obviously, Andre played with Denver (along with a couple other NFL teams) and Reche played for the Patriots (along with a couple of other NFL teams).

In answer to your last question, Davis is playing at the University of Florida, where he hopes to rebound from an early-season, season-ending knee injury.