Perspective

Not an apologist for Bartram Trail, but they finished second in their district with one district loss, behind the district winner and top seed in the region, Buchholz. If BT had beaten Buchholz, there's a very good chance that Buchholz would have been in the same position that BT is in now: 3rd seed in the Region, having to travel from Gainesville to 6th-seeded, but district champ, Navarre, for the first round game and then traveling the following week to #2 seed Niceville for the second round game. Bottom line: it's just a really, really big region, so travel is inevitable.

Road Warriors!!! (screams every team that has to travel more than 100 miles to play a post-season game . . . but in this case, if BT can pull off the road win twice in two weeks, the phrase may have some legitimacy).

Of course, all of this "ideal scheduling" talk means very little in a county like Hillsborough where the County AD does the lion's share of the scheduling for all public schools.

I can see both sides of this issue. In theory, I think you try to schedule at least one team that you suspect is either better than you are or that will play a style similar to the team that will stand in the way of a title run. That said, I pulled out the two quotes above for a reason: while it may go on, I find it troubling that people talk openly about "recruit[ing] better players," and "recruiting this off-season." Recruiting is illegal. It's against the rules. Period. Longtime Observer, I'm not picking on you. Others have said it, too, in other threads. You just happened to say it in this thread. That said, if you know the team you support is openly recruiting (and not just attracting transfers because of the success they've had), you're supporting the wrong team.

Coach, I don't know you other than through the forum, but I feel like I know who you are. Programs are like kids. You gave the Poinciana program everything you had and, understandably, you want to see your 'child' continue to grow and prosper. But you have no control over what happens next. That said, take comfort in the lives that you changed for the better while you were there and know that the "real" kids will played for you will benefit for the rest of their lives because of what they learned under your leadership and tutelage. Move on and don't look back. Best of luck in your next chapter.

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I'm pretty sure that's been the rule for a long time. Good coaches anticipate such things and take adequate precautions.

For what it's worth, if any of the Kathleen athletes play other sports, under FHSAA rules, a suspension which extends beyond the football season would carry over to the next sport they play. Just out of curiosity, what would your solution be to a hypothetical scenario where players from two teams each get a five-game suspension, but one player's season ends after the second game while the other team's season continues? It wouldn't be right to cut the other player's suspension short just because his team still has games left, would it?

Badbird, here's my perspective: the first incident warranted a stoppage and an indirect free kick for the white team, but in my opinion did not warrant a yellow card. What's the rule in high school soccer? Does a player who picks up a yellow card have to come off the field for some period of time? Or did that player already have a yellow and just picked up his second yellow (which would result in a red)? Either way, that was a minor foul and did not warrant a card, and ejection or a suspension. Again, the only caveat would be that the ref gave him a yellow card when he was already playing with a yellow card, which resulted in a red card, which qualifies as an ejection for which the handbook says a suspension must be given. As for the second incident, #7 white was clearly playing the role of instigator and definitely flopped. If anything, that player -- and not the defender -- should have picked up a yellow card. Having said all that, I will tell you that football ejections/suspensions are treated differently than all the other sports in the FHSAA Handbook. It's almost as if they know the nature of the game of football is going to lead to skirmishes and fights which, in turn, will lead to ejections. And I think they recognize the football season is typically the shortest season in terms of games played. Therefore, it doesn't make sense to suspend football players the same number of games as other sports, as you will then be suspending a football player a much larger percentage of his or her season than in other sports (a suspension of 3 games would be 30% of a 10-game season, but only 12.5% of a 24-game season).

From the Lakeland Ledger: "FHSAA officials confirmed that 12 players from both Lakeland and Kathleen were suspended as a result of a fight that broke out at the beginning of the third quarter when the two teams met on Oct. 27. Kathleen players sat out last week, while Lakeland players will miss Friday night's home playoff game against New Port Richey Mitchell in the Class 4S, Region 2 quarterfinals." . . . "Polk County athletic director Dan Talbot said most of the suspensions were for one week, although a couple of players received two weeks suspension. The punishments were lighter than they could have been, he said, because the schools meted out their own punishments first." Lakeland officials couldn't/wouldn't disclose what the punishment was because of "privacy laws."

Smart man. More likely to 'predict' the winner doing it that way.

I plan to get my picks in by 4:59 on Friday (right after I confer with the South Florida bookies). In other words, I'll get my picks in about an hour or two before Josh gets his in.

Darter, I understand your reluctance to name schools or coaches in this forum. However, I'd be interested in hearing about some of the promises/incentives being offered up (even if you have to change the names to protect the, um, guilty).

There are definitely kids out there transferring to get a better fit/opportunity, but to suggest that kids aren't being recruited (by coaches, parents, boosters, other players, etc.) is disingenuous, at best, and flat out wrong, at a minimum.

I'm not sure it really matters where a coach hits a player if it is done out of anger or frustration.

Look on the bright side, Nolebull: come next week, you've already got 4 of your games picked out.

I'm so confused. Did the person on the sideline (in the second part of the clip) have anything to do with why the coach gut-punched his player? Did the coach get arrested in the middle of the game? The only thing that makes sense in this clip is that the coach had the good sense to hit the player in the stomach/solar plexes instead of his helmet. Of course, I kid about the coach hitting the player. Absolutely no excuse for that. None.

I always prefer when my QB throws more TD's than INT's.

Every team in the state should hope for the 'inconvenience' of having to do a walk-through practice on Thanksgiving Day because they have a playoff game the next night.

Ironically, if that same coach used that same hand to strike the same player in the same head/shoulder area during pre-game warm-ups, it would likely be celebrated on social media as a passionate coach getting his player psyched up before kick-off. The problem for this [now former] coach is that he clearly struck the kid (wherever he may have struck him) out of anger and frustration. On the one hand, you can argue that the firing prevented a future situation that could have been much worse. On the other hand, and assuming there was no other past actions that warranted scrutiny or discipline, I'd be inclined to suspend the coach a game or two and make it clear if he ever struck another kid, he'd be fired on the spot. Last point from me: I've said on a couple of occasions that I don't understand players who try to punch an opponent who is wearing a helmet and shoulder pads. I guess I don't understand coaches who do it either.

I am not a fan of the Open-32 Championship idea. I'd be much more in favor of an Open (fill in the number) division that teams could decide in advance of a season whether they wanted to participate in it or not.

https://www.fox13news.com/news/video-jesuit-high-school-assistant-football-coach-fired-after-being-caught-on-camera-punching-player Yahoo picked up this story and it's interesting to read the comments. Half of them are like, "dang, my coach used to do a lot worse than that . . . we're too soft now." The other half are like "A high school coach can't ever punch/strike a player. Period." Very little middle ground.

Ditto.

I need a refresher . . . does the FHSAA continue to publish a Power Ranking now that the regular season is over and the brackets have been set? What purpose, if any, would it serve (other than to generate further debate as to the unknown factors that are used to create it)?

Ray, remember, however, that MaxPreps uses point differential as a factor; Florida reportedly does not.