Perspective

With the NCAA granting current college kids an extra year of eligibility, how many high school athletes in this year's graduating class are feeling the squeeze and not getting the offers that they would have received in the past? Thinking all sports, not just football. I know of a couple of basketball players and one or two baseball players that likely would have received multiple offers in any other year, but coaches are holding back offers, in large part because they don't even know if they'll have scholarships available. Anyone else got a war story? What are kids doing? A post-grad year? A gap year? A year or two of community college in hopes of transferring into a D1 school once the logjam of players clears out?

I think someone already alluded to this, but things have gotten interesting up in Valdosta: https://usatodayhss.com/2021/valdosta-high-school-football-postseason-ban-fine-rush-propst-jake-garcia If you have a few minutes to spare, track down the YouTube recording of the conversation between the coach and the whistle-blowing booster.

Thanks, SportsNut. You actually confirmed for me one point that I intentionally glossed over in my original post: coaches are an integral part of the process. I'm guessing there is a correlation between coaches who participate in the process and the kids who are selected. Coaches who actively promote their kids are more like to reap the reward of seeing their kids named all-state. Without knowing anything more than what I currently know, I'm guessing that the coaches at Venice, Jesuit and Niceville (just to name a few) fall into that "active promoter" category. Again, consistent with my original theme, this is an observation, not a criticism. As a player or a parent, I would certainly want to play (or have my kid play) for a coach who is going the extra mile to promote his players.

Advance warning: this will be a long post. First and foremost, I want to give a shout-out to Josh (and any helpers he may have had) for creating the all-state teams. It no doubt takes a tremendous amount of time. I’m somewhat curious of the process: does he create his own list of candidates and then whittle it down? Does he solicit and/or accept nominations? Does he watch film on all of the nominees? Regardless of the process, I know it’s incredibly time-consuming and often time a thankless job. So, with that in mind, this post is not intended to criticize the selections or the selection process. Let me say that again: this post is not a criticism of which players got selected and which players did not (although I was left wondering how Armwood’s mountain-of-a-man Desmond Watson (DL), a UF commit, was not first, second, or third-team or even honorable mention selection in 6A, but I’ll just let that one sit here). You must be wondering now “if Perspective’s not here to bitch about the selections, what’s the purpose of his post?” Truth is, I’m not 100% sure. It’s more about my observations. It seemed to me that a very small number of schools within each classification dominated the all-state honors. (Another caveat: I didn’t look at 1A at all – sorry Madison and Jesse – and I didn’t look past Hialeah Champagnet Catholic in 2A). I realize this is a chicken-and-egg situation: are the players receiving the honors because their teams had great seasons or did the teams have great seasons because the players are so good. And, I suspect, for the most part, the answer to both questions is “yes.” But, I also always hear coaches saying that it doesn’t matter where a kid plays; if he has talent, he’ll be found. Generally, this applies to scholarships. But it doesn’t appear to apply to all-state honors. General comment: for 5A through 8A, this site selected a first-team offense and defense, a second-team offense and defense, and a third-team offense and defense. Within each group, the offense has 17 players selected (including 2 QB’s, a kicker and an “Athlete”) and the defense had 17 selected (including a punter and an “Athlete”). The site also selected numerous “honorable mention” selections. For 1A through 4A, no third team offense or defense was selected, which I get – fewer teams, fewer players. I used to be able to find the classifications from past years on fhsaa.org. Now that the site has “moved” to fhsaa.com, I can’t seem to find past year’s classifications. The only one available is for 2020-21. And this excludes all the Broward public schools and most of the Miami-Dade schools. But kids from these schools were considered for all-state honors. Notwithstanding the south-state opt-outs, 8A had 48 teams, 7A had 56 teams, 6A had 74, 5A had 69, 4A had 30 and 3A had 40. For the teams in 5A through 8A, let’s assume each team, on average, had 45 players on the roster (I suspect many had more than that, but I know several had fewer). If that’s the case, approximately 2,160 kids played football for teams in the 8A classification; 2,500 played for 7A teams, 3,300 played for 6A teams, 3,100 for 5A teams, 1,350 for 4A teams and 1,800 for 3A teams. Again, it is important to remember that these numbers do not include the vast majority of kids from Broward and Miami-Dade counties. That’s a lot of kids! So, with the above in mind, here are some of my observations: 8A: (Sanford) Seminole, Bartram Trail, Miami Columbus, Vero and Deerfield stand out. Seminole had six kids selected (including 3 first-teamers); Bartram Trail had 6 (including a total of 5 on first and second-team offense – did they ever have to punt?); Miami Columbus lead the way with 8 players on the list (including 4 first-teamers and 3 second-teamers); Vero had a total of 7 (including 3 first-teamers); and Deerfield had a total of 7 (including 5 first-teamers, 4 of which were on the defense side of the ball – how did anyone score on them this year?). Sum: 34 of the kids (probably around 25% of the total list) came from 5 schools. And because the Miami-Dade and Broward kids were included in the process, it’s not just 5 of 48 schools, but more like 5 of 60-something schools. 7A: The upper echelon of 7A can be divided up into two groups: St. Thomas Aquinas, Niceville and Venice, in the top half and Buchholz, Bloomingdale and Edgewater are in the second half. STA picked up 10 selections, including 6 first-teamers, while Niceville (4 first-teamers) and Venice (5 first-teamers) each had 12 kids selected. That’s 34 kids from 3 schools! Buchholz had 5 (including 3 on first-team offense), as did Edgewater, while Bloomingdale had 6 (including 3 on first-team O). Another way of looking at 7A: 12 of the 17 players selected to the first-team offense came from 5 schools and 9 of the 17 players on first-team defense came from the same 5 schools. That’s 21 out of 34 first-teamers from 5 of 56 schools (plus how many other schools from Miami-Dade and Broward). 6A: Three teams dominated: Miami Central with 13 (6 on 1st team O; 4 on 1st team D), Lake Minneola with 10 (including 3 first-teamers) and Lake Gibson with 9 (of which 5 were first-team). Remember, 6A had a bunch of teams: 74. And while Miami Central opted to participate in the state playoff series, most Miami-Dade/Broward schools did not (but their kids were still considered). So, from more than 74 teams, 3 teams landed a total of 32 kids on the all-state list! 5A: Of the 69 total teams (not including M-D/B), Plantation American Heritage landed 12 kids on the list (including an astonishing 11 on first team (4 on O; 7 on D). Jesuit was just behind, spreading out their 11 kids, placing at least one kid in each of the 7 categories (1st O, 1st D, 2nd O, 2nd D, 3rd O, 3rd D and Honorable Mention). 2 of the 69 schools accounted for 23 kids on the list! 4A: Cardinal Gibbons (10 total, but 9 on 1st team), Bolles (13 total; 6 on 1st team) and Belle Glades Central (12 total) dominated this group of more than 30 schools. 3 teams with 35 selections. 3A: Jacksonville Trinity Christian lead the way with 11 (5 on 1st team), Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna was close behind with 10 (including 5 on 1st team D) and Ocala Trinity Catholic had 7 (of which 4 were 1st team O). Hmm, can you imagine combining OTC’s offense with Chaminade’s defense? Of more than 40 schools, 28 all-state players came from 3 schools. 2A: All I noticed on this group was that Hialeah Champagnet Catholic had 10 kids on the list, 6 of whom were 1st team. So, what do you make of all of this? Has it always been this way? I don’t think so . . . at least not to this same degree. Does the Covid pandemic have anything to do with the selections this year? Or is this just further evidence that kids are “migrating” to essentially form geographic all-star teams? If so, is this good for Florida high school football? Haves and Have Nots? Or, is this just a case of kids at lower-echelon schools are being overlooked by sports pundits who simply don’t have the time to study tape on all the kids and all the schools? How much of the selection was based on MaxPreps stats? Are certain kids getting noticed because their coaches are more diligent in recording and updating the stats? Are some coaches taking, um, liberties with the stat books? Are really good players playing at schools with bad records getting lost in the shuffle? By the way, here’s what this site says about the selection process: “Publisher Joshua Wilson along with the consideration of information received from coaches, statistics on MaxPreps, and consultation of all-area/all-county teams as published by various media outlets from around the state.” Any thoughts on all of this? Where is this leading us? What does this say about the state of high school football in our state? Do you have to play on a championship-caliber team in order to get recognized? Will colleges and universities still find a way to find the kids who were shunned? Why does Perspective ask so many dang questions? Ball’s in your court.

Tampa Plant announced today that they have removed the 'interim' title in front of Hank Brown's name and have formally named him the new head coach.

Dang, ColumbiaHighFan, I'm don't think I've seen someone throw this much shade on Robert E. Lee since Sherman marched through Georgia. Did they snatch up some Columbia County players? Just curious.

Darter, it shouldn't be that difficult . . . Take 429 to I-4 W, then get off on Exit 33. Should take you a little over an hour.

Catch-22. Until Apopka commits to a pro-style/spread offense, no pro-style/dual-threat QB is going to want to play there. But until a pro-style/dual-threat QB comes along, Apopka isn't going to want to stray away from what has worked for them for so many years. Looks like Apopka is sticking its toes in the water, but not jumping all the way in the pool quite yet.

Darter, I thought I saw something on social media a week or so ago about Apopka abandoning the single wing offense and going to a pro-style or spread offense. But I haven't seen anything about it on this board or any others. Is it true? Any idea what finally prompted the change?

Also left wondering, did his recruiting budget increase or decrease?

A native of Queens, N.Y.; coached at Syracuse and in Minnesota. I haven't done a ton of research, but I don't see any Texas connection at all. Here's one thing I did find interesting. Here's Acosta's quote from a little over a year ago when he got the head job at IMG: " And I see this, to be honest, as my retirement job. It might be 10 years earlier than I wanted this, but I’m 45 years old, and you spend the next 20 years down here ... this place is just going to keep on growing. We’re going to talk about a junior elite team. You don’t know where this can go. I see this as a final destination, to be honest." (emphasis added). So, here's my take: I would very skeptical of this guy any time he says "to be honest."

I guess this is the big question: what did the former head coach of IMG get paid vs. what will the new head coach at Del Valle get paid. I suspect everyone on this board knows how ridiculously underpaid high school coaches in Florida are (especially public school coaches), but I guess I always assumed that IMG was different and that the head coach there made pretty good bank. I'd be curious what the numbers are. If not for more money, why else would Acosta have left IMG?

Green, as in the color of money.

It's being reported on social media that IMG head football coach Bobby Acosta is leaving IMG (after winning the mythical national championship this past year) to accept the head football coaching job at Del Valle H.S. in Texas. If he had left any other school in Florida, my immediate thought would be "money." But I'm guessing IMG pays their head coach decent money. Anyone know anything about the back story? If not, feel free to speculate and make stuff up. Also, I wonder what domino effect this will have in Florida.

"Recruits" or "transfers?"

I didn't know you could leave someplace before you ever even got there.

The opening line according to Jesse's Sportsbook has MadCo favored by 14.

Nolebull, I'm really not all that surprised that you were reading the newspaper in 1921, but I am super impressed that you can still remember what you read.

I appreciate the response. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is how the 3A "powerhouse private schools" get to be powerhouse schools and what's keeping some other school with similar student population numbers from becoming one of those schools in the future.

By doing what? Seriously, how do you level the playing field?

I bet you're right about that . . . but odds are, you've done it once or twice yourself. In fact, I'll set the over/under at four.

HornetFan, you make some great points. However, I don't think the two concepts are mutually exclusive. I think coaches can be in it because they have a love for the game and a passion for helping kids and, at the same time, be fairly compensated for their time and efforts. It's just a matter of finding that sweet spot.

Unlike message board administrators, members of the Grammar Police Department are all self-appointed volunteers. They do not have the power to arrest -- only to embarrass and point out mistakes (like adding an apostrophe "s" to the word "District" to make the word possessive instead of plural, as was no doubt intended). The risk, of course, is people tend to have long memories and will instantly pounce on any grammatical mistakes, misspellings, etc. that a grammar policeman makes in the future. Also, they do not carry a firearm; instead, they typically carry an armory of red pens to circle errors. And, just in case you were wondering, the pay stinks and the benefits are virtually non-existent . . . kind of like high school football coaches in Florida (see how I brought that back around to topic deserving of attention?).

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know off hand what the over/under number is?

Madison County may have asked the FHSAA to wait a few more weeks so they could move a few more students over to the neighboring charter school and keep their student population under the dividing line between 1A and 2A.