HornetFan

Seminole (Sanford) Miami Palmetto Edgewater St. Thomas Aquinas Lake Minneola Miami Central Dunnellon American Heritage (Plantation)

Orange County last year: Edgewater (7A), Apopka (8A), and Jones (5A)

I think the "tweener" description fits Osceola very well. There are very few high school football fans in the Central Florida area that do not respect Osceola as a football school. The problem Osceola has is that they are in 8A-4, a region that is more representative of Tampa than Orlando, but they are too far from Tampa to draw a fan base from that area. They're in Osceola County with teams that are nowhere near the competition that Osceola should be playing, and games against those teams will draw little or no media coverage in either Orlando or Tampa.

1 Alabama 2 Notre Dame 3 Ohio St 6 Florida 9 Miami 11 Georgia 13 Oklahoma 17 USC 18 Wisconsin

And that would have been fine. If they were successful, it would have been because of their play, not an official over-reacting to a "bang bang" glancing hit that didn't hurt anyone.

If money is a problem, just move one official from the field up to the booth; that will just mean one less official on the field effecting play. It's hard to argue money being a problem when fans were being admitted to games this regular season at no cost, and that was with attendance being severely limited. I can see it will do no good to debate with you on this because you are obviously an official or former official, and in my opinion, you have an inflated view of the importance of officials. I don't think they should ever effect the outcome of the game, but they often do just that.

I'm not hung up on titles; I'll leave that to people that feel such titles are relevant. I'm one of those fans that think if officials are noticeable, especially near the end of a game, they're doing too much. In the case of Boone - VB, it would have been 4th down and 10 to go for a 1st down. VB would probably have punted instead of having an official extend their possession. As for paying for the technology necessary to review calls, these games are already being broadcast and taped. It wouldn't take much to have an official in the booth and let them review the play, just like professional officials do during college and NFL games.

CLASS 8A Seminole (Sanford) Apopka Miami Palmetto Osceola (Kissimmee) CLASS 7A Niceville Edgewater Bloomingdale St. Thomas Aquinas CLASS 6A St. Augustine Lake Minneola Lake Gibson Miami Central CLASS 5A Baker County Dunnellon Jones American Heritage (Plantation) CLASS 4A Bolles Cardinal Gibbons CLASS 3A Trinity Christian Chaminade-Madonna CLASS 2A University Christian Champagnat Catholic CLASS 1A Baker Madison County

This happens at other schools in the state. I've seen several instances of this in the past few years right here in Central Florida.

Over the years, I've seen more talented kids suffer in youth football because of coaches practicing "Daddy Ball". but this is the first "Grandma Ball" that I've heard of.

I took my grandson to the UCF camp for linemen, not this Summer (Covid), but the previous Summer. STA brought about 10 of their linemen to the camp. I couldn't believe that one HS team had so many kids that big and that talented. More than half of them were at least 6'4" or 6'5" and athletic, and all seemed to be at least 275 pounds or more. It was an impressive display of size and talent.

Yeah, and garbage men are now called sanitary engineers; the label "ref" is not what is important here. You used the term "referee" two sentences later. The WR wasn't hit head on; it was a glancing hit and it wasn't at top speed. You say, "no Referee who is worth a darn is going to overrule any other official when it comes to player safety"; if that is so, why do they have booth reviews in college and the NFL? Targeting, supposedly the most heinous penalty in football when it comes to player safety, is reviewed each time an official calls it, and many times the reviewer overturns the call of the official on the field. The officials on the field in college and pro games are supposed to be the most competent officials in the sport and they can be overturned. HS officials, who are part-time officials, make mistakes all the time and they should not be subject to review? That's ridiculous, especially when a bad call can determine not only the outcome of the game, but the end of the season for a team.

Apopka Pop Warner organization is probably one of the best run youth football programs in Central Florida, if not the best. Also, their facilities are amazing.

I understand that it makes no difference in the rules if a ball is catchable or not. I still say the call was a bad call. You said in a response above that "The DB clearly led with his shoulder a few seconds after he was able to see that the the receiver had not caught the ball, the pass was incomplete, and the play was over". When that ball sailed over the WR's head, the two players were less than five yards apart. Two players travelling towards each other cover that short distance in a split second, not a few seconds. Also, from the video, it appears the DB had his eyes down on the WR, not the ball. He may not have realized the ball had sailed out of bounds. In real time, this appeared to be a bang-bang play that should not have been called a penalty. I still think the ref was making up for a missed called a few plays earlier and a referee should never let that happen, but they do.

Good, but not very good.

Ok, maybe the announcer wasn't begging for calls for VB, but he sure was blinded as a fan in calling that a penalty. This is football and when two players' momentum carries them towards a common spot and they bump after the ball has already be thrown out of bounds (as your two photos obviously show), it should not be called a penalty. I have a few teams that I root for in the Orlando area (Winter Park and Bishop Moore) and a few others that I respect (Edgewater, Jones, Seminole, and Apopka) because their programs are very strong and they all have a very good chance to getting to the state championship games, but I don't consider Boone as being in that class and don't really care if a better team beat them without the aid of a bad call. I just think they got hosed on a bad call that may have been influenced by a non-call a few plays earlier.

I looked closely at the "pre-Hit" and "Hit". Both players continued for about two yards towards each other and they bumped. The time between the two photos is a fraction of a second. The ref blew it.

That announcer was a "homer" begging for help from the official. The ball was uncatchable and the penalty should not have been called; I think the ref believed he may have owed them one from the incidental contact a few plays before downfield. From the angle the DB came, he couldn't see if the ball was caught or not, and all he did was bump the receiver to make sure he was out of bounds, besides that, it wasn't a bad hit, more a love tap. A bad call.

I think this Edgewater's year to bring the state championship home to Orlando. It will probably be a rematch with STA, but with a different result this year. We may have multiple champions in Orlando this year with Apopka/Seminole winner (I know I'm looking ahead ) and Jones also looking strong. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Too often DB's lose track of the ball and rather than being beat for a TD, they commit a personal foul or pass interference violation; 15 yard penalty but no score for opponents. The DB is "on an island" with that receiver and every mistake gets magnified. It's a tough position to play. At least his penalty was part of the play. What drives me crazy are penalties for holding or blocking in the back that are committed away from the actual play, especially on kickoffs.

Lake Mary has a QB who can move the ball through the air; I'm sure that the Apopka coaches are looking at that because it could bite Apopka in this next game. In the 1st half of the WP game, WP had WR's wide open down field on 5 occasions and our QB overthrew them each time by 15-20 yards. The LM QB is a much better passer than the WP QB. If Apopka can control the LM QB, this should be a 2 or 3 TD win for Apopka.

High school football is different now as compared to the dinosaur days. In the old days, we played multiple sports throughout the year. Today's best HS athletes tend to specialize with one sport and train in that sport year round; the multi-sport athlete is a rare commodity these days. The kids today are much more athletic and talented than when I was in high school; they dominate the playing field and get the vast majority of playing time. The kids that take the less seriously are normally standing on the sideline watching the game with those of us in the stands. The best gravitate to the best; they play 7v7 in the winter and spring together and they recruit their teammates from less dominant HS teams to join them in the Fall. They build strong HS teams and dominate their districts. It's nice to be the best player on your team, but you're not going to beat a team filled with all-start talent.

If Bartram gets past Seminole in the next round, they will be a worthy opponent for Apopka, who should get past Lake Mary as long as they're not looking ahead to the next week.

With the virus and the FHSAA allowing all teams to go in the playoffs, it shouldn't be surprising when we see a major blowout here and there.

The Apopka DL against Winter Park was pretty tough too. I think changing the offense against WP was a great move by Apopka coaches as it freed up the QB and game him room to maximize his running skills. He was the difference in that game. I don't think he would have had that running room in the single wing. Good luck to Apopka the rest of the way. I look forward to keeping them on my radar; they're a threat to go all the way..