The Heartland Archives

@nolebull813 @SportsFan Hi guys, let's remember this is a high school football forum and this specific thread is regarding 2024 schedules, let's please keep it to that and be respectful to others, even to those who we may dislike or disagree with. I thought we're all grown adults here, but you two are acting childish by calling others names and saying they have a low IQ, I'm not saying you have to like PC Gridiron but at least show some respect, PC Gridiron is very knowledgeable about Polk County football and does a lot to help and promote high school athletics in his county. Yes, Kathleen has been awful the last several years and I agree with you they would have lost to most JV teams in the state, but PC Gridiron is still technically correct by referring to them as a large school, Kathleen is Class 5A compared to Victory Christian who's Class 1A. By the way, I'm not going to name names, but I know several people who have either been banned or quit this board and promised to never return, but are still on here under different usernames. Anyways, thank you for hearing me out, I hope you have a good night. By the way, @SportsFan, PC Gridiron wanted me to pass this message along to you: "Hey SportsFan Lake Wales just scored on Columbia again."

Hmmm....???? Wildwood entered their schedule on MaxPreps last week and it lists Hardee playing at Wildwood on October 4, but Ocoee posted a schedule on Instagram yesterday listing Hardee playing at Ocoee on Saturday, October 5. October 4/5 is week 7. Interestingly, both Hardee and Ocoee posted on the FHSAA classifieds asking for a week 8 game. Wildwood's schedule on MaxPreps: https://www.maxpreps.com/fl/wildwood/wildwood-wildcats/football/24-25/schedule/ Ocoee's schedule on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/C5MfvvXxlXc/ Wildwood is Class 1 Rural, they are in Sumter County and are about halfway between Gainesville and Lakeland. Ocoee on the other hand is a huge Class 7A school in the Orlando area, they were in Class 4M the last two years and in 2022 they lost to Miami Columbus 41-36 in the Class 4M State Semifinals. I wonder which one Hardee is playing?

Three team districts???? What about two team districts? Class 1S-District 6 has only two teams: Cardinal Mooney (Sarasota) and John Carroll Catholic (Fort Pierce). It's very ridiculous there's actually a district with only two teams. https://www.maxpreps.com/m/league/default.aspx?leagueid=35cc5fa4-2c8e-409c-b292-6221ec785aba&ssid=e46d33f9-793e-4697-a968-d0f08f92017c http://floridahsfootball.com/schedules/#google_vignette

Then why did one of Port Charlotte's assistant coaches told me that Manatee’s starting QB transferred to Port Charlotte back in January? There are even people at the FLA Varsity board discussing this: https://flavarsity.forums.rivals.com/threads/couple-of-charlotte-county-football-notes.10369/ And MaxPreps, Hudl, and Twitter shows that Johnny Squitieri transferred to Port Charlotte as well: MaxPreps: https://www.maxpreps.com/fl/port-charlotte/port-charlotte-pirates/athletes/johnny-squitieri/?careerid=vdltl6taisvee Hudl: https://www.hudl.com/profile/13654082/Johnny-Squitieri Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/JohnnySquitieri So it appears Manatee’s starting QB did transferred to Port Charlotte, unless you don't consider Johnny Squitieri as Manatee’s starting QB from last season. But if Johnny Squitieri wasn't Manatee’s starting QB from last season, then why did one of Port Charlotte's assistant coaches told me that?

I am friends with one of Port Charlotte's assistant coaches and he disagrees with your comment about Manatee fielding their best team in a decade. He told me that Manatee’s starting QB transferred to Port Charlotte back in January. This is his reply to your comment: "Well their run/pass quarterback is in our weightroom. We smoked them last year." And I think he expects Port Charlotte to beat Manatee again this upcoming season. Also, he's very surprised that Manatee is going to play Miami Northwestern during Week 1 this upcoming season, because again their starting QB transferred to Port Charlotte. He also said Port Charlotte called Venice and they asked to play y'all week one, but Venice said Port Charlotte would hurt their strength of schedule, so y'all said no.

WOW! I was looking at MaxPreps and ScoreStream earlier, and it appears Cape Coral Mariner is about to play 3 games in the span of just one week. They beat DeSoto 10-7 this past Friday, they beat East Lee County 17-7 yesterday (Monday), and they will play Ida Baker this upcoming Friday. It appears the East Lee County game may originally have been an earlier game and was postponed to yesterday due to weather. I would like to get people's thoughts on this. What are your thoughts on this regarding the health, safety, and well-being of high school students? It's one thing to do it at the professional or college level, but it's another thing to do it at high school level. Also, do you think the start of the high school football regular season in Florida should be pushed backed to prevent situations like this? A lot of high school football games in Florida are usually postponed or canceled in the first couple of weeks of the season due to weather. • https://www.maxpreps.com/fl/cape-coral/mariner-tritons/football/schedule/

MaxPreps is a big mess. Here's an example.... • Palmetto Ridge has both Hardee and Lake Gibson scheduled for September 16 on MaxPreps. • Lake Gibson has both Lee County GA and Palmetto Ridge scheduled for September 16 on MaxPreps. • Lee County GA has both Lake Gibson and North Miami Beach scheduled for September 16 on MaxPreps. And that's not all, I've seen a lot of mistakes on other teams' schedules on MaxPreps as well. Also there's still a lot of teams who have incomplete schedules on MaxPreps even though the start of the regular season is about 6 or 7 weeks away.

@VeniceIndiansFootball North Port will be in Suburban Class 4A and Island Coast will be in Suburban Class 3A. Also @Hwy17, Bartow and Charlotte will both be in Suburban Class 4A, not Suburban Class 3A.

@Nulli Secundus Under the new classification plan, Suburban Class 2A is any school with an enrollment of 601-1442 that's NOT located in any of Florida's eight most densely populated counties. The enrollment of the 17 schools mentioned by Hwy17 are: • Avon Park, Enrollment: 902 • Bayshore, Enrollment: 1389 • Bishop Verot, Enrollment: 748 • Booker, Enrollment: 1293 • Clewiston, Enrollment: 963 • DeSoto, Enrollment: 1242 • Discovery, Enrollment: 881 • Estero, Enrollment: 1359 • Fort Meade, Enrollment: 781 • Frostproof, Enrollment: 1119 • Hardee, Enrollment: 1385 • LaBelle, Enrollment: 1368 • Lakeland Christian, Enrollment: 651 • Lake Placid, Enrollment: 827 • Lemon Bay, Enrollment: 1233 • Mulberry, Enrollment: 1215 • Tenoroc, Enrollment: 1073

I've realized that Osceola and St. Cloud have claimed their rivalry to be the fifth oldest high school football rivalry in Florida for several years now, but I actually think it's either the third or fourth oldest instead. The reason why I say this is because Sebring and Avon Park, which was considered to be the third oldest rivalry in Florida, ended their rivalry a couple years ago. Anyways, did you know that Hardee vs DeSoto County is the oldest high school football rivalry in Florida? Hardee and DeSoto have been playing each other every single year since 1921, and there were two games played in 1923 and two games played in 1924. So this November 5 will be the 103rd straight game played between Hardee and DeSoto. The second oldest high school football rivalry in Florida is St. Augustine vs Palatka, they have been playing each other every single year since 1922.

https://www.si.com/college/ucf/high-school-football/fixing-fl-hs-fb-recruiting-issues

I was looking up scores for football games in my part of Florida and I saw where MaxPreps listed Parrish Community as beating Haines City 56-0, even though that game wasn't even played. It was cancelled and then later rescheduled for October 1.

Back during that time, Arcadia had both a high school team and a college team. So when you're reading articles from the late 1910s and early 1920s, it's sometimes hard to tell if it's referring to the high school team or the college team. What's even more confusing, is that both the high school team and the college team played their games at Carlstrom Field during this time. Carlstrom Field is a former military base in DeSoto County that was established in 1917 after the United States enter World War I. Carlstrom Field was used by the military in both World War I and World War II. Nowadays, Carlstrom Field is basically a ghost town and if you do a YouTube search you can find a video of someone exploring the former airfield.

@LAZ, some of the schools you listed, such as Jordan Christian Prep and Young Kids In Motion, are members of the FIHSAA. It's to my understanding the FIHSAA is a separate organization from the FHSAA. However, I do know FIHSAA members schedule FHSAA members sometimes. For example, I know Jordan Christian Prep played Avon Park a couple years ago.

• Arcadia's first known team was 1908. A local newspaper said they played Bartow on July 25 that year. However, the score to that game is unknown. • Arcadia played Wauchula in 1909. Arcadia beat Wauchula in that game by a score of 21-0. Arcadia also scheduled a game against a Fort DeSoto (which by the way is in present-day Pinellas County, no relation to DeSoto County) for Thanksgiving 1909. However, Arcadia canceled this game at the last second (Thanksgiving morning) and Fort DeSoto then later traveled up to Lakeland to play Lakeland. In the game against Lakeland, Fort DeSoto walked off the field with 1 minute left in the game because they didn't agree with the referee's decision to let Lakeland keep the ball. • When I had a free trial at newspapers.com, I remember seeing a couple mentions of an Arcadia football team in the 1910s also. I remember finding mentions of an Arcadia team in 1916, 1917, and 1918. There is a headline in The Tampa Times from November 25, 1918 that reads: "Chick Harley Will Lead the Eleven From Arcadia." I also remember reading about an Arcadia football player making an All-Star team in the 1910s, can't remember the year. On Google's News Archive, I remember seeing mentions of Arcadia playing Lakeland in the late 1910s and early 1920s. An October 15, 1921 newspaper article from a Lakeland local newspaper talks about Lakeland beating Arcadia for the first time since 1916. • Arcadia/DeSoto used to have a big rivalry with Fort Myers. It was played every single year on Armistice Day from 1921-1941.