Ray Icaza

My apologies, it wasn't meant to demean the "Vero Guys" as they are very insightful and have much respect for the Vero program. Just the one that sounds like Jesse.

I'll take it a step further, thought he may have moved to VERO!

Went up that way last year for a couple of weeks during the fall (ended up missing just 1 OHS game). Stayed on the St. Lawrence several days in the town of Alexandria in the Thousand Islands area. Then also to Niagara Falls crossing the Adirondacks to get there and made it to the beautiful little Canadian town of Niagra-on-the Lake where "Back to the Future" was filmed. That whole area from the Hudson River Valley thru upstate NY is beautiful that time of year.

Dang Nulli, you are awful feisty today.

Based on these rankings we have 5 of the top 25 listed on our schedule and that doesn't include APK in the KOC.

I would imagine you aren't alone. In just the local central FL area Apopka is ranked right at the top and we barely broke the top 10. Some local "EXPERTS" in our area predict we will end the regular season at 6-4 due to our strength of schedule and I would guess that is certainly a possibility. In any event, I would rather not be on this list and earn our ranking in the top 20 in the entire state; I think it helps our kids from becoming complacent but rather have a chip on their shoulder.

Looks like rankings you asked about are here. Florida Preseason MaxPreps Top 25 1. IMG Academy (Bradenton), 8-1 record in 2022 2. Central (Miami), 14-0 3. Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood), 12-1 4. St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale), 14-0 5. American Heritage (Plantation), 13-2 6. Columbus (Miami), 14-1 7. Homestead, 11-3 8. Lakeland, 14-0 9. Cardinal Gibbons (Fort Lauderdale), 11-2 10. Edgewater (Orlando), 12-1 11. Norland (Miami), 9-3 12. Booker T. Washington (Miami), 9-3 13. Western (Davie), 7-4 14. Clearwater Academy International (Clearwater), 9-1 15. Venice, 9-4 16. Jones (Orlando), 11-3 17. Mainland (Daytona Beach), 11-4 18. Seminole (Sanford), 9-3 19. Bartram Trail (St. Johns), 12-1 20. Osceola (Kissimmee), 10-4 21. Cocoa, 11-3 22. Bolles (Jacksonville), 9-5 23. Tampa Bay Tech (Tampa), 9-3 24. Mandarin (Jacksonville), 5-5 25. West Orange (Winter Garden), 7-5 Related Content

Not just football, you have juggernauts throughout the state in other less followed sports that have that same scripp.

AMEN BROTHER!

If your reference is to recruiting when Lakeland was winning, you are dead wrong that nobody was saying anything (no comment on the OSS). People were complaining to the point it came to a head in 2011 and they were fined $60K for 6 players they deemed in violation. It was wrong then and it is wrong now although rule changes have made accusations more difficult to prosecute. If players want to play for any school, transferring is legal but recruiting is still illegal and yes some of these transfers whether to Central or other publics getting them in both quality and quantity year after year can't simply be explained away they are ALL just wanting to play there. Just wanted to clarify that Central is not being singled out because it is "WINNING' now. Yes, many others are guilty too.

WET BULB strikes again. Kids hit the practice field briefly before being waved back inside. Students returned to school today in many counties including ours, so morning practices are not an option but may have to consider a Saturday morning for the next couple of weeks to squeeze in time required to prepare for season. Only brought this topic up originally early in this thread as I know "Heat Exhaustion" protocols are in place and now they are certainly affecting what coaches can and cannot do.

Isn't the better question, do you think a teacher should be punished or fired for calling a kid by his "LEGAL" name. As I pointed out to you earlier, that has happened around our country but you never addressed that. And I completely agree with VIF argument regarding intent.

NP as we all rely on our news from somewhere and as you can probably figure out I lean more on the WSJ than those you mentioned. As far as the Alijah Jenkins kid, hopefully he lives up to his "Handle".

Just returned from the afternoon Kowboy practice and today the protocol seemed to be No Helmets, No Pads and reduced practice duration. I would think many of the statewide teams are having to adapt to this reality. One thing for sure, coaches won't have a difficult time figuring out who really wants to play football.

My bad, I thought your link was from a local Sentinel article which did appear here on Aug. 7th. Just having a hard time understanding your perspective on this issue of a "Potential" problem in the future when the shoe on the other foot has already happened. Teachers have been suspended and fired for simply using a child's legal name as opposed to their preferred Pronoun. My guess is this legislation was designed to protect both teacher and students going forward by laying out a policy with no other agenda. To put it another way in light of the fact our team as many others provides our players with a pre-game meal every Friday, what if the headline to a thread I create was "Can our coaches be arrested for preparing said meal on a gas stove?" Seems pretty trivial to me. In any event, we do have a rising sophomore slot receiver that does go by the nickname of "FLASH".

When it comes to these issues, I would have thought by now you would know we most likely are not on the same page. I would be hesitant to use a "Reliable Source" which our locals affectionately call the ORLANDO SLANTINEL to prop up a point of view. Exhibit "A".... this "Reliable Source" supports WDW free speech for "Publicly" taking a political stance yet yesterday has one of their lead sports reporters attack the DeVos Family political views for "Privately" donating to a hated public official. We would all be best served by avoiding these stealth attacks that have little merit.

Pretty simple, most years they have to adapt to a new rule. Follow the procedure which seems straight forward and no one will have an issue.

Probably 90+% of kids from my generation grew up without A/C in our FL homes, so we were probably a bit more acclimated to the heat. Due to lack of year-round structure for football, we were also relegated to 2-A-Days to put the necessary work in to field a team. Seems like there also was more contact/hitting at practice than we see today. It is good to see that coaches like ours do take SAFETY into account much more today than in yesteryear. As previously stated, I do attend practices pretty regularly and it has always been hot. Just seems worse this year, thus my concern.

Thanks for the response Coach, as EP made mention of the same "WET BULB"? Did your team manage to get the practice in this afternoon with this heat? I did see the FHSAA lays out some protocols in their REGS regarding practice in the FL summer. Watching the kids work in these conditions does make one have great respect for EVERY ONE of them making the sacrifice.

Joshua, in your interaction with coaches have any talked about how the heat wave we are dealing with is affecting the recent practice sessions? Based on my observations it has been brutal, especially those afternoon sessions most teams are locked into due to teachers reporting back a week earlier than the school start date. Does the FHSAA have any limitations or protocols addressing this issue which doesn't appear to be going away soon? It has always been hot this time of year, but it appears to be over the top day after day. Just wondering??

Never assigned blame/fault, simply pointed out a fact of life today. Trying to stay out of that arena.

In all employment areas, not just relegated to sports. Finding willing workers in America is becoming a huge problem.

On the flip side bolstering the production argument is someone like Zach Thomas who wasn't drafted until the 5th round in the NFL (154 overall). The consensus was too short (5'11"), too slow, lack of athletic ability and a white guy to boot despite the fact he won the Butkus Award in college playing for Texas Tech and was a consensus All-American He was a stat machine leading the NFL in total tackles twice in his career, anchoring one of the top defenses for a decade and earning all pro honors 7 times in his 13 year career. Currently in the Texas Tech HOF, College Football HOF and just this year inducted to the NFL Hall of Fame. How much dumber can these "Talent Experts" get placing more emphasis on the measuring tape than playmaking abilitiy.

Thank God we still have some football, Right?

Seems at times we live in an upside-down world.