Ray Icaza
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Posts posted by Ray Icaza
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Earlier comment about Chad Mascoe transferring is correct. He doesn't jump schools year to year. He was born in Kissimmee and spent several years here before his family moved to Thomasville, GA. As a top prospect he did attend IMG Academy his sophomore year but he is back in Kissimmee and will graduate here. In an attempt to level the playing field for all schools the FHSAA allows kids to transfer for virtually any reason to another school; for sports, academics, safety and so on. When teams pick up players to "fill holes" in their roster, whether you can prove it or not in my view it is recruiting. A kid doesn't just transfer to another school for the above mentioned reasons and magically fills a roster need. Don't know how it happens, but when it happens yearly filling key positions something else is going on. Proving wrong doing is literally impossible, but anyone thinks it just always works out for these top schools is kidding themselves. And no, schools with good solid programs don't necessarily rely on these tactics to field excellent teams. Just extremely hard to win the big dance.
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OHS has several good coaches on the defensive side of the ball and the defense is loaded for the upcoming year. Promoting one of them would help with continuity and picking up an excellent play caller for the offense would seem like the way to go. Watching them over the years, the best offensive coordinator I saw there was Ty Ensor; I think he might be the AD at East Ridge now. Even when sometimes we didn't execute the play you had to admire how he had the opponents defense figured out. They need someone like that as Coach Nick ran the offense and will be missed there.
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Haven't heard that, he recently signed to be HC at a new private school. For now, it is Eric Pinellas.
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I would be surprised if this wasn't a planned announcement and the administration has already selected a replacement. Also would be surprised to see any of the players transfer because of it. My interaction with Coach Nick since the announcement indicates everything will go smoothly with Kowboy football moving forward.
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Seminole deserved to win, they were favored and had playoff experience on the field as well as the athletes. Turnovers were a killer, but a great learning experience as they never expected to advance this deep in the playoffs this year. Expectation was to make this kind of a run next year as they returned the entire backfield, all but one of the receivers and the bulk of the defense. Hats off to Seminole for meeting expectations.
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Our local "expert" for the Orlando Sentinel has made his predictions for the 4 teams from central Florida. He has picked Lake Minneola, Edgewater and Seminole, with Seminole being the only one ranked first in their division. Let's see how that works out as we already know unfortunately for LM it wasn't even close.
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South Florida held serve today. South Florida county AllStars way better than "other" county AllStars.
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Taking a quote from Coach Nichols, he was glad we had to travel to south FL to play a team that early on was favored to win 8A for the very reason you are focused on. He didn't want to be hung with owning any championship that had an asterisk. Therefore, whoever wins on Saturday should not have their accomplishment tarnished due to Covid as it has been earned.
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My family moved here in 1959, so no idea before that time. As long as I remember, we have consistently been very competitive in football. Originally remember playing in the old "Ridge Conference" which included Sebring, Frostproof, Mulberry, Avon Park, Fort Meade; you get the picture. All those small schools were extremely good, so when they moved us to the "Orange Belt" conference with the "Big" boys it wasn't really a step up in competition. It included Apopka, Lyman, Bishop Moore, Lakeview (now West Orange), Leesburg, Deland and Wildwood. So we were able to keep a winning record from the mid to late 60's to the present.
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By the way, Chad Mascoe Sr. played multiple positions for the OHS state championship team and was one of the most versatile players I have ever seen both on offense and defense. He would get moved from DE to LB to safety even tight end in the semifinals vs Gainesville. Due to our star running back Willie Green being dinged up they played him at running back during the finals and he did great. His son was born here and spent his early childhood here before moving to Thomasville GA. as a teen. To complete the circle, that is how he ended up at Osceola from IMG Academy. Once a Kowboy, always a Kowboy.
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Offensively, OHS needs the deep ball production of sophomore receiver Ja'Keem Jackson as he has been out the past several weeks with what appeared to be a separated shoulder. Don't know his status, but do know that he was instrumental in us going toe to toe with Edgewater earlier this year. A game we were in position to win with under a minute on the clock. That deep threat helps the running game and gives you the chunk plays you need to be competitive with an offense like Seminole has. Hopefully he will be available and give us that element. STA will always be a challenge for any team in this state as will Central, but will be rooting for the locals.
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Thanks for the love, Apopka is always at the top in our area and had a great year again as they always are a tough out come playoff time (money time). To advance you not only have to be good, but have a bit of luck on your side as the ball takes funny bounces. Seminole looks like they have all the pieces this year. With our young backfield we are transitioning from a run oriented offense to more of a mix of run and throw. Not there yet offensively so if we can get some help on the offensive line where we do lose players, should be right back in the mix next year as we return 7 starters on the defensive side as well as first line subs.
- DarterBlue2 and OHS_Kboys
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Another defensive struggle in Miami last night and those defensive plays led to the only scores. Palmetto pick in the red zone led to their field goal and then a field goal attempt that was blocked led to the OHS touchdown late in the 4th quarter. With the number of FBS recruits Palmetto has on defense, we felt it would be that type of game. On to another final, but I guess that isn't the goal for the Vero fan that is proud they won a state championship their only trip there and we are making our 6th trip but only have 1 title to show for it. Think I would rather have the overall playoff record we have. We each got the same Miami school within a week and they lost at home and we won away. Just recognize it is extremely hard to get to the Championship game.
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Maybe get over the hump this year, but I think they will be a better team next year as they are very young across the board.
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Unfortunately districts are decided by the FHSAA, so OHS has to play inferior teams such as Gateway and Celebration in Kissimmee plus other schools in SE Orange county that are not the best. That is not our choice so over the years we have picked up games with Dr. Phillips, Edgewater. West Orange, Bishop Moore and other better teams in Orange county if they are willing to do home and home. Also will go into Polk to play Lakeland, Lake Gibson, Winter Haven, Lake Wales and others of that caliber. Our region includes Tampa teams but we don't pick them up as much although we have had games with Manatee and Tampa Jesuit. In addition, one of the oldest state "rivalries" is with St. Cloud and the locals clammer for that game. Last year we scheduled home and home vs Miami Columbus as well as Cocoa. So we are not ducking anyone. Coach Nick has done a good job as he now has 5 Regional Championships in the 11 years he has been head coach. Most schools would be thrilled with that record.
- 181pl, Nulli Secundus and DarterBlue2
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That is correct, but after Friday night this will be their 10th appearance in the final four tying Edgewater HS for the top spot in that stat in all of central Florida. Quite an accomplishment when this program doesn't have the cache to attract top talent from other schools, but instead relies on its own homegrown players.
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Don't know, Vero is not favored to get by Miami Palmetto. Their coach consistently has very good teams, but he gets lots of criticism due to the fact they don't advance in the playoffs deep. If OHS plays the way they did against Edgewater, then the outcome may be quite different.
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Regarding Vero players that are seniors: starting QB-Jackson Nairn, starting RB-Boby McMillan, staring receivers-Wendell Bethel & Nijah Brown, starting DE-Travonte O'Neal and on and on. All IMPACT players, not as you imply seniors that just are on the team. I went to the Vero game and saw that for myself. No one in our backfield is a senior or top receivers or DB's and 3 of 4 D-linemen are all sophomores. All IMPACT players. Regarding Kissimmee being a tweener town, so is Deland or Lake Minneola but they have decent teams now and they are getting more exposure than us in our local media. State wide, most in the know recognize the OHS tradition and that is good. But for reasons I could only speculate, we don't get the same love from folks at the Sentinel or local high school TV highlights on any of the local stations. That is a fact.
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Osceola football team doesn't get the attention they deserve in the Orlando media market and it has been that way for the past 15-20 years. Most of the better teams in Orlando really don't want to play them and it has nothing to do with the fan base. If you follow them in the Orlando Sentinel, their wins are buried towards the bottom of the list. But if they lose, it makes the headlines. How does that fact relate to the fan base. No, Osceola is a poorer county than Orange or Seminole so they look down their noses at us and our teams. As far as Vero is concerned, they beat us there and we beat them at home. This year, Vero has many key players that are seniors and if you look at Osceola 90% of their impact players are sophomores and juniors. Best is yet to come. Regarding the playoffs, we have one home game out of a possible four before the state championship game. A few weeks back it looked like we would be home for those away games and that all changed recently in the bracketing for unknown reasons. Unfortunately, years they reached the finals in 7A they had to face STA Raiders who are nationally ranked and obviously superior talent so nothing to be ashamed of there. WE ARE, OSCEOLA!! GO KOWBOYS!!
Kissimmee Osceola Coach Retires
in The Huddle
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Agreed, FHSAA legalized this problem so they wouldn't be in the middle of arbitration. Example of kids that transferred from Toho proves my point. The QB, Wesley Tyler would have a short drive to OHS but we are not in the need for a QB where Edgewater is; we are 3 deep at the position, obviously he might be better than our 2nd or 3rd stringer but maybe not. Same at LB, OHS doesn't have an issue so the other kid transferred to Dr. Phillips. Those are Orlando schools almost 20 miles away, not even in the same county. Any kid not zoned to our school that plays for us is usually a legacy deal, their dad, granddad, uncle, etc. was a Kowboy and wants his kid to carry on the tradition. We just by happen chance didn't get 3 offensive lineman which we could use this year as that is where we graduated key players. That does happen at the big metro schools around the state, ie. Jax, Tampa, south Florida and Orlando.