JDHoss

Apopka 16 Jones 14. Jones scored on an 80 yard bomb a minute into the game. There were no other scores in the first half but on its final drive of the second quarter, Apopka's offense which had been dormant the entire first half finally moved the ball and got inside the Jones 15, but time ran out. This was a harbinger of things to come as on the first drive of the second half, Apopka moved the ball downfield relatively easily and scored to tie the game, in a drive that took about 2:47. 
Apopka then immediately forced a fumble on the ensuing Jones possession and got the ball on the Jones 15. On third and 15 from the 20, Davison found his running back completely unmarked in the end zone and Apopka took a quick 13-7 lead about 4 minutes into the third quarter as the extra point attempt sailed wide right. 
Thereafter, and until the final four minutes of the game, Apopka took control as the Jones team seemed to tire. However, for the rest of the third quarter till past the halfway mark in the fourth, neither team scored. Midway through the fourth, Apopka went on a long drive that stalled at the Jones's four yard line and went backward via penalties thereafter. However, the APK kicker redeemed himself scoring a field goal off the drive to give Apopka a 16-7 lead. Jones trimmed that lead down to 16-14 with just under 2 minutes to go in the game on a nice play that must have went about 50 yards. After the Jones score, with just over a minute left in the game, Apopka fumbled the ball away at their own 43. Jones marched the ball downfield and got a first and goal at the Apopka 8 with around 36 seconds left in the game. But their drive stalled at the 8 yard line and on third and goal Jones decided to kick a field goal for the win with 12 seconds on the clock. The kick was blocked by Apopka which took a knee to end the game. 
Comments on Jones. They looked pretty good on both offense and defense. Their kicking game needs improvement as two field goal attempts including a crucial one were blocked. Interestingly, the kicker made both extra points scored by jones easily. Overall, I expect Jones to be as good as last year and possibly better especially if they pick up further transfers over the summer.
Comments on Apopka. This is a good but very young team. Several of its starters will be sophomores from its undefeated freshman team from 2023. Early in the game, the offense sputtered while the defense was strong the entire game. However, the offense came into its own in the second half as TD the QB made better passes and better overall reads after a slow start. 
This Apopka team should improve as the season wears on. By how much will determine its fate in the playoffs. I am cautiously optimistic that the season will end well. But if it does not, I totally understand why.

Solid win for a spring matchup between quality opponents.

Three team jamboree at Bishop Verot Catholic High School, Fort Myers:  Verot 34 Columbus 21. ( Verot went up 27-0 to start).  Sarasota Riverview 14 Columbus 6.  Verot 21 Riverview 10.  Vikings qb, Carter Smith, is unreal.  All games were for a half.

FINAL: DILLARD 21 MONARCH 15
In a game that featured one team who was in the state semi game last year in monarch who got even better through the transfer portal in the last few months ; Vs a Dillard team with a 2nd year head coach who has a lot to prove coming into this season after a lack luster 2023 season. 
 
OVERALL- this game had a feeling of a playoff game. Both teams played their starters well into the 4th quarter, add the big crowd for both teams, the hard hits & the bands going at it, it felt like a game with huge implications yet we are only in May. 
 
In my early in the week predictions I had monarch winning this game 28-21 simply because in my opinion they had the better team and the better offense. More skill players & the better line play within the trenches. 
 
THE GAME: monarch came out on their second possession moved the ball down Dillards throat to take a 7-0 lead, only to see dillard come back on their next drive and tie the game 7-7.
after that it was pretty much all Dillard. The defense played way better than expected & the offense while have a few kinks to work out showed some signs of being able to be something special come august. 
 
after jumping out 7-0 dillard scored 21 consecutive points to go up 21-7. The knights scored a TD with 2 min left to make it 21-15 but the panthers got 2 first downs to run out the clock to get the victory 21-15.
OBSERVATIONS: Monarch is once again going to be very good this year. Their online and Dline is massive. Their 4* running back is one of the best in broward & their overall team is going to give a lot of teams fits. 
 
DILLARD: the panthers are going to be a huge dark horse this year. They look to have another solid defense, they’re not massive in the trenches, but they have some dawgs and appear to be well coached. 
 
with the off season to go , Dillard can turn some heads this season, and they proved that tonight with a good win over a quality inner city opponent. 

Each team played a full half against each other for a total of 3 halves so obviously a long night.  Rules did include no kickoff or punt returns and my guess is each team was missing a few key players.   I know we were down 3 D-lineman and 3 Linebackers including two starters but we do have a little depth although young and inexperienced.  All in all, teams looked pretty good and should be of playoff quality.  We started off with Edgewater for the first half and they moved the ball very effectively against our defense but could not complete those two early drives for points.  After that we were pretty dialed in to what they were running and were able to pitch a shutout for the half.  We started slow offensively, but managed to improve as the half went on.  Finally, got about a 50 yard run from Taevion Swint which was the difference maker in that half......7-0 OHS Kowboys.  
In the second half between Edgewater and Deland the Eagles came right out of the gate with a monster run for a touchdown on the very first play.  Both teams showed some good things but Deland hurt themselves with self inflicted errors  ........ dropped pass for TD, INT, fumble, etc.. so was unable to put up points the entire half despite good QB play.  Edgewater managed another TD and FG to end that half victorious .......16-0.
In the final half between Deland and OHS, the Bulldogs showed some good things but turnovers, self inflicted errors cost them again.  OHS managed two scores on great long runs from Taevion Swint who had a monster night.  Final score was OHS 14-0. 
Final thought was that our local media has really been building up the Edgewater star Semaj Fleming and he is an excellent player.  But those who sat in those stands tonight could see that Taevion is back and he is definitely the better player.   Everyone have a great summer and look forward to the upcoming season.  

Vero’s offense struggled the entire game, the lone score came on a scoop and score via a fumble. White showed the characteristics of a presumed first year starter. His ability is there no doubt, he’ll just need to settle into the starting role. 
 
West Boca was much more effective- leaning on their 4* running back Javian Mallory, can see them having another good year. They would have probably won the game had it gone a little longer. 
 

Southfork 68
Olympic Heights 22

Tate 49, Bay 32

North Bay Haven 34, Lighthouse 12

Mosley 28, FL High 14 (half)
Mosley 14, Choctaw 0 (half)

First I want to express my apologies for my absence the last few months. Without going into much detail I have had some personal life struggles I have been dealing with on top of figuring out the direction to take FloridaHSFootball.com in. Things have finally settled out some over the last few weeks although I am not completely out of the woods just yet.
Some of the decisions about what direction to take FloridaHSFootball.com have been forming over this time while I went through things. Part of me wondered if it was time to go, but really it is not at all.
Thankfully, a loyal supporter near me in Gainesville decided to put their mouth where their money is and did a little investing and today FloridaHSFootball.com launched its first-ever Mobile App. With that said it comes with the sunset of the MVP Membership Subscriptions and thus FloridaHSFootball.com will be 100% free for the first time in a while. This comes as needing to get the clearances with Apple and Google and the current subscription platform we have is not syncing with Apple's system nor with the App itself. Its best we go in this direction to grow fans again and being able to put them facing forward with an app on their phone going forward.
Here are the download links for the apps:
iOS (Apple): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/floridahsfootball-com/id6477621728 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.floridahsfootball.app&hl=en_US&gl=US   For now the forums will not be available directly in the app. At some point I maybe looking at changing the whole forum software that could eventually integrate into the app. It will be a while before this happens so things will go on as they are here.   I also apologize for any of the spam and troll accounts that have managed to find their way around the security protocols in setting up new accounts. It seems every day these things find ways to pass through control systems. I am going to be looking at getting this solved and will keep an eye on things here as we go along.   Please feel free to reach out to me if you all need anything, want to chat or have any suggestions.   -- Josh  

John Carroll Catholic (Fort Pierce)
https://twitter.com/JCGoldenRams/status/1781310950861152605

I've watched high school football all across the southeast up to Northern VA, and in terms of community/fan support, Florida is dead last. I'm guessing that the large transient population that doesn't have community ties is part of the reason. The high school back in my old podunk Virginia hometown with a population of around 4.5K will draw 3K or more for home games, and most of those fans have been supporting the school for decades. Most of my Florida game attendance has been in Volusia, Orange, Brevard, Broward, Palm Beach counties and here with the Treasure Coast schools from Sebastian River to South Fork. With few exceptions over the years, the crowds have been mostly students and parents/relatives of players, cheerleaders and band members. 

Often unspoken in this debate is the matter of fan support. The states paying much better than Florida also have much better/more substantial fan support. This makes paying coaches much higher salaries or stipends possible. The fan support in Florida is underwhelming to say the least. The state doesn't have a single program- anywhere- whose fan support would be considered impressive or even comparable to the top programs in Georgia, etc. Lakeland has long been considered one of the best in this area, but the program has undeniably been weakened by the emergence of private schools Victory and Lakeland Christian. It's not just that some good players pass on playing for Lakeland to instead play at  a Christian school, but also families and thus fan support that previously went to Lakeland have ended up at one of the privates. The big dawgs in Miami sometimes get huge crowds out to Traz Powell, but financial contributions to programs are inconsistent at best. The Panhandle is more similar to Georgia and Alabama in culture, but they haven't produced a true state power in decades. The relatively new Sumner program might be one of the best bets to become a true power in this area. But, I'm not sure of the scale of success that is possible for them.

Teaching and coaching at the high school level is a THANKLESS job. Teachers and coaches have a direct influence on our youth's future. Public servants don"t get paid nearly enough.

Most jobs dont require you to take homework home and grade papers and make lessons and then take classes to recertify and then take classes to try to earn a real wage either by getting a masters.  Plus alot of teachers coach and get paid very little for alot of work. A assistant fb coach usually gets around 3k for the following work. Spring ball 20 practices and 5 days for  conditioning. 4 days a week lifting in summer, 7 on 7 practices and tournament from Jan -April and then in summer again. Practice from august to mid November unless you make a run and go till December. If teaching is  such a great pay gig and easy job then why are 1 in 5 teachers leaving the profession or state to teach somewhere else. 

The same argument for teachers/coaches can be made for nurses, law enforcement, and other first responders, etc.  None of them are paid what they are "worth".  From an economic standpoint, no one would willingly pay someone more to do a job when someone will do the same job for less (i.e. supply and demand).  As long as enough people are willing to work for current wages in these fields, in many cases out of the goodness of their heart or at significant personal financial sacrifice, the government and corporations see no need to raise wages.  Unfortunately, the nonmonetary, societal benefit that individuals in these fields provide is often not recognized (coming from the spouse of a 35+ year educator).  When we wake up one day and have a drastic shortage of workers in these fields, our society will be in big trouble, let alone high school football.

It's a battle between Jackson Summerall and Chase Donon

I'm definitely gonna get the night off lol, I ate at fishack last week....
For a spring game, this is interesting, I wanna see Vero deals with the QB/RB tandem from West Boca 

See your ID says Ft Pierce. Ever see Randy "Sweetback" Walker play ?  That Ft Pierce Central alum was the best running back I ever saw live... Quick and smooth as he glided through the defense (Sweet).

I'm not sure what that has to do with why Roland should or shouldn't take the job.  Plenty of community support in Kingsland,  and if I had to guess, a better paying job than Mainland. I've seen plenty of Mainland games over the years, including Maronto's final game after the prostitution sting and they never had the kind of turnout that I saw in Kingsland that night.

Sounds like a good night to get some garbage fries from Cafe 66 or an oyster po'boy from Fishack before heading over. 

Yes its at Vero because I never put an @ sign next to West Boca 

Not quite sure why Deland seems to getting the love in this matchup.  Can they win the game?  Absolutely!!  Is it likely?  That is a whole other question as TC has the better SOS, the higher MaxPrep rankings and finally HOME FIELD advantage.  It will be a 2 hour + road trip for Deland and that usually isn't a plus in your column when you have to get off that bus to play a physical team in their backyard.  All I am saying is it will be no easy task. 

Master vs Apprentice, Old (sorry Mr. Darlington) vs New, Single wing vs Single wing. 
Don't have the dates, but at one time Deland's head coach Rick Darlington helped Treasure Coast's coaching staff  incorporate it's now winning single-wing offense. Coach Darlington ran his version of Pop Warner's 1907 offense too perfection with three Florida state championships while coaching at Apopka High School. It's rarely seen today, on the gridiron, with all the high powered sideline to sideline shot gun spread passing offenses. There in lies it's uniqueness and difficulty to defend with only a week's worth of practice from game to game in a typical season. Two of Daytona Mainland's football greats Jeremy Bell , now head football coach at Atlantic High (Port Orange,Fl), and Antwaun Wyatt, son of NFL'er and Bethune-Cookman Hall of Fame player and head coach both were on T.C.'s staff during those early years of running the single-wing. This is a very intriguing match up. Particularly for my part of the state. Both coach Bell and coach Wyatt are 1st cousins, along with Mainland's head coach Travis Roland. It's all in the Daytona family.