Joshua Wilson

As Assistant Head Coach at St. Francis I can only say that when we looked at the proposed district with NFC and FAMU we felt it was in our best interest to rejoin the North Florida Conference. I am still waiting on Florida to adopt a separate championship division for schools such as SFCHS...similar to the Alabama AISAA. That would be the answer for schools such as Oak Hall, St. John Lutheran, etc.

Merry Christmas to all who post and read this board. We've got some great people here and hopefully we get a few new guys as the off season goes on!
Thank you and Merry Christmas! 

The FHSAA has warned the entire state that tentative assignments for football are likely coming today. I will post my thoughts here as well as on the site. You can also share your thoughts here as well. Stay tuned in here and FloridaHSFootball.com during the day!

The real issue is the one that will never be solved. It is the unethical recruiting practices of the few elite schools who win the championships every year. I have been coaching for a long time, and it is the same few teams in each classification in every state every year that go out and get transfers to come play for them, then they stalk these 8th graders at pop warner games, give them full scholarships just for football, then the other schools who do not have those resources cannot compete with that. The FHSAA won't stop that because when those teams compete with schools from out of state, they win and make Florida look better.
 
I agree with other posters that say that FHSAA will not do anything to lose money, so reducing classifications is fine as long as the amount of playoff games does not reduce.
 
I think a few options to consider might be:
 
1) Transfer rule: unless you transfer from out of state, you must sit out of athletics for an entire school year if you transfer from one school to another.
 
2) Classifications: you need to consider the private schools. Most private schools that dominate are in that 3A class. Something needs to be done, because there are a few teams in there that recruit on the same level as college teams. Everyone knows they are doing it and no one does anything to stop them. FHSAA needs to do something about it. Bigger private schools aren't the problem, because 7A and 8A public schools have enough students to put together competitive teams. If you have over 1500 students and can't win it's because of coaching.
 
3) The winning/losing percentage thing to factor in classification is a decent idea to mull over. The NFL has a model that allows every team to have a fair playing field. The ones that do well succeed. The ones who do not do well lose. Well there is a river of unethical recruiting money flowing through private schools in this state, and I am tired of only a few teams having a real chance at a state title every year. Winning a state title should not be a pipe dream for high school kids. They all should have a fair chance. If the state does nothing, then the independent schools will increase.
 
4) Speaking of independents, why doesn't someone create a state championship for independents? A small and large school division, then have a legitimate state title opportunity for the non-cheaters.The independent coaches would vote for all teams who want to enter. If schools do not want a school to join because they feel that they are cheaters, then 'the people decide'. Then maybe 90% of the schools in the state could be independent and the cheaters can all play themselves in the FHSAA classes.

I have decided to bring the Weekly Pick'ems to end. I will do playoff pick'em - but in a different format - I will give the two a prize here once I can confirm the prize which is going to be De Cleater and Muckboy561.  The prizes is in the the playoff pick'em will likely be the same so if you didn't win here, you will have a chance to win with that and plus a chance to win through a blind draw as well. I will let you all know more once I can confirm everything. Thanks!

I have decided to bring the Weekly Pick'ems to end. I will do playoff pick'em - but in a different format - I will give the two a prize here once I can confirm the prize which is going to be De Cleater and Muckboy561.  The prizes is in the the playoff pick'em will likely be the same so if you didn't win here, you will have a chance to win with that and plus a chance to win through a blind draw as well. I will let you all know more once I can confirm everything. Thanks!

Some of those were held by Tebow at one time or another.

Guys, I let it slip this week on the Pick'ems.
 
I have very little help right now (if any at all) and I just let it slip on the Pick'ems.
 
Content creation is the highest priority right now and the Pick'ems are just lower than that. 
 
I am trying to do my best, but site traffic and views are the most importance right now and that is coming through the creation of content and keeping folks on the site. 
 
Weeks 9, 10 & 11, I want you all to suggest some games to me that you all would like to see. We will do playoff pick'ems as well (we will have an idea two weeks out of the games for round one so this won't be an issue knowing which games we will post).
 
But, back to the entire issue, I just don't have the help that I need to make the extra small things run like this and I can't ask an intern to this, especially since it is not part of their contract. I don't believe in having interns do the dirty work for the most part unless its part of the learning part they are doing for their credit hours. Running a Pick'em is not part of that.
 
So forgive me for this week due to everything that is going on.
 
Thanks!

Dillard @ Boynton Beach could also be interesting....

Navarre @ Niceville
Cardinal Gibbons @ Coconut Creek
Fletcher @ Raines

Games of interest so far...
 
BTW - Northwestern
Trinity Jax - Godby
AHP - Bolles
Mainland - Oviedo
 
Anyone have one?
 

Here are the Overall Standings so far:
 

 
De Cleater Won Week 5 with 18 correct picks.
 
There are 20 games this week: http://floridahsfootball.com/forums/index.php?app=pickems&do=games&pid=4&wid=18
 
If in doubt about the leaderboard standings, you can all way check by clicking on leaderboard on top when viewing the games.

Man this hard to talk about considering that almost all of us has watched Treon over the last few years.. Living here in Gainesville, I know fans aren't happy right now, but UF did the right thing by keeping Treon away until this is all handled. It sends a signal that they can handle issues better than the No Fun League and that is saying a lot. 

Non homer game. Jefferson vs Norland in 2010.
 
Both teams played a flawless first half. The game was very even in talent. The second half started the same, but near the end of the 3rd quarter Jefferson started winning the battle in the trenches. I'll never forget the 1st half and how prefect both teams played.  
 
Homer Game. Cocoa vs Abilene Tx. 2010.
 
Cocoa played the then #1 Nationally ranked team Abilene in Texas. No one gave Cocoa a chance to win, but Cocoa played their guts out and pulled the all time upset beating Abilene 24-21, Younger to Buie on a bomb for 75 yards to win. Younger had an arm and Buie had the speed. Younger threw it for all he was worth and Buie ran under it. The ball seemed to hang in the air forever and was prefectly thrown. It was the play that put Cocoa on the National HSF map. Abilene went on to beat  state runner up Tampa Plant, the following week 27-17. Plant lost to STA in the Championship game. Cocoa's defense was ranted #2, only behind a very solid offensive and defensive STA team.

If such a site was launched I would likely read other sports message boards  but would not be likely to engage chatting in something I have no passion to talk about.....I think basketball and soccer might do well.  I know that there is a travel soccer website based out of Florida that does really well with chat rooms/message boards even nationally.....not sure how HS soccer alone would do.

And this is why no one in the education field trust anyone in Tallahassee...don't want to turn this political, but unfortunately it is this way on this as well. The only way you can solve this issue is to go to the ballot box in November and vote. 

don't hate the playa, hate the game

I hate losing just about as much as anyone. But while the start to our season has been horrible. I think there is plenty of time to turn the season around. I think the biggest issue overall is we are beating ourselves. I haven't seen a Fleming Island team this fundamentally poor since 2007. That team started out with alot of losses at the beginning of the year and then turned the ship around and made the playoffs and made a decent run all the way to the Regional Finals. If we can fix the turnovers, penalties, missed coverage assignments, bad position on pre snap, not picking up blitzes in pass blocking schemes, not down field blocking, not gang tackling, lack of containment we have a shot to be a good football team. We need to start playing more disciplined football and it doesn't happen overnight. It takes one game at a time, one practice at a time, and one snap at a time. I personally challenge these our guys to make an effort on improving every single day and if they do we won't be talking about a team that wasn't that good, but instead we will be talking about a team making some noise in the playoffs because that is all that matters at the end of the day.

Brevard County has a pay to play proposal on the table starting for the 2013-2014 school year and a lot of people fear that the impact could be huge. Some say the proposal will catch on, but coaches fear otherwise. Florida Today reports that a fee of $100 is proposed to play one sport while a $150 fee would apply for two or more sports.
 
You can read more about the entire proposal here: http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20130226/SPORTS07/302260014.
 
So now I want to start to an open discussion with everyone on Pay to play and what your thoughts are with some basic questions?
 
1. Does your school implement a pay to play system?
2. Is the pay to play system, a county-wide thing? If so, which county?
3. What does it cost to participate?
4. Has pay to play affected certain sports in your area?
5. Do you support pay to play? Why or why not?

You guys can open one. Seriously until I get some extra hands to help with the site my hands are already busy keeping an eye on the game and getting the rest of the scoreboards ready for the season.

Just some Random thoughts
 
Champagnat should be ranked... They play Cocoa real soon and win or lose it will validate that as Cocoa is ranked 10th.

Clay probably should not be ranked

Manatee.. dang is it that bad folk?

Booker t as #1 was an homage to their last 2 seasons... They are good but are they better than STA and American Heritage after losing so much?

Trinity is probably too high

East Lake probably should not be ranked

South Dade will not have the season they had last year

Looking forward to changing that post! Check out www.manateefootball.com Don't count out Manatee for that #1 spot.  A lot more talent on this years team than anticipated.

My personal opinion I think the # 6 and #9 spots should switch places everything else is right on point.

Look out for Coconut Creek them boys can play expecting them to really make some noise, Monarch will too and I am not totally sold on Hallandale yet man but they should be decent like last season. #1 and #2 are no brainers  

Personally I think the first 3 teams were right because they are the best now after that I can care less how the order goes.