The love of HSFB! (Not for Homers & strokers of the ranked)

[Jullian]

8 minutes ago, PinellasFB said:

You might have too high of expectations of high school ball.  It's not like college where they can practice and watch film all day and execute with high precision.  High school ball is supposed to be basic football.  Now some teams, especially the high profile teams, will have high level coaching and it will show on the field. The complexity of the packages they run is pretty sophisticated for HS level.  Of course this comes at a price and the kids are more focused upon football than school and they will pay a long term consequence for this unless they are good enough to play in college.  I do worry these programs don't have the kids educations as their priority.  

Clearly we aren't going to see eye to eye on this and I am not going to lie that I too find a HS game on ESPN with loaded teams is fun to watch but unlike you I also enjoy seeing a couple of no-name teams going out there on Friday night and playing their hearts out.  For me, the raw emotion, the band and the atmosphere is high school ball. The talent level on the field is irrelevant.

NoleBull ain’t gonna get what you’re saying. Just like politics today, Your side is wrong, mine is right. Glad to see a couple peeps on here see beyond winning to the SIMPLE purity of competition. Which was the sole intent of my post…….

[nolebull813]

37 minutes ago, PinellasFB said:

You might have too high of expectations of high school ball.  It's not like college where they can practice and watch film all day and execute with high precision.  High school ball is supposed to be basic football.  Now some teams, especially the high profile teams, will have high level coaching and it will show on the field. The complexity of the packages they run is pretty sophisticated for HS level.  Of course this comes at a price and the kids are more focused upon football than school and they will pay a long term consequence for this unless they are good enough to play in college.  I do worry these programs don't have the kids educations as their priority.  

Clearly we aren't going to see eye to eye on this and I am not going to lie that I too find a HS game on ESPN with loaded teams is fun to watch but unlike you I also enjoy seeing a couple of no-name teams going out there on Friday night and playing their hearts out.  For me, the raw emotion, the band and the atmosphere is high school ball. The talent level on the field is irrelevant.

I get the level of quality goes up and down with the strength of the opponents but you don’t have to go watch the worst teams possible to get everything you mentioned. The worst teams aren’t the only ones who exhibit  those traits. That’s a misconception. That if you are good at HSFB that you cant show raw emotion, have a good band, and play your heart out. I call B.S. on that 

[nolebull813]

27 minutes ago, Jullian said:

NoleBull ain’t gonna get what you’re saying. Just like politics today, Your side is wrong, mine is right. Glad to see a couple peeps on here see beyond winning to the SIMPLE purity of competition. Which was the sole intent of my post…….

Again that’s a huge misconception. That the worse you are at HSFB the better your emotion and effort is. The stronger your heart is. That’s B.S.
 

You don’t have to seek out the worst teams you can find to experience any of things you and @PinellasFB mentioned. 

[nolebull813]

@PinellasFB if you we’re sitting around in Pinellas County and wanted to go check out a game, there are plenty of teams you can see that don’t look like JV teams. And still get all the experience you mentioned. Pinellas doesn’t have any top national or state ranked teams, but they at least have some decent to good ones to get the overall experience without compromising the gameplay. 
 

Lakewood, CCC, Clearwater, Largo, Countryside, East Lake, Osceola will give you just as much and probably more than Dixie Hollins, Seminole, Dunedin and Tarpon Springs will 

[nolebull813]

Let me take a few steps back. I get wanting to go experience a specific game that has history and meaning. 
 

Hardee and Desoto are never good on a state scale by any definition. I’m sure the kids are good kids and play real hard. But the product isn’t quality by the standards of the best in their field. But I completely get how someone would want to experience that game. Hell I wanted to go to it at least once in my life. Same with Palatka/St Augustine. Palatka is never good. And they get whooped yearly. But it’s one of the oldest rivalries in the state and would be interesting to check out if you were in the general area 

[nolebull813]

What’s ironic is by definition I will have to go watch 2 bad teams go at it in the future. Lol. A little back story. I have a bucket list goal of visiting every single D1 college stadium before I die. I’m up to about 30 so far. After that I started doing high school in FL. I want to catch at least one game in all 67 counties before I die. I would have to go check where I’ve been, but not all we’re top teams. Lol 

[nolebull813]

These are the counties I’ve been to and watched a game at least once 

Hillsborough - too many to count. Notables are Plant/Armwood battles, Lakeland/Armwood from a few years ago in the playoffs and Jefferson in the playoffs when Quentin Williams broke the state record for passing 

Pinellas - notables AHP vs Clearwater, CCC vs University School (current STA coach, and team who won state) 

Pasco - notables Butter Bowl Land O Lakes vs Sunlake (oldest son played for LOL), South Sumter vs Pasco, Mitchell few times for playoff games against Manatee, Chamberlain and Wharton 

Hernando - random game Tavares vs Nature Coast

Manatee - Manatee vs number 1 teams in the country Don Bosco NJ and Manatee vs Dwyer in the state semis. Same year i believe. 
 

Indian River - Vero Beach vs Ft Pierce Central. Huge rivalry. Standing room only. Great atmosphere. 
 

Leon - Pace vs Lincoln playoff game. Random games at Gene Cox. Lincoln vs Rickards only rings a bell

Madison - Coffee GA vs Madion. Refs cheated Madison. Madison down 10-7 late in the 4th and they block a punt for TD but they called it back for a phantom holding penalty, and Coffee scored to ice the game 

[nolebull813]

I’ve been to Columbia County too. I met up with @ColumbiaHighFan2017class to watch them play Fletcher in the playoffs. Lol. 
 

Also Sarasota County. Camden County GA vs Venice. Rain delay and CC not very good. Probably not the best experience at the reservation 

Polk - Plant vs Lakeland in the playoffs (Plant won 20-0 in the cold) also Viera vs Kathleen when Viera made state. 
 

Volusia - Mainland vs West Point MS and Glades Central vs Skyline TX. 4 game USA vs FL event back in 2010

[DisabledAccount]

2 hours ago, nolebull813 said:

I’ve been to Columbia County too. I met up with @ColumbiaHighFan2017class to watch them play Fletcher in the playoffs. Lol. 
 

Also Sarasota County. Camden County GA vs Venice. Rain delay and CC not very good. Probably not the best experience at the reservation 

Polk - Plant vs Lakeland in the playoffs (Plant won 20-0 in the cold) also Viera vs Kathleen when Viera made state. 
 

Volusia - Mainland vs West Point MS and Glades Central vs Skyline TX. 4 game USA vs FL event back in 2010

May have another trip up to Lake City after I win our bet 

 

Maybe you shouldn't have set the bar so low on the win total because if they find a way to upset TCA tomorrow we will reach the mark with 2 games to spare in the regular season

[DisabledAccount]

Though I guess I'll add my list too (but I'll include other sports so I can add to the county list since I can make up more ground doing so)

 

Columbia county (obviously) 

Suwannee County (obviously)

Hamilton County (not for football but I have in another sport)

Lowndes County (now in 2 sports thanks to my trip up there for FL vs GA challenge and I still want to eventually see the winnersville classic)

Madison County (in 2 sports and ironically was the first game I ever drove to solo but was also first game I drove to in carpool though both experiences were in the second sport as I had already been there for football)

Leon County (in 2 sports as well)

Escambia County (Columbia vs Escambia) 

Alachua County (in 4 different sports plus additionally 3 of those same sports at the college level including the SEC tournament for softball this past season and even saw a NCAA regional the year prior and I even saw Buchholz vs Cardinal Gibbons last year) 

Gilchrist County (not in football but I've been to games at Trenton and Bell in other sports but I have seen their football stadium on my trip there)

Dixie County (not for football but I've seen the stadium) 

Union County (for 2 sports both of which came this calendar year) 

Clay County (multiple teams across 3 sports)

Bradford County (not football but I've seen their stadium everytime I've driven by for another sport)

Marion County (saw Vanguard vs Columbia at booster stadium)

Duval County (seen plenty of games in this county across 2 sports. Most interesting atmospheres were Bolles, TCA, Riverside and Fletcher)

St John's County (been here in 2 different sports and Bartram and Ponte Vedra are both the two most interesting atmospheres I've been to so far but I also enjoyed my trip to St Augustine in the 2013 playoffs when it was raining all game)

Nassau County (not for football but made my trip to a game in March of 2020, crazy how badly I would miss those trips a week later) 

Orange County (saw Columbia vs Apopka and I loved the feel of that game and stadium, if I'm ever in the Orlando area on a Friday I'll need to hook up with @DarterBlue2and catch a game there when I can sit on the Apopka side, I pull for Apopka when they ain't playing Columbia because of how much respect they earned from me when we played that 2 year series)

Manatee County (Columbia vs IMG Academy. The result speaks for itself though the biggest surprise to me was seeing what looked like a Texas style facilities walking in and seeing no bleachers on the home side and then seeing an out of shape team for what I was expecting to be a national powerhouse. Also met @nolebull813at this game)

[nolebull813]

31 minutes ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

May have another trip up to Lake City after I win our bet 

 

Maybe you shouldn't have set the bar so low on the win total because if they find a way to upset TCA tomorrow we will reach the mark with a game to spare in the regular season

If you beat TC you should win out 

[Ray Icaza]

1 hour ago, nolebull813 said:

@PinellasFB if you we’re sitting around in Pinellas County and wanted to go check out a game, there are plenty of teams you can see that don’t look like JV teams. And still get all the experience you mentioned. Pinellas doesn’t have any top national or state ranked teams, but they at least have some decent to good ones to get the overall experience without compromising the gameplay. 
 

Lakewood, CCC, Clearwater, Largo, Countryside, East Lake, Osceola will give you just as much and probably more than Dixie Hollins, Seminole, Dunedin and Tarpon Springs will 

So we have no misconceptions, the Osceola in Pinellas and the one "IN OSCEOLA" are two different animals. 

[nolebull813]

@Ray Icaza I forgot I been to an Osceola High game. It when they played Tampa Bay Tech in the playoffs with Deon Cain at QB. Osceola whooped them up. I went with 2 buddies who coached the WR for Tech in little league 

[nolebull813]

1 minute ago, Ray Icaza said:

So we have no misconceptions, the Osceola in Pinellas and the one "IN OSCEOLA" are two different animals. 

Yes sir they are. The one in Pinellas should change their name for not living up to the standard that the Kowboys have set 

[Ray Icaza]

2 minutes ago, nolebull813 said:

@Ray Icaza I forgot I been to an Osceola High game. It when they played Tampa Bay Tech in the playoffs with Deon Cain at QB. Osceola whooped them up. I went with 2 buddies who coached the WR for Tech in little league 

He was a talented cat.   Think he ended up at Clemson and produced plenty for them. 

[nolebull813]

5 minutes ago, Ray Icaza said:

He was a talented cat.   Think he ended up at Clemson and produced plenty for them. 

Yeah he was a good WR who made the league 

[badbird]

31 minutes ago, nolebull813 said:

@Ray Icaza I forgot I been to an Osceola High game. It when they played Tampa Bay Tech in the playoffs with Deon Cain at QB. Osceola whooped them up. I went with 2 buddies who coached the WR for Tech in little league 

Almost put a running clock on them in the first half.  Cain was special.  We put in our 2's second half and he embarrassed a few of them.  Luckily he didn't do that to our 1's.  They couldn't block us to give him a chance.

[Floridaatlantic1]

I was posting about this when we did suburban and metro debate. Who are we concerned about the most when making rules for high school football? The metro suburban plan only really helped about 10 schools who now may win a state title instead of being a semi finalist or finalist. Put elite cheaters in one class and let them beat each other’s brains on to win the elite true state champion. The other 90% of the teams who have zero chance at a real state championship now and get drilled by cheaters can compete against each other for regional crowns in lower divisions. We keep catering to elite few at cost of all.

[Floridaatlantic1]

The new set up has not solved anything and the blowouts are even more often since metro non recruiting teams are in killer districts across huge enrollment distances.