Is OTC blacklisted in Marion County?

[nolebull813]

There are 8 eleven man varsity football teams in Marion County. 1 private and 7 public. It’s kinda funny the only private school plays a grand total of ZERO county teams. I get Lake Weir not playing they are hot garbage. So either they don’t want to play county teams or they don’t to play Lake Weir. But OTC is on par with the better publics. What’s the backstory? Why is it they don’t play one County team? Do they not want to or is everyone coordinating together to blacklist them? Or is it just a strange coincidence? These are the amount of county games each team played this year. 
 

Dunnellon 5

Forest 5

North Marion 5

Vanguard 4

Belleview 4

West Port 3

Lake Weir 0

Trinity Catholic 0

[KeemD321]

Too much of a coincidence to me seeing it put out there. Would think that they would atleast play a couple. Could definitely see them playing Vanguard or North Marion, even Dunnellon

[nolebull813]

Some good Marion County history 

Ocala High was one of the first football teams in the state with records dating back to 1907 as first fielding a team. 1905 was the first ever year of HSFB in the state. They were called the Wildcats and turned into Forest High in 1970, the same year Vanguard first opened. Ocala changed their name to Forest after desegregation. The Marion County school board decided that they wanted Forest and Vanguard to start on equal footing. So technically Forest would carry all of Ocala High’s past records 

[nolebull813]

More history…….

 

Marion County was actually one of the top county’s in the state back in the 40’s-60’s for 6-man football. There were 3 total teams from Marion County and they competed against other small town teams from around the area. Fort McCoy, Anthony and Summerfield each fielded 6 man teams and never competed in 11 man ball at any point. Here is what I got. 
 

Summerfield (1931-1955)

Anthony (Late 40’s-1962)

Fort McCoy (1957-1961)

[nolebull813]

The Reddick High Terriers first fielded a football team in 1926. It is unclear how long they played in 6 man ball but they did play 6 man a little in the 40’s. 
 

In 1958 Reddick was renamed the North Marion Terriers until 1964 when they moved to their Citra campus and were finally renamed the Colts. 
 

In 1964 they consolidated Reddick, Anthony and Ft McCoy to form the new North Marion High School. I’m not sure if the kids from all those places still attend North Marion but they did at the time 

[nolebull813]

A defunct team they played 11 man ball was Marion Academy. Their football history was short lived only fielding teams from 1973-1978. I could be wrong but that’s all i got. 
 

St John Lutheran played 11 man football since 1973 all the way up until 2020 and then decided to play 8 man ball the last 2 years. 
 

Ocala Christian Academy is another team who started 8 man after playing 11 man the last 40 years or so. They competed primarily out of the FHSAA jurisdiction apart of an independent league with other teams from Tampa to Orlando 

[nolebull813]

Dunnellon first fielded a team in 1928 and then played 6 man football from 1939-1958. Then in 1959 they came back to 11 man ball and actually went 20-2 in 1960-1961. 
 

Lake Weir’s first year in 1955 was 6 man ball and then they played 11 man from 1956 on. 
 

[nolebull813]

Belleview started in 1995 and went to the state semi finals in 2000 losing to the eventual state champion. 
 

West Port is the last public high school to open in Marion County in 2001. No success of any kind with 6-4 being their best record and most wins back in 2003

 

Trinity Catholic started in 2002 playing football and in 2005 won state going 14-0 with 9 shutouts including shutting out their first 7 opponents on the year. They averaged 48 PPG while only giving up 7 PPG

[nolebull813]

Tried to give everyone love. Lol. I do research around the state and am currently updating the records with the 2022 results. I’m doing Marion County right now and that’s how I noticed OTC not playing any county teams but noticed everyone else playing each other. 

[nolebull813]

Before segregation, the black children in Marion County went to school and played football at Howard Academy later named Howard High School. It was fazed out in 1969 after desegregation. Most of the kids attended Vanguard High in 1970

[Proseteye]

Don't understand "blacklisted". The Celtics have played a good compliment of Marion Country Public Schools over the years. 2021 - North Marion, 2019 - Dunnellon, 2018, 2017 - Belleview, Dunnellon, North Marion, 2016, 2015 - Lake Weir, 2012, 2011, 2010- North Marion, Forest, Vanguard. A couple of the publics have accused the Celtics of "stealing their players" which nobody was ever able to prove. I saw an equal amount of players over the years transferring from Trinity to the publics as they did transferring to Trinity. The Celtics have always been willing to play anyone and their schedules have always been filled with higher division out of district teams. Who knows how this new FHSAA structure is and how it will affect the teams we play in the future. 

[nolebull813]

2 hours ago, Proseteye said:

Don't understand "blacklisted". The Celtics have played a good compliment of Marion Country Public Schools over the years. 2021 - North Marion, 2019 - Dunnellon, 2018, 2017 - Belleview, Dunnellon, North Marion, 2016, 2015 - Lake Weir, 2012, 2011, 2010- North Marion, Forest, Vanguard. A couple of the publics have accused the Celtics of "stealing their players" which nobody was ever able to prove. I saw an equal amount of players over the years transferring from Trinity to the publics as they did transferring to Trinity. The Celtics have always been willing to play anyone and their schedules have always been filled with higher division out of district teams. Who knows how this new FHSAA structure is and how it will affect the teams we play in the future. 

I’m not saying they have never played county teams I’m saying in 2022 it’s just kind of weird to not play one team in a 10 game schedule that’s from your own county. Especially with 7 other teams. This isn’t some county with 1 or 2 teams that are different in size and/or quality like Columbia and Fort White.

And OTC isn’t some juggernaut that the publics have no shot against. I would think NM and Vanguard could have been slightly favorites. 
 

it sounds like you are saying it’s just a coincidence for 2022

[Proseteye]

8 hours ago, nolebull813 said:

I’m not saying they have never played county teams I’m saying in 2022 it’s just kind of weird to not play one team in a 10 game schedule that’s from your own county. Especially with 7 other teams. This isn’t some county with 1 or 2 teams that are different in size and/or quality like Columbia and Fort White.

And OTC isn’t some juggernaut that the publics have no shot against. I would think NM and Vanguard could have been slightly favorites. 
 

it sounds like you are saying it’s just a coincidence for 2022

The Celtics did defeat NM and Vanguard a couple of times over the years. Maybe you can ask those 7 teams why they didn't play the Celtics in 2022. Coach Brantley has always tried to play the local public schools. Could be that he offered to play them and they declined.  Could be that previous 5A and 6A teams don't want to risk losing to a previous 3A team. 

[gatorman-uf]

In the past there was definitely a coordinated effort by the public schools of Marion to avoid OTC. Kerwin Bell's years. As OTC fell from that standard and Vanguard/North Marion got to keep their players, they started putting OTC back on the schedule. As you see OTC start to rise again, expect Marion County Publics to avoid OTC.

 

[nolebull813]

10 hours ago, gatorman-uf said:

In the past there was definitely a coordinated effort by the public schools of Marion to avoid OTC. Kerwin Bell's years. As OTC fell from that standard and Vanguard/North Marion got to keep their players, they started putting OTC back on the schedule. As you see OTC start to rise again, expect Marion County Publics to avoid OTC.

 

That’s cowardice and I wouldn’t want a coach with that kind of chest leading young men who look to them as strong male leaders. 

[gatorman-uf]

14 hours ago, nolebull813 said:

That’s cowardice and I wouldn’t want a coach with that kind of chest leading young men who look to them as strong male leaders. 

Different time, but there used to be a point when recruiting/transfers for high school athletics was considered dirty and underhanded. OTC was doing that. In order to not make OTC's job easier to recruit them, you don't play them and make them travel an hour and half away. 

Look, I get your thinking. The football coach at my high school believed that the homecoming game should be the best home game on the schedule (no cupcakes). He believed you give the alumni the best show you can, because they probably are only coming to this one game. He wasn't afraid of local state caliber teams.

At the same time, I get the Marion County coaches thinking. If you are going to blatantly disrespect my program by recruiting my players (after you see them at our game), why would I want to make your life easier? Yeah, it is petty, but also a way of protecting my program. I don't think this factors in as much as it used to (the bigger factor is level of competition that Marion County offers or doesn't offer)