Central Florida Top 10

[badbird]

Volusia, Osceola, Seminole, Orange, Lake and Sumter County.

my Central Florida rankings after week 9  

1. Osceola 7-0 at George Jenkins 

2. Jones 8-1 at Tavares

3. Winter Park 9-0 bye 

4. Wekiva 7-1 at Apopka 

5. Apopka 6-2 at Wekiva

6. DP 6-2 home Cypress Creek

7 Lake Mary 7-1 at Seminole

8. Seminole 6-1 home Lake Mary

9. Bishop Moore 6-1 home Eustis

10. Mainland 4-3 at Pine Ridge

others  Spruce Creek 6-1, Edgewater 7-1, Boone 5-2, West Orange 5-4, LHP 6-1, Lake Nona 6-1

 

 

[DarterBlue2]

Solid ratings.

I think Lake Mary may be a bit low, though. While some of their fans lack class, the football team is playing very well right now. I suspect they beat both Seminole and Winter Park to end the season with one loss. 

[badbird]

54 minutes ago, DarterBlue2 said:

Solid ratings.

I think Lake Mary may be a bit low, though. While some of their fans lack class, the football team is playing very well right now. I suspect they beat both Seminole and Winter Park to end the season with one loss. 

Lake Mary was really good in 2013 and 2014 and lost to First Coast in the second round both years.  Then they had two down years.  I don't see this team as good as those they had back then but there is also not a team like First Coast was in this region.  The next two games will show a lot.  I wasn't surprised they beat OC University but I was surprised by the score.  I think the Seminole game is a toss up and I would favor Winter Park.  I wonder how both teams lake Mary and WP) decide to play that game because they could easily see each other again in the second round.  Winter Park is already in and if lake Mary beats Seminole they will be in so the game won't really matter other than seeding and possibly home field advantage.  I for one think home field is vastly over rated in high school with the exception of a few places. 

[DarterBlue2]

29 minutes ago, badbird said:

Lake Mary was really good in 2013 and 2014 and lost to First Coast in the second round both years.  Then they had two down years.  I don't see this team as good as those they had back then but there is also not a team like First Coast was in this region.  The next two games will show a lot.  I wasn't surprised they beat OC University but I was surprised by the score.  I think the Seminole game is a toss up and I would favor Winter Park.  I wonder how both teams lake Mary and WP) decide to play that game because they could easily see each other again in the second round.  Winter Park is already in and if lake Mary beats Seminole they will be in so the game won't really matter other than seeding and possibly home field advantage.  I for one think home field is vastly over rated in high school with the exception of a few places. 

In 2013 and 14, they had Nick Westbrook who was a stud receiver. In addition they had the Milkin (sp) brothers one of whom is now at OC University. So I agree. Those teams may have been a little better; at least offensively. This team does have a couple of tall receivers who create mismatches. I am more impressed with one than the other based solely on work ethic. But both are problematic for opposing secondaries.

If Seminole could reproduce the Lake Brantley game, I would agree Lake Mary would have all it could handle. But it seems, for whatever reason, that Seminole has slipped since that game. I am not close enough to the program to has at a reasonable guess why this is so. 

You raise an intriguing point regarding the Lake Mary/Winter Park game. One wonders why they ever scheduled this game and if they had trouble filling out their schedules whether they could have tried to play this earlier in the season and not so close to the playoffs. I could totally see this game not being reflective of the true merits of either team as there would be a lot of incentive to keep things close to the vest. 

I agree with you that in most cases home field advantage is overblown. 

[DisabledAccount]

45 minutes ago, badbird said:

Lake Mary was really good in 2013 and 2014 and lost to First Coast in the second round both years.  Then they had two down years.  I don't see this team as good as those they had back then but there is also not a team like First Coast was in this region.  The next two games will show a lot.  I wasn't surprised they beat OC University but I was surprised by the score.  I think the Seminole game is a toss up and I would favor Winter Park.  I wonder how both teams lake Mary and WP) decide to play that game because they could easily see each other again in the second round.  Winter Park is already in and if lake Mary beats Seminole they will be in so the game won't really matter other than seeding and possibly home field advantage.  I for one think home field is vastly over rated in high school with the exception of a few places. 

I honestly think we are a more focused and motivated team on the road so the idea of home field ain't as important to us as some teams so i agree

[Mustangs78]

Dang Badbird, there you go again!  Seminolee, Osceola, Orange, and Volusia.  If you included Brevard and even Indian River, all those teams drop 3. Cocoa 1, Viera 2, Vero 3. and that is with Vero beating Viera (Viera had 600 yrd. off. and 7 TO).  also Spruce Creek should be 5, they could beat DP, Apopka, n Lake Mary this year.  Jones is best team, #1

[DarterBlue2]

5 minutes ago, Mustangs78 said:

Dang Badbird, there you go again!  Seminolee, Osceola, Orange, and Volusia.  If you included Brevard and even Indian River, all those teams drop 3. Cocoa 1, Viera 2, Vero 3. and that is with Vero beating Viera (Viera had 600 yrd. off. and 7 TO).  also Spruce Creek should be 5, they could beat DP, Apopka, n Lake Mary this year.  Jones is best team, #1

Vero Beach is as easily Palm Beach County as it is Central Florida (it is neither is my point). I do agree Brevard County should be included. But BadBird has decided to stick with the Orlando Sentinel coverage area which he specified in his post. 

If we included Brevard, both Cocoa and Viera would be in the top 5 for sure. However, I don't necessarily think the two would be numbers 1 and 2. I can think of 4 teams in BadBird's rankings that would have an excellent chance of beating both Cocoa and Viera.

[Mustangs78]

What a good game it could have been with the Kowboys and Hawks.  Damn hurricane.

[Mustangs78]

With Vero, there are 2 counties in between them and Palm Beach (St, Lucie and Martin), they are much more East Central Florida than South Florida. 

[DarterBlue2]

6 minutes ago, Mustangs78 said:

With Vero, there are 2 counties in between them and Palm Beach (St, Lucie and Martin), they are much more East Central Florida than South Florida. 

Yes, and no. I see the south end of Brevard County which is long (north to south), as the end of Central Florida. If Vero was right on the county line (as Lakeland is to Hillsborough), I could see the argument.

In any case, historically, Vero has sometimes played in a District with the Palm Beach County teams. To the best of my knowledge in recent times (1990s to today), they have never played in a district with Central Florida teams. 

The point I am making is that since there is a dearth of games between Vero Beach and Central Florida teams (at least till the playoffs), it is kind of hard to put them in Central Florida. What basis would one really have to rank them? At least with the Brevard teams, there are enough games each year with the rest of Central Florida to have a pretty good idea where they would rank. 

[Trelle]

Palm Bay used to be in the same district in the late 90s/early 2000s and even Merrit Island I think in the 80s but I always considered us a PB County team, we play some Treasure Coast teams but there for a while Wellington, PB Gardens, Jupiter, John I Leonard, PB Lakes, etc etc was all our district. I would consider Brevard a Central FL county, but these aren’t my rankings, there badbirds and I appreciate his insight on them and think they’re pretty solid andddd he makes the rules on his list lol

[Drogo]

For a very brief time in the early 90’s Vero was put into a district with Osceola, but it was very brief- 2 years most likely. Vero opened with Maynard Evans yearly in some classic games during this time, including during Evans state title run. They also played Colonial a couple of times during the regular season around then too. Around this time they welcomed some of the Miami big boys ( Southridge, Senior, Carol City, Northwestern.) regularly  too. As Trelle said, in the late 90’s/00’s, they became squarely a Palm Beach county school- in terms of district assignment. 

Vero has always been sort of a dead zone for big school districting- not the Orlando area, but not really Palm Beach either, and as a result they have always flipped from Palm Beach, Space coast, and the like until the population grew large enough on the Treasure coast to field 3-4 large school (currently 8a) teams. 

[Cat_Scratch]

Home field matters to some. There are teams that travel better than others and some that travel poorly. 

I'll take home field anytime, and be happy for the revenue it brings.

justsayin...

[DarterBlue2]

7 minutes ago, Cat_Scratch said:

Home field matters to some. There are teams that travel better than others and some that travel poorly. 

I'll take home field anytime, and be happy for the revenue it brings.

justsayin...

Can't argue with the revenue thing ... 

[badbird]

20 hours ago, Mustangs78 said:

Dang Badbird, there you go again!  Seminolee, Osceola, Orange, and Volusia.  If you included Brevard and even Indian River, all those teams drop 3. Cocoa 1, Viera 2, Vero 3. and that is with Vero beating Viera (Viera had 600 yrd. off. and 7 TO).  also Spruce Creek should be 5, they could beat DP, Apopka, n Lake Mary this year.  Jones is best team, #1

Since Viera refused to reschedule the game I wouldn't rank them over Osceola.  I think all three teams you mentioned have a great shot at making the state title.  Cocoa will win it all, Vero might.  Viera if they get there will probably have nightmares on who is on the other side.

[badbird]

21 hours ago, DarterBlue2 said:

If Seminole could reproduce the Lake Brantley game, I would agree Lake Mary would have all it could handle. But it seems, for whatever reason, that Seminole has slipped since that game. I am not close enough to the program to has at a reasonable guess why this is so. 

 

Seminole is not explosive on offense. They lost their top 3 skill players last year to graduation in RB DJ Hampton, QB Kaylan Wiggins and WR Gabe Davis.  The young Qb is a nice replacement to Wiggins but he is still a freshman.  They don't have a WR near the talent of Davis or a RB near as explosive as Hampton.  I think the major issue is the running game.  They have very few runs over 20 yards and their top two RB's are averaging just over 5 yards a carry which sounds decent but for a high school that is really good they should be averaging around 8-9 yards a carry.  Against good teams I'm sure this average is more around 4 yds a carry.  Lake Brantley looked real flat to me against Seminole.  I was impressed with Seminole's defense vs Brantley but the offense still needed work.  It seems the offense hasn't really improved much probably because of the youth and lack of elite skill kids on offense. I'm sure an off season speed and strength program will help them and they will be much better on offense next year.  I think they should start playing #7 on offense more.  he appeared to be an elite skill player on defense.

[DarterBlue2]

1 hour ago, badbird said:

Seminole is not explosive on offense. They lost their top 3 skill players last year to graduation in RB DJ Hampton, QB Kaylan Wiggins and WR Gabe Davis.  The young Qb is a nice replacement to Wiggins but he is still a freshman.  They don't have a WR near the talent of Davis or a RB near as explosive as Hampton.  I think the major issue is the running game.  They have very few runs over 20 yards and their top two RB's are averaging just over 5 yards a carry which sounds decent but for a high school that is really good they should be averaging around 8-9 yards a carry.  Against good teams I'm sure this average is more around 4 yds a carry.  Lake Brantley looked real flat to me against Seminole.  I was impressed with Seminole's defense vs Brantley but the offense still needed work.  It seems the offense hasn't really improved much probably because of the youth and lack of elite skill kids on offense. I'm sure an off season speed and strength program will help them and they will be much better on offense next year.  I think they should start playing #7 on offense more.  he appeared to be an elite skill player on defense.

He played a bit of offense in the OC University game. And, I agree with your assessment of him.

[FloTech]

On 10/22/2017 at 9:16 PM, DarterBlue2 said:

Vero Beach is as easily Palm Beach County as it is Central Florida (it is neither is my point). I do agree Brevard County should be included. But BadBird has decided to stick with the Orlando Sentinel coverage area which he specified in his post. 

If we included Brevard, both Cocoa and Viera would be in the top 5 for sure. However, I don't necessarily think the two would be numbers 1 and 2. I can think of 4 teams in BadBird's rankings that would have an excellent chance of beating both Cocoa and Viera.

Vero Beach  is Treasure Coast as well as Stuart PSL and Fort Pierce

[Willie Stargell]

You didn't miss by much...by Apopka is going to show you what's up.

[954gator]

On 10/22/2017 at 9:20 PM, Mustangs78 said:

What a good game it could have been with the Kowboys and Hawks.  Damn hurricane.

Agreed, wish they'd have made this one up. 

[DarterBlue2]

2 hours ago, 954gator said:

Agreed, wish they'd have made this one up. 

The Hawks declined, for the record.

[Mustangs78]

 

Viera has been to Allen, Texas, Gonzaga. DC, South Carolina next year.  Osceola is just another great game they wanted on schedule.  Neither team decline, it did not work out.  

Not sure you are correct about how the logistics and finances went down on this game  1.  Viera vs Osceola - huuricane  2. Viera vs M.I - hurricane, 3. the following week Rockledge and Osceola played because they both had bye weeks on the Sept. 22 (so they played), 4. Viera vs, Cocoa Sept. 22, 5.  Osceola and Viera had district games on Sept. 29 

Osceola nor Viera ducked each other, it just was not to be because of Irma.    

Bottom line, Viera missed out on $40, 000 of gate those 2 Friday home games missed. And add they had to play Palm Bay on the road this year because of Hurricane Mathew last year, (add another $20, 000) Viera has only played on their home field on August 25 only and that is it this year.

Viera will show up at Kowboy stadium next year.  I will have no more kids at Viera (YAAAAAA1) and depending on my son's college schedule, I will be there though.

 

[badbird]

Viera refused to make it up.  Those are facts.  That doesn’t mean they were scared or the worse team.  

[badbird]

Volusia, Osceola, Seminole, Orange, Lake and Sumter County.

my Central Florida rankings after week 10 

1. Osceola 8-0 home lake Brantley win could give them the #1 seed in region.  This is a tough game for them

2. Jones 9-1 bye

3. Wekiva 8-1 home lake Nona

4. Winter Park 9-0 at lake Mary.  Win gives them #1 seed in region

5. Seminole 7-1 home Bishop Moore

6. Apopka 6-3 at Oak Ridge

7. DP 7-2 at Timber Creek Monday

8. Bishop Moore 7-1 at Seminole

9. Lake Mary 7-2 home Winter Park

10. Mainland 6-3 bye

others  Spruce Creek 7-1, Edgewater 8-1, Boone 7-2, West Orange 5-4, East Ridge 6-3, First Academy 8-0

[badbird]

A couple of important games this week for seeding and just top teams playing.  Lake Mary vs Winter Park.  Boone vs Edgewater and Seminole vs Bishop Moore.