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Armwood vs MNW


954gator

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38 minutes ago, 954gator said:

Can Armwood get over the hump this year?  Or will MNW keep rolling?

I have no earthly idea. I picked Armwood in the competition just because I need to catch up. But I suspect MNW wins the game. But this is based solely on a tougher schedule as the two teams did not have common opponents or anything else to go by.

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Used to live in the Tampa area back in the early 2000's and watch the area teams play.  I remember back then wondering why Armwood would rarely, if ever, play anyone from outside Hillsborough County in the regular season, especially when you had good teams like Lakeland, Kathleen, and Lake Gibson right down the interstate in Polk County and a number of good teams not too far away in the Sarasota/Bradenton area.  From what I recall, they might have only 1-2 close games per year, against Hillsborough and Plant, and all of the rest were blowouts.

Back then, this practice seemed to hurt them come playoff time when they might have to travel and play much tougher teams than what they were used to.  I see that is still the trend today to play local teams, many of whom are much weaker.  Does anyone know why this is the case?

Just for kicks, I looked at their schedule since 2005 and looks like they only played a handful of teams from outside their area, and only one of those was an away game:

2008 Bothell, WA-HOME-WON

2011 Bishop Gorman, NV-AWAY-LOST

2012 American Heritage-Delray(3A school)-HOME-LOST

2013 Cooper City (3-8 record that year)-HOME-WON

I have experience with high school football in south Florida and a team in Dade or Broward County could build a brutal schedule playing just county teams-no need to travel far.  Judging by the scores of many of Armwood's games, things are not as competitive there, even now.    

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1 minute ago, OldSchoolLion said:

Used to live in the Tampa area back in the early 2000's and watch the area teams play.  I remember back then wondering why Armwood would rarely, if ever, play anyone from outside Hillsborough County in the regular season, especially when you had good teams like Lakeland, Kathleen, and Lake Gibson right down the interstate in Polk County and a number of good teams not too far away in the Sarasota/Bradenton area.  From what I recall, they might have only 1-2 close games per year, against Hillsborough and Plant, and all of the rest were blowouts.

Back then, this practice seemed to hurt them come playoff time when they might have to travel and play much tougher teams than what they were used to.  I see that is still the trend today to play local teams, many of whom are much weaker.  Does anyone know why this is the case?

Just for kicks, I looked at their schedule since 2005 and looks like they only played a handful of teams from outside their area, and only one of those was an away game:

2008 Bothell, WA-HOME-WON

2011 Bishop Gorman, NV-AWAY-LOST

2012 American Heritage-Delray(3A school)-HOME-LOST

2013 Cooper City (3-8 record that year)-HOME-WON

I have experience with high school football in south Florida and a team in Dade or Broward County could build a brutal schedule playing just county teams-no need to travel far.  Judging by the scores of many of Armwood's games, things are not as competitive there, even now.    

Hillsborough County football games are all scheduled by the County Athletic Director. I work at a school near Orlando and we were working with a coach to try and schedule a game about a year or two ago and he couldn't do it. Teams can request games but it's ultimately up to whoever their County AD is (from what I can understand).

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2 minutes ago, OldSchoolLion said:

Used to live in the Tampa area back in the early 2000's and watch the area teams play.  I remember back then wondering why Armwood would rarely, if ever, play anyone from outside Hillsborough County in the regular season, especially when you had good teams like Lakeland, Kathleen, and Lake Gibson right down the interstate in Polk County and a number of good teams not too far away in the Sarasota/Bradenton area.  From what I recall, they might have only 1-2 close games per year, against Hillsborough and Plant, and all of the rest were blowouts.

Back then, this practice seemed to hurt them come playoff time when they might have to travel and play much tougher teams than what they were used to.  I see that is still the trend today to play local teams, many of whom are much weaker.  Does anyone know why this is the case?

Just for kicks, I looked at their schedule since 2005 and looks like they only played a handful of teams from outside their area, and only one of those was an away game:

2008 Bothell, WA-HOME-WON

2011 Bishop Gorman, NV-AWAY-LOST

2012 American Heritage-Delray(3A school)-HOME-LOST

2013 Cooper City (3-8 record that year)-HOME-WON

I have experience with high school football in south Florida and a team in Dade or Broward County could build a brutal schedule playing just county teams-no need to travel far.  Judging by the scores of many of Armwood's games, things are not as competitive there, even now.    

It's because Hillsbourgh county AD schedules not the schools Which honestly i think has hurt teams like plant and armwood last few years bc overall their schedule is full of teams who Give them little to no competition 

 

I expect the schedule difference between these 2 teams to have a impact like in previous armwood vs Dade matchups 

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Thank you for the replies.  I could see some great rivalries between Hillsborough(city boys) and Polk County(country boys) schools, just like Dade and Broward County folks in south Florida like to argue who is best.  I remember going to a Kathleen vs Lakeland game one year and standing outside the fence with a bunch of other folks just listening to the game.  I could see crowds like that for an Armwood vs Lakeland game.  In Georgia, it is quite common for "X" County to play "Y" County in games, and you get some tremendous rivalries...and crowds.  As much as Florida high school football suffers from low attendance, would think AD's would be getting more creative to drum up ticket sales.  Seems odd that games against teams from Nevada and Washington could be justified, but not for a team 30 minutes away in the next county.   

 

   

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According to the records, below are the scores from Armwood's final game of each season over the past 10 years.  Excluding the years they had to forfeit, Armwood has not had good luck with teams from south Florida in the playoffs. 

One has to wonder if their schedule prepares them well for such competition.   Armwood has not had a close game all season.  Northwestern has had a number of them, and even tasted what it is like to lose a close one.  I saw Miami Northwestern destroy Naples last week and cannot imagine any of the teams Armwood faced this year are remotely as fast or physical across the board.   

2007-Miami Booker T Washington 34-14 LOSS

2008-Plant 17-14 LOSS

2009-Dwyer 41-15 LOSS

2010-forfeit

2011-forfeit

2012-Gainesville 42-10 LOSS

2013-Miami Central 52-7 LOSS

2014-Miami Central 24-10 LOSS

2015-Miami Central 48-13 LOSS

2016-Lake Gibson 18-15 LOSS

In 2015, Armwood waltzed their way through the regular season and the playoffs.  The highest ranked team they played in the playoffs was #24 in FL and none of their playoff games were close.  Central had to beat 3 Top 20 FL teams to make the finals that year.  Central played a tough regular season schedule, including Dematha.  ...and then they met Central

This year, once again, Armwood has had a relatively easy regular season and faced only one Top 20 team in the playoffs.  None of their playoff games were close.  Northwestern had a brutal regular season schedule, including IMG, and had to play 2 Top 20 teams to make the finals, and both games were close.  I could see the same result as 2015, with Northwestern winning big.   

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It is not solely Armwood.  All teams in 6A  Regions 1,2,3 have limited schedules compared to top Region 4 teams.

Including the playoffs, and looking at all of 6A in Regions 1,2, 3, Armwood arguably has had the hardest schedule.  That said, factored with the County AD approving the games , what more can they do?

Armwood may be somewhat handcuffed or limited in their scheduling ...

Either way, Armwood's schedule to me this year is one of the better schedules in years.

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7 minutes ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

This MNW team may very well be as talented as those central teams that armwood got crushed by

 

This armwood team is talented but i don't see them being any better than those teams who couldn't compete with central 

 

How many Armwood games have you been to this year? Curious. You seem to have a pretty strong opinion about them. 

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Just now, 181pl said:

How many Armwood games have you been to this year? Curious. You seem to have a pretty strong opinion about them. 

I've watched some film of them

 

Sure they a good team but since they got busted they have not defeated a south Florida power

 

What makes you think this team is better than 2013, 2014 and 2015?

 

Those teams had lots of talent like this one yet they couldn't beat Central 

 

 

Do you not view this MNW team as being as good as those central teams or is this armwood team far more loaded then previous years? 

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4 minutes ago, 181pl said:

better QB. 4 star legit RB and wr. very strong d.

Which one of those did the previous teams not have? 

 

Armwood had a solid defense those years 

 

I remember them having several talented skill players as well

 

Don't get me wrong armwood is good team, i think right now they probably top 10 in FL but i think you underestimating MNW 

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I'll throw gas on the fire. Is there a super team in the playoffs this year ?  IMO there isn't. Northwestern was the best in 6A District 16 but not by much. Norland, Central, and Carol City were right there team and talent wise. Armwood has a puncher's chance. They're always well coached, athletic, and don't hurt themselves. 5A might be the only big school cakewalk we see in Orlando. But then again, maybe not. That's why they play the games. See you all at the Florida Championships....old man, white hair, and glasses with a big smile on my face. It doesn't get any better then this weekend...

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Miami NW was a combined 6-0 versus Columbus, Booker T, Central (2 wins) and Carol City (2 wins).   On average, their defense gave up only 10 points per game in those games.  This feat is along the lines of a Big Ten Team going undefeated in conference play AND winning the championship game-extremely difficult .  The last 3 years Central won a state title they could not pull off the same, and those were some special Central teams. 

NW was beaten soundly by IMG this year, but who wasn't.  And the fact that they were beaten by Norland speaks to how competitive football is in Dade County.  Numerous teams could beat others on any given night.  Again, speaks to how special that 6-0 mark is.

In 2015, Armwood easily won all of their playoff games and all were played at home, only to get trounced by Central in the state finals.  It's the same scenario this year, with Armwood easily winning all of their playoff games at home.   

One thing I haven't seen from Armwood in the past 6 seasons is a dominant road win against a really strong team in the playoffs.  Armwood played on the road in the state semifinals in 2013 and 2014 and barely pulled off the wins.  And the teams they played those years were not even ranked in the Top 20 in the state.  

I followed Armwood's 2004 state championship team closely.  That team was very talented on both sides of the ball, particularly its defense.  Their offense put up some gaudy numbers, including a huge rout of Jefferson, who was state runner-up.  When their defense faced Booker T,' they got lit up.  Booker T's offense was small, but very fast, and Armwood's D had fits with them.  The only reason Armwood won was that their offense put up so many points.  Ever since then, Armwood has typically had strong defenses, yet has never been able to hold one of the good south Florida teams under 20 points. 

So, I believe the only way Armwood beats NW is by putting up big points on offense-at least 24.  Even IMG's offense could not do that against NW.  The offensive numbers I have seen for this year's Armwood team are not nearly as impressive as its 2004 team, so am not sure they will be able to pull that off.  Granted, those numbers don't always tell the whole story. 

If indeed Armwood is limited who it plays, that's really a shame.  I think some of the blowouts against Central were a function of a strength of schedule.  Even just one very challenging away game each year against an opponent outside Hillsborough County would go a long way toward preparing them for the playoffs.    

     

 

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