Small town football

[DisabledAccount]

Saw this over on the prep gridiron board and decided to share it here

 

One of the posters made a website documenting small town football in America, he still adding to it but figured it was worth a peek 

 

http://www.smalltownfootball.com

[Trelle]

Disagree with Odessa/Midland area the city of Odessa is bigger than West Palm and that’s not including Midland shouldn’t be considered “small town”

[OldSchoolLion]

38 minutes ago, Trelle said:

Disagree with Odessa/Midland area the city of Odessa is bigger than West Palm and that’s not including Midland shouldn’t be considered “small town”

Yeah, I thought the same. Odessa High is 6A..definitely not "small town."

[DisabledAccount]

9 minutes ago, OldSchoolLion said:

Yeah, I thought the same. Odessa High is 6A..definitely not "small town."

To be fair classification doesn't really mean a town is small or large

 

Columbia is 7a

Suwannee is 5a

 

Both are considered small towns

[Trelle]

I’ve spent a good amount of time with work in that region it’s a big city... they did have a big beautiful stadium too, sadly I never got to see them play. I think when the original Friday Night Lights came out it portrayed it as small town but it’s huge now easily bigger than places like Melbourne, Palm Beach, Daytona etc. When I think of small town football I think of the likes of Pahokee (Muck Region in General),  Rockledge, Immokalee,  etc etc a town you might drive thru and stop in to get fuel and forget but that’s just my opinion

[peezy28]

3 hours ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

To be fair classification doesn't really mean a town is small or large

 

Columbia is 7a

Suwannee is 5a

 

Both are considered small towns

Agree, you can have a big school in a small town if its the only show in town (or 1 of 2 like say Valdosta which I consider a small town)

[Floridatech]

2 hours ago, Trelle said:

I’ve spent a good amount of time with work in that region it’s a big city... they did have a big beautiful stadium too, sadly I never got to see them play. I think when the original Friday Night Lights came out it portrayed it as small town but it’s huge now easily bigger than places like Melbourne, Palm Beach, Daytona etc. When I think of small town football I think of the likes of Pahokee (Muck Region in General),  Rockledge, Immokalee,  etc etc a town you might drive thru and stop in to get fuel and forget but that’s just my opinion

Vero don't even qualify for small town football anymore our area is more like medium sized 

 

[OldSchoolLion]

3 hours ago, Trelle said:

I’ve spent a good amount of time with work in that region it’s a big city... they did have a big beautiful stadium too, sadly I never got to see them play. I think when the original Friday Night Lights came out it portrayed it as small town but it’s huge now easily bigger than places like Melbourne, Palm Beach, Daytona etc. When I think of small town football I think of the likes of Pahokee (Muck Region in General),  Rockledge, Immokalee,  etc etc a town you might drive thru and stop in to get fuel and forget but that’s just my opinion

...me. too.  ....15k or less people.   Looks like Midland/Odessa together has about 250k!

Guess it is all relative.  When I was in China some locals called a city of 4 million people "small"  

 

[DisabledAccount]

6 hours ago, peezy28 said:

Agree, you can have a big school in a small town if its the only show in town (or 1 of 2 like say Valdosta which I consider a small town)

Valdosta is probably the most well known example of small town football in America 

[s1nglewing]

Niceville is a good example of smaller town football. Port St Joe is small. 

[DisabledAccount]

Just now, s1nglewing said:

Niceville is a good example of smaller town football. Port St Joe is small. 

I was thinking Niceville as borderline but then again so is Lake City so i can't complain too much

 

Niceville brings some huge numbers for sure though

[Guest]

In my opinion, Niceville is as close to texas small town football as your gonna get in Florida. Again, I may be wrong but they sure do have a load of fan support and student section traditions is great well as well. Great place to watch a game.

[OldSchoolLion]

7 minutes ago, Just A Coach said:

In my opinion, Niceville is as close to texas small town football as your gonna get in Florida. Again, I may be wrong but they sure do have a load of fan support and student section traditions is great well as well. Great place to watch a game.

...found this...wow

 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, OldSchoolLion said:

...found this...wow

yup....the stadium is a bowl and you enter from the top of the bleachers. Crazy having to walk your team down through all of that. Definite home field advantage. I have coached against some better teams but never seen anything like Niceville. Cool place

 

[Proseteye]

17 minutes ago, Just A Coach said:

 

Exactly like Mount Dora's stadium which is built into the side of a large hill.  The Mount Dora team appears from behind the top of the stands and walks down through the stands to the field. However the opponent just walks to their benches from the street.

[KeemD321]

32 minutes ago, Just A Coach said:

In my opinion, Niceville is as close to texas small town football as your gonna get in Florida. Again, I may be wrong but they sure do have a load of fan support and student section traditions is great well as well. Great place to watch a game.

Niceville is like that and has so much support because it is military community. I'm part of that community as well now since I'm stationed out here.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, KeemD321 said:

Niceville is like that and has so much support because it is military community. I'm part of that community as well now since I'm stationed out here.

Appreciate all you do for us big dawg. Thanks.

[KeemD321]

Just now, Just A Coach said:

Appreciate all you do for us big dawg. Thanks.

No prob for sure.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Proseteye said:

Exactly like Mount Dora's stadium which is built into the side of a large hill.  The Mount Dora team appears from behind the top of the stands and walks down through the stands to the field. However the opponent just walks to their benches from the street.

Yeah Mount Dora's stadium is cool as well. Never coached against them but seen a game there once. Niceville is something different. 

[DarterBlue2]

9 hours ago, OldSchoolLion said:

...me. too.  ....15k or less people.   Looks like Midland/Odessa together has about 250k!

Guess it is all relative.  When I was in China some locals called a city of 4 million people "small"  

 

They are so many mega cities there that few in the USA have ever heard of. One of my children lives in Wuxi which would be a top 10, probably top 5, USA city. But bet few in America have ever heard of it. 

[OldSchoolLion]

8 hours ago, KeemD321 said:

Niceville is like that and has so much support because it is military community. I'm part of that community as well now since I'm stationed out here.

Warner Robins Georgia is like that with the Air Force base there...tremendous community support.  WR High was mythical national champions back in the 1970's.  They have an incredible little league baseball program, too.

[DisabledAccount]

9 hours ago, Just A Coach said:

 

I remember at escambia Where the stadium was in what looked to be a pit and we had to walk around the school and onto the track or walk down the bleachers to get to the field

 

I would hate to see what that field looks like after a panhandle hurricane 

[OldSchoolLion]

About 15 years ago I went to a playoff game at Immokalee.  Edgerrin James had a younger cousin named Javarris who was the running back on that team.  Edgerrin showed up at that game in a limo and I believe he had Puff Daddy with him.  Must have been one of the most exciting things to happen in that little town in a long time...absolute bedlam.  Heard he gave them a pre-game talk and talk about some inspired play!  

[peezy28]

39 minutes ago, OldSchoolLion said:

About 15 years ago I went to a playoff game at Immokalee.  Edgerrin James had a younger cousin named Javarris who was the running back on that team.  Edgerrin showed up at that game in a limo and I believe he had Puff Daddy with him.  Must have been one of the most exciting things to happen in that little town in a long time...absolute bedlam.  Heard he gave them a pre-game talk and talk about some inspired play!  

Despite that show of flash Edge is a humble guy... He did very well for himself outside of football and gives back to Immok often.

[OldSchoolLion]

12 minutes ago, peezy28 said:

Despite that show of flash Edge is a humble guy... He did very well for himself outside of football and gives back to Immok often.

They are blessed.  As isolated as they are geographically, I could see Immokalee as a town struggling financially.