Greatest FL HS Turnaround Ever - Video Highlights

[OldSchoolLion]

Prior to 1994, Pensacola Washington had won only 3 playoff games.  In 1993, they finished 1-9.  In 1994, they had a new coach...Chet Bergalowski...who was coaching baseball at Pine Forest in 1993.  Washington finished the '94 regular season 8-2 as a district runner-up.  Washington then shocked the world, beating a gauntlet of good teams on the road in the playoffs... Columbia, Mainland, Riverview.  Then they upset Manatee in the semis before winning the 6A title over powerhouse Miami Southridge(this was the fist year there was a 6A class).  That snapped the defending 5A state champion Southridge's 29-game win streak and likely cost the Ridge a national championship.  

Washington has won only 3 playoff games since, and has not had a winning season since 2006..   

 

 

 

[FL_HS_football]

Manatee wasn't the defending 4A state Champ they played 5A in 1993, as they were beaten by Miami Southridge 69-36 in the 5A state title game in 1993. Also Manatee wasn't the district champ in 1994. Bradenton Southeast was the 1993 and 1994 4A state title champ..... also from Manatee County. Think about this for a moment, before all this open transfer movement, you had 2 teams Manatee and Southeast from the same county in the states 2 largest classifications play  for or win state titles 1992-1994 and did the same in 1985.

[OldSchoolLion]

2 hours ago, FL_HS_football said:

Manatee wasn't the defending 4A state Champ they played 5A in 1993, as they were beaten by Miami Southridge 69-36 in the 5A state title game in 1993. Also Manatee wasn't the district champ in 1994. Bradenton Southeast was the 1993 and 1994 4A state title champ..... also from Manatee County. Think about this for a moment, before all this open transfer movement, you had 2 teams Manatee and Southeast from the same county in the states 2 largest classifications play  for or win state titles 1992-1994 and did the same in 1985.

Thanks for correcting me...I got Manatee and Southeast mixed up there

[gwdrum75]

3 hours ago, FL_HS_football said:

Manatee wasn't the defending 4A state Champ they played 5A in 1993, as they were beaten by Miami Southridge 69-36 in the 5A state title game in 1993. Also Manatee wasn't the district champ in 1994. Bradenton Southeast was the 1993 and 1994 4A state title champ..... also from Manatee County. Think about this for a moment, before all this open transfer movement, you had 2 teams Manatee and Southeast from the same county in the states 2 largest classifications play  for or win state titles 1992-1994 and did the same in 1985.

There were also only 4 high schools in Manatee County at that time.

Manatee had all of west Bradenton.....and oddly a small part of Palmetto, as their district.
Palmetto had Palmetto (the part not reserved for Manatee) and Parrish
Southeast had the entire east side out to Myakka City
And Bayshore had........whatever was left.

If there were no Braden River or Lakewood Ranch.....Southeast would likely have a dynasty....and a very overcrowded school.

[FL_HS_football]

24 minutes ago, gwdrum75 said:

There were also only 4 high schools in Manatee County at that time.

Manatee had all of west Bradenton.....and oddly a small part of Palmetto, as their district.
Palmetto had Palmetto (the part not reserved for Manatee) and Parrish
Southeast had the entire east side out to Myakka City
And Bayshore had........whatever was left.

If there were no Braden River or Lakewood Ranch.....Southeast would likely have a dynasty....and a very overcrowded school.

Actually Bayshore, Manatee and Southeast were all having students bused over the Green Bridge from Palmetto as a result of required integration from the 1960's. I went over to the school board myself to find out how the boundaries were established, and was astonished to discover it was basically segmented blocks of Palmetto that dictated who went to what school. That all changed of course once it was decided to expand Palmetto as well as the building of Lakewood Ranch and Braden River.

US 41 was pretty much the dividing point of the Manatee/Southeast boundary back then in as far as Bradenton was concerned and when Bayshore HS opened in 1974 Cortez Rd was the dividing point for Manatee/Bayshore boundary, with Bayshore taking everything south of Cortez Rd......

Tell you how bad it was with kids giving various addresses in Palmetto to get to go to Manatee vs Southeast? I watched Peter Warrick practice with the Manatee JV team for a number of weeks before he decided to transfer...by indicating he had moved......to be able to go to Southeast his freshman year.