Miami-Dade County Football Conference Update

[OldSchoolLion]

Miami-Dade County high school football has its very own version of “A League of their Own” this season.  With county powers Northwestern, Central, Booker T. Washington and Columbus, to name a few, having taken over the landscape in terms of domination and stacking rosters with top talent on an annual basis, the likes of Reagan, Goleman Coral Park, Varela and other programs have been left in the dust.  Rather than get discouraged, the “little guys” who weren’t so little in terms of school size, went out and did something about it.

With Reagan coach John Lopez, assistant coach Jorge Rojas along with the GMAC leading the way, months of contacting other schools to get them on board, along with informing the FHSAA that they would not be participating in the state series when it came to football, eventually led to the berth of the Miami-Dade County Football Conference.  All 12 schools will still continue to be very much a part of the GMAC, they simply will not participate in the FHSAA state football playoffs come November.

“This gives us a chance to be competitive and to be honest a sense of fairness since the entire county has now kind of become an entire group of either ‘haves’ or ‘have-nots,’ ” said Lopez who is the only coach the Reagan program has ever known, starting it from scratch 12 years ago. “Speaking just for Reagan, being capped out enrollment-wise, we’ve always taken pride in just simply figuring out how to play with whatever comes in the doors. Obviously we weren’t the only ones with this problem. Other schools were in the same boat and that’s when we started to put together the idea of doing something like this.”

A total of 12 programs joined up to form the conference that is split into two divisions of six, a south division and a north. Forming the south are Braddock, Coral Park, Sunset, Reagan, Varela and Ferguson. Goleman, Hialeah-Miami Lakes, Mourning, Krop, Hialeah Gardens and Westland Hialeah are in the north.  Both out of the gate with 3-0 starts, Goleman and Krop would appear to be the two best teams in this group of a dozen.

“Our kids are excited for it, our coaches are excited for it I’m excited for it and our school is excited for it,” said Goleman head coach Ariel Cribiero. “I’d like to think that teams and programs that do it the right way and build with their own kids that this is our way of rewarding those kids. We’re a magnet school, our kids are smart, going to Ivy League schools, not necessarily to play football. We want to give them a great experience and going to this independent league will give them that opportunity.”

The set up will be relatively simple. Each team will play the other five in its own division and then four other games against teams from the opposite division for a total of nine games. The 10th game (including a bye week) will be played the final regular season week (Oct. 31-Nov. 2).  “We will pair up the two sixth-place teams against each other, then the fifth place and so on up to third place,” Rojas said. “Whoever finishes first and second will qualify for our playoffs on that weekend as well. The two semifinals will be first place from one division playing second from the other division and vice versa.”  The two semifinal winners will then meet in the championship game, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 9 at a neutral site, possibly Milander Stadium.

“This new conference, it’s not going to be any different in that we’re going to come out with the same attitude every week play football the way we know how to play,” said Reagan senior quarterback Johnny Vega. “It’s a matter of knowing that we have to beat whoever is in front of us. But now we’ll shoot to win the championship in our conference and that’s going to be pretty cool.”

[THIS_IS_DILLARD]

1 hour ago, OldSchoolLion said:

Miami-Dade County high school football has its very own version of “A League of their Own” this season.  With county powers Northwestern, Central, Booker T. Washington and Columbus, to name a few, having taken over the landscape in terms of domination and stacking rosters with top talent on an annual basis, the likes of Reagan, Goleman Coral Park, Varela and other programs have been left in the dust.  Rather than get discouraged, the “little guys” who weren’t so little in terms of school size, went out and did something about it.

With Reagan coach John Lopez, assistant coach Jorge Rojas along with the GMAC leading the way, months of contacting other schools to get them on board, along with informing the FHSAA that they would not be participating in the state series when it came to football, eventually led to the berth of the Miami-Dade County Football Conference.  All 12 schools will still continue to be very much a part of the GMAC, they simply will not participate in the FHSAA state football playoffs come November.

“This gives us a chance to be competitive and to be honest a sense of fairness since the entire county has now kind of become an entire group of either ‘haves’ or ‘have-nots,’ ” said Lopez who is the only coach the Reagan program has ever known, starting it from scratch 12 years ago. “Speaking just for Reagan, being capped out enrollment-wise, we’ve always taken pride in just simply figuring out how to play with whatever comes in the doors. Obviously we weren’t the only ones with this problem. Other schools were in the same boat and that’s when we started to put together the idea of doing something like this.”

A total of 12 programs joined up to form the conference that is split into two divisions of six, a south division and a north. Forming the south are Braddock, Coral Park, Sunset, Reagan, Varela and Ferguson. Goleman, Hialeah-Miami Lakes, Mourning, Krop, Hialeah Gardens and Westland Hialeah are in the north.  Both out of the gate with 3-0 starts, Goleman and Krop would appear to be the two best teams in this group of a dozen.

“Our kids are excited for it, our coaches are excited for it I’m excited for it and our school is excited for it,” said Goleman head coach Ariel Cribiero. “I’d like to think that teams and programs that do it the right way and build with their own kids that this is our way of rewarding those kids. We’re a magnet school, our kids are smart, going to Ivy League schools, not necessarily to play football. We want to give them a great experience and going to this independent league will give them that opportunity.”

The set up will be relatively simple. Each team will play the other five in its own division and then four other games against teams from the opposite division for a total of nine games. The 10th game (including a bye week) will be played the final regular season week (Oct. 31-Nov. 2).  “We will pair up the two sixth-place teams against each other, then the fifth place and so on up to third place,” Rojas said. “Whoever finishes first and second will qualify for our playoffs on that weekend as well. The two semifinals will be first place from one division playing second from the other division and vice versa.”  The two semifinal winners will then meet in the championship game, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 9 at a neutral site, possibly Milander Stadium.

“This new conference, it’s not going to be any different in that we’re going to come out with the same attitude every week play football the way we know how to play,” said Reagan senior quarterback Johnny Vega. “It’s a matter of knowing that we have to beat whoever is in front of us. But now we’ll shoot to win the championship in our conference and that’s going to be pretty cool.”

I love it broward should do the same. I know way more then 30 schools who could join. 

[muckboy561]

What is GMAC??

[gatorman-uf]

Glad they solved their problem, and they have the right approach of Competitive Games allows for the sport to continue at our schools and continue to grow. But tell me again how promotion and relegation doesn't solve this issue. If Reagan is that bad, (Lax Index of 430), then why not move them down to 7A so maybe they are more competitive, why not move a school like Northwestern up so that they play against better competition. Increase the size of classifications to 96 (16 districts 6 teams per district) and move the worst 16 teams down and the best 16 up. 

Does this potentially mean that a school with 750 would compete against a school with 2800 sure? But if those two schools are equal on the field than it should be considered fine. Nobody wants to see blowouts neither the winning or losing side. You want competitive games. Yes, coaches should be able to create schedules that allow to have fair competitions, but sometimes you have School Districts and FHSAA districts that force the haves and havenots to compete.  



 

[OldSchoolLion]

31 minutes ago, muckboy561 said:

What is GMAC??

Greater Miami Athletic Conference

[THIS_IS_DILLARD]

32 minutes ago, gatorman-uf said:

Glad they solved their problem, and they have the right approach of Competitive Games allows for the sport to continue at our schools and continue to grow. But tell me again how promotion and relegation doesn't solve this issue. If Reagan is that bad, (Lax Index of 430), then why not move them down to 7A so maybe they are more competitive, why not move a school like Northwestern up so that they play against better competition. Increase the size of classifications to 96 (16 districts 6 teams per district) and move the worst 16 teams down and the best 16 up. 

Does this potentially mean that a school with 750 would compete against a school with 2800 sure? But if those two schools are equal on the field than it should be considered fine. Nobody wants to see blowouts neither the winning or losing side. You want competitive games. Yes, coaches should be able to create schedules that allow to have fair competitions, but sometimes you have School Districts and FHSAA districts that force the haves and havenots to compete.  



 

Exactly. But you have some coaches putting teams on their schedule they kno they cant beat but say its for "the experience" yea we lost by 60 but atleast we site see.

[gatorman-uf]

2 hours ago, THIS_IS_DILLARD said:

Exactly. But you have some coaches putting teams on their schedule they kno they cant beat but say its for "the experience" yea we lost by 60 but atleast we site see.

I am not against a Volleyball, Basketball, Soccer, or Baseball/Softball team doing that as a reason to travel to a tournament. Tournaments though are over 3-4 days and you can actually sightsee and do different things. I was in Palm Beach County during Christmas last year and I went to their version of the City of the Palms Basketball Tournament. Several teams from cold Midwestern states were very happy to be in the beaches. Football though, I can't imagine doing that as a reason. These coaches are all about routines and never breaking those routines. Some of these coaches would sooner cut off their leg then allow a routine to be broken by a sightseeing tour. 

[HornetFan]

5 hours ago, OldSchoolLion said:

Miami-Dade County high school football has its very own version of “A League of their Own” this season.  With county powers Northwestern, Central, Booker T. Washington and Columbus, to name a few, having taken over the landscape in terms of domination and stacking rosters with top talent on an annual basis, the likes of Reagan, Goleman Coral Park, Varela and other programs have been left in the dust.  Rather than get discouraged, the “little guys” who weren’t so little in terms of school size, went out and did something about it.

With Reagan coach John Lopez, assistant coach Jorge Rojas along with the GMAC leading the way, months of contacting other schools to get them on board, along with informing the FHSAA that they would not be participating in the state series when it came to football, eventually led to the berth of the Miami-Dade County Football Conference.  All 12 schools will still continue to be very much a part of the GMAC, they simply will not participate in the FHSAA state football playoffs come November.

“This gives us a chance to be competitive and to be honest a sense of fairness since the entire county has now kind of become an entire group of either ‘haves’ or ‘have-nots,’ ” said Lopez who is the only coach the Reagan program has ever known, starting it from scratch 12 years ago. “Speaking just for Reagan, being capped out enrollment-wise, we’ve always taken pride in just simply figuring out how to play with whatever comes in the doors. Obviously we weren’t the only ones with this problem. Other schools were in the same boat and that’s when we started to put together the idea of doing something like this.”

A total of 12 programs joined up to form the conference that is split into two divisions of six, a south division and a north. Forming the south are Braddock, Coral Park, Sunset, Reagan, Varela and Ferguson. Goleman, Hialeah-Miami Lakes, Mourning, Krop, Hialeah Gardens and Westland Hialeah are in the north.  Both out of the gate with 3-0 starts, Goleman and Krop would appear to be the two best teams in this group of a dozen.

“Our kids are excited for it, our coaches are excited for it I’m excited for it and our school is excited for it,” said Goleman head coach Ariel Cribiero. “I’d like to think that teams and programs that do it the right way and build with their own kids that this is our way of rewarding those kids. We’re a magnet school, our kids are smart, going to Ivy League schools, not necessarily to play football. We want to give them a great experience and going to this independent league will give them that opportunity.”

The set up will be relatively simple. Each team will play the other five in its own division and then four other games against teams from the opposite division for a total of nine games. The 10th game (including a bye week) will be played the final regular season week (Oct. 31-Nov. 2).  “We will pair up the two sixth-place teams against each other, then the fifth place and so on up to third place,” Rojas said. “Whoever finishes first and second will qualify for our playoffs on that weekend as well. The two semifinals will be first place from one division playing second from the other division and vice versa.”  The two semifinal winners will then meet in the championship game, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 9 at a neutral site, possibly Milander Stadium.

“This new conference, it’s not going to be any different in that we’re going to come out with the same attitude every week play football the way we know how to play,” said Reagan senior quarterback Johnny Vega. “It’s a matter of knowing that we have to beat whoever is in front of us. But now we’ll shoot to win the championship in our conference and that’s going to be pretty cool.”

This is exactly what high school football is supposed to be about; playing for your neighborhood school against another neighborhood's high school football team. It's not supposed to be about who can assemble the best all-star team by raiding programs and recruiting their best players.  Rather than make a new conference for 30 or so schools that respect school boundaries, why not have the recruiting schools establish their own conference and leave the FHSAA state tournament to the traditional high school football programs? This way the kids would be playing each week against competition that they actually have a chance of beating, and the recruiting programs can play for the national ranking and play the IMGs and St Frances' of the football world.

[gatorman-uf]

9 minutes ago, HornetFan said:

This is exactly what high school football is supposed to be about; playing for your neighborhood school against another neighborhood's high school football team. It's not supposed to be about who can assemble the best all-star team by raiding programs and recruiting their best players.  Rather than make a new conference for 30 or so schools that respect school boundaries, why not have the recruiting schools establish their own conference and leave the FHSAA state tournament to the traditional high school football programs? This way the kids would be playing each week against competition that they actually have a chance of beating, and the recruiting programs can play for the national ranking and play the IMGs and St Frances' of the football world.

Other than IMG, none of these schools will truly ever to admit to recruiting a player. We can talk all we want about the number of transfers that a school gets (I rarely believe it makes a team that much better, but rather simply just worsens average teams). The reality is that none of them consider themselves recruiting schools. They consider themselves schools with great football programs that people are just naturally attracted to because they are winners or send athletes on to the next level. 

Again it is why we should push for promotion/relegation. Good teams move up, bad teams move down. Eventually, you end up in the exact situation you are asking for (really good teams (recruiting or not) play against other really good teams). 

[HornetFan]

14 minutes ago, gatorman-uf said:

Other than IMG, none of these schools will truly ever to admit to recruiting a player. We can talk all we want about the number of transfers that a school gets (I rarely believe it makes a team that much better, but rather simply just worsens average teams). The reality is that none of them consider themselves recruiting schools. They consider themselves schools with great football programs that people are just naturally attracted to because they are winners or send athletes on to the next level. 

Again it is why we should push for promotion/relegation. Good teams move up, bad teams move down. Eventually, you end up in the exact situation you are asking for (really good teams (recruiting or not) play against other really good teams). 

There's a small private school in Oviedo, Florida, the Masters Academy. They don't play in FHSAA sanctioned district; they're in what I believe is called the Sunshine Conference, or something like that. The school would be a 1A or 2A school if you based it upon student enrollment. They recruit and do it very well; their team is loaded and could give most Florida schools a run for their money. In their first game this season, they pulled their starters before the end of the first period; the score was 48-0 at the time; final score 62-13. I watched Masters play a pre-season, non-tackle scrimmage with Winter Park, a team with quite a few Division 1 recruits at the skill positions. Masters was every bit as good as WP, if not better. 

When you say "The reality is that none of them consider themselves recruiting schools. They consider themselves schools with great football programs that people are just naturally attracted to because they are winners or send athletes on to the next level", I can't believe their fans are that naive. They know exactly what's being done; they're just happy they aren't on the receiving end of having talent stripped away. Then, to truly be hypocrites, they'll denounce schools like IMG who admit their actions and goals.

[Perspective]

22 minutes ago, gatorman-uf said:

Other than IMG, none of these schools will truly ever to admit to recruiting a player. We can talk all we want about the number of transfers that a school gets (I rarely believe it makes a team that much better, but rather simply just worsens average teams). The reality is that none of them consider themselves recruiting schools. They consider themselves schools with great football programs that people are just naturally attracted to because they are winners or send athletes on to the next level. 

Again it is why we should push for promotion/relegation. Good teams move up, bad teams move down. Eventually, you end up in the exact situation you are asking for (really good teams (recruiting or not) play against other really good teams). 

Does IMG acknowledge that they recruit?   If so, how can they still be in the FHSAA?   Yes, I know they're "independent."  Yes, I know they can't compete for a state championship.   But as an FHSAA member (which has benefits to a school like IMG), they are supposed to adhere to FHSAA rules -- one of which is 'no recruiting.' 

[Hwy17]

8 hours ago, OldSchoolLion said:

Miami-Dade County high school football has its very own version of “A League of their Own” this season.  With county powers Northwestern, Central, Booker T. Washington and Columbus, to name a few, having taken over the landscape in terms of domination and stacking rosters with top talent on an annual basis, the likes of Reagan, Goleman Coral Park, Varela and other programs have been left in the dust.  Rather than get discouraged, the “little guys” who weren’t so little in terms of school size, went out and did something about it.

With Reagan coach John Lopez, assistant coach Jorge Rojas along with the GMAC leading the way, months of contacting other schools to get them on board, along with informing the FHSAA that they would not be participating in the state series when it came to football, eventually led to the berth of the Miami-Dade County Football Conference.  All 12 schools will still continue to be very much a part of the GMAC, they simply will not participate in the FHSAA state football playoffs come November.

“This gives us a chance to be competitive and to be honest a sense of fairness since the entire county has now kind of become an entire group of either ‘haves’ or ‘have-nots,’ ” said Lopez who is the only coach the Reagan program has ever known, starting it from scratch 12 years ago. “Speaking just for Reagan, being capped out enrollment-wise, we’ve always taken pride in just simply figuring out how to play with whatever comes in the doors. Obviously we weren’t the only ones with this problem. Other schools were in the same boat and that’s when we started to put together the idea of doing something like this.”

A total of 12 programs joined up to form the conference that is split into two divisions of six, a south division and a north. Forming the south are Braddock, Coral Park, Sunset, Reagan, Varela and Ferguson. Goleman, Hialeah-Miami Lakes, Mourning, Krop, Hialeah Gardens and Westland Hialeah are in the north.  Both out of the gate with 3-0 starts, Goleman and Krop would appear to be the two best teams in this group of a dozen.

“Our kids are excited for it, our coaches are excited for it I’m excited for it and our school is excited for it,” said Goleman head coach Ariel Cribiero. “I’d like to think that teams and programs that do it the right way and build with their own kids that this is our way of rewarding those kids. We’re a magnet school, our kids are smart, going to Ivy League schools, not necessarily to play football. We want to give them a great experience and going to this independent league will give them that opportunity.”

The set up will be relatively simple. Each team will play the other five in its own division and then four other games against teams from the opposite division for a total of nine games. The 10th game (including a bye week) will be played the final regular season week (Oct. 31-Nov. 2).  “We will pair up the two sixth-place teams against each other, then the fifth place and so on up to third place,” Rojas said. “Whoever finishes first and second will qualify for our playoffs on that weekend as well. The two semifinals will be first place from one division playing second from the other division and vice versa.”  The two semifinal winners will then meet in the championship game, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 9 at a neutral site, possibly Milander Stadium.

“This new conference, it’s not going to be any different in that we’re going to come out with the same attitude every week play football the way we know how to play,” said Reagan senior quarterback Johnny Vega. “It’s a matter of knowing that we have to beat whoever is in front of us. But now we’ll shoot to win the championship in our conference and that’s going to be pretty cool.”

I wish more public schools would do this and do either a bowl game series or other playoff of their own like SSAC does. 

[THIS_IS_DILLARD]

2 hours ago, HornetFan said:

This is exactly what high school football is supposed to be about; playing for your neighborhood school against another neighborhood's high school football team. It's not supposed to be about who can assemble the best all-star team by raiding programs and recruiting their best players.  Rather than make a new conference for 30 or so schools that respect school boundaries, why not have the recruiting schools establish their own conference and leave the FHSAA state tournament to the traditional high school football programs? This way the kids would be playing each week against competition that they actually have a chance of beating, and the recruiting programs can play for the national ranking and play the IMGs and St Frances' of the football world.

Exactly. Having pride 4 yo neighborhood and yo school was a thing back in the 90s you didnt team with the best u went & beat em.

[HornetFan]

22 hours ago, Perspective said:

Does IMG acknowledge that they recruit?   If so, how can they still be in the FHSAA?   Yes, I know they're "independent."  Yes, I know they can't compete for a state championship.   But as an FHSAA member (which has benefits to a school like IMG), they are supposed to adhere to FHSAA rules -- one of which is 'no recruiting.' 

IMG's entire team consists of "recruits" from all over this country. They don't "recruit" all their players; many inquire and only the best are offered scholarships. Otherwise, kids play for IMG White , pay about $75K tuition, and compete against regular Florida HS teams. Their White team is not a super team.

[OldSchoolLion]

21 minutes ago, HornetFan said:

IMG's entire team consists of "recruits" from all over this country. They don't "recruit" all their players; many inquire and only the best are offered scholarships. Otherwise, kids play for IMG White , pay about $75K tuition, and compete against regular Florida HS teams. Their White team is not a super team.

 

Let's be real, folks.  Do we really think there is not a college coach out there who ever had talks with IMG about "getting a player ready for him."  ...and in that sense the "recruiting" by IMG was not "targeted."  

I suppose no college coach out there had any knowledge of this young man from Australia before he arrived at IMG, right?  

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2748531-australian-daniel-faalele-68-395-lbs-commits-to-minnesota-over-alabama-more

Do we really think some guy at IMG hell bent on hs football world domination went out and found this guy in Australia so they could beat up on FL high schools?   He has "experiment" written all over him.  IMG has  "labs."  It's an incubator, folks, and rest assured there are Power 5 colleges with tentacles all over it.  Don't blame IMG the "high school." 

Blame the ones who created the laboratory.  And who created the laboratory?  Follow the money trail.  Last time I checked, some universities are doing pretty well with ticket sales.   They are looking for their next Frankenstein, and how convenient to have a place(s) like IMG where they can do their shopping.

[OldSchoolLion]

NM

[HornetFan]

26 minutes ago, OldSchoolLion said:

 

Let's be real, folks.  Do we really think there is not a college coach out there who ever had talks with IMG about "getting a player ready for him."  ...and in that sense the "recruiting" by IMG was not "targeted."  

I suppose no college coach out there had any knowledge of this young man from Australia before he arrived at IMG, right?  

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2748531-australian-daniel-faalele-68-395-lbs-commits-to-minnesota-over-alabama-more

Do we really think some guy at IMG hell bent on hs football world domination went out and found this guy in Australia so they could beat up on FL high schools?   He has "experiment" written all over him.  IMG has  "labs."  It's an incubator, folks, and rest assured there are Power 5 colleges with tentacles all over it.  Don't blame IMG the "high school." 

Blame the ones who created the laboratory.  And who created the laboratory?  Follow the money trail.  Last time I checked, some universities are doing pretty well with ticket sales.   They are looking for their next Frankenstein, and how convenient to have a place(s) like IMG where they can do their shopping.

A couple of years ago, IMG had 17 seniors on the ESPN 300. That doesn't happen without recruiting, but IMG doesn't pretend that they belong in the FHSAA playoffs.

[Perspective]

On 9/14/2019 at 1:05 PM, HornetFan said:

IMG's entire team consists of "recruits" from all over this country. They don't "recruit" all their players; many inquire and only the best are offered scholarships. Otherwise, kids play for IMG White , pay about $75K tuition, and compete against regular Florida HS teams. Their White team is not a super team.

Just another reminder: 

36.1.5.  Private schools, as well as developmental research schools operated by state universities, may administer school-based financial assistance programs for students who attend those schools. Financial assistance must be totally unrelated to a student’s athletic interest, potential or performance. Financial assistance based even partially on a student’s athletic interest, potential or performance is not permitted.

[badbird]

3 hours ago, Perspective said:

Just another reminder: 

36.1.5.  Private schools, as well as developmental research schools operated by state universities, may administer school-based financial assistance programs for students who attend those schools. Financial assistance must be totally unrelated to a student’s athletic interest, potential or performance. Financial assistance based even partially on a student’s athletic interest, potential or performance is not permitted.

IMG doesn't fall under this just like Montverde in basketball.    However I can tell you that a majority of private schools give Financial assistance to those that have a better athletic potential than to those that don't.  

[OldSchoolLion]

Last year Dr Krop was 1-9 and they were 16-34 over the past 5 years.  This year DK has started off 4-0.  I can only imagine the excitement at the school.