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Biggest upset in Florida finals history. I would put Berkeley Prep over Norland second

Haha. Second-best win in Bartow history. I was present for the top win in their history, on a cold afternoon in Daytona Beach in 1996

Interestingly, Pensacola Woodham High School closed in 2007. It reopened as a middle school later in 2007, which was also later closed. The building now houses West Florida High School. Woodham went 35-1 during the 1982-84 seasons, winning the Class 4A state championship in 1982 and 1984. They were known as the "Titans", much like another team with an epic history of their own (T.C. Williams in Alexandria, Virginia).

I remember back in 1907 when Lakeland got hosed by Bartow. Score was 53-0 but it was closer to all of us in attendance that day. The forward pass was invented in 1906 and Lakeland was trying it for the first time. I think the refs thought they were cheating. Anyways. Top win in Bartow history

No doubt the 1984 win over Manatee remains one of the top 10-20 wins in Lakeland history, and at the time it was the biggest win. Tying it back into Panhandle programs, Lakeland ended up getting beaten by two TDs by Pensacola Woodham...who then beat Miami Southridge by two TDs for the state title.

Can't count on FHSAA to do what's right or makes sense so we have to look elsewhere. I'm still learning about SSAA and I still have questions concerning their bylaws. It's a growing league and I think it will soon surpass FHSAA in membership.

Agree. Everything could be avoided if they did what i said. Consolidate classes down to 4, and force teams who have a set number of transfers participate in an open division. Come up with a number. 5 transfers per year. Whatever number seems right. That way the all star transfer factories can duke it out for one title, and the other 4 playoff brackets will at least be a respectable. If they create the open division with 7-8 classes next year, every bracket is gonna be beyond embarrassing and make Florida the mockery of the country. You will have glorified 2nd round losers being called state champions

I hope it grows too. To about 500 members! Some of the SSAA teams were or would be playoff teams in FHSAA. You are correct, they have zero chance of winning a championship in FHSAA. Some are figured that out. About 400 or so need to come to the same conclusion.

Most Manatee die hards, consider the 1993 title game against Southridge, a nightmare game where anything that could go wrong did in fact do that. I want to say Southridge had 2 kickoff returns for TDs, 1 Punt return for a TD, at least 1 (possibly 2 INTs returned for a TD), I believe there was also a hail Mary at half for a TD. The 1984 19-14 playoff loss to Lakeland, probably burns in die hards guts than the 1993 contest. Manatee was a heavy favorite going into that game, but 2 turnovers inside the Lakeland 10 proved ultimately to be Manatees undoing and denied Manatee any chance at back to back titles

I think they are small schools. Marathon - about 700 (grades 6-12) Coral Shores - under 800 Key West - about 1,300

I'm always amazed there are enough kids to support three keys high schools: Key West, Coral Shores and Marathon high schools.

If you need a backup option On October 3, Coral Shores plays against Marathon in the “battle of the Keys”!!! Monroe County longest rivalry. https://keysweekly.com/42/sports-wrap-marathon-vs-coral-shores-historic-rivalry/

Looking at their schedule, the most competitive game at home looks to be against Jackson on October 24. University Christian the next week would be interesting.

It's on our "to do" list, maybe next year if not this year. We love going to KW. We made it from The Fort in 5.5 hours last time, and that was stopping for a long lunch on Islamorada. Their stadium looks nice. I think we'll make a long weekend of it, maybe finding a Thursday game in the Miami area, then leaving on Friday morning and coming back on Monday. We've seen the Conchs play a couple of times, once at PSL West Centennial and once at Southfork. Going in September or early October, the traffic shouldn't be too bad. It won't be a high level of football, but the right opponent might give you a competitive game in a unique setting.

It's amazing how much more emphasis the 1993 state title game has received than the far more compelling 1994 title game. My comments were just meant to pay respect towards the historical successes of panhandle schools. But, Manatee also got the short end of the stick as well. Manatee has state-title winning outcomes vs. Miami Southridge, Miami Carol City and Fort Lauderdale Dillard (and many other big wins over Dade and Broward schools outside of state title games) and yet the ONLY game you still hear about is the 1993 game. The typical message board pundit knows all about the 1993 game, while being totally oblivious to those 1983, 1989, 1992 or 1994 games.

I’m sure this has been discussed before on this site. What is there to consider if you go? I’ll be driving from Boca Raton. GPS says it is a 4 hour drive.

Some of you may remember, in the Manatee Allstar vs Sarasota Allstar game following that season the Sarasota Allstars had the 69-36 score on their jerseys. Correct me if I got the details wrong but thats what I remember.

What do I think? I think we'll take a visit to Fran's Chicken Haven before Chaminade v West Boca, and hope to see a spectacular sunset over the Loxahatchee from the WB home side stands. I'll go with Chaminade by 2 TD. On Friday, I think we'll hit Cafe 66 in Vero for some BBQ. I'll go with Vero by a TD, especially if Monds has taken a big step forward at QB. On Saturday, I think I'll whip up something light to eat at home before the first game, and we'll grab something simple between games. I'll go with Carol City in a close one, and NW by a TD in a game that could certainly be closer.

Pensacola Washington entered that season having gone 1-9 the year before. This was Soldinger 2nd stint at Southridge, having won the state title the year before 69-36 over Manatee, as well as USA Todays #1 ranked national team coming into the game with Washington. Washington controlled the ball on offense for almost 30 minutes of the 48 minute game and won 16-7 for its 1st state title!

I don’t think it’s gonna be close

Wow! A clean sweep for Dade County. Can’t argue with any of those picks. Did not know that C vs WBR was on Thursday. What do any of you think of this matchup? Don’t be surprised if this nutcase, me, goes to all of them.

Now that I'm all the way down this rabbit hole, let me confirm for those wondering: 1994 Southridge's record entering the state title game: 14-0 Head coach Don Soldinger RBs: Darren Davis and Sedrick Irvin.

Are we really to believe that the talent in Dade county in 1994 was waayyyy down? Of course not. The talent was just much more diluted or diffuse then, due to attendance boundaries being enforced much more.

Just went back and verified that Miami Southridge was not only unbeaten and defending state champs in 1994 (with everyone drooling over and obsessed with their win over Manatee in 1993), they were ranked number one in the country by USA Today (the gold standard for national rankings then). Washington, on the other hand, was 1-9 the previous season and failed to win their district in 1994! They then beat that Southridge team by two scores. Watch the full game here

Oh, sure, they're all trying at this point. There are just several factors that have kept anyone from totally running the area. Niceville is an hour plus from Pensacola. They've gotten some kids from there I'm sure. Just not enough. Niceville lost to Mosley and had a pretty competitive win vs. Choctaw, so it's unlikely Niceville had that much of a monopoly on local talent last season. Now, if we start seeing them easily running-clock all of the other teams in the area, then we'd have reason to look closer and see if they have gotten most all of the best players. The panhandle schools did very well historically when the top schools never had more than one or two transfers. Anyone can see this if they check the record books. In 1980, Cantonment Tate beat Miami Columbus- necessarily the best team in Dade that year as no other Dade school played for a title in any class- in the large school state title game, 35-7. In 1982, Pensacola Woodham beat Columbus in the same large class title game, 23-14. In 1984, Woodham beat Miami Southridge for the big school title. In 1991, Fort Walton Beach dominated STA 39-14 for a state title. In 1994, Pensacola Washington beat undefeated and reigning state champion Miami Southridge by two scores. There are also many seasons in which no Dade team played for a state title because all the schools were knocked off in early rounds by a school in a different county. You'd be abosultely crazy and wrong to allege that there weren't a TON of great players in Dade county in the 1980s and 1990s. Dade was the most talent-rich county in the country in those years, too. The difference, of course, was that transfer mania wasn't a thing. And, while the stronger programs no doubt got a key transfer here or there, for the most part the rosters were dictated by narrow attendance boundaries.