Who is beating them? Dr P, Ely or Miramar? 

9-1

Both my boys wrestle and play football.  I am very familiar with the home schooled wrestlers who are free agents wrestling for the various power programs in the state.  I can say with great certainty that nearly 100% will not earn a college scholarship in wrestling because wrestling is literally the hardest sport to earn a full ride in.  There are only 10 collegiate weight classes compared to 14 in high school.  You could be the state champ at your weight class but to wrestle at the next level, you will also have to be better than other kids at a weight class above and below you.  Additionally, there are only 70 D1 wrestling schools and not a single D3, D2 or D1 team in Florida.  Finally, Pennsylvania is so far above every other state in wrestling that they will take half of the scholarships, leaving crumbs for everyone else.  Last note, wrestling also has very poor NIL prospects.  So kids that are sacrificing their HS experience to wrestle three hours away are doing it for only high school glory, nothing else.  After wrestling is over, what can they do with their shitty education?  The kids I know that are home school athletes pretty much just train all day.  I wonder when they even go to school at home? 

Wow 10-0!!!!! Ely lost some dudes including their elite QB. And none of those other teams outside of MAYYYBBEEEE Miramar has a chance. Maybe Dr Pepper, but I think Dillard gets em.    Overall this is not a great schedule, but the positive is Dillard will get a lot of guys valuable playing time, and the record going  into the offseason of 10-2 or 11-1 will be attractive to studs who want to be apart of something on the cusp of taking the next step   

It woudn't have to be strictly tied to counties. Just general regional areas. The number of programs would depend on the level of interest and number of players in a given area. Dade/broward area might have 5+ programs, while Polk/Heartland might have 1-2, for example. The key phrase you mention in deciding what game to attend is "my local school". This seems to be more about them being the local program, rather than it being your alma mater. This would still be an option for you, as the idea is to have higher caliber programs that represent a geographic area. You'd root for your local team against a strong team from another area. All of the players on your local team are from your area, though they can attend a variety of schools for academics. A Manatee county program can appeal to all of the residents of Manatee county, including those who may have attended historically poor programs when they were at each individual school. Now, if Bayshore is your high school, you're basically frozen out of having a team to root for that can win. It's been that way for decades. Manatee (and Southeast back in the day) have been so dominant that it's got to be hard to get excited to even a tiny degree. Because a form of what I propose already exists to a lesser, informal extent, the lower level programs are actually much worse now than the past. Bayshore failed to score a single point in eight (8) games last year. How many fans attended their games? Contrast that with the number of people who'd like to support the program if it was ever a little bit close to mattering. I bet there's plenty of folks who'd be willing to invest time/money, but are abstaining because it is hopeless. Sharply reducing the number of programs as I propose allows all of the folks in the Bradenton area to unite around 1 strong team. Everyone is included, regardless of where academic classes occur. Each Friday night would see the Manatee county area program face another strong program from another area. For example, the Manatee elite program vs. East Hillsborough elite one week. Another week, Manatee vs. Sarasota elite. Etc. All the best players, coaches and all in the community who want a team to root for are consolidated. Ticket sales, booster contributions and other investments are consolidated into a much smaller number of elite programs.  You see this to a small degree in a place like Texas, where there are fewer but larger high schools with mega support. Allen High, for example, is known for having massive, super impressive facilities. But, Allen High has over 5,000 students! They could've very easily split that up into three high schools. And then all three would be smaller, with potential stars and donors diluted to the point that none of the three programs offer anything remotely close to what the huge Allen High offers now. At a super large school, everything end up being bigger or more robust. Academically, many feel that comes with trade-off costs. So, it may not be the case that super large schools are best overall for students. BUT, when it comes to sports programs, the benefits are obvious. If you separate schools from mega, for-profit sports programs, school enrollment doesn't matter any more. A Manatee county area super program pulling in fans from all over the area, could be something very special. Of course, they'd face special programs from other areas as well. So, the quality of play would be better. Also, with fewer programs in this super league, the need for officials is also less. This should lead to cutting the worst performing officials and eliminate the shortage we face currently.   I've never gotten the impression that AAU teams were tied to geographic areas and regional pride. And, the AAU championships have never been seen as THE championships. They're also held in summer, when folks aren't paying attention to basketball. But, sure, considerations around how to avoid making such a league another kind of AAU thing would be important.