FLN Final Regular Season High School Media Poll (Well, This Writer Anyhow!) – 4/2/17
I can not believe the high school regular season is already over.
And tomorrow we start District playoffs up North, down South in 32 and in some Treasure Coast locations.
So much crammed into so small an amount of time. And with missing the first two weeks, it really came down to only 6 weeks for me.
32 Districts and 128 playoff slots
195 High Schools played the season at the varsity level.
67 schools, 67 head coaches, numerous assistants and about 2,000 players have finished playing already.
Figure about 20% of the kids are seniors.
400 kids have mostly finished playing their last game. Some of those coaches are not coming back.
Thank you for your efforts . . . coaches and players alike.
Not all of the schools sitting at home are in the bottom 67 of the state . . . some of them are just in very tough districts.
Fleming Island and West Boca . . . Olympia lost twice by one goal to Windermere Prep, including Friday night, to fall just short. Suncoast-Riviera Beach loses to Palm Beach Gardens in what is now looking like a heck of a big upset now, given how they finished the season with 5 straight wins, including a really nice one over a resurgent Wellington to end the season but will be at home watching. Calvary Christian’s early loss to North Broward Prep cost them their district playoff spot. Cypress Bay in District 29 is this year’s big thump, going from perennial District champ to not even making it into the Top 4 this year.
District 13 has a bizarre result. Celebration nabs the fourth spot with a 2-3 record while Winter Haven goes 2-7 in district with Celebration taking the head to head matchup. What if Winter Haven had gone 4-5 with the HTH loss? Who would have gone? And how does such a disparity in games played in the District happen?
Then there is District 16. If LaxPower’s schedule has this right then I am in fantasy land.
5 teams. Three of them tied for the last two spots.
Freedom-Tampa, Alonso and Wharton. All 3 are 1-3 in the District.
In the complete season we had F-T at 7-6 with an 8-2 loss to Alonso and a 12-9 win over Wharton. Alonso goes 5-7 with a loss to Wharton.
Wharton’s ONLY WIN is over Alonso.
How does Freedom-Tampa miss out on the district playoff?
The only possible thing I can think of is a COIN TOSS.
Can anyone confirm that?
In District 21 Cocoa Beach is edged out for the 4th spot by Rockledge as they lost the HTH game. Cocoa only played 5 district games while Rockledge played 7. How does that district decide which games to count if they had split the HTH and Cocoa had gone 2-4 versus Rockledge’s 2-5?
Inquiring minds want to know . . .
Okay, maybe just one mind.
In District 23, Vero narrowly beat South Fork at home by one goal in the first game of the season. And that was the difference between the fourth and final spot.
And St. Edward’s became the biggest beneficiary of a decision made in a County Administrator’s office last year . . .
The gutting of Vero this year by some nameless bureaucrat is one of the least appreciated stories of 2017.
Anyhow, the important thing to me is that the players, coaches and parents of the kids who are no longer playing be thanked for their efforts and their support in the case of the parents for the long season and off-season in preparation.
For those kids who have played their last game I wish you the best in your futures! It was a pleasure covering your games.
The last week of the regular season was full of interesting matchups as a number of schools had back-loaded their schedules and the intrastate rivalry between Florida and Georgia heated up with some top games, including Georgia power Centennial, coached by former Gulliver Prep assistant Bryan Wallace, splitting two games this weekend, with a 16-13 victory over SA and a 16-11 loss to Oxbridge.
Last Weeks Key Results . . .
Monday
Jupiter defeats Martin County 13-10 on the road
Boone defeats Montverde Academy 12-11, also on the road
Nease nips Bolles 14-13
Tuesday
Plantation defeats Boca/Delray in the American Heritage derby 17-12
Berkeley Prep 16-9 over Riverside-Sarasota
Lake Mary pops West Orange’s bubble 11-6
Bishop Moore with the 13-0 shutout at Melbourne Central Catholic
Oak Hall at home over Creekside 11-5
Saint Andrew’s eases by Valor Christian (CO) 16-6
SJP II over Cardinal Gibbons 12-7
Wednesday
Barron Collier downs Cardinal Mooney 14-8
Bolles 14-9 over St. Augustine
Hagerty continues to roll with the 11-8 road win over Boone
Ponte Vedra continues Maclay’s season of misery with the 20-5 defeat
Thursday
Belen Jesuit continues to finish strong with the 9-5 win over American Heritage/Plantation
Bishop Moore cruises to a 15-7 win over West Orange
Berkeley Prep travels to Gulliver Prep and takes the 10-8 win
STA goes to Jupiter and holds off the late rally for the 11-10 win
Friday
Stoneman Douglas rips AH/B 20-8 on the road to continue their late season rise
Naples gets the OT 9-8 win at Bishop Verot
Lake Mary takes down Johns Creek (GA) 13-7
Ponte Vedra handles Oak Hall 13-7
Centennial (GA) outlasts SA in Boca 16-13
Saturday
Johns Creek (GA) rebounds with the 13-10 win over Bolles
Barron Collier travels to Gulliver Prep and wins 12-11
Oxbridge takes down Centennial (GA) 16-11
Not a bad way to end the season
Time to Look at Memory Lane!
50 Years Ago this Week . . . the Top 10 songs on the charts!
- The Turtles – Happy Together
- The Mama’s & The Papa’s – Dedicated To The One I Love
- The Beatles – Penny Lane
- Herman’s Hermits – There’s A Kind Of Hush
- Four Tops – Bernadette
- Petula Clark – This Is My Song
- The Buffalo Springfield – For What It’s Worth (Stop, Hey What’s That Sound)
- The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever
- Nancy Sinatra – Somethin’ Stupid
- The Five Americans – Western Union