Eight Games, 16 Teams – Plenty of Memories
No matter how you slice it, this has been an amazingly tough year worldwide. While athletics found an opponent – this ongoing pandemic – that it had to pay attention to. Through playing and living in “bubbles” to daily temperature…
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Continue ReadingNo matter how you slice it, this has been an amazingly tough year worldwide.
While athletics found an opponent – this ongoing pandemic – that it had to pay attention to.
Through playing and living in “bubbles” to daily temperature checks and weekly Covid tests, we have had a season that all of us will look back on for decades.
When FHSAA State Championship play opens on Wednesday at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, we will see 16 schools from Tallahassee to Miami and eight games over four days that will have some impressive and memorable performances.
Yes, there are some schools that could have been at this point, if they didn’t have so many Covid restrictions, but that is all in the past – for now.
What is on everyone’s mind as we head toward the State Capital?
Will unbeaten Baker get to be the first new 1A state champion – or will Hawthorne steal the show in its moment on this grand stage?
Is Champagnat Catholic’s fifth straight trip (two titles) to the finals going to produce another title – or will University Christian show everyone how they’ve been doing it for 40 years?
The last team to beat Chaminade-Madonna, before the Lions reeled off three straight titles. Does this streak end to Trinity Christian in 3A – or does this “dynasty” continue?
Last year Jacksonville Bolles lost a 4A finals heart-breaker to Miami Booker T. Washington. Do they come through and get that title or does Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons, perhaps one of the hottest teams in the state make it two of three?
The home crowd will be in rare form as Rickards makes its first ever football finals appearance. Does that momentum carry them into a meeting with one of the best defenses in Florida? Who you got? Plantation American Heritage or the Raiders?
Nothing was going to stop Miami Central from getting back to defend its 6A state title. Now that they are here, can they survive another red-hot team in Lake Minneola, making its first ever appearance?
Many felt that after Orlando Edgewater and national power St. Thomas Aquinas met last year that the gap between the Raiders and 7A was closing. Plain and simple here: Edgewater or St. Thomas?
The first ever state championship between two teams from the same area will take place in the 8A final.
Only 45 miles separates Sanford and Kissimmee – and this should be a Saturday afternoon to remember.
THE ROAD TO TALLAHASSEE
There are some impressive football teams that will be in action this week and into the weekend. Here is the way the schedule will play out:
1A
FHSSAA FINALS
Thursday, Dec. 17, 7 p.m.
Baker (14-0) vs. Hawthorne (10-2)
2A
FHSSAA FINALS
Wednesday, Dec. 16, 1 p.m.
Jacksonville University Christian (8-4) vs. Hialeah Champagnat Catholic (10-2)
3A
FHSSAA FINALS
FINALS
Wednesday, Dec. 16, 7 p.m.
Jacksonville Trinity Christian (11-1) vs. Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna (8-1)
4A
FINALS
Thursday, Dec. 17, 1 p.m.
Jacksonville Bolles (10-2) vs. Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons (7-1)
5A
FINALS
Friday, Dec. 18, 7 p.m.
Tallahassee Rickards (10-1) vs.Plantation American Heritage (10-2).
6A
FINALS
Friday, Dec. 18, 1 p.m.
Lake Minneola (11-1) vs. Miami Central (7-1).
7A
FINALS
Saturday, Dec. 19, 7 p.m.
Orlando Edgewater (8-2) vs. Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas (7-1)
8A
FINALS
Saturday, Dec. 19, 1 p.m.
Sanford Seminole (11-0) vs. Kissimmee Osceola (9-2)
You Can Contact Larry Blustein with prospect or team information at: Foridakids1@aol.com. We are also on Social Media on @PrepRedzonefl.