My top 5 in Class 3A right now are as follows:
1) Jacksonville Trinity Christian- 2 Straight championships earn them this right.
2) American Heritage Del-Ray- Last years runner-up, gets them here.
3) Clearwater Central Catholic- Despite losing Jeff Smith, CCC is a much improved football team from last year.
4)Oxbridge Academy- Traver Homer and squad could have a special season.
5) Pensacola Catholic- Crusaders have the pieces to be competitive.
My overwhelming favorite right now is American Heritage Del-Ray. THis is a senior laden team, and I like Cameron Smith at QB. I think highly of Devin Singletary, going as far as saying he's my vote as top player in 3A. I'm also a big fan of Alec Sincfield and DJ Davis. I like Heritage Del-Ray in the South and Jacksonville Trinity in the North. So, a rematch from last year.
The game I would like to see in the North is JaxTCA vs OTC and JaxTCA vs Tampa Catholic. In the Bay area, Tampa Catholic is being hyped as a top 5 team for all classes as they have Nate Craig-Myers, Devan Barrett, Bentlee Sanders and a host of others- but I don't think they have the same attitude as the Jacksonville and Ocala teams.
Obviously, in the South- American Heritage and Oxbridge are in for 2 great football games this year IMHO. I think Oxbridge will overtake American Heritage over the next few seasons, but not this year. I think Heritage rhomps pretty handily.
CCC is the X-factor in 3A this year. They have a plethora of talent, a solid QB, skill players out the ying yang, but they are young. Many feel they are a year away from getting back to Orlando, but should get back to the final 4. They only have 8 seniors on a 47 player roster and their best players are going to be Juniors this year. I truly feel this time next year, CCC will have about 8-10 Division 1 guys on their squad, but that's 2016..we're in 2015 and young.
Pensacola Catholic is another X-factor, they have a lot of talent and are well coached, but 3A North is loaded again this year with talented teams.
Don't sleep on Berkeley Prep or Orlando First Academy either!