Besides this year's Florida 6A championship game, this was set to be a life defining moment for the Mainland players, most of whom have never traveled a great distance or been on a commercial jetliner to anywhere. Unlike national touring Cocoa, Booker T, Miami Central, and STA, Mainland has only traveled out of state once in my lifetime, Georgia 2008. And I was born long ago in the 1950's. To say that this airplane ride to a football powerhouse isn't a very special time and place for the Mainland High community would be, in the words of Mike Tyson, ludicrous. If not for the generosity of St. Edwards Catholic High School and others, along with the scrambling Buc coaching staff with wives, this heavenly dream trip was unexpectedly headed straight to hell, compliments of a very questionable promoter with two pending lawsuits now in South Carolina. The unofficial words being whispered about are Ponzi scheme. Mainland and St. Edwards are both out thousands of dollars. Speculation is Cocoa's trip last weekend to Ohio was payed for by Mainland High School, who had just sent $$$$ north. Cocoa, as of last Monday morning, still had not been given flight data or confirmed hotel accommodations and was nervously awaiting word from the promoter. They got their reprieve Monday afternoon. Mainland got nothing. Funny thing about the whole deal was Mainland was originally scheduled to play at Cocoa on October 9th with no out of state games in the works for this season. One of the two ( Cocoa or St Ed's) had an open week, and that's when the promoter came into the picture. Cocoa and St Edwards had both used this guy before to facilitate out of state games. And he always came through for them. Well so much that....The Mainland team will head north Thursday morning on a bus. Eight hours later they will arrive in Hickory, N.C. Lenoir-Rhyne University found a practice field for them to run around on. Friday morning they board the bus and eight hours later hit Cleveland. Heard the scheduled 2:00 pm game was bumped up to a noon start so the Buccaneers can hit the road early back to Daytona Beach. Here we come Ohio. The only public high school in Florida with a longer consecutive playoff streak then Mainland is Lakeland High at 22yrs. Mainland is now at 21 straight years. Come out and see us. It will be worth the price of admission.
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