Post Your Top 2 HS Area Sleepers This Fall

[Sayitdontsprayit]

1. Freedom (ORL), Coach Higgins is coming into his 3rd season with the Pats which will boast a senior class of over 25 and looks to build on a 4-6 season last fall. The Pats beat the teams they were supposed to last fall and that is a sign of a team moving in the right direction. I look for the Pats to move up into the second tier of central Florida teams this year and compete for a playoff spot. They were not far off last season finishing 2-2 in district play.

2. East Ridge (Clermont), Coach Peera enters his 2nd season with the Knights and had to clean house last fall while going 0-10. Turn the page to 2015 where ER now boast a varsity roster of over 50 players and if you caught any of their spring game you can see one off-season can make a huge difference. Montverde closing their doors to their football program added some juice and depth back into the ER roster that already will dress a senior class of almost 30. This team on paper will push for a playoff spot as well in a tough district that has Edgewater and Lake Minneola in it as well.

Would love to hear your thoughts on these predictions and some of your own.

 

[Pipe Dreams]

For Central Florida... I've got two that share a district with Lake Mary and Oviedo. in 8A-3 Lake Mary is my #1 team but I could see Oviedo, Lake Brantley and Orange City University giving them a tough time.

So my two...
Lake Brantley
Orange City University

Playoff Prediction (District Record):
1) Lake Mary (6-0) --- Two wins by less than 10 points
2t) Oviedo (4-2)
2t) Lake Brantley (4-2)
2t) Orange City University (4-2)

This district is very competitive... I think both of the teams that advance out of 8A-2 will knock off 8A-1 in round one.

The elite 8, in my opinion, will most likely pit Apopka or West Orange with one of the four teams listed above.

 

[peezy28]

Tampa Bay Area we have
1. Clearwater High School who return 18 starters including all the skill positions and most 4 olinemen who improved to 4-6 last year after being 0-10 previously. They have several D1 prospects including RB Adarius Lemons who holds multiple big school offers. They also got a big transfer from Dunedin in Kane Taylor a big LB/TE.

2. Jefferson they return a lot including QB Cade Weldon and should make a playoff Push

 

[Pipe Dreams]

West Orange is my breakout team statewide. People see them somewhere from 17-30 in the statewide ranking but they have the talent and coaching to be top 10. Bank that.

On the other end of the spectrum, Coconut Creek has a lot of hype for a team that went 4-6. I ranked them top 25 but they share a district with two nationally ranked teams.

 

[Pipe Dreams]

Freedom will need to beat Oak Ridge. I don't see them anywhere near DP for at least 3 years with the '17 and '18 classes stacked the way that they are.

 

[Cat_Scratch]

I like your pick on Orange City. They could be a sleeper that wakes up in a hurry.

Brevard... My 2 are both from South Brevard.
1. The Palm Bay Pirates have been very quite for the last 3 or 4 years. They start the season opener with Cocoa who is ranked at nationalhsfootball.com at 74 so we are going to find out real quick who the real pretenders are in Brevard.
2. Viera has my second vote. Viera is traveling to Allen Texas to take on last years #1 national champs. I really don't expect for this new kid on the block to win but I do hope they get a wake up call and meet the challenge when heading over to pay Cocoa a visit and then going into the playoffs. The school wants to make some noise in Florida... they will have a chance.

Brevard has several teams that are expected to make a run at the championships this year. Heritage Palm Bay, Cocoa. Merritt Island and MCC.

Good luck to all and may the best team win.

 

[Sayitdontsprayit]

Freedom drew closer to Oak Ridge with the change in HC and the loss of a few transfers after that change. Also, hasn't West Orange been loaded for 2 years now?

 

[PJD3883]

1. Freedom (ORL), Coach Higgins is coming into his 3rd season with the Pats which will boast a senior class of over 25 and looks to build on a 4-6 season last fall. The Pats beat the teams they were supposed to last fall and that is a sign of a team moving in the right direction. I look for the Pats to move up into the second tier of central Florida teams this year and compete for a playoff spot. They were not far off last season finishing 2-2 in district play.

2. East Ridge (Clermont), Coach Peera enters his 2nd season with the Knights and had to clean house last fall while going 0-10. Turn the page to 2015 where ER now boast a varsity roster of over 50 players and if you caught any of their spring game you can see one off-season can make a huge difference. Montverde closing their doors to their football program added some juice and depth back into the ER roster that already will dress a senior class of almost 30. This team on paper will push for a playoff spot as well in a tough district that has Edgewater and Lake Minneola in it as well.

Would love to hear your thoughts on these predictions and some of your own.

I hope you're correct on East Ridge.

Losing Bud and then redistricting for LMHS has made life miserable for them. (Especially
losing the Lincoln Park area) They've softened their non-district schedule getting rid
of South Sumter and South Lake.

 

[Sayitdontsprayit]

I hope you're correct on East Ridge.

Losing Bud and then redistricting for LMHS has made life miserable for them. (Especially
losing the Lincoln Park area) They've softened their non-district schedule getting rid
of South Sumter and South Lake.

Yes sir. I know for a fact they didn't drop South Lake though. That game was scheduled for week 4 but after a bench clearing brawl during a baseball game and how South Lake purposely tried to embarrass ER last football season by kicking multiple onside kicks up 30-40 points the county decided to force the two teams to take a year off from playing. So ER picked up TFA which is no drop in competition IMO. If anything it's a tougher game. Also, their JV is playing IMG week 1 as well so they are trying to build it up.

 

[Pipe Dreams]

South Lake went to the onside kick up 30-40?

Is this true?

If so... wow...

 

[SPCjessica2004]

Yah, East Ridge picked up TFA and South Lake picked up Clearwater Central Catholic. Great to know the history behind that game. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Cat_Scratch]

South Lake purposely tried to embarrass ER last football season by kicking multiple onside kicks up 30-40 points

Why would any respectable coach do that other than to show his players what bad sportsmanship is and how to do it. That's an Big Time Jerk for a coach to allow his team to play that way.

 

[jaxfootballguy]

Do they do onside kicks all the time? There are several teams that i've seen that always did onside kicks no matter the score, i've been apart of one of them and it was not done out of poor sportsmanship, it was just the way we played. We were poor at covering kicks, and realized that teams seemed to be getting the ball at the 40 and 50 yard line anyway, so we figured we might as well kick in onside.

I've also experienced being in a game where we were up big, and subbed in a backup HS kicker who was terrible just so that everyone played. When he got in, he had 2 terrible kicks on kickoffs that both went 10-15 yards, one of which we recovered. The opposing coach thought we were being jerks and attempting onside kicks when up big, when in reality, we were just letting a kid who had been there every day get an opportunity to play.

Things aren't always as they seem.

 

[xcat1969]

Panhandle:
Crestview
Pine Forest

 

[Cat_Scratch]

If they always do an onside then I can't criticize the team but if they only did it to frustrate the other team them that sucks.

Cocoa does a lot of pooch kicks. Their kicker had a hard time kicking it into the end zone and more times than not he hit a line drive to the 15 or 10 and it would be returned to the 40 or 50 at times. When the kicker broke his leg the replacement was lucky to make it to the 30. Lots a stuff can happen when you have a very fast special teams and if the other team can't match the speed then it can get ugly.

 

[Sayitdontsprayit]

Well they weren't kicking it 10-15 yards in the first quarter. lol Maybe the kicker was cramping from all the kickoffs... Either way ER wanted to play this year. It would have been a fun one this year as ER can now match up with them. Oh well, we will have to wait a year for that one. BTW there are some jerk coaches out there who's ego comes before teaching kids life lessons. Sad but true.

 

[jacketswin]

Atlantic Coast and Bartram Trail.

 

[jgking83]

Not sure if you can call them sleepers, but I think Braden River and Palmetto will be pretty good this year. Braden River is a program with potential. I hope they can keep it moving forward.

 

[riverrat1961]

Williston could be a surprise to everyone in 1A

 

[ProSetEye]

With Coach Wentworth at the helm you bet Williston will make some noise. I feel that Williston has always had the players but not the coaching that could make them the team that they should be.

 

[PJD3883]

Well they weren't kicking it 10-15 yards in the first quarter. lol Maybe the kicker was cramping from all the kickoffs... Either way ER wanted to play this year. It would have been a fun one this year as ER can now match up with them. Oh well, we will have to wait a year for that one. BTW there are some jerk coaches out there who's ego comes before teaching kids life lessons. Sad but true.

There's bad blood there.

First you have the residue of the old Clermont-Groveland rivalry, where Clermont owned that rivalry for its last 35 years (Groveland only won 6 during that stretch.)

East Ridge, when it began play dominated all of Lake County football for 10 years. (They only lost
1 game to a Lake County school in that period and that was a fluke lost)

Then came redistricting, which robbed East Ridge of their Clermont base. (Those kids now go to
Lake Minneola) Payback has been hell.

Montverde took up football for 3 years and that took other players from ER. Plus Bud
was dismissed as HC.

Then you have the coaching situation. Head man at SLHS was Bud's top assistant
when ER was dominating. ER HC was an assistant at SLHS.

Then you have the mix of players at SLHS. Probably 1/3 of their students are from
Clermont and Minneola.

It's just a bad mix all the way around and it has been caused by a School Board in
Tavares that was/is clueless. Combining Clermont and Groveland HS's was okay
in '93, BUT, they should have brought the Groveland students to Clermont instead of
building SLCHS. They had the room to expand Clermont HS and rename it SLCHS.

Then as Clermont continued to grow, they could have built a new school back in Groveland,
instead of East Ridge. As Clermont continued to grow the 2nd HS could have been
built about 5 miles south of where ER is located now. That would have made it easier
for those students being bussed 12 miles to school, one way, from Cagan's Corners at
Hwy 27 & 192. Plus there is a 2k home development underway on Villa City Road
which is north of Mascotte. So all those kids will have to be bussed to SLCHS (10 miles)
and a 3 to 5K home development in Minneola under construction.

The 3 current HS's are all within 5 or 6 miles of each other in an area that is 20 miles
by 15 miles.

Because of such poor planning, the county will eventually have to build 4 more HS
in the whole area, when, if they had planned and studied growth correctly, could have
gotten by with just another 2 more.

 

[columbiatigers1]

north central:

Columbia
Buchulz

 

[Pipe Dreams]

PJD - no worries, Lake County is in my planning area. The development in Lake/Sumter/Marion has really put the planning community in a tight spot. Lots of low density development (3-5 du/a)

 

[Pipe Dreams]

West Orange County is in the same predicament... The new school will take much of the existing West Orange attendance zone and the vast majority of students will be bused. That costs OCPS $800 per bused student, per year. For a 2.5k enrollment school at 80% bused that's 1.6M annually in transportation costs only for busing. That is why land development regulation and natural, walkable town centers with higher densities are important.

 

[Neutral 0bserver]

Question for Pipe Dream:

Why do you post messages in

 

[Neutral 0bserver]

multiple parts when you

 

[Neutral 0bserver]

could do it with one?

BTW Did you know if you think of something to

 

[Neutral 0bserver]

to add, you can "edit" the first post?

 

[Pipe Dreams]

Tangents.... editor toolbar....... I hear ya

To those around the state, look up Lorenzo Lingard from Orange City University. They are in their third or fourth year and this guy carried them to an 8-2 season last year (district loss occurred when he was injured). He's a sophomore this year and he's going to be a special player. Timber Creek made a nice run with Jacques Patrick for four years, I see the same with Orange City.

Will be interesting to see how the district plays out with Oviedo, Lake Brantley and Lake Mary. Lake Mary took one to the chin this week - that was surprising.

 

[Dan in Daytona]

Already a special hurdler on the state level. Ran in the 110 and 300m, 4A Florida Finals at N.Fla. in the spring as a freshman. Kid has a football body. Also heard then he was a 16yr old 9th grader.

 

[Sayitdontsprayit]

Well I might be wrong about Freedom but East Ridge handled their business. Thank god football season is here!! Good luck to everyone this season.

 

[Zoe Boy]

Miami Jackson

 

[PJD3883]

West Orange County is in the same predicament... The new school will take much of the existing West Orange attendance zone and the vast majority of students will be bused. That costs OCPS $800 per bused student, per year. For a 2.5k enrollment school at 80% bused that's 1.6M annually in transportation costs only for busing. That is why land development regulation and natural, walkable town centers with higher densities are important.

Hell, I didn't even add that 16K acre Wellness Center that is going to be developed south of
Clermont. It's going to be from Hwy 27, over to 429. Somebody remarked there will be 8k
homes in that area.

When they built West Orange and closed Ocoee High, which was downtown and WG Lakeview,
at least they kept WO roughly in Winter Garden. When the area grew, they just built a new school
in the expanded Ocoee. Now they've got to build the overflow school, but it will be centralized,
in the overflow area.

Over here, South Lake HS is in the middle of nowhere. The old "Clergrove road." I would venture that they don't have 20 students who can walk there. It's in Groveland, because
the city just annexed that area. They jut couldn't move all the existing homes out there.

It's hurts all the kids because they just don't get the following they should because none
have a large alumni base. Especially for ER and LMHS. When ER was built most of the
folks that went to Clermont HS would have gone there. (Some still attended SLCHS)
But LMHS messed everything up, because they took 1/2 of the old Clermont High area, with an 1/8 of that area still at SLCHS and 3/8's at ER.

I got used to ER, but I would have been in the LMHS area if it were around 45 years ago.

At least they wear green.

 

[Sayitdontsprayit]

I missed the boat on the Freedom prediction but East Ridge has scored 97 in its first 2 games. A better test coming this week and TFA on deck in 2 weeks.

 

[Neutral 0bserver]

I missed the boat on the Freedom prediction but East Ridge has scored 97 in its first 2 games. A better test coming this week and TFA on deck in 2 weeks.

If Nu'Trelle wanted to blow a few precious minutes of his time, he could probably decipher TFA, but for now it'll stand as "too f--------g aggravating".