The other Florida hs football website....................

[gatorman001]

Is apparently struggling to remain financially viable, and is considering a number of options which could potentially include pulling the plug on the website. I tried retrieving the emails, that led to my removal from being a contributing member to its -huddle forum-, .......... but was unsuccessful with locating them. The jest of my expressed sentiments beyond asking for one its moderators being removed from that position............(which did happen eventually), was to forecast an eventual failure of the site and its business model. Funny, how things like that work out sometimes...........................

 

[MarkECannon]

I received an email from them last week about my automatic withdrawals ceasing. The funny thing about it is I don’t have a paying account with them. I sent a message to them. They responded timely stating their process was going through changes. I’ve met Josh a few times, a very likable fellow who seems to work very hard.

 

[Silver King]

I received an email from them last week about my automatic withdrawals ceasing. The funny thing about it is I don’t have a paying account with them. I sent a message to them. They responded timely stating their process was going through changes. I’ve met Josh a few times, a very likable fellow who seems to work very hard.

That must have been who was withdrawing from Choctaw Mom's acct on here.

 

[gatorman001]

I received an email from them last week about my automatic withdrawals ceasing. The funny thing about it is I don’t have a paying account with them. I sent a message to them. They responded timely stating their process was going through changes. I’ve met Josh a few times, a very likable fellow who seems to work very hard.

Josh works hard, but making a message board fun and engaging wasn't a key component of that. Which to me undermined everything else he had going on his website, because without hits it ultimately limits the number of opportunities for folks to subscribe. Allowing individuals to have roles as moderators........ like the moderator I asked him to remove, speaks volumes about his dislike for actual sustained engagement in those forums. When he did eventually remove him from moderator roles... he removed everyone else as well. but one individual. he did this as a reaction to a emerging bad situation he had previously just flat out ignored, rather than doing so to make a better message board.

I believe he could potentially see better results, doing something along the lines of what Josh Pate does on his Youtube channel -LateKick- for college football, but from a Florida hs format and just completely abandon the website format....

 

[Silver King]

Do you think the interest in high school football has diminished with that Covid craziness, economy and off field changes?

Are the most competitive years, across the board, now in the past? Are the new classifications a bone thrown because the game has finally arrived where it's been heading for years with legal free agency creating a steroided version of the haves and have-nots?

Inquiring minds want to know...

 

[MarkECannon]

Part of the charm of high school sports was enjoying watching and supporting your local team. This is pretty much over primarily from athletes transferring to and from schools.

Head coaches that have a reputation of winning are able to attract transfers. When a top head coach leaves the transfers start going where the new hot head coach is located causing the former programs to drop off, IE, Armwood and Plant. Struggling programs, like Freedom (Tampa), finally have a very good player rise up in the ranks and the player transfers to IMG. It will be interesting to see what happens with Lakeland now that Bill Castle has retired. He attracted Polk County’s best players for decades. Some coaches are able to attract transfers but can’t seem to coach them successfully like Lehigh.

There are others factors that have brought the decline to a website like floridahsfootball.com, this website, etc. People on Twitter are trying to establish themselves but I am not sure if they have been able to establish a profitable level of success.

 

[gatorman001]

So much to say here, and won't be able to put it all out there in a single post. Let me start by addressing some of what Mark touched on regarding the element of transfers. I went back into some of the old Manatee yearbooks (1980s - 2000s), to see where Manatee was with talent when Kinnan arrived in 1981? What I found was Manatee(s) freshman and sophomore classes were already loaded with the players that would eventually makeup its initial state Championship team in 1983. 1985 saw Manatee County host both the 5A and 4A state title games (the state of Florida 2 largest classifications), same with 1993 where 2 Manatee County teams once again played for state titles in Florida's 2 largest classification, and almost again in 1994 where Manatee narrowly lost in the semis to a team that would eventually play to a tie in the state title game, but subsequently keepin Manatee County from having 2 teams once again in the state title game . While I wont deny there was a element of kids moving around (primarily in Palmetto due to the boundary setup there, that had its origins' dating back to busing and forced integration. It was going on however prior to to 1981, and while it did probably increased once Southeast and Manatee established themselves as powerhouse programs, but my point here is that coaching probably played a bigger role with the successes realized by Southeast and Manatee, than mass transfers of talent. Lets not forget that Sarasota County also had some great teams with Charlie Cleland and Tom Whitehurst at Sarasota and Jon Sprague at Riverview during this time period as well. You mention Castle at Lakeland, he never realized a overall winning record against Kinnan coached Manatee teams.

I want to touch now on when Joe stepped away from coaching for health related issues, only to later return to Manatee and why Kinnan was able to almost immediately experience success, despite the emergence of greater presence of transfering...............

 

[peezy28]

Do you think the interest in high school football has diminished with that Covid craziness, economy and off field changes?

Are the most competitive years, across the board, now in the past? Are the new classifications a bone thrown because the game has finally arrived where it's been heading for years with legal free agency creating a steroided version of the haves and have-nots?

Inquiring minds want to know...

I think the interest started waining long before COVID my friend but COVID year did some damage as well

 

[peezy28]

Part of the charm of high school sports was enjoying watching and supporting your local team. This is pretty much over primarily from athletes transferring to and from schools.

Head coaches that have a reputation of winning are able to attract transfers. When a top head coach leaves the transfers start going where the new hot head coach is located causing the former programs to drop off, IE, Armwood and Plant. Struggling programs, like Freedom (Tampa), finally have a very good player rise up in the ranks and the player transfers to IMG. It will be interesting to see what happens with Lakeland now that Bill Castle has retired. He attracted Polk County’s best players for decades. Some coaches are able to attract transfers but can’t seem to coach them successfully like Lehigh.

There are others factors that have brought the decline to a website like floridahsfootball.com, this website, etc. People on Twitter are trying to establish themselves but I am not sure if they have been able to establish a profitable level of success.

Also remember when any given Friday night anywhere in the state there was a GOW on TV for free?