Football state title games to be played at FAMU
Fuel up the buses, South Florida.
If you want to see Miami-Dade and Broward county’s best high school football teams continue to dominate the state in person, you’re gonna have to drive a lot more … maybe even fly.
The Florida High School Athletic Association announced Thursday that this year’s state football finals will be held at the newly renovated Ken Riley Field at Bragg Stadium on the campus of Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.
All nine state finals will be held from Dec. 7-9 with three games being played each day. Exact times and schedule for each class will be announced at a later date by the FHSAA.
The FHSAA last held every state final in one week in Tallahassee in 2020 during the COVIDshortened season, playing those games at Doak Campbell Stadium at Florida State University.
In the FHSAA’s current football alignment, teams from Dade and Broward are located in four of the nine classifications, those being the four Metropolitan classes. The four Suburban divisions and the Rural class will also hold their finals that weekend.
Dade and Broward teams, however, swept all four Metro classes last year in the first season under this alignment with Miami Columbus (Class 4M), Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas (Class 3M), Miami Central (Class 2M) and Hollywood ChaminadeMadonna (Class 1M) winning championships.
None of those schools is located within 450 miles of Bragg Stadium, with some like Homestead located more than 500 miles, meaning a more than eighthour trip should they make it to state.
Since 2019, Chaminade has made such a trip since it has played all of its state finals in Tallahassee since 1M and, prior to that, Class 3A finals were held at Gene Cox Stadium.
But this season would mean a longer road for the other three teams likely to be playing for state titles in Classes 4M-2M come December.
Bragg Stadium now holds a capacity crowd of 19,633 after its renovations and will host a state final for the first time since 1978 and for the third time in its history.
Tickets will become available online at a presale rate of $17, and will be $20 if purchased the day of the game. Parking fees will be included in the price of each ticket. For more information, go to fhsaa.com.
U.S. PLAYS SWEDEN TO OPEN IN SOLHEIM CUP
United States captain Stacy Lewis has five rookies on her team this week, but she went with experience to kick off the 2023 Solheim Cup in Spain on Friday.
The U.S. will hit the first tee shots of the event in
Foursomes, and Lewis went with Solheim Cup veterans Lexi Thompson and Megan Khang as her first pairing.
Thompson was an automatic qualifier despite slipping to 26th in the Rolex Rankings and missing seven of her past 11 cuts, but Lewis said she likes what she has seen out of the former major champion ahead of her sixth Solheim Cup. Khang, who won the Portland Classic earlier this month, is in her third Solheim Cup.
“I wanted to get off to a good start. I wanted to get out four really good pairings and that’s kind of been my focus this whole time,” Lewis said. “Lexi has looked unbelievable this week and that was part of reason that she’s in there. I think she’s got the most experience on our team, and I wanted her to go out there and have that first tee shot. I think she’s earned it.”
European captain Suzann Pettersen took a distinctly different approach, as the Europeans will open with the Swedish duo of Linn Grant and Maja Start, two of the team’s three rookies.
“I think I’ve almost had ’em set first out for a year now, literally, since they both played in Europe,” Pettersen said. “I just thought it would be so — such a cool experience for them to lead off here in Spain. They’re two great friends. They’ve obviously played a lot together through the juniors, so know each other really well, and they had a big desire to play, so I’m just going to let them.”
ETC.
Soccer: Jennifer Hermoso and Alba Redondo each scored twice Wednesday to help Spain advance to the knockout stage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup with a 5-0 romp over Zambia in Auckland, New Zealand.
Teresa Abelleira opened the scoring in the ninth minute before Hermoso and Redondo converted their respective braces for Spain (2-0-0).
Misa Rodriguez made two saves for Spain, which will battle Japan (2-0-0) on Monday for the top spot in Group C.