High school spring football is about to begin. Here’s what has changed in South Florida
Change is always in the air in high school football.
But this offseason in South Florida, it isn’t just players transferring and coaches switching programs that has altered the landscape in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
The road to state has returned to a familiar format with the FHSAA implementing an eight-classification alignment (7A-1A), which opens up more opportunities for South Florida’s best to compete for state championships.
Although the season is still slightly under four months away from beginning, football-starved fans can get their first taste of what’s to come Monday when teams statewide begin spring practices.
Here’s a look at some of the notable changes that happened this offseason.
FAMILIAR FACES IN NEW PLACES
Teddy Bridgewater is the coach at Miami Northwestern.
In case you missed it when it was announced back in February or when he hinted at it multiple times during his final season in the NFL, Bridgewater followed through and landed the job at his alma mater.
Now the former Bulls’ star, who played 10 seasons in the NFL for the Vikings, Saints, Jets, Panthers, Broncos, Dolphins and Lions, hopes to breathe life into a proud program that owns seven state championships and one national title, but went 4-6 and missed the playoffs last season under Bridgewater’s former high school teammate, Michaelee
Harris.
The talent on the roster has increased already with a group led by wide receiver Calvin Russell, rated the top overall prospect in the state for the Class of 2026 by 247Sports.
The Bulls hope to return to the postseason and perhaps challenge longtime rival Miami Central and others in Class 3A.
Bridgewater wasn’t the only notable coaching change in South Florida.
The coach who led his alma mater to three state championships in recent years, Max Edwards, is now hoping to revive one of the Bulls’ rivals, Miami Jackson.
Edwards, who was fired from Northwestern following the 2022 season, hopes to restore the Generals to their once winning ways after they struggled to a 3-7 campaign in 2023. Jackson has only made the playoffs once in the past nine years.
Edwards, who spent last season as the defensive coordinator at Miami Booker T. Washington, will have to contend with Central, Northwestern and other improved teams like Somerset Academy in 3A.
After spending last season as an assistant coach at American and helping the Patriots make the playoffs, George Stubbs hopes to do the same at Miami Carol City. The Chiefs are coming off one of their worst seasons in school history after going 1-8. Not counting the 2020 COVID-shortened season, Carol City has not had a winning record since 2018 two years after winning a state title under their late former coach Aubrey Hill.
Other schools that hired new coaches this offseason - Belen Jesuit: Nicholas Oyarzun;
Blanche Ely: Terrence McFadden; Dr. Krop: Vernon Wilder III; Douglas: Christian Baldwin;
Everglades Prep: Jermain Kelson Sr.; Killian: Rudy Trevino; Mater Academy: Jase Stewart; McArthur: Alex Baron; Miami Beach: Wilkie Perez; Northeast: Neil Nelson; Somerset Academy Pines: Nitro Baker; Stranahan: Jacky Candy; Plantation: Daryl Strong.
NEW CLASSES, NEW RIVALRIES?
The new look kept Class 7A roughly the same with two-time defending state champion Columbus and Western the favorites once again to be the teams to battle for supremacy in that bracket.
But two-time state runner-up Homestead is now in Class 6A and not in the same bracket as five-time reigning champion St. Thomas Aquinas, which beat the Broncos for the state title each of the past two seasons. Homestead is joined in that class by Monarch, a state semifinalist last season.
Aquinas is in Class 5A now and will likely have to contend with at least two familiar foes in Coconut Creek and Miramar.
Miami Norland is coming off a season that was memorable until a disappointing state championship game loss to Tampa Berkeley Prep. The Vikings won’t have to deal with Miami Central in the playoffs in Class 4A. Instead, a possible challenger is Plantation American Heritage which lost in the state final in 2022 and semifinal in 2023.
Booker T. Washington moves into Class 2A where coach Ice Harris’ squad won’t have to deal with Norland or Central come playoff time, but may have to contend with a strong Cardinal Gibbons squad.
Chaminade is in Class
1A, along with Miami Edison and True North, and figures to be a major favorite to win its fourth state title in a row and seventh in the past eight seasons.
SHOWCASE SET
The Broward Education Foundation is hosting its third annual Broward County National Showcase to open the 2024 season.
The event will once again feature a slate of seven matchups featuring seven of Broward’s top teams against some of the best teams in the nation.
This year’s schedule will include reigning national champion Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, Alabama powerhouse Hoover, California juggernaut St. John Bosco once again, and Miami Northwestern as the event’s first participant from Miami-Dade County.
Here’s the schedule (Broadcast info still to be determined) - Aug. 22: Monarch vs. Peachtree Ridge (Ga.) at Coconut Creek, 5; Northwestern at Coconut Creek, 8; Aug. 23: Lake Mary at Cardinal Gibbons, 7; Milton (Ga.) at American Heritage, 7; Aug. 24: Hoover (AL) at Western, noon; Bishop Gorman at St. Thomas Aquinas, 4; St. John Bosco vs. Chaminade-Madonna at Aquinas, 8.