‘The perfect storm’
Orlando area programs surging as record three teams chase state championships in Daytona
Ahistoric high school football season culminates this weekend with three Orange County teams playing for Florida High School Athletic Association state championships. It’s a first for Orange County, which had never before advanced more than one team to an FHSAA final in a season.
Apopka, Edgewater and Jones established that record two weeks ago when all three won state semifinals. Another area record could be set if more than one of those teams captures a title during this weekend’s championship games at Daytona Stadium.
“There are certain years where things just kind of come together, and for Orange County this is one of those years,” said Spectrum Sports executive producer Austin Lyon, who has covered state championships on radio and television since 2001. “It just feels like the perfect storm, more so than it ever has before.”
Apopka (12-1) plays Miami Columbus (10-4) in the Class 8A state final on Friday at 7 p.m. The Blue Darters got healthy just in time for the postseason before going on the road to beat a pair of unbeatens, including overall No. 1 seed Seminole.
Jones High (13-1) faces Miami Northwestern (12-2) for the 5A title on Saturday at noon after holding off a fourth-quarter rally against undefeated Wakulla during a 21-20 state semifinal win.
Edgewater (13-1) won back-to-back nail-biters before using a strong defensive showing to knock off nationallyranked Seffner Armwood in its semifinal. That earned the Eagles a shot at Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas (13-0) in Saturday’s 7 p.m. Class 7A final.
Admission to state championship games is $12 in advance and $15 at the gate. Parking is $10. All games will be broadcast live online by Spectrum Sports.
Dr. Phillips state champion coach Rodney Wells has witnessed high school football evolve in the Orlando area as new schools continued to open and more players became involved in year-round workouts.
“We have more teams now [from the area] that are capable of getting to a state championship than we did when I was playing,” said Wells, a 1997 DP grad. He was an assistant coach on the school’s 2010 state runner-up team before ascending to head coach.
The Panthers were again a state runner-up in 2016 and then won the 8A state title in 2017. Bishop Moore won the 5A championship in 2015.
Dr. Phillips and Bishop Moore football Twitter accounts offered words of encouragement for the county’s three 2019 finalists early last week.
“Once you’re eliminated you’ve got to pull for your county,” Wells said. “That’s the one thing that Dade County and Broward County teams do a great job at; they’re going to pack the house and be pulling for those teams, and we should be doing the same thing.”
South Florida is the measuring stick for success when it comes to high school football in the state. Teams from MiamiDade and Broward routinely reach the FHSAA state series across multiple classifications. Those two big counties put a record seven teams into finals this year — with one in every classification from 2A through 8A.
Keeping pace has been a challenge at times for programs in the Orlando Sentinel coverage area, largely because 38 of the area’s 56 FHSAA teams are closely classified in either Class 8A or 7A.
But the area’s reputation has been on the rise as four teams from Orange County have won state championships in the past seven seasons. In the previous 49 years of state playoffs (1963-2011), there were just three Orange County state title teams: Bishop Moore in 1970, Evans as a cochamp in 1991 and Apopka in 2001.
Apopka raised the bar for Central Florida by playing in four finals and winning three championships under former coach Rick Darlington. The Blue Darters won state titles in 2012 and 2014 and finished runnersup in 2013.
“Fortunately for us we’ve been solid through that whole timespan, and that has a lot to do with having a solid coaching staff, and of course the players,” said Apopka coach Jeff Rolson, a former Blue Darters assistant who took over for Darlington after he departed for a higher paying coaching job at Enterprise, Ala. “You’ve got teams around here that are usually pretty good, and if they have good coaching, then they’ll always have a chance.”
A win Friday would tie Apopka with three South Florida schools for most large-class state titles. Miami Northwestern, Miami Carol City and Coral Gables have each won four championships in the FHSAA’s largest classification over the years.
“What’s changed over time from when I first started covering state championships was the perception that any Central Florida team that got to a state final wasn’t going to win because the area was soft in comparison to Broward and Miami-Dade counties,” Lyon said. “There was a perception that those programs [down south] were tougher. You don’t hear that anymore.”
After crowning five champions across the state from 1985-98, the FHSAA added a sixth classification beginning with the 1999 season. That number increased to seven in 2003 before going to the current alignment of eight classes in 2005.
The current Orlando Sentinel coverage area – consisting of Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake and southwest Volusia counties – has had seven state champions and 12 state runners-up during the past 22 years dating back to 1998 when Kissimmee Osceola won the 5A title.
That run includes a state title for Seminole High over Miami Northwestern in 2008, three straight second-place finishes for Edgewater vs. Miami teams under coach Bill Gierke from 2002-04; and runner-up outings for Lake Brantley (2006), Boone (2007), DeLand (2009) and Osceola (2007, 2015 and 2014).
Jones head coach Elijah Williams and Edgewater head coach Cameron Duke have made a difference.
Williams is in his fourth season at Jones after helping turn Oak Ridge into a winning program earlier in the decade. Duke, formerly head coach at Lake Highland Prep, took over at Edgewater three years ago following a winless season for the Eagles.
“When I started in the area, Evans was as good a team as any, then Chip Gierke had some great teams at Apopka that could’ve or should’ve won state championships,” former Lake Brantley coach George Clayton said. “There’s always been good talent around here and the good teams continue to improve, but in recent years the coaching has really gotten so much better.”