Winker’s South Florida High School Football Week 2 Update

I was listening to Larry Blustein’s first WQAM560 High School Sports show in 5 months on Monday night. Hearing his familiar voice made me reflect on how much things have changed since last fall.

While the Florida High School Athletic Association permitted schools to begin fall practices in late August, Miami-Dade public schools have not begun practicing. The Broward County Athletic Association, which encompasses all of Broward County’s public schools and some of the county’s private schools, including Cardinal Gibbons and St. Thomas Aquinas, also have not given the go ahead on fall practice.

Last year, schools from Miami-Dade and Broward counties accounted for 7 of 8 state championships (there are no 1A schools in South Florida).

5 of those 7 state champions are not even practicing yet- 8A Columbus, 7A St. Thomas Aquinas, 6A Central, 5A Northwestern and 4A Booker T. Washington.

While it is looking as if they will be able to begin playing games at some point this fall, it appears that they will not be able to start in time to get in enough games to be eligible to defend their state titles. This has obviously infuriated everyone involved in South Florida football, and serious talks are underway to pull out of the FHSAA. Interestingly, another Florida team that is not part of the FHSAA playoff system, IMG Academy, is the top-ranked high school football team in USA Today (St. Thomas Aquinas is #3, Central #8 and Northwestern #20)

Chaminade-Madonna, Champagnat and American Heritage-Plantation

One of the few bright spots of the dearth of teams playing is some interesting early games between powerhouse programs.

Last Friday reigning 2A champion Hialeah Champagnat travelled to Hollywood to take on coach Dameon Jones’ Chaminade-Madonna, who has won three straight 3A titles.

The game was full of expected first-game jitters and the teams appeared to be pretty evenly matched. But Miami commit Thad Franklin continued his dominance from last year’s all-time state championship rushing yardage record, as he ran for 164 yards on 28 carries and scored all four touchdowns to lead Chaminade-Madonna to a 27-14 victory.

After the game Champagnat coach Hector Clavijo said he was happy to be back on the field. “I have very high expectations for our team, but I liked our effort out of the gate and we’re going to use this to improve and get to where we need to be.”

American Heritage-Plantation at Chaminade-Madonna (1-0) 7pm

The limited number of fans being admitted to Vince Zappone Field this Friday night should be in for a very entertaining game. This will likely come down to Chaminade’s Thad Franklin vs. “the loaded box” as the Colonials try to slow down the Lions’ offense.

Everglades Academy at Calvary Christian (1-0) 7pm

Calvary Christian is coming off its best season in program history under coach Kirk Hoza, as the Eagles went undefeated in the regular season and advanced to the regional finals. Calvary shut out Cardinal Newman last week 19-0. Calvary’s game scheduled for this week against American Heritage Delray was cancelled after the death of American Heritage Delray’s head coach Brian Sheridan. Sheridan was a beloved coach and still holds the Rutgers record with 161 tackles in a single season, which he set in 1997.

The Thursday game with American Heritage Delray was postponed and Calvary will be hosting Homestead’s Everglades Academy on Friday night at 7pm.

Champagnat (0-1) at Somerset Academy-Silver Palms 4pm

Coach Javier Valdes is building a solid football program down in the southern end of Dade, and the Stallions are coming off a solid 8-3 season, getting beat in the second round of the playoffs by Chaminade-Madonna. But look for Champagnat to jump on them quick as Coach Clavijo irons out the kinks from last week’s loss to Chaminade-Madonna.