2011 FLORIDA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL POST SEASON WRAP UP
The 2011 season of Florida high school football is officially over. As usual, it was filled with great players, great teams, and a few surprises! Let us now recap the Sunshine State's prep football season.
The Big Bend area in North Florida had the most teams participate in the State Championship series with four. They won twice and lost twice. The Tampa Bay area had three teams in the finals, winning two championships amd losing in another. The Dade County area had three teams play for state titles. They won one and lost two. The First Coast area(Jacksonville) had two representatives in Orlando, they won one and lost one. The Palm Beach area and the Southwest Florida area each had one participant and both hoisted the trophy. The Panhandle area and the Broward County area both had a representative to lose in the State Championship game.
The 2011 season also had a couple of high schools with notable streaks come to an end. Cocoa Senior High School was looking to become only the third team(Live Oak Suwannee 1987-1990 and Tallahassee North Florida Christian 1998-2001) in the history of Florida high school football to win a State Championship in four consecutive years. Those plans were dashed by Miami Booker T. Washington, who defeated Cocoa 20-14 in the Class 4A semifinals. Also, Belle Glade Glades Day quest for a third straight State Championship ended in the Class 2A semifinals with a defeat at the hands of St. Petersburg Admiral Farragut Academy 42-16. After three straight losses in the State Championship game, Head Coach Andy Price's bid to get South Daytona Warner Christian to its fourth consecutive title game was thwarted by Tallahassee North Florida Christian in a 54-13 loss in the other Class 2A semifinal matchup.
Numerous players, teams, and coaches receive post season accolades for their performance on the field and Florida Gridiron Preps has a few awards that we would like to give.
Coach Brown led Jefferson County to a 9-5 record and the Class 1A State Championship in his first season as Head Coach. The Tigers played a tough regular season schedule that had them sitting at just 5-5 at the end of the regular season. The schedule featured seven playoff teams including Class 3A State Runnerup Madison County, Class 5A State Runnerup Crawfordville Wakulla, Class 2A State Champion Tallahassee North Florida Christian, and Class 4A State Semifinalist Havana East Gadsden.
Norland stakes it claim to the award after finishing with a perfect 15-0 record that ended with a Class 5A State Championship and a #7 ranking in the final Powerade Fab 50 ESPN national high school football poll. The Vikings also had a challenging regular season schedule that had six playoff teams on it.
Armwood also earned a piece of this award after they too finished 2011 with a perfect 15-0 record and a Class 6A State Championship. The Hawks also flexed their muscles against some great competition with a season opening 20-17 victory on the road over #8 nationally ranked Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, who went on to win the State Championship in Nevada's biggest classification(Class 4A). Armwood also shut out #13 nationally ranked Tampa Plant, the current Class 8A champs 21-0.
Johnson has been the bell cow for the Norland offense all season long. He has rushed for over 2,000 yards and scored on 29 rushing tds. He willed the Vikings to a State Championship by scoring all of Norland's touchdowns in final game. He finished with 130 yards rushing and 4 tds and added a 5th score with a 69 yard kick return for a td!
Cocoa has earned more frequent flyer miles than any other high school football team in the nation by flying out of state for three games this season. The Tigers played games at Cincinnati(OH) Colerain (10-2), State Semifinalist Dallas(TX) Skyline(14-1), and Louisiana Class 5A State Champion West Monroe (13-2). Also on their schedule were home dates with Class 6A State Runnerup Miami Central and Class 2A State Semifinalist South Daytona Warner Christian. Cocoa ended up playing seven playoff teams during the regular season, finished with a distict 4A-5 championship, an 8-5 record and a 20-14 overtime loss to Miami Booker T. Washington in the Class 4A semifinals.
Despite only returning two offensive and zero defensive starters from last years squad, former Southridge Head Coach Pat Burrows(Burrows stepped down yesterday to pursue an assistant principal position in the Miami-Dade County school system) beefed up the Spartans 2011 schedule in a major way. Southridge suffered regular season losses to Class 5A State Champion Miami Norland, Class 4A State Runnerup Miami Booker T. Washington, and Class 8A State Semifinalist Miami Christopher Columbus. Add in traditional Dade County and State powerhouse Miami Northwestern and longtime rival Miami Killian and you have an idea of how tough of a schedule Southridge has played. The Spartans also were scheduled to open the season against Class 6A State Runnerup Miami Central, but that game was canceled due to weather conditions. Despite the monsterous schedule, Southridge won the distict 8A-16 championship, finished the season with a 6-6 record, and advanced to the State Quarterfinals where Miami Christopher Columbus defeated the Spartans for a second time this season by a score of 28-7.
On October 13th, Tucker Isreal completed 27 of 31 passes for 534 yards and 10 touchdown passes leading Orlando Lake Nona to a 68-10 victory over Celebration! Those 10 tds passes are a Florida High School football record and that also ties the national record for 11-man football! The scary thing is, this kid is just a freshman!
On December 9th, Duke Johnson rushed for 375 yards on 27 carries including 3 touchdowns to lead Miami Norland to a come from behind 35-27 victory over Palmetto in the Class 5A Semifinals.
On a cool Friday October 14th evening the Daytona Beach Mainland Defense recorded a fourth consective shutout and fifth in the team's first six games by stonewalling Melbourne Palm Bay's Offense during a 13-0 victory. The Buccaneers stopped Palm Bay in the red zone 5 times to preserve the shutout.
