Moments after the 26-10 win over Team Florida in the 2021 Florida-Georgia Game at the legendary Traz Powell Stadium in Miami, the attention quickly turned to 2022.
With a number of key players moving on to major colleges, this past year was all about four days of coaching and learning from the best in the state.
When talking about 2022, Team Georgia Coordinator Kenyatta Watson knew exactly who he wanted on staff – when the game moves to Orlando for the Martin Luther King Weekend (13-16) and Sunday’s game.
As well-respected Joey King from Carrolton was named head coach, the impressive staff started to come together – and if you follow Georgia high school football – you will be impressed.
King, who led Cartersville to two state football titles with quarterback Trevor Lawrence, will have some iconic assistants by his side – with Grayson’s Adam Carter serving as defensive coordinator and Todd Wofford from Collins Hill calling the offense.
Coming off a 4-3 season in what was certainly one of the toughest to accomplish, Miami LaSalle managed to not only come up with a winning season, but they did it with very little recognition and plenty of young prospects.
In a season where it was tough for the media and recruiting services to get out and watch games and players – because of Covid – many area athletes may not have received the recognition they deserved.
By now, you get why south Florida has no rival when it comes to producing and developing football talent – at every level.
For all those who talk about what coaches are being paid in other areas of the country, the one thing that has always held true in south Florida is you will not find harder working coaches anywhere.
There is no getting around the impact that south Florida athletes make every year.
Whether it’s in the NFL or at hundreds of colleges and universities across the country, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach student/athletes are stepping up and grabbing the spotlight. It’s been like that for decades – and looking into the future – there is no end in sight.
In a year where just getting out on the football field was a chore – and certainly took time to achieve – high school football coaches have been working overtime.
Taking every precaution possible to guard against this pandemic, the season amazingly finished up with many teams getting games in to help in the recruiting process. But as much as coaches, parents and athletes tried, this was a tough year to grab the attention of college coaches are limited where they can go – and what they can do.
Because of the smaller schools not having to play by those rules, this past Saturday became vital for high school seniors with grade and no place to go.
As the 5th Annual Orange Bowl Senior Showcase Presented by Tire Kingdom was taking place at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, small colleges made their way down to watch nearly 300 athletes do their thing.
This free, one-day event was once again conducted in association with the National Football Foundation (NFF) and its local chapters (there are five other similar events in various markets nationwide), and will bring together academically qualified high school seniors from Florida and football coaches from NCAA Division II, III and NAIA programs across the country, which provides an unprecedented opportunity for young student-athletes to use their athletic and academic skills to earn collegiate scholarships, and ultimately a college degree.