Play four years of varsity football in prospect rich Miami-Dade County and make a major impact in everyone of those years, you become a legend.
There are not many who have been fortunate to wear a varsity uniform in this area of the country and make an immediate impact without some fanfare.
There was a time when there were no 9th graders who attended high school. 10th-12th were the years where you left your mark – unless it was a private school, and even then, the thought of some 13-14-year-old competing against prospects who were ready to go to college was not even an issue. But times have indeed changed, and if you are good enough to play as an 8th or 9th grader, you do it – and in many cases – do it very well.
The one thing that gives any athlete in south Florida an edge is the early playing time that football prospects continue to receive.
There was a time – a few decades back – where there were no freshmen playing varsity and very few sophomores. It was just something that was etched in stone.
To play as a freshman was simply unheard of – and even the thought of a sophomore getting actual varsity playing time was something that just didn’t happen. But times have changed – and no longer is it unusual for 9th and 10th graders to grab the spotlight.
There is simply nothing quite like south Florida football.
While much of the attention is always going to be directed toward the more high-profile schools, which have multiple prospects, it is also a place where the players who don’t have that reputation can get their fair share of the spotlight.
It is no secret that Miami-Dade and Broward have more elite football talent that get the exposure at every turn. But it is also home to impressive football talent that may not peg that meter.
The one thing that has been a certain in south Florida is when you star at the youth football level, there’s a great chance you will do the same in high school.
So competitive and talented are the youth teams in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties that by the time you reach high school, there’s a good chance that you have already been through an amazing gauntlet of talent.
With superior coaching and plenty of athletes, the recipe for success has never been hard to follow – and we see it each and every year.
No matter where you go in south Florida during the course of a season, there are prospects at every school.
While many of the high-profile programs are often stacked with elite football talent, they are certainly not alone. Football talent is simply everywhere – and it’s not slowing down.
Maybe it’s the year round football that is being played – or the fact that the athletes are gravitating toward great coaching and exposure, but there are very few programs in Miami-Dade or Broward Counties that do not have their share of talent that colleges across the country are watching. Remember, if you can play, college coaches will find you anywhere, and not just at traditional powers.