BrowardAUDIO INTERVIEWS
HOW THEY'LL FINISH
1. UNIVERSITY SCHOOL
Coach: Roger Harriott (3rd season, 16-4).Players to watch: DB/QB Erik Applegate, ATH Josh Mathis, FB/LB Tommy Steele, RB/DB Jeremy Mathis, RB/DB Ryan Anderson, QB/S Douglas Cook.
Overview: The transfer of Eric Applegate from Cooper City should give the Suns a well-balanced offense to go along with its already strong defense.
Key games: Sept. 26 vs. Marathon; Oct. 10 at Parkway Academy; Oct. 17 vs. Ransom Everglades.
2007 record: 8-3 (district runner-up).
2. MARATHON
Coach: Lance Martin (7th season)Players to watch: DB Kenny White, OL/DL Thomas Ryan, OL/DL David Huntt, QB Nyran Ross.
Overview: Nine starters return from last year's regional semifinalist. The chance to repeat comes down to a key early-season battle against University.
Key games: Sept. 5 at Key West; Sept. 26 at University; Oct. 31 vs. Ransom Everglades.
2007 record: 7-4 (district champion).
3. RANSOM EVERGLADES
Coach: Claude Grubair (1st year).Players to watch: LB Roger Khouri, S/ATH Gideon Ajagbe, QB/S Max Rappaport, CB/WR Christian Molinet.
Overview: Gideon Ajagbe has several big-time collegiate offers, and -- along with Roger Khouri and Christian Molinet -- should anchor a solid defense.
Key games: Sept. 12 vs. Palmer Trinity; Oct. 17 at University; Oct. 31 at Marathon.
2007 record: 7-4.
4. PARKWAY ACADEMY
Coach: Anthony Harris (3rd season, 8-12).Overview: Harris, a former Miami Dolphins linebacker, has a tough task to make the Panthers a playoff team again.
Key games: Oct. 10 vs. University; Oct. 24 at Ransom; Nov. 11 vs. Marathon.
2007 record: 4-6.
5. FLORIDA CHRISTIAN
Coach: David King (3rd year, 7-13).Players to watch: FB/OLB Robert Salvador, RB/DB Danny Nieto, WR/DB Matt Hale, QB/DB Giovani Montano.
Overview: After dropping to last place in the district a year after winning it, the Patriots begin the hard road back to respectability.
Key games: Oct. 10 at Ransom; Oct. 17 vs. Marathon; Oct. 24 vs. University.
2007 record: 1-9.
MIAMI FLORIDA CHRISTIAN
The Patriots, the 2006 district champions, lost 15 seniors off last season's 1-9 team.
Quarterback Giovanni Montano transferred from Archbishop Carroll and is expected to start.
MARATHON
With 17 starters returning from last year's 7-4 squad, the Dolphins should once again be considered the favorite to win District 8-2B.
PARKWAY ACADEMY
Parkway Academy receiver/defensive back Keidrick Brewster suddenly had the sport he loves taken away from him a few years ago when a freak accident resulted in a broken ankle.
"Playing football, during a play, I got cut low with a helmet," Brewster said. "It hit my ankle and it broke in three different spots."
Brewster said his recovery to an active player has been "great."
"I rehabbed it for a year and a half, trying to get back 100 percent," he said. "After I got back from rehab, I got back on the playing field for coach Harris."
MIAMI RANSOM EVERGLADES
The Raiders went 6-4 last year and returns 14 starters, seven on each side of the ball.
The team, which has not qualified for the playoffs since 2000, could finally pursue a postseason berth.
UNIVERSITY
When Michael Barasch transferred from St. Thomas Aquinas to a young University program last year, few could have foretold of his importance.
Barasch ran for 2,078 yards to set the Broward County single-season rushing mark. While doing so, he helped lead the Suns to the playoffs and, just as important, gained exposure for the emerging school.
"It grew a lot," Suns quarterback Erik Applegate said. "It gave the program a little more recognition than it previously had. It pretty much put them on the map."
The experience helped University's players prepare for 2008.
"It seems like, this year, they know what the playoffs are like," Applegate said. "Everyone is a little bit more together than they were last year."
Having a chance to compete in the playoffs is foreign to Applegate, who transferred from Cooper City after longtime coach Jim Elder resigned.
"We lost our coaches at Cooper City," he said. "We didn't have a coach for a few months. [University] is a college preparatory school, so my parents wanted to send me there for the best opportunities in college. It came up that this was probably my best bet to go."
Like Barasch a year ago, Applegate brings experience playing against some of the nation's best teams.
"It helps," he said. "When people come in, they can all offer leadership and they can offer game-time experience with it being a new school. We know what we're talking about. We have background experience. The coaches, they say it all the time, and they know what they're talking about too. To come from players, telling them what everything is about, that helps the team a lot."
The McClatchy Company