American Heritage’s Smith and Chaminade’s Jones are Broward 4A-1A Co-Coaches of the Year

Two national powerhouses added to their trophy cases last year.

Now, their coaches are, too. Plantation American Heritage’s Mike Smith and Chaminade-Madonna’s Dameon Jones are the Miami Herald’s Broward County Co-Football Coaches of the Year for Classes 4A-1A after leading their schools to state championships.

American Heritage won its first state title since 2020. The Lions won their fourth in a row. Both did it in style, overcoming adversity and ultimately winning in style with convincing wins in their title games.

The Patriots played most of their run through the Class 4A playoffs without star quarterback Dia Bell after he got hurt in Round 2 against Dillard. Smith had to adjust on the fly, inserting star wide receiver Malachi Toney at quarterback for the second half of that second-round game with American Heritage down by two touchdowns, and the Patriots responded by winning every playoff game by double figures.

In Hollywood, the Lions suffered through a rare rocky start to the season—dropping their first two games to St. John Bosco from Bellflower, California, and Pompano Beach Blanche Ely—before rattling off 13 straight wins to claim the Class 1A championship. In the end, Chaminade-Madonna was as dominant as ever, winning its five postseason games by an average of 48 points, including a 42-7 shellacking of Clearwater Central Catholic in the 1A title game.

Smith and Jones oversaw perhaps the county’s best game of the season, too. In Week 3, the Lions hosted American Heritage and eked out a three-point win in a game with 93 combined points. Both teams left the game with a pair of losses—the Patriots also lost their opener to Georgia’s Milton. Heritage also scored a win over St. Thomas Aquinas and navigated through the state’s toughest schedule along the way.

Only three Florida teams, not including Bradenton IMG Academy, finished the season ranked in MaxPreps’ top 20 and Heritage and Chaminade - two small Broward private schools - were among them.