South Florida teams enjoying benefits of long-awaited return of the state football finals
High school football fans have not forgotten the indelible marks that were made the last time the state football championships were held in South Florida.
An attendance record for the event was set, which has yet to be broken.
And one of the championship games played back then is still widely regarded as the greatest state final of all time.
Will more lasting memories and milestones be made this week?
Three of South Florida’s top programs — Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas, Miami Central and Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons — will try their best when the FHSAA state finals are played locally this week for the first time in 15 years.
DRV PNK Stadium — the home of Inter Miami of Major League Soccer — will be the site of a different kind of football Thursday through Saturday as it hosts the Class 8A-4A state championships, marking the first time at least a portion of the event will be held in South Florida since the 2005 and 2006 finals were held at FIU and Hard Rock Stadium.
The Class 3A-1A finals were held last week in Tallahassee as Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna secured the 3A title and Hialeah Champagnat fell short in the 2A final.
It will mark the first time Broward County will host a state championship game played at a neutral site and first time overall since Pompano Beach Blanche Ely hosted the 4A final on home turf in 1987.
The 18,000-seat venue doesn’t have the capacity to top the state finals’ attendance record set in 2006 when 24,368 spectators watched Miami Northwestern beat Altamonte Springs Lake Brantley 34-14 in the Class 6A final.
But the convenience of playing less than an hour’s drive and in the case of Cardinal Gibbons, literally a 10-minute hop from its campus, has logistical and financial perks.
“Winning state last year in Tallahassee cost us a lot of money (in travel),” Cardinal Gibbons coach Matt DuBuc said. “This year, it will be a fraction of the cost. Now, our alumni won’t have to travel all the way to Tallahassee during the holidays.”
Many around South Florida have felt the deal to play the finals locally was beyond overdue considering the dominance Miami-Dade and Broward county teams have shown, especially in recent years at state.
Dade and Broward teams have combined to win state titles in four or more of the state’s eight classifications in eight of the past nine seasons. In 2019, South Florida teams won titles in all seven classes in which they had teams advance with rural Class 1A being the exception.
In 2013 (five), 2015 (four), 2017 (four), none of the advancing teams from South Florida lost. And during that span, Dade and Broward teams have not had fewer than four teams make it to the finals each year.
Central, Gibbons and Central comprised three of the five state championships won last season by Dade and Broward teams.
Aquinas was only chasing title No. 4 the last time the finals were in South Florida.
Although Lakeland denied it the crown that season, the Raiders played in an instant classic still picked by many as the top state final game of all time. Aquinas rallied from a 35-14 deficit in the final five minutes of that game before falling 45-42 in double overtime to the Dreadnaughts when then-Aquinas running back Jeremiah Harden was stopped at the 1-yard line on fourth down.
Since then, Aquinas has won a pair of national championships and nine state titles.
The Raiders will try to win a 13th state crown when they face unbeaten Tampa Bay Tech on Friday at 7 p.m.
Gibbons, a rising powerhouse in recent years, is looking to repeat as state champions for the first time in school history and seeking its third state overall since winning its first in 2018.
The Chiefs face perennial powerhouse Cocoa, a four-time state champion, on Thursday night at 7 p.m. Gibbons throttled Cocoa 45-15 last season in the state semifinals.
While they are practically neighbors of Inter Miami with their school located just four miles away, Gibbons is looking forward to playing its first game at the site of the old Lockhart Stadium where it had played several teams in the past.
“It’s a beautiful venue — 18,000 seats,” DuBuc said. “They’ve done a great job with that place.”
Central coach Roland Smith was coaching at Northwestern in that record-setting game in 2006. Since being hired to coach the Rockets in 2013, Smith has guided Central to five state titles and is looking to coach them to three championships in a row for the second time during his tenure. Smith took over in 2013 in the second year of a run of four consecutive state titles, which began under previous Rockets coach Telly Lockette.
Smith will match up against his former University of Miami teammate and roommate Hurlie Brown, the head coach at Merritt Island, when Central takes on the Mustangs on Friday at 1 p.m. in the Class 5A final.
The Rockets are tied with neighborhood rival Miami Northwestern for the most state championships (7) for a Dade school.
Tickets are available for $12 if purchased in advance and $15 on game day. All games will stream live via Spectrum Sports.
This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
