How South Florida, 7 for 7 in state titles, became U.S. capital of high school football | Opinion
The football teams were at the same hotel in Daytona Beach this past weekend for the state championships when a bunch of parents and fans of Miami Northwestern High were mingling in the lobby as the Miami Columbus team returned from seeing a movie.
“Better win or you can’t come back to the 3-0-5!” Columbus coach Dave Dunn heard a Northwestern fan call out.
The message, though said in jest, was probably only half-kidding.
Prep football is a serious proposition held to the highest standard in Miami-Dade. In Broward, too — as the neighboring counties just proved in historic fashion.
It was an unprecedented show of force from South Florida.
There are eight FHSAA divisions based on school size, and Dade/Broward brought home a record seven state championships. Call it a clean sweep, because South Florida has no football team in the smallest division geared to rural schools.
(If only some of our local high school mojo might rub off on the Miami Hurricanes, who at 6-6 are preparing to face Louisiana Tech in the Independence Bowl, or the Dolphins, slogging along at 3-11).
Stating South Florida’s case as America’s capital of high school football:
Columbus wins Class 8A (the largest division) for the school’s first state title in the sport.
Fort Lauderdale’s St. Thomas Aquinas wins Class 7A for the school’s state-record 11th championship, breaking a tie for most with Jacksonville Bolles.
Miami Central wins Class 6A for the school’s sixth state crown.
Northwestern wins Class 5A for the school’s third state title in a row and seventh overall, the most by a Miami-Dade team.
Miami’s Booker T. Washington wins Class 4A for the school’s sixth crown.
Hollywood’s Chaminade-Madonna wins Class 3A for its third title and third in a row.
And Hialeah Champagnat wins Class 2A for that school’s third state championship.
From the continuation of the Aquinas juggernaut to the maiden title for Columbus, it has been a December like no other for local high school football.
“It’s the culture down here. Football is so important,” said Dunn, back on campus Monday at Columbus, an all-male Catholic school. “Except when we’re playing each other, we’re all pulling for each other. Part of me thinks. ‘Why [hasn’t South Florida] won seven before? This is what’s expected.”
Says Aquinas’ Roger Harriott, who helped win the school’s first state title as a player in 1992 and now delivered its 11th crown in his third season as coach: “South Florida is the Mecca of high school football because it’s a way of life and an integral part of our culture.”
Local prep football is so good largely because competition breeds excellence, and there are so many good teams pushing each other. For example, Columbus played nine games in a row this season against teams that made the playoffs. Among the newly minted champs, only Aquinas played a tougher schedule.
“That’s gets us ready for the long haul,” said Northwestern coach Max Edwards, maestro of the Bulls’ threepeat. “Then when we play those out of town teams who aren’t playing the same type of competition, we’re ready. We’re mentally tough.”
The homegrown talent in South Florida is renowned as well. There were 41 NFL players to start this season who called Miami or Fort Lauderdale home. Houston was the next biggest pro pipeline with 21 players.
It starts with local youth football, Edwards said.
“In the ‘70s and ‘80s teams up north were winning because we didn’t have a great Optimist program,” he said Monday. “Right now we have great Optimist programs, and the kids are getting better each year, getting hungrier. The competition is great, and and they bring it to high school.”
Six of the seven teams that just won a championship (all but Champagnat, the smallest), have at least one player currently in the NFL. The six have 31 players combined, led by Aquinas with 14 — including first-round pick Nick Bosa, now starring for the 49ers.
Central coach Roland Smith credits the high level of coaching in South Florida as well. As a Canes defensive back from 1987 to 1990 he learned under Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson and credits Johnson for the fiery pregame speeches he prefers.
This is Smith’s fourth state title since taking over Central in 2013.
“A lot of great coaching going on down here,” he said Monday. “We don’t get enough credit for what we do. We don’t just roll the ball out there and put players out there.”
Dunn, who delivered Columbus its first championship, coached at the school in 1999-2000 before returning this season after 20 years away.
His team is set to be honored Tuesday night in a ceremony at halftime of the school’s basketball game.
“It was unfinished business for me,” he said.
Monday, it was also business as usual. Except that when he returned to campus some of the congratulations he received were honking horns and thumbs-up from cars.
“It’s high school, so I worked the front parking lot this morning,” he explained. Then, with a smile: “These are problems [Clemson coach] Dabo Swinney doesn’t have.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 3:14 PM.
