By Kyle LoJacono
The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) has released preliminary new football districts for the next two seasons.
The FHSAA redistricts all prep sports every two years to account for new schools opening and changing population. Seth Polansky, FHSAA spokesman, said schools with a similar amount of students are grouped together by location.
“It isn’t very fair for a school with 2,500 kids to play against one with 50,” Polansky said. “Also, this year we’ve added a classification for rural schools to level the playing field. Instead of the old classes, now it’s 1A through 8A. There isn’t a 1B or 2B anymore to simplify the numbering.”
The larger the number of the class, the more students at the school. In Pasco and north Hillsborough counties, the new alignments if upheld will in some cases keep traditional rivalries, split others up and create new ones.
One of the biggest changes from the redistricting would be the splitting up of Pasco’s longest running rivalry — the 9-Mile War between Zephyrhills and Pasco. Despite both being in Class 5A, Zephyrhills has been grouped with three Polk County schools in District 9. Pasco is in 5A-6 with Wesley Chapel.
“I did submit a letter for appeal,” said Zephyrhills principal Steve Van Gorden. “We asked to be moved into 5A-6 as our first choice with Pasco and Wesley Chapel and the other county schools, or into 6A-6 as our second choice. We’ve played Pasco for a long time and it’s a very important match-up for our community here.”
Zephyrhills and Pasco have played each other 53 times. Van Gorden also said the travel for road district games would be another burden that would be alleviated if the Bulldogs were put in 5A-6.
Polansky said all appeals have been submitted and will be addressed in the coming weeks. Finalized districts will be released the last week of January.
Central Pasco rivals Sunlake and Land O’ Lakes will remain district opponents in 6A-6. The two squads were also in 3A-7 last year with Mitchell, who will move into the new district with River Ridge, Central and Springstead.
The Gators reached the playoffs last season as the district runner-up, the 14th straight appearance for the program. The Seahawks finished 8-2 and just missed out on a postseason berth after losing to Land O’ Lakes.
The Seahawks and Gators will likely have an easier time making the regional tournament in the new district alignment as Pasco, which as four straight district championships including 3A-7 last year, is now in 5A. Additionally, the only other new 6A-6 school to make the postseason last year was Springstead as the district runner-up with a 5-5 record.
Moving to the new 7A-7, four area schools have been grouped together — Freedom, Gaither, Steinbrenner and Wiregrass Ranch.
The Patriots and Cowboys were in the same district last year, but this alignment moves fellow north Hillsborough newcomer Steinbrenner with them.
“It’s nice to be moving up,” said Warriors coach Floyd Graham. “2A district we were in with Jesuit and Robinson was a tough one. We think we’ll be able to compete in the new district.”
Jesuit finished 10-0 in the regular season last year, while Robinson was 8-2.
Gaither and Steinbrenner played last year, a 20-7 win for the Cowboys, and Graham said the two programs wanted to continue to play even before learning they would be district rivals. He did say his team still wants to play Strawberry Crest, which had been a district opponent the last two years.
“I don’t really know why, but that’s the team we think of as our main rival,” Graham said. “Maybe it’s because we started the same time two years ago, maybe because that was the first game we played, maybe it’s because we played them two times that first year. I don’t know, but we want to keep playing them.
Wiregrass is the only Pasco school in the tentative 7A-7, but that does not phase the Bulls.
“My philosophy is we’ll play anyone,” said Wiregrass Ranch coach Jeremy Shobe. “We’ll prepare for anyone on our schedule.”
Carrollwood Day has also joined a district for the first time in school history. Last year it was an independent, but will move into 2A-5. Patriots coach Lane McLaughlin said the team wanted to move into a district to have a chance and an FHSAA state championship.
Six-man football teams like Academy at the Lakes and Zephyrhills Christian play in a league not affiliated with FHSAA, so redistricting does not affect those programs.
All the new districts can be viewed at www.fhsaa.org.
