swamprat

Florida 6A Championship. Tampa Jesuit 35 Pine Forest 29

Florida 8A Championship Venice 35 Apopka 7

Florida 7A Championship St. Thomas Aquinas 42 Tampa Bay Tech 14

Florida 5A Championship Miami Central 49 Merritt Island 14

Florida 4A Championship Cardinal Gibbons 21 Cocoa 19

Florida 1A Championship Madison County 13 Hawthorne 12

If you look at Chaminade-Madonna's schedule, you can see why to some extent. Not a cakewalk in the bunch. It contains two 8A State Semi-finalists, and a 4A State Semi-finalist. They are the only reason Buford (GA), who won the Georgia 6A championship last night, did not have an undefeated season. The team that beat Chaminade-Madonna, American-Heritage, had the worst record of the all of teams on their schedule, 6-4. It appears that they are an independent 3A school in Region 4. No district. Not sure how that works. I read somewhere, that C-M's SOS ranked 2nd in the state, where Berkley Prep's SOS was at 212. In the playoffs, they out scored their opponents 153-3. At the end of the season, they were ranked 5th in the state among all classes, and 27th nationally.

Florida 3A final. Friday, December 10. Chaminade-Madonna 21 Berkley Prep 0

Florida 2A finals. Thursday, December 9. Trinity Christian Academy 41 Champagnat Catholic 23

Not really. If you notice, most the final matchups, are between schools from the large metropolitan areas around the state (Tampa Bay, Orlando, Jacksonville, and Ft. Lauderdale/Miami). Because of the geographical aspect of the region and districts, the teams in the large metro areas thin themselves out in district play and regional rounds while remainder of the brackets tend to clear out the schools from rural areas, for the most part. That is especially true in the large school classes. With the exception of 1A, there is at least one participant from a large metropolitan area in every final. That's pretty much the same every year. 8A Apopka (Orlando Metro) vs Venice 7A Tampa Bay Tech vs St. Thomas Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale) 6A Tampa Jesuit vs Pine Forest (Pensacola) 5A Miami Central vs Merritt Island 4A Coco vs Cardinal Gibbons (Ft. Lauderdale) 3A Berkley Prep (Tampa) vs Chaminade-Madonna (Miami Metro) 2A Trinity Christian Academy (Jacksonville) vs Champagnat Catholic (Miami Metro) 1A Hawthorne vs Madison County

I was watching "Hunt for Red October" this afternoon. When Scott Glenn hands Alec Baldwin the hand gun on the mini-sub, the first thing that popped into my mind was "Are you sure you want to do that?"

Florida Semi Finals. Games I was interested in are in bold. 8A Apopka 21 Treasure Coast 0 Venice 35 Columbus 7 7A Tampa Bay Tech 42 Lake Gibson 24 St. Thomas Aquinas 45 Bucholz 7 6A Tampa Jesuit 37 Miami Northwestern 12 Pine Forest 20 Orlando Jones 13 5A Merritt Island 12 Sebring 10 Miami Central 54 Baker County 21 4A Cardinal Gibbons 36 Lakewood 18 Cocoa 35 Jacksonville Bolles 24 3A Berkley Prep 42 Lakeland Christian 14 Chaminade-Madonna 38 Florida State University High 3 2A Trinity Christian Academy 29 Orlando Christian Prep 21 Champagnat Catholic 27 Zephyrhills Christian 8 1A Hawthorne 24 Chipley 6 Madison County 37 Chiefland 0

Game on. Miami Northwestern at Tampa Jesuit Friday night.

Nobody posted the Thanksgiving Day tradition in our home. How can there be Thanksgiving without this?

Teams I follow and other games of interest to me. Regional Championships. 8A Region 1 -- Apopka 28 Sanford Seminole 27 OT 6A Region 3 -- Tampa Jesuit 42 Hillsborough 0 5A Region 3 -- Sebring 13 Clearwater 12 7A Region 3 -- Tampa Bay Tech 42 Wharton 6 4A Region 3 -- Lakewood 21 Clewiston 7 3A Quadrant 3 -- Berkley Prep 36 Clearwater Central Catholic 22

Having posted the above, I do prefer ham over turkey.

My daughter is married into an Italian family. Her mother-in-law fixes lasagna and a big pot of sauce and meatballs. She also makes a big turkey with all the fixings. I put her sauce all over everything. It's become kind of a tradition for me to get the carrots in the sauce every year. Love that stuff.

Hillsborough has improved since the home loss to Jesuit, 28-7, on September 17. However, Jesuit has been playing on a different level. The only team that really challenged them this season was St. Thomas Aquinas, who is playing for the 7A Region 1 title, next week. I am now interested in the Clearwater Central Catholic at Berkley Prep game for the 3A Region 3 Championship. CCC has had an interesting season. Tampa Bay Tech is playing Wharton for the 7A Region 3 title. The winner of that game will have to face the winner of the Homestead/St. Thomas Aquinas game in the State Semis. The Sebring/Clearwater game may be good. Clearwater's only loss this season was to Lakeland in the season opener. They only have one common opponent, Gibbs. Clearwater beat them 46-28 at Gibbs and Sebring won 29-0 at home in Sebring, last night.

Florida teams I follow. 8A Region 1 -- Apopka 34 Bartram Trail 3 8A Region 3 -- Venice 56 Sarasota Riverview 14 6A Region 3 -- Tampa Jesuit 49 Braden River 9 5A Region 3 -- Clearwater 40 Nature Coast Tech 14 Next Friday Regional Finals... 8A Region 1 -- Apopka is at Sanford Seminole 6A Region 3 -- Tampa Jesuit hosts Hillsborough 5A Region 3 -- Clearwater hosts Sebring

Final 34-13.

Final.

I was not at the game, having given my season tickets to my son-in-law. (Long explanation). @Run To State was down here visiting and maybe we could altered our Friday plans to meet up. However, I know it's hard to do. I've messed up several possible meetups with BGP UC fans over the years. Ain't got one right, yet.