Our quest for finding the toughest routes to the postseason continues as we highlight Polk County’s District 7A-7. The group is only four teams in size, but the weight class is purely heavyweight. Lakeland, Winter Haven, Bartow and Kathleen are the squads that will fight it out on the field for the right to play the winner and runners-up of District 7A-8 that features Plant, Sickles and Gaither among others.
There’s the obvious 2-ton elephant in the room with Lakeland as the team to beat, but with Winter Haven added to this district things got a little more interesting. The Blue Devils’ only loss in the regular season came courtesy of the Dreadnaughts, but Winter Haven is vastly improved this season. The remaining teams Kathleen and Bartow played heart-stopping contests last season that saw the Yellow Jackets win 25-24 during the regular season and then Bartow beating Kathleen and Haines City in a Monday tiebreaker following week ten to earn their first round match-up with Kissimmee Osceola.
Bartow gets to start the regular season ironically against the same squad that ended their season from up the road in Osceola County. They also get to start the season with a new coach after going 5-6 last season, but return quite a bit of their core group. We already have documented what Lakeland and Winter Haven will bring to the table, but Kathleen is still going to bring stiff competition to the fold regardless of what their record is. All of these teams by virtue of only needing to schedule three district games have the ability to test themselves every week however. Both Winter Haven and Bartow will play the 7A runners-up from Osceola and other schools like Viera, South Fork and Tallahassee-Leon can be found on Kathleen’s schedule, Bishop Moore is on Bartow’s. Meanwhile Ed White, Carol City, Fort Lauderdale and Blanche Ely will all be opponents of Lakeland.
Bartow will host Sebring in their Spring game, while Kathleen faces Lake Region on May 29th. Lakeland is now off to face Manatee and Venice for two quarters each in a jamboree and Winter Haven hits the road against Haines City.
District Games:
October 2nd
Lakeland at Bartow
Winter Haven at Kathleen
October 16th
Kathleen at Bartow
Winter Haven at Lakeland
October 30th
Bartow at Winter Haven
Kathleen at Lakeland