Although the spring season has just cranked into high gear for teams across the region and in most cases prepping for different opponents than what they will face come this fall, we mentioned that every county has a collection of staffs that are already having to prepare for the gauntlets they will have to deal with during district competition. As stated before, we thought that once the old “District of Doom” formally known as 6A-8 was dissolved we would finally get a chance to breathe from the weekly stress of watching teams get knocked out of the playoffs as early as week four. Now, let us take a look at which districts from the four counties made the list as “District of Doom” starting with District 7A-9 from Pinellas County.
There is no shortage of quality teams in Pinellas in all of the classifications, but there is no tougher collection of teams that will vie for only two spots in the postseason than this one. The combo of East Lake, Pinellas Park, Countryside and Seminole would be enough reason alone to feel this group is a grind, but the addition of St. Petersburg from Class 8A turns this respected derby prep into a Grade-1 Stakes race with all five teams capable of beating each other on any given night.
The 2-ton elephant in the room is last year’s state semifinalists in Class 7A from East Lake, who finished their season at 13-1 and were the class of the county without question. The Eagles and Head Coach Bob Hudson may have the most number of questions surrounding their program going into the spring throughout the entire county however, so even though they are the “consensus” number-one at this point the lead-pipe lock for dominance and perfection we have been accustomed to these past years is not written in the cards just yet.
Although, for East Lake nowadays 9-10 wins a season is the norm not the exception so even with a postseason appearance we could still see them experience some adjustment issues to life without a succession of generational talent such as they’ve had recently. Still, a 5-1 or perhaps even a 6-0 Eagles team that has found its way by they hit the meat of their district schedule would be a tough task to accomplish for opponents.
Add Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg who were both 8-3 and playoff teams in their own right that are returning playmakers and present issues with their style of play if they post early leads on teams. Then comes Countryside that lost to Pinellas Park by just a 10-6 margin and to East Lake 10-8 that returns legit D-1 prospects on both sides of the ball and a very valuable year of experience under their belts. The real spoilers in this equation could come from Seminole that went 3-7 last season, but lost five of those seven games by 10 points or less with talent returning everywhere and should be considered one of those spoiler-squads that if you don’t prepare for properly could be the reason why you are sitting at home in the postseason.
Non-district games of note:
September 4th
Countryside at Clearwater
St. Petersburg at Lakewood
September 11th
Lake Brantley at East Lake
September 25th
St. Petersburg at Largo
October 9th
Countryside at Largo
November 6th
Sunlake at St. Petersburg
Countryside at Lake Mary
Key district dates:
September 18th
East Lake at St. Petersburg
Seminole at Countryside
October 2nd
St. Petersburg at Seminole
Countryside at Pinellas Park
October 16th
East Lake at Seminole
Pinellas Park at St. Petersburg
October 23rd
Pinellas Park at East Lake
St. Petersburg at Countryside
October 30th
Countryside at East Lake
Seminole at Pinellas Park