| Summary: Comparing and contrasting some of the Winning Percentages from schools in Hillsborough County against others from around the State of Florida and the USA. |
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They say in research that often one thing leads to another, which leads to another, and so on. This is one of those moments. Frequently statistics are manipulated and spun to fit agendas of Sports Information Departments or to appease or incense rabid fan bases. I ran across the Won/Loss Records of some of the Nation’s prominent High School programs, which got me thinking about some of our local programs and how they looked as compared to others around the state. The stats were based on a minimum of 100 games played. Here’s what I found. For the years of 2000-2009 (10 seasons), I was able to come up with some pretty interesting information. The top 5 teams were a combined record of 455-154 for a success rate of 75%. It should come as no surprise that Armwood is the leader in the clubhouse with a record of 114-21 (84%) and 2 State Championships. The 2nd place finisher is none other than Coach Earl Garcia and his Hillsborough Terriers with a 85-29 record (75%). The Terriers were also responsible for ending national power Lakeland’s Season in ’01 & ’03. (Hillsborough County teams alone ended the Dreadnaughts season four times.) Coming in third, is the newly crowned 3A State Champions Jefferson Dragons with a record of 94-34. The Dragons won 73% of their games and finished runners-up two additional times in their 3 Finals Appearances during the decade. Jesuit finishes 4th on this list with a record of 82-30 at a clip of 73%. The Tigers were 34-5 in the first three years of the decade under current Berkeley Prep HC Dominic Ciao, but had seen some lean years under Joe Ross. James Harrell took Jesuit to their 1st undefeated season in School History this past season, so they are looking to start another decade off like the previous. Fifth on the list is the Plant Panthers. They totaled a record of 80-40, but that doesn’t begin to tell the story. The previous 5 seasons have seen the South Tampa program rack up an astounding 63-7 record along with 3 State Championships in two different classes. This rivals Armwood’s production over the same time period of 62-8. Plant has brought home more hardware during that period though. How does this stack up around the State of Florida and the US? Well the standard bearers are most likely Bolles (Jacksonville) at 124-12, as well as the Defending State 5A Champions and runners-up for the Mythical National Championship St. Thomas Aquinas. They’ve managed to compile a 127-14 record against competition from all over the country. The aforementioned Lakeland team has put up an equally impressive 119-13 record, and has played a similar non-district schedule to that of Aquinas over the years. Some other programs of national significance: |