New football districts announced; who's your favorite team in with?

FHSAA returns to Class 1A-7A and Rural; scraps Metro and Suburban

  • When Osceola and St. Cloud line up for the 101st time next year, they'll be in District 6A-5 with Viera, Melbourne and Freedom. PHOTO/KATIE WILLIAMS
    When Osceola and St. Cloud line up for the 101st time next year, they'll be in District 6A-5 with Viera, Melbourne and Freedom. PHOTO/KATIE WILLIAMS
  • Harmony and Tohopekaliga are slated to be district foes next year in 7A-10, with Celebration, Cypress Creek and Lake Nona. PHOTO/KATIE WILLIAMS
    Harmony and Tohopekaliga are slated to be district foes next year in 7A-10, with Celebration, Cypress Creek and Lake Nona. PHOTO/KATIE WILLIAMS

    The Florida High School Athletic Association presented football coaches and school athletic directors with a Christmas present – the new football district assignments for the 2024 and ’25 seasons.

    The FHSAA scrapped its Metro/Suburban model, which grouped school in the state’s seven most populated counties, after two years. It’s returned to a traditional population-based model with Class 1A-7A and a 32-team Rural classification.

    Of Osceola County’s eight schools, five will be in districts, while Poinciana, Liberty and Gateway will play as independents. Independents cannot qualify for the FHSAA playoffs but can play in a postseason bowl game if they have five wins by Week 10. The move provides flexibility in scheduling teams similar to them competitively. This will be Poinciana’s third season in a row as an independent.

    The other five teams are spread across two districts in two classes. Celebration, Harmony and Tohopkeliga will be in Class 7A, District 10 with Cypress Creek and Lake Nona from Orange County. Celebration and Tohopekaliga were district mates under the Metro/Suburban plan, while Harmony was stuck in a Brevard County district.

    Count Harmony Coach Nick Lippert a big fan of the new district, and a return to a single structure.

    “I think it is awesome travel wise and makes sense,” he said. “I also like it based on where we are currently as a program.”

    With a game against St. Cloud now not a district game and able to be played in the season finale (“It’s on the calendar already”), Harmony now has games with the four schools closest to them, along with another county opponent.

    Speaking of the Bulldogs, they are in Class 6A District 5 with Osceola, Freedom, Viera and Melbourne.

    Osceola Coach Eric Pinellas called it “manageable,” but said scheduling will still be challenging.

    “I wish we had bigger districts so scheduling would be easier,” he said. “Other county teams tell me they aren’t ready to play a team like us, others are willing to see us in the Kickoff Classic. I don’t have a problem scheduling a Classic.”

    St. Cloud and Tohokepaliga’s Mike Short and Anthony Paradiso both say they’ll lineup “and play whoever they schedule us.”

    “I’m a little shocked the FHSAA went back a few cycles to an old format, instead of how to make the Metro and Suburban plan better,” Short said.

    “We focus on what we can control and getting better each day,” Paradiso said. “We are going to do what we do no matter what district we are in.”

    As part of this change in districts, the FHSAA Board of Directors considered a plan to take the top eight teams across the state in its computer rankings into an “Open Class” championship tournament; it was tabled for the purposes of getting districts out to allow coaches to complete football schedules, and still isn’t officially in the works for the 2024 season.