Osceola County's football programs will be spread among three Suburban division districts, with at least one independent team.
When the FHSAA approved a new football playoff system Feb. 28, they warned football coaches and athletic directors that actual district re-alignment would take four to six weeks to figure out. But the organization released the new alignment last week, just nine days after making the Metro/Suburban announcement.
Schools have this week to appeal or seek a district change, and final districts are scheduled to be announced by the end of the month.
Although there were no major surprises, reaction from local coaches was mixed, with the new alignments that will be in effect for the next two seasons.
Celebration, St. Cloud, Tohopekaliga, and Osceola are now scheduled to form the new Class 4S (Suburban) District 10. Kowboys coach Eric Pinellas said the four-team district caught him a little off guard.
“I really though Harmony would be in our district instead of St. Cloud and I thought Haines City would also be with us to form a five-team district,” Pinellas said. “It has left me scrambling to find more non-conference games.”
Osceola (9-3 in 2021) moves from one of state’s toughest districts that included Dr. Phillips, West Orange and Olympia to a district in which they beat all of their upcoming district opponents last year by a combined score of 172-6.
“A district championship does you no good if you go into regionals as a four-seed,” Pinellas said of the state power rankings that seed playoff regions. “We understand that if we want more than one home game, we need to beef up our strength of schedule. It is something we always tried to do anyways as you want your kids to be battle tested going into the post-season.”
Pinellas said OHS was negotiating non-district games with 2020 state champion Sanford Seminole, Treasure Coast (10-2), and state power Lakeland (9-2).
Celebration coach Rich Pringle, who led the Storm to just their second winning season in school history while changing the culture of the program in one year, said he was opposed to the Metro/Suburban split from the beginning but was pleased with his new district.
“To be in the same district with three other county schools is good. I believe we can be competitive with St. Cloud and Tohopekaliga and frankly if we had converted our three red zone opportunities against Osceola we would have been leading them at the half,” Pringle said.
New Tohopekaliga coach Anthony Paradiso said he was in favor of the new split plan and says he is excited to be in the district with three county opponents.
“It does no good to worry about things you can’t control like district alignment. I am excited that we are going to be able to compete with Osceola and it also gives us two other in-county opponents which helps make travel easier,” he said. “From a scheduling standpoint I would have preferred a five-team district, but other than that we’re pleased this change was made and I do think it will make for a fairer playoff system.”
Former St. Cloud coach Bryan Smart says the announcement saw his lone concern come true. “In terms of enrollment, I knew we would be border line between ‘3S’ and ‘4S’ classification and unfortunately we ended up in the bigger class,” Smart said. “But honestly it still works out pretty good. We get to play three county schools we probably would have scheduled anyways. Now they are just district games, which will make it more fun for the players and fans.”
Liberty – which played as independent last year – said it would petition to rejoin a district this year. “The key for us is we would be a ‘3S’ school and if they place us in the right district, we believe we can be competitive,” Head Coach Brett Munroe said. “The ideal district in my mind would be 3S-8 with Gateway but they already have five teams. That would create some scheduling issues for everyone so we’ll just wait to see how this plays out.”
Gateway is scheduled to play in that 3S-District 8 with Auburndale (9-1), Lake Wales (9-3), Lake Region and Davenport, similar to what the Panthers competed in last year.
“No matter what, I can’t seem to get away from Lake Wales and Auburndale,” Gateway coach Marlin Roberts joked about those two winning programs. “I heard Liberty wanted back in and that would be good for both our schools to be in the same district.”
Harmony sees one major change in its district, as the Longhorns have both Viera and Melbourne remain in the Longhorn’s district but East River is being replaced by Palm Bay.
“From the beginning I was not in favor of the split into Metro/Suburban and they certainly did not do us any favors sticking us where they did,” Longhorns Coach Don Simon said. “There was an opportunity to put us in the same district with four other county schools which would have made scheduling and travel a lot easier.”
Simon said Harmony won’t appeal, as leaving would create a three-team district the FHSAA likely won’t allow.
Poinciana will remain an independent. “This way we can make a schedule where we have a chance of success,” Coach Randy Beeken said.
New Suburban Districts:
4S-10: Celebration, Osceola, St. Cloud, Tohopekaliga
4S-11: Harmony, Melbourne, Palm Bay, Viera
3S-8: Gateway, Auburndale, Davenport, Lake Region, Lake Wales
