School is back in session and high school sports return, not only to the gym (volleyball), pool (swimming) and course (cross country and golf), but also to the gridiron.
All eight Osceola County football teams are in action Friday night in their annual pre-season Kickoff Classics. The games, which do not count toward team records, are a prelude to next week’s regularseason openers.
“For us, it’s basically a dress rehearsal for the regular season,” Osceola Coach Eric Pinellas said, as his team will play at Bishop Moore in Orlando Friday. “If they elect to keep score, we’ll try to win, but we use kickoff games to get ready for every aspect of the regular season. I think at one point we were like 3-17 in spring and kickoff classic games and we made the playoffs in each of those years, so winning these exhibitions have never been a critical point for us.”
Pinellas said he intends to play his starters in the first three quarters, concentrating getting them in and out of the huddle, formations, ushering in plays from the sideline, and other on and off-field preparations.
The third-year head coach says pre-season camp has been going well for the Kowboys and reports few injuries, with lineman Marcus Ferrer’s strained back being the most serious. Osceola opens the regular season next Friday at home against Treasure Coast – two teams that have split four games over the last two seasons with Osceola sweeping a regular season and playoff game in 2022 and Treasure Coast returning the favor last year.
Third-year St. Cloud Coach Mike Short reports all systems are go for his Bulldogs, who have won eight games in each of the last two seasons. He intends to play his starters in the first half, backups in the third quarter and the junior varsity in the fourth quarter when the Bulldogs host new Lake Nona school Innovation. The game was originally scheduled at Innovation but was moved to St. Cloud over concerns that the brand new school’s field would not be ready.
“We spoke to their coaching staff and decided to handle the game that way,” Short said. “Playing the JV kids in the fourth quarter will give them a taste of playing under the lights in front of a big crowd.”
School officials are expecting a big crowd Friday as more than 700 fans attended the school’s campopening Midnight Madness practice two weeks ago. They are asking all fans to create a “White-Out” atmosphere by wearing white clothing to the game.
Harmony will play at The Villages in its pre-season game Friday. Coach Nick Lippert says the first team will see a lot of action.
“We have a lot of first-time starters on both sides of the ball and we need to find out who we can count on and the best way to do that is play them a lot in the pre-season game,” Lippert said. “This game will be a measuring stick so we know where we stand.”
Lippert has praised his senior leadership during pre-season camp, including Ivan Ramos, Chase Adams and Clayton Williams.
Tohopekaliga will get a good look at where they stand when they travel to Timber Creek Friday. The Tigers still have record-setting junior quarterback Sabby Meassick pulling the trigger, but will have a host of new receivers and running backs around him.
Meassick has thrown a county-record 77 touchdowns in his first two seasons and coach Anthony Paradiso believes the best may still be to come for Meassick and the Tigers.
“Sabby is still relatively young but he is the most advanced of any quarterback I have ever seen for his age,” Paradiso said. “Because Sabby knows the playbook inside and out he has had more time this off-season becoming a true team leader and taking ownership of this team.”
Other Kickoff Classics include Celebration at Colonial, Windermere at Gateway, Orlando University at Liberty and Cypress Creek at Poinciana. Start times for all those games are 7 p.m.
Celebration (Chris Blanton) and Poinciana (Taron Mallard) are under new leadership this season and both head coaches have reported positive signs this spring and summer. Although it has few starters returning on either side of the ball, Celebration looked impressive in its spring game. Poinciana, which does lack some depth, does possess some skill receivers and did well in seven-on-seven competitions this summer –including a fifth place finish at the prestigious King of the Beach Tournament in Daytona Beach.
Liberty showed significant improvement under first year coach Dee Hart last season after a winless 2022, winning two games and averaging more than 10 points a game despite having less than 30 players in uniform most Fridays.
Marlin Roberts, the “Dean of Osceola County head football coaches” entering his 17th year as head coach at Gateway, said he felt good about the front-line starters but “staying healthy” would be paramount as the season approaches.
“We have some good athletes, but numbers are once again an issue,” Roberts said. “Staying healthy will be a big-time concern.”
Note: Check out in-depth previews on all eight county team in our High School Preview section in next Thursday’s Osceola News-Gazette.
