A few weeks ago, the Florida High School Athletic Association released the tentative football classification realignment for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years.
Appeals can be sent to the FHSAA Executive Director Justin Harrison until Jan. 18, but if the proposed realignment holds up, all three area football teams will compete in the same class and district for the next two seasons.
The realignment has Plant City, Durant and Strawberry Crest in Class 7A District 8. This would start in the 2013 season and continue through the 2014 season, before another two-year realignment takes place the following spring. This realignment only would be for football, but other reclassifications for other sports should be announced early next year.
This would mark the first time all three area schools would be in the same district for football. Durant and Plant City are currently together in Class 7A District 8, but Strawberry Crest, which opened in 2009 and played in Class 6A last season, would move up. This would mark the fifth and sixth consecutive year Durant and Plant City will be in the same district. They were together in 2009 and 2010 in Class 5A District 6.
If the realignment remains as projected, Brandon and East Bay would remain in Class 7A District 8 to complete the new five-team district. Newsome and Riverview, which played in Class 7A District 8 for the past two seasons, would move to Class 8A District 6.
This realignment will be a great thing for football in the Plant City area, as it creates more natural rivalries.
Strawberry Crest is the newest program in the area after wrapping up its fourth season last fall. The Chargers have played Plant City the last two seasons and came away with a landmark 21-7 win against the Raiders to open the 2012 season.
Strawberry Crest also has played Durant in the past, most recently last year in the spring game.
The realignment would guarantee all three schools play each other at least once per year, with the possibility of playing again in the region playoffs, as with the case of Newsome and Durant this past year.
Although Durant would keep its rivalry with Plant City and begin one with Strawberry Crest, it would lose its annual rivalry with Lithia-based Newsome, unless the match-up can fall in the non-district schedule.
Brandon and East Bay would remain in the same district as Plant City and Durant, keeping those natural rivalries, but Riverview would be following Newsome up a class.
On paper, it looks like all three area programs likely will benefit from this proposal. Although Newsome makes for a good rivalry for Durant, the Wolves were the only real district competition this past season. After all, they handed Durant (11-1) its only loss of the season, and the 28 points scored against the Cougars in the regular season were the most given up by the Durant defense all year.
Plant City, which posted a 4-6 record in a rebuilding year with a young team, also should benefit. The Raiders beat Brandon last season 22-20 and had a close loss to East Bay. As the Raiders mature over the next two seasons, they should be a legitimate contender to take one of two spots available for the playoffs.
But, no team would benefit more than Strawberry Crest. In addition to finally being in a district with natural geographic rivals, the new classification would remove the Chargers from a district anchored by state powers. For the first two seasons, Strawberry Crest played in Class 2A District 5 for its first two seasons, where it had to compete with state-powers Jesuit and Robinson. The past two seasons, the Chargers had the pleasure of sharing Class 6A District 8 against Armwood and Hillsborough and competitive programs in Sickles, Jefferson and King.
The Chargers didn’t play Brandon last season but had wins against both Plant City and East Bay. If this realignment holds up, an improving Strawberry Crest program could be in position to make its first playoff appearance in the next two years.