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romegajacket

Helluva Engineer
Joined
May 14, 2003
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Looking over the 2008 GT roster I noticed that we have:
31-Freshman
21-RS Freshman
10-Sophmore
21-RS Sophmore
5-Juniors
13-RS Juniors
6-Seniors
14-RS Seniors
Totals out to be 121

States represented:
AL-9
AZ-1
CA-1
CO-1
FL-16
GA-70
IL-1
LA-2
MD-3
NC-1
NJ-1
OH-3
PA-3
SC-5
TX-4

What jumps at me is that we have 16 from FL, but only 9 from AL.
We have 5 from SC, but only 1 from NC.
We have 70 from GA, but none from Tennessee.
We have 2 from LA, but none from MS.
Looks like we have a pretty good bush shaker in Florida since we have 16 from there. Surprises me that we get 16 from FL and they have so many strong IA teams to go to.
Florida must be a gold mine of HS athletes.
HEY RM 2, what are you feeding those guys down there other than a lot of sunshine?
 
Florida is and always has been a high school football goldmine. The fact that there's no winter, and as such there is year round practice and conditioning, means there's tons of talent.
 
Allen Koholic said:
Florida is and always has been a high school football goldmine. The fact that there's no winter, and as such there is year round practice and conditioning, means there's tons of talent.
Click to expand...

I think you have a point with the "no winter" thing, but more importantly IMHO:

1) Florida has the largest population in the SE U.S.
2) Football is the most important sport in Florida by far (except baseball maybe at the southern tip near Cuba), so every kid is expected to play.
3) Bloodlines (good athletic gene pools)
 
Florida is just a huge football state. There are 3 premier D1A programs in the state and a couple of up and comers, not to mention three pro franchises. The sport just holds such a fascination there. Kids really turn out for the game, and the population guarantees lots of good prospects. Baseball is probably the next big one. It's just about as huge.
 
romegajacket said:
What jumps at me is that we have 16 from FL, but only 9 from AL.
Click to expand...
I look at that the opposite way. Florida has such a higher population than Alabama, I'm actually surprised that the difference isn't more. A better comparison for Alabama would be South Carolina since they are on either side of our state and are similar in population. That we have 9 from Alabama and only 5 from SC is somewhat surprising to me.
 
The breakdown by state makes perfect sense to me.

Florida is one of the top 3 states in the country in talent along with Texas and California. Georgia is probably 4th.

Mississippi rarely turns out athletes with both athletics and academics....probably the worst state in the country at education.

Tennessee historically has not turned out many athletes. Univ. of Tenn has always had to recruit nationally. Same with North Carolina....although Carolina is getting better. Also remember you have to battle 4 in-state schools when you trip there.

Regarding football being king in Florida. I have lived in Florida for 8+ years now after 32 years in Georgia. I would have to give baseball the nod in Florida...and football the nod in Georgia...in terms of what youth are obscessed with playing.
 
romegajacket said:
States represented:

FL-16

What jumps at me is that we have 16 from FL.

Looks like we have a pretty good bush shaker in Florida since we have 16 from there. Surprises me that we get 16 from FL and they have so many strong IA teams to go to.
Florida must be a gold mine of HS athletes.
HEY RM 2, what are you feeding those guys down there other than a lot of sunshine?
Click to expand...

Afternoon Rome!!!

Florida is definately a hot bed for talent down here as we all know. Having coached in both states my opinion, for what it's worth, is that the talent is about equal but Florida just has a lot more numbers than Georgia due to the population factor.

I remember when I moved to Florida all the coaches I knew in Georgia would ask what the big difference was and I would tell them the same thing. It basically comes down to numbers. The best team in Georgia can play the best team in Florida and it would be a heck of a game. Once you get past about the top 40-60 players is where the disparity would begin. There are just so many more kids down here to choose from. You may have to go deeper than 60 but not much more than that.

The other big difference to me is the passion of the fan bases. High school football is much, much, much bigger in Georgia. In Florida, once you get past the traditional powers of the Lakeland's, Bartow's, St. Thomas Aquinas' Pahokees and so on.... the passion falls off quickly.

One example, in the small community in which I live, the football team won a state championship in 1997. They had all of the playoff games at home and not one time was the stadium filled to capacity. There were decent size crowds, but nothing compared to what I have witnessed in Georgia. I would bet that the state final that year between Chiefland and Lafayette Mayo drew a bigger crowd than the previous 4 home playoff games at Chiefland.
 
One advantage the state of Ga has is the number of DI schools (only 2). If all high school athletes were academically elgible, we could split with Ugag and never skip a beat. I think in the next five years, CPJ will have a fence around the state for the qualifiers.
 
hiveredtech said:
Regarding football being king in Florida. I have lived in Florida for 8+ years now after 32 years in Georgia. I would have to give baseball the nod in Florida...and football the nod in Georgia...in terms of what youth are obscessed with playing.
Click to expand...
I would whole heartedly agree with this statement. But add what Mover#2 said, in that people in Georgia care much more about high school football.
 
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