September 5, 2012

Douglas Pugh
FlaVarsity.com

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It feels like the opening weekend of the 2012 regular season was like ordering a piece of fine bovine from The Palm.

There were rare, medium and well-done moments across the peninsula and beyond. I prefer my steak to be mooing when I cut it so rareness is a good, no GREAT thing in my world. Cross-classification matchups, along with some teams doing what truly is rare to them (like winning) is what captured my attention the most.

One of those rare moments was the match-up between Immokalee and Sanford-Seminole; rare in the sense this isn't an annual pairing, but the Indians made sure that my meal was serenaded to the tune of "Strawberry Letter No. 23" by The Brothers Johnson; Tshumbi Johnson and D'Ernest Johnson that is, along with Jacky Marcellus wearing #23 in red against his white uniform.

The three amigos piled their plethora of pi?s into nearly 500 yards and 5TD's on the stat sheet and it could have been worse; for the 'Noles that is.

The Indians are my #1 team in 5A without question; however Naples is ready for them this week and some of those mistakes that cost Immokalee a chance at 60 on the scoreboard last Friday will end up turning their Filet Mignon into a hockey puck against teams with depth in the coming weeks and months.

Monitor your grill temperature fellas. Treat the season like it is slow and low, not hot and fast; it always tastes better.

You want to talk rare? How about so rare that you might as well have the dadgum animal brought to your table then leaves it for you to work with rare?

I've felt it should be like soccer, go 0-10 for consecutive seasons (no matter your class) and go all the way back to 1A and start over so Strawberry Crest? I salute you.

If you have any idea how hard that Head Coach John Kelly and his staff have worked to get things back to an acceptable level, then rethink it and multiply it by one-hundred. Less than a calendar year ago they were getting beat by scores of 80-0, 70-0, and so on.

This past weekend they beat Plant City; the same Plant City that was consistently receiving votes and subsequently ranked in state classification and all-classification polls for the last 2 years.

You can keep your well-done and medium performances. That's for those who put ketchup on their plate; which should be widely considered a culinary criminal misdemeanor.

My number one teams from 1A-8A this week are as follows: Jefferson Co., North Florida Christian, University School, Booker T. Washington, Immokalee, Gainesville, Manatee and Plant. Three best games for someone else's money (not mine of course) will be American Heritage (Plantation) at Bolles, the aforementioned Immokalee at Naples, and Lake City Columbia vs. Gainesville.