High School Football Provides Fans a Sneak Preview

It's football season - almost.

The official games begin next week - Monday for Lakeland and Friday for everyone else - but fans who can't wait to watch high school football finally get that chance tonight in the 15 Kickoff Classics and one jamboree.

The most noteworthy game is at Lake Gibson, where the Braves play host to Seffner Armwood. The two teams met twice this decade in back-to-back years in the Class 4A state title game with Armwood winning both times. They are now in separate classifications but remain state powers. Armwood is the defending 4A state champion, while Lake Gibson finished in the top 10 last year despite failing to make the playoffs.

With a new season upon us, let's take a look at what is new:

There are two new teams playing football, Tenoroc in Lakeland and Vanguard in Lake Wales.

There are six new head coaches, including Dave Robson at Tenoroc and Rich Vester at Vanguard. The others are Pat Dooley at GeorgeJenkins, Charles Graves at Auburndale, Peter Barber at Haines City, Bobby Dan McGlohorn at Lakeland Christian, and Jim Wright at All Saints.

Five Polk teams will play an 11-game regular season. This exception to the 10-game rule was allowed so that Tenoroc could fill out its schedule. The teams are Lake Region, Mulberry, Lake Wales, Winter Haven and Frostproof.

The regular season will start on Labor Day with Lakeland playing Pittsburgh Central Catholic in the Friends of Coal Prep Classic in Wheeling, W.Va.

And here are the following players who will be the new stars ...

Of course that last item remains to be determined, but they're out there. Twenty-four of the 28 players who made first team All County in football last year were seniors, as were 17 of the 28 players on second team.

The first peak on who those new stars might be will be tonight.

[ Roy Fuoco can be reached at roy.fuoco@theledger.com or 863-802-7549. ]