On Wednesday, 30 teams assembled at the Alachua County Sports & Events Center at Celebration Pointe in Gainesville for the 2024 North Central Florida High School Football Media Day.
Donning their school colors, high school football teams got a chance to promote their upcoming seasons to members of the media.
“It’s a great event,” said Bradford coach Jamie Rodgers, who led the Tornadoes to a 14-1 record and a Class 2S state runner-up finish last season. “It’s a good opportunity for kids to get behind the microphone and get out and meet some media members that kind of follow them all year long that normally they wouldn’t get to and it’s kind of the kickoff to the season.”
The high school football season officially gets underway in less than two weeks. The first allowable practice date (non-contact) is on Monday, July 29.
“For me, it feels like it’s day one even though we’ve been lifting and training all summer,” Rodgers said. “When you get to these events, and you start seeing the other teams in the jerseys and answering the questions from everybody, it’s kind of like the kickoff to the season for us so the excitement gets ramped up.”
From 8-man to 11-man football, the area was well represented, including nine schools from Alachua County.
First-year head coaches who attended included Jason Wells of Santa Fe (Alachua), interim coach Randy Brower (Oak Hall School), Ric Whittington of Dixie County (Cross City), Shawn Holmes (Bronson), and Jeremiaha Gates of North Marion (Citra).
“It’s exciting, I mean it’s a great opportunity,” Wells said. “When you start to pull back the layers of what the ceiling is up north, it may be the best job in the county. It’s exciting. The fan base is fired up, the school is fired up. The boys have bought in, and we’ve just got to do a good job. At the end of the day games don’t win themselves, they win it because you’re more disciplined, they win it because you’re dialed in, they win it because you’ve put the work in.”
Some coaches are back after leaving their respective schools.
Mark Whittemore is back for his second stint at Buchholz this year, while Chiefland’s Adam Gore returns for the third time to coach the Indians (2017-2018 and 2021).
Last year, Demetric Jackson returned to Fort White for the second time (16th year overall) and Brian Allen is back for his second year at Columbia (Lake City), marking his 12th year.
From tall quarterbacks (Newberry’s Collin Dunmore is 6’5 and GHS’ Nelson Tambling is 6’4) to short signal callers (Dixie County’s Jaheim Taylor is 5’6), Media Day offered an opportunity to get a good eye test before the pads are put on.
But looks can also be deceiving.
Santa Fe sophomore quarterback Jadathon Bryant (5’7, 155) just squatted 345 pounds.
“I’ve just been working my tail off,” said Bryant, who is making the transition from playing JV at Buchholz last year to the Raiders’ varsity team in 2024. “I’ve been continuing to get better. I’ve been working out with the bigger boys, so like linebackers, everybody, so I just switched my group and I continue to get better.”
The first game of the regular season for the Sunshine State Athletic Conference (SSAA) is Aug. 16 (kickoff classic is Aug. 9).
For FHSAA member schools, the first game of the regular season is Aug. 23 with kickoff classics on Aug. 16.
The talking is done.
Now, it’s time to put on the pads.
“I think overall the event was great,” said founder and publisher Joshua Wilson of FloridaHSFootball.com, who organized the event. “The teams enjoyed themselves and got exposed to a variety of media, including getting up on stage for the live broadcast. Plus having Big Hits Live doing the hype videos and taking team photos as well. I’m looking forward to growing this event and already looking ahead to 2025 and having it even bigger next year.”
