Palm Beach County

[Brains]

You know it, man.

Orlando. Not the South. Too urbanized

Tampa. Not the South. Too urbanized

Bradenton/Sarasota, Ft. Myers, Naples. None of 'em the South. Too generic. We used to call it Bradentucky growing up, but I have no idea why (perception I guess).

Port Orange (Too boring)/NSB (Nice, but too boring), Titusville (Too boring), Melbourne (Too generic), Vero (Too boring), Port St. Lucie (Too generic) . Again, not the South.

BUT .... The Muck -- Pahokee and Belle Glade, on to Clewiston, little ol' Moore Haven and throw Immokalee in there, too.

Now there, my friends, most definitely is The South. For sure.

 

[Hold My Beer]

Wow, what a topic. I think I basically agree with you.

Without getting into too much detail, my thought is that once an area becomes excessively urbanized (or suburbanized), it loses a larger "regional" identity and then either becomes 1) generic; or 2) develops a localized culture instead. I'd argue much of South Florida has a localized culture, distinct from the state, the South, or even the United States at large. It's highly unusual.

Even in South Florida, "below 595" you'll notice a difference from above it, and "Down South" (def below 152nd street) in Dade you'll notice a change again as you get further from the City of Miami.

I find Southwest Florida to be more "generic" than South Florida, although some will disagree.

The City of Orlando I don't find particularly "Southern," although many of the suburbs I do find retain that character. I'd say something similar re: Tampa, but Seffner and Plant City feel like the South to me. Again, though, it all goes back to what I think about urbanization in general.

Now, when people start saying that an area is "too Catholic" or "too Latin" to be the South, I think that's a weird argument. I definitely don't believe you have to be an Evangelical.

This is basically what happens after a century of non-stop housing development, immigration, internal migration. The only constant is change.

It's easy to get off on a ton of tangents, so I'll try to not write a book, lol.

Really good post.

I'm not gonna give Tampa or Orlando any credit for being Southern, mostly because, well, I just don't want to ...

Jokes aside, though, no doubt some of the historic black communites in both South and Central Florida have a much more Southern vibe (with SoFla's Island flava mix that makes it unique) than do, say, mostly white communities filled with transplants from elsewhere in the U.S. or predominantly Cuban and Cuban-American communities.

Makes perfect sense because the vast majority of African-Americans have direct family ties to the South unlike many folks who came from Europe, settled in the Northeast or Midwest and whose descendants stayed put.

 

[stoopid311]

Before moving up the coaching ranks, Shannon actually coached the middle school kids at St. Marks for a year and worked with my mom. Pretty amazing for a dude with one eye.

Louis Graham was huge. Lakes always had a good basketball team.

Jackie couldn't shoot. His offensive game was not developed at all.

I wanted to go to Newman, but my parents were like "save that money for college, dip****."

Exactly. Limited offensively. But made a decent enough college career out of being a lock down defender at UNC. Demetrius Hodges couldn't shoot either. That's where I came in lol

 

[Brains]

Exactly. Limited offensively. But made a decent enough college career out of being a lock down defender at UNC. Demetrius Hodges couldn't shoot either. That's where I came in lol

Not sure if you had the pleasure of footballing with my former coworkers Bobby Gregory (aka lil Bob or RG3) and Kristian Bie as well. Both were 03 I believe.

 

[stoopid311]

Not sure if you had the pleasure of footballing with my former coworkers Bobby Gregory (aka lil Bob or RG3) and Kristian Bie as well. Both were 03 I believe.

Names don't sound familiar but I graduated Newman in 2001 and only played basketball. I'll have to break out the old yearbook after work today.

 

[LuCane]

You know it, man.

Orlando. Not the South.

Tampa. Not the South.

Bradenton/Sarasota, Ft. Myers, Naples. None of 'em the South.

Port Orange/NSB, Titusville, Melbourne, Vero, Port St. Lucie. Again, not the South.

BUT .... The Muck -- Pahokee and Belle Glade, on to Clewiston, little ol' Moore Haven and throw Immokalee in there, too.

Now there, my friends, most definitely is The South.

Some years ago, in the process of getting a fishing and hunting license, went to get my Hunter Safety Certification in Labelle. If that's not the South, I dunno.

 

[Hold My Beer]

Some years ago, in the process of getting a fishing and hunting license, went to get my Hunter Safety Certification in Labelle. If that's not the South, I dunno.

Lake Okeechobee is like a countrified part of North Florida or South Georgia or Mississippi randomly plopped down between WPB and Fort Myers

 

[HOLISTIC CANE]

I live in Plantation now but grew up in West Palm Beach and went to high school in Riviera Beach. I have not followed recruiting in the area closely in a long time.

However, @RattlerCane305's post above is correct, and I will add a few things here.

Coach Daniels can't be replaced at Dwyer, end of story. Riviera Beach has an INSANE concentration of good players, but just by virtue of district boundaries, they are divided between D Block, Suncoast, Gardens, and Lakes. In a given year, you will also see 3-4 Riviera Beach kids on the roster at Newman and a couple at Benjamin (Newman is a Catholic school and Benjamin is non-parochial private).

Transfer culture has long been common in Palm Beach County. It used to be common for kids from further east to transfer to GC (Damien Berry, Jessie Hester Jr, several RPB kids). There have been far fewer transfers to GC in recent years, and far more transfers out. I don't know if that's an issue of the coaches, but it sure as **** didn't happen in the late 90s, 00s, and early 2010s under Snead, Bueno, Hester, and Blackmon.

Oxbridge, a relatively new private school (Travis Homer), folded its program in recent years amidst allegations of misconduct, but is now restarting again. That could be interesting.

Palm Beach County has always been divided territory in terms of recruiting. Miami has never owned it, but neither have FSU or UF. I don't see that changing. that's also part of the reason you don't know the payers as well.

All of this being said, I don't think that the culture of the area puts as much emphasis on high school football as in the past (I graduated high school in 05, for reference). There may be others who disagree with this sentiment.

@Liberty City El is also familiar with the Riviera Beach area in particular and maybe can shed some additional detail/light on what I am saying.

Excuse me for my ignorance, but is that where South Plantation High School is?

 

[BrandCanes]

Broward County

 

[Brains]

Excuse me for my ignorance, but is that where South Plantation High School is?

South is in the SE part of Plantation and Plantation High is in the NE part.

 

[DMoney]

Broward County

Yep. This is the new talent hub of college football. And Dade will push even more people out as it gets more expensive.

 

[San Amaro Dr]

Excuse me for my ignorance, but is that where South Plantation High School is?

Yes. You can see the school from the turnpike just south of 595.

 

[HOLISTIC CANE]

South is in the SE part of Plantation and Plantation High is in the NE part.

Okay thanks. I asked because I played against a guy in high school that attended South Plantation High School that went to Notre Dame that year. Scott Paddock was his name. Not sure if that's the correct spelling for his last name.

 

[HOLISTIC CANE]

Yes. You can see the school from the turnpike just south of 595.

I played against Scott Paddock in high school and he ended up accepting a scholarship at Notre Dame.

 

[mirasuegui]

Just off the top of my head,

Miami: Micanor Regis, Santonio Thomas, Kenny Berry, Damien Berry, Travis Benjamin;

Florida State: Kelvin Benjamin, Jesse Hester, Anquan Boldin, Antone Smith;

Ohio State: Santonio Holmes and Albert Dukes;

Brad Banks (Iowa), Alphonso Smith (Wake Forest), Nu'Keese Richardson (Tennessee), Cre'Von LeBlanc (FAU), Will Likely (Maryland), Rickey Jackson (Pitt). And of course there are more, like Andrew Waters, who went to smaller schools.

I'm no scouring the internet for any more names, as I'm not interested in an argument. You're wrong and that's it.

Santonio Holmes was one of Coach Cokers major mistake: kid was begging to come

 

[Brains]

Okay thanks. I asked because I played against a guy in high school that attended South Plantation High School that went to Notre Dame that year. Scott Paddock was his name. Not sure if that's the correct spelling for his last name.

For sure, I want to say he was mid-to-late 80s, like class of 86 or 87

 

[gogeta4]

South County does lean more heavily toward the Canes.

The Palm Beach Post used to have a great Sports section in the 1990s and early 200s, but that gradually trailed off. They had a dedicated beat for all of the big 3, and an expansive saturday morning section on the high schools. The had a weekly high school top 10, and had a chart with recruiting commit updates from the area. They also did a Super 11 at the end of the year.

All that started to change in the mid-00s with the decline of print format.

Also, the far northern part of Palm Beach County is where I'd say the culture typically associated with South Florida starts to end, although this is very subjective.

Palm Beach Post covg of high chol football is infinitely better than what takes place in dade or broward.

 

[supacane]

prime example. They have a RB there too at the Benjamin school. Think we offered