Schools happy in new football districts
When the district reclassification of schools for the 2009-10 high school football season were released Monday, Cape Coral High and Mariner were among the schools satisfied with their new assignment.
It certainly beat the alternative of a proposed nine-team “Super District,” which would’ve meant more travel and less flexibility in scheduling.
Cape and Ida Baker ended up in District 4A-12 with Barron Collier and Palmetto Ridge. Mariner is in the five-team District 3A-12, which also includes North Fort Myers, Fort Myers, Riverdale and South Fort Myers.
“It turned out pretty decent for us,” Cape athletic director Bob Plageman said. “When it was going to be nine schools it would’ve involved a lot of traveling for us.”
Given the difficult economic times, the larger district would’ve made for more long bus rides.
The new District 2A-6 is an example of the large district format. Lee County schools like Island Coast and Cypress Lake are grouped with a broader field of teams – Sarasota Booker, DeSoto County, Golden Gate, Wauchula Hardee, Immokalee, LaBelle and Bradenton Southeast.
Under that alignment, the schools are limited in how many nondistrict games they can schedule.
Mariner athletic director Vito Mennona said aside from the travel concerns, they preferred the smaller district so they could still play city rivals like Cape Coral, Ida Baker and Island Coast.
“I’d like to keep playing who we’ve been playing,” Mennona said. “This isn’t bad for us. We weren’t thrilled about the super district idea.”
This is the first reclassification in four years. The old format had five Lee County schools – Cape, Mariner, Baker, North and Fort Myers – competing in the District 5A-12.
Similar to the past four years, two teams qualify for the playoffs in 4A-12 and 3A-12.
Schools are assigned to the appropriate classification based on enrollment. There are eight classes ranging from 6A (schools with 2,363 or more students) to 1B (schools with 258 or fewer students).
When finalized, the new assignments will stand for a two-year term.
Island Coast, which participated in varsity football for the first time this past season, moves into district play for the first time, after posting a 3-3 record last season.