It’s elite 8 time in the Best of the Best Tournament and we’ve had some upsets! You can’t simply advance a team for their championships when their playing against some of the best teams ever assembled! Although the matchups are getting really tough, and round three is even tougher. Check out some of the teams that advance to the elite 8! We’ll be announcing the final four Friday afternoon at 6pm on our DuvalSports Kickoff Show streamed live on our website, youtube, and facebook at the Grave Yard! The championship participants and winner will be named Tuesday night 8pm from Gator’s Dockside Baymeadows during our first weekly DuvalSports Show! Come on out and discuss the entire Best of the Best tournament with us!
Now lets get to the action. The debate has been in high gear across all the social media platforms. The fans of football on the first coast feel very passionate about their teams and their football, but alas there can only be one winner.
1993 Bolles vs 1992 Orange Park
Orange Park
We were a blue collar lunch pail kind of team a few stars on both sides of the ball but a true team effort. We had the best secondary in the state, nobody could throw on us, ask Andre Cooper and Jeremy Hyatt. We had to battle Tyrone Baker (Buchholz), Reinard Wilson (Columbia), Yatill Green (Columbia), Dante Culpepper (Vanguard), Kenton Rickerson (St. Augustine), many others. Our schedule was tough with Sandalwood, Godby, Buchholz (district), at Columbia (district), St Augustine (district), Lake Weir (district), Middleburg (district), Vanguard, Palatka and Fletcher. Then beat Niceville and Mainland in playoffs before coming one quarter from playing for a state title with loss to state power Bradenton Manatee (multiple state titles). No. 1 I’m state for half season and got as high as 15 in USA Today. Over three years went 8-2 (no playoffs), 9-1 (no playoffs) and 12-1 (Final 4). That’s 29-4 in 3 years when only one team went from each district went to the playoffs. Yes Trinity may had more 4-5 stars than us, heck we didnt have a star system back then, but nobody could run on us.
Bolles
Try to stop them on offense and you literally have to pick your poison they say. It started at center with All-American Jon Spicklemier (Notre Dame), quarterback Kendal Francis (Tulane), fullback William McCray (FSU), tailback Matt Deorio (Duke), tailback Michael Grant (UCF), wingback Robert Pollard (Nebraska) and wide out Dez White (Georgia Tech). The offense scored 515 points in 15 games (34.3 ppg), scoring 30 or more 10 of the 15 games, including the state championship game. The defense was stingy giving up 11.9 ppg while giving up 7 points or less in 6 of the 15 games. They dared you to kick or punt the ball to the most dangerous kick returner in the state freshman Robert Pollard and if a team did they were usually punished with a return for a touchdown. The road to the perfect season and another state title in the postseason went through Bolles with wins over Lee (42-6), Suwannee (35-7), South Sumter (34-19), at defending state champion Santa Fe (21-19) and Lake Wales (42-21) in the championship game.
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