Can Palm Beach County go the distance? 4 takeaways from the 2022 football playoff brackets
The Florida High School Athletic Association released its state championship brackets early Sunday, ending a weekend spent in anxious agony for Palm Beach County football teams waiting to see if they'll get the chance to suit up as playoffs begin Friday.
15 area teams find themselves 0-0 once again this season: Atlantic, Benjamin, Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Cardinal Newman, Dwyer, Inlet Grove, Jupiter, King's, Pahokee, Palm Beach Central, Palm Beach Gardens, Saint Andrew's, Santaluces and Wellington.
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Below, find where local squads fall in the brackets, when they hit the field and four things to take away as we move along on a hopeful drive to December.
Back for battle
10 area teams – Atlantic, Benjamin, Boca, Boynton, Newman, Pahokee, Central, Gardens, St. Andrew's and Welly – have forged their way back into playoff contention.
District title wins automatically advance Atlantic, Boynton, Newman, Central and Gardens, while Benjamin, Boca, St. Andrew's and Wellington make it into the postseason by way of at-large bids.
Benjamin's strength of schedule, 6.99, is the strongest in Class 1M after a 7.54 for Jacksonville's University Christian and a 7.45-rated schedule for Carrollwood Day, which left no question as to whether the Bucs would be back in spite of barely escaping the season with a winning record.
6-4 regular season finishes aside, some may wonder how Boca and Wellington made the cut for 4M while facing weaker opponents than the majority of other teams belonging to the state's most cutthroat classification.
The answer is simple: Region 3.
In 2021, Central, Gardens and Wellington were forced to play northern teams as members of Region 2. The Broncos ran to region finals before elimination by Treasure Coast, who knocked out the Gators in region quarterfinals and Boone in region semis after the Orlando crew took out Wellington.
Postseason disaster was looming in Region 4 last fall. Boca knew it'd be burdened with Broward and Miami-Dade schools. As anticipated, Deerfield Beach ushered out the Bobcats in the first-round.
This season, Central, Gardens, Wellington and Boca can all be found in Region 3.
For reference, 4M Region 3's greatest strength of schedule – 5.56 – belongs to Palm Beach Lakes, which went 0-10, including five 4M-Region 3 teams, and didn't score a touchdown until meeting Jupiter in Week 8.
The weakness pandemic stunting the growth of Palm Beach's big schools could also explain how a 5-5 Jupiter is still standing.
St. Andrew's benefits from a new class and region as well, transitioning from Class 3A Region 4 to Class 2M Region 3. Not only did the Scots outrun Cardinal Newman, they skirted Chaminade-Madonna, both teams now belonging to 1M.
Who's in and who's out
Five new teams took the place of five Palm Beach programs who failed to return to the postseason.
Handing over their tickets to Dwyer, Inlet Grove, Jupiter and district champs King's and Santaluces, the offseason starts early for American Heritage-Delray, Forest Hill, Glades Central, Glades Day and Seminole Ridge.
Out of the 10 mentioned above, Glades Day is the only program to return its head coach from the 2021 season, Zach Threlkheld.
Having lost their quarterback to graduation and best athlete Jenorris Wilcher to Pahokee, on top of not having much depth to begin with, we knew it'd be a tough year for the Gators of the Muck, especially going from Class 2A to Class 1R.
Similarly, I think we knew the fall of Glades Central was imminent, which even muddled in controversy still finished 2021 with a 6-6 run to region semifinals under then-head coach Rashad Jackson, who's now taking Inlet Grove to its first FHSAA postseason appearance since 2012.
Considering Glades Day's last two playoff runs ended at the hands of Champagnat Catholic, it's not a surprise former coach Hector Clavijo III is leading Santaluces into the playoff, regardless that the Chiefs went 1-8 in 2021.
Can Palm Beach go the distance?
Believe it or not, cutting the former 'A' classification system, which offered four more classes than the newly implemented metro-suburban system, didn't reduce the number of local teams returning to the playoff.
It seems like the controversial change, dare I say, helped? But, in true Palm Beach County fashion, the metro-suburban reclassification helps until it doesn't.
Its new membership in Class 2M Region 3 positions a battle-tested St. Andrew's nicely to outlast Calvary Christian in quarterfinals, but with 2021 4A state champion Cardinal Gibbons now in 2M and the clear favorite to reach semifinals over Pine Crest, that's probably where the season ends for St. Andrew's.
If not, the Scots would certainly fall to Class 5A-turned-2M American Heritage-Plantation in region finals. The Hurricanes are set to be the powerhouse's first victims of the postseason. Then Boynton Beach after a likely quarterfinal victory against King's, an especially bitter pill for the Lions after being snubbed out of playoffs last fall despite hanging 20 unanswered points on returning contender St. Andrew's in the regular season.
Alternatively, teams like Cardinal Newman and Atlantic will still run into the same bosses that halted their state championship hopes in 2021.
Should they post their second win of 2022 over Benjamin, the Crusaders are still tasked with Chaminade-Madonna for the Class 1M championship.
If Atlantic makes it by Plantation in round one, which it should, the Eagles will have to face Saint Thomas Aquinas again. Last year, STA took the Eagles out 43-7.
The FHSAA's top-secret RPI system, which seems to favor better records over strength of schedule made clear by 3M Region 3, is what's hampering Atlantic.
Five-seed Plantation touts a 7-3 record with four-seed Atlantic, but its schedule strength is three points weaker.
Heritage's quarterfinal opponent, eight-seed Coconut Creek, is 6-4 through a 3.44-rated schedule. A 6-4 Fort Lauderdale High with a 4.25-rated schedule is positioned at No. 7, set to face appropriately two-seeded Dillard.
Blanche Ely is the problem here.
The Tigers have gone undefeated – against a docket of opponents rated 0.81. That earned them the No. 3 spot and a quarterfinal appearance against six-seed Dwyer, a gritty favorite for the upset.
Dillard would've been the young Eagles' hardest assignment yet. However, the Panthers would definitely be the preferred second round competitor compared to 13-time, reigning state champion St. Thomas Aquinas.
The last unicorn
I guess Gardens was right. The Broncos are unicorns.
Not because they're soft. Because they'll be a rarity in Palm Beach County as the only team taking home Final Four honors this season.
To clarify, if the FHSAA hadn't shafted Pahokee to two-seed over an undefeated, although comparatively untested Hawthorne, and the Blue Devils had the homefield advantage, I think we'd have two.
Despite crumbling to Hawthorne 51-12 in region finals last fall, the Blue Devils are so good this year we still might, but with so many returning seniors for Broncos, another deep run was virtually guaranteed for Central.
Now that teams like Vero Beach and Treasure Coast are no longer roadblocks – and Central's already proven it can handle likely region final opposition Gardens with a 35-14 regular season win – there's little stopping the Broncos from boarding the bus for DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale in December.
Making it to the title matchup is contingent on if Central can topple top-seed Columbus or two-seed Western.
That being said, Broncos nation, let's ride.
Playoff schedule
Local competitors in Classes 1R and 1M's first playoff appearances will be for region semifinals on November 18. Classes 2M-4M will start quarterfinal competition on November 11.
Official kickoff times for all matchups are still to be determined.
Class 1R Region 4
No. 3 Chiefland (6-2) / No. 6 Newberry (6-2) at No. 2 Pahokee (8-2)
Class 1M Region 3
No. 3 Benjamin (5-4) at No. 2 Cardinal Newman (10-0)
Class 2M Region 3
No. 8 Inlet Grove (7-2) at No. 1 American Heritage-Plantation (9-1)
No. 5 King's Academy (8-2) at No. 4 Boynton Beach (8-2)
No. 6 St. Andrew's (7-3) at No. 3 Calvary Christian (8-2)
Class 3M Region 3
No. 5 Plantation (7-3) at No. 4 Atlantic (7-3)
No. 6 Dwyer (7-3) at No. 3 Blanche Ely (8-0)
Class 4M Region 3
No. 8 Jupiter (5-5) at No. 1 Palm Beach Central (9-1)
No. 5 Stoneman Douglas (7-3) at No. 4 Santaluces (8-2)
No. 7 Boca Raton (6-4) at No. 2 Monarch (8-2)
No. 6 Wellington (6-4) at No. 3 Palm Beach Gardens (7-3)
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County high school playoffs: 4 takeaways from 2022 brackets
