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New Districts Bring Change To Playoffs

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By DAREK SHARP

dsharp@tampatrib.com

Published: March 11, 2009

PLANT CITY - When the finalized new districts for basketball, volleyball and soccer were released recently there didn't seem to be much news affecting Plant City and Durant.

And that indeed will be the case - unless the Raiders and Cougars make the playoffs in any of those sports.

Reclassification that goes into place next school year has Plant City and Durant shifting into a new region within Class 5A. Instead of landing in a Hillsborough/Pinellas dominated region, the schools find themselves paired up with teams to the east and some to the north.

When the original changes were announced by the Florida High School Athletics Association in February, Plant City and Durant were put in Class 5A-District 9 along with Armwood, East Bay, Newsome, Tampa Bay Tech and Freedom. The latter school was the only one not in east Hillsborough County but did not constitute too great of a travel hassle.

But Freedom wanted to move out, and the solution proved to be easy. Last week Riverview, which was at first put in District 5A-10 along with schools such as Chamberlain, Gaither and Hillsborough, simply swapped districts with Freedom.

That part is easy to digest. Plant City, Durant, Armwood, East Bay, Newsome, Riverview and Tampa Bay Tech make for a centralized new District 5A-8.

But that puts the Raiders and Cougars in Region 2 instead of Region 3. Since teams who make the playoffs have to advance out of their own region first before competing for a state title, the quality of the region's teams often dictate the chances for success.

And those other regional squads constitute a whole different playoff outlook for the Raiders and Cougars.

Now the Plant City schools are grouped with foes mostly from Polk County but also from Orange and Hernando. There are no schools from Hillsborough in the region, outside of the ones in 5A-8.

Most curious is the new District 5A-7, which has only three schools in it. They are all way to the north: Brooksville Central, Springstead and West Port out of Ocala.

Those are the three schools that Plant City and Durant would pair up with in the first round of the playoffs.

Outside of that shocking bit of news - that a first playoff game might involve a haul to Ocala - the rest of the new region is different but not as unsettling. The teams in 5A-5 and 6 would only become an opponent in the region final. Most of those schools are in Polk County including Lakeland, Kathleen, Auburndale and Bartow, but there is one Orlando school (Evans) and three from Kissimmee.

How this affects Plant City and Durant varies by the sport. For basketball, Polk County teams such as Kathleen, Bartow, Winter Haven and Haines City (all in Region 5A-2) are strong, and Evans happens to be a powerhouse.
Springstead and West Port went to the 4A regional final in boys basketball this year.

For soccer, Auburndale has evolved into a dominant boys team, but otherwise the season should prove easier to navigate. And in volleyball the outlook is a lot better for Durant and Plant City.

Later on this year softball and baseball will learn their new districts, which will likely be similar if not identical.

Announcement of the finalized basketball, volleyball and soccer districts was were revealed March 3. All of the new districts can be viewed at www.fhsaa.org.

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