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Coral Springs, FL— The youth football season is off to a great start. Several teams began official action this past week and many national championship contenders are already staking their claims to be ranked No. 1. Let’s take a coast to coast look at where the teams we’re following this season are stacking up. If you think you should be apart of the conversation, email us and let us know at info@footballhotbed.com.
Southeast
In Florida, the Pembroke Pines Bengals (PPO) 12U is considered to be a national power this year because of the immense amount of talent they have. They opened the season with a 62-0 thumping of fellow American Youth Football League member, Coral Springs. The simple fact that the team was able to put up that many points with a running clock being initiated after they reached 28 points is incredible. This is truly a team that deserves to be watched closely. Their fellow league members the Miramar Wolverines, who bested this same PPO team last year at 11U won 19-0 over Davie (FL) to open their season.
This weekend finally surrendered a touchdown, but raced back to score 58 unanswered points. They have now scored 62,39 and 58 points in the first three weeks of their 2015 season. Wow!
On September 14th during a Monday Night League Showcase, Miramar and PPO will square off in a national spotlighted game. However the game has lost some of its luster as Miramar’s star, Keyshawn Brown, is out several games because of an injury.
In Georgia, the Atlanta Ducks 10u is getting a lot of pre-season buzz. They are fresh off a 12-0 victory over North Henry in the Centennial Bowl Pre-season tournament and are said by ‘Born 2 Compete’ to be the team that is “too much for any team in the state to handle.” Time will tell as the North Henry Tigers are fresh off a road trip taking 2-1 games over South Florida opponents in two days of action.
This past weekend the Ducks drubbed the Atlanta Tigers 42-0 in Georgia Division 1 youth football play. This team is looking very formidable and angling to play the Miami Gardens Ravens ‘Goon Squad’ in the near future to determine who is the nation’s best at the age group.
Meanwhile, the 10U race in the metro Atlanta area promises to be an intriguing one.
East Coast
The Maryland Seahawks and head coach Jarvis Thomas continue to breeze through the early part of the season unscathed. Thomas has the unenviable task of forming a great team from nearly scratch each season as most of his players play for him once and then move on to play high school football. This year, he won the Deon Sanders ‘Truth’ pre-season tournament and is looking to come to Miami again this year to redeem himself against the Carol City Chiefs 14U team and head coach Buddy Bailey and Rich Jospire. For now, his regional tour of teams continues as his next stop is New Jersey this Sunday to take on the Winslow Maullers.
West
The 12U Inland Empire Ducks are off to a fast start and are expected to be the No. 1 team in the country when Football Hotbed releases its national rankings on September 21st. They traveled successfully to Las Vegas and conqured the Henderson Cowboys in the Battle of the West. Then they opened up last week against San Degio AYF foe Eastlake and thumped them 40-0. This past weekend they played Los Toros at Mt. Miguel High in Spring Valley, CA and beat them to the tune of a 46-6
Midwest
The Michigan Bulldogs 12U in the AYF is the team that we have spotlighted. After their national championship run last year at 11U, they appear to be poised to do big things again this year. They begin their season this Saturday playing the Detroit Jr. Wolverines hoping to return to Florida to defend their AYF National Championship.
Michigan Bulldogs
Southwest
The 7th grade Katy Sun Devil OL
The Katy Sundevils 7th grade team is the team we’ve chosen to follow closely from this region. They are an incredible talent that were on full display in the Football University National Championship tournament playing for team Houston in 2014. This year, they won’t sneak up on anyone. Tight end and utility lineman, Hayden Conner is one of the nation’s best 7th graders around. Take a look of their incredible line below. They are all 12-13 year olds, if you can believe that.
