While this district may not have an abundance of household names, it does have plenty of athletic, tough and talented kids that go all out for their respective programs each week. Because there have been some coaching shakeup at two of the programs in this set, many people think that the door is wide open for a new team to jump into the mix.
Miami Belen Jesuit Wolverines
2016 Record: 7-4 (2016 District champion)
Coach: Eddie Delgado (1st year)
2017 Outlook: For the first time in a very long time, Rich Stuart won’t be leading Belen Jesuit onto the field as its head coach. For 34 years, Stuart led the Wolverines – easily making him the longest tenured head coach in South Florida.
This past March, Stuart stepped down as head football coach and took on the new role of Belen’s associate athletic director – in charge of middle school athletics. Regarded as one of South Florida’s top coaches, Stuart’s resume includes a Miami-Dade County best 224 wins in his career.
Taking over for Stuart is longtime Belen assistant coach and defensive coordinator Eddie Delgado. Delgado, a Belen alumnus, worked under Stuart for 26 years.
With Delgado at the helm, Belen enters the 2017 season in a good position.
The Wolverines had become synonymous with the Wing-T offense because of Stuart. He employed the run-heavy offense almost his whole career, and the team will continue to use some of it moving forward but will also use other offensive schemes.
Delgado has even gone so far as to say that the team will employ a “spread” offensive attack this season.
Whatever offense Belen runs, it has a superstar in the making in 2020 running back Don Chaney Jr. Chaney burst onto the scene during his freshman season and proved right away that he is one of the best ball carriers in Miami-Dade County – no matter how many have heard of him or not.
He already holds offers from Miami, South Carolina, Syracuse and Boston College and should be Belen’s offensive centerpiece for the foreseeable future. Chaney’s usage rate could skyrocket in 2017 because the team’s next three leading rushers – who accounted for 1,186 yards and 11 touchdowns combined – all graduated.
The transfer of offensive lineman Antonio Serrano (now at Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas) hurts, but junior Stefano Pinto and 6-foot-4, 280-pound sophomore Frank Paredes will pick up the slack.
It’ll be up to senior quarterback Santiago Venegas to show he’s ready to shoulder the signal caller responsibilities and take advantage of the throwing lanes that will open up when teams start to key on Chaney.
The Wolverines defense will be relying on a good core of upperclassmen. Senior safeties Gabriel Estrada and Gabriel Aparicio know exactly what Coach Delgado wants from his defense and will be tone setters for the rest of the unit.
Belen’s secret weapon is senior kicker Javan Rice. Rice is a polished kicker with a strong leg, which means opposing teams will be starting most of their drives from their 20-yard line and that the Wolverines have three points in their pocket as soon as they get inside the other team’s 35-yard line.
Miami G. Holmes Braddock Bulldogs
2016 Record: 3-7
Coach: Juan Torres
2017 Outlook: Braddock enters the 2017 season hoping to wipe away a lot of what happened the year before.
In the Bulldogs’ seven losses this past season, they were shutout five times and scored just six points in each of the other two contests.
If Braddock’s offense is to be better in 2017, it’ll be on the arm of sophomore quarterback Anthony Cordovi. Cordovi went through his share of lumps and bumps while playing starting in his freshman season and should be much better for wear moving forward.
Cordovi’s top weapon could be senior wide receiver Santana Moss Jr. The son of former University of Miami and Washington Redskins receiver Santana Moss, the younger Moss contributed as both a receiver and running back in 2016 and should be counted on even more in 2017.
Braddock’s defense will once again be in the hands of outside linebacker Jason Reese. Reese, a state qualifier in track and field, will be looking to use his speed off the edge to make plays in the backfield.
It’ll be up to head coach Juan Torres to find other players that can step up and develop ways to put them in position to be successful for this program.
Miami Coral Reef Barracudas
2016 Record: 3-7
Coach: Joseph Petisco
2017 Outlook: Head coach Joseph Petisco’s message to his team has been “loyalty”.
Believe it or not, Coral Reef has been one of those programs that have fallen victim to “transfer season” over the past couple of years. Especially over a five-year stretch where the Barracudas had four different head coaches.
But as Petisco enters his second season, he’s trying to lay a football foundation that the program will be able to stand on as he tries to recreate the success he had at Miami Sunset High.
Coral Reef is optimistic heading into this season because of its offensive line.
6-foot-3, 315-pound senior Jaylaan Williams, who is committed to Howard University, is a four-year Barracuda with plenty of game experience. The same can be said for seniors Adrian Bichara and Brian Shaw.
Running backs Cameron McGahee and Johnny Simon hope to take advantage of the big O-Line in front of them while the offense waits for a new quarterback leader to emerge.
Size up front could be a problem for the Barracudas defense – unless they plan to play some of its offensive linemen on defense – but they do leaders in the secondary with safeties Christopher Perez and Matthew Riverasoto along with cornerbacks Dajon Clark and D’Andre Felton.
Miami Ferguson Falcons
2016 Record: 3-6
Coach: Gene Chew
2017 Outlook: While Ferguson’s 2016 record had double the amount of losses than it had wins, if you looked deeper at Falcons you saw a team that was competitive in just about every game.
When a team loses but is competitive along the way, it sometimes means that the team is young and has a lot of players learning “on the job”. That was the case for the Falcons – a lot of youth in key places meant the team was still learning how to win games.
2017 could be the year that Ferguson could turn the table in some of those games because it’ll have a nucleus that returns with the experience of 2016 and the maturation of a busy offseason.
The Falcons welcome the return of a team-leading offensive triumvirate. Quarterback Bailey Aleman, running back Leandro Pozo and receiver Ivan Ramirez all were statistical leaders at their respective positions and all will be senior leaders for head coach Gene Chew this season.
Aleman has the chance to be the team’s outright leader. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound quarterback has garnered the attention of a few colleges and could capture the eyes of a few more with a solid campaign in 2017.
The question mark will be Ferguson’s defense. The unit doesn’t have much size beyond 6-foot-2, 245-pound defensive lineman Sebastian Garcia; making sound technique, “gang tackling” and opportunistic playmaking keys for their success.
Southwest Miami Eagles
2016 Record: 7-3 (2016 District runner-up)
Coach: Don March (1st year)
2017 Outlook: Southwest begins its rebuild in 2017.
It may not be a “from scratch” rebuild, but there are many holes need to be filled – and some of them will take some time.
The first order of business was to replace coach Tim Neal, who took the head coaching job at Coral Gables High. Neal represented some of Southwest’s best times as a football program. In his eight years, Neal had a 50-26 record, won two district titles and took the team to the playoffs six times.
Enter Don March. The coach tabbed as Neal’s replacement, March is a Southwest alum (1997) and has deep family roots in the Eagles’ athletic history. March’s experience includes two seasons as athletic director and head football coach at Palm Glades Prep.
March must work to restock the cupboards, though.
Besides the handful of athletes lost due to graduation – like dual-threat quarterback J.J. Jaramillo – the team lost two big pieces in Te’Cory Tutson and Andre Stringfield, both of whom transferred to Coral Gables.
Tutson led the Eagles in both receiving and rushing this past season while Stringfield, a 2020 standout, is considered one of the top young prospects in Miami-Dade since he came up from the youth level – where he was a phenom.
One of the players that March will be counting on to fill a lot of roles is senior Willie Carter. The 5-foot-10, 180-pound Carter was a third-team All-County selection this past season and accounted for six total touchdowns while playing in all three phases of the game.
Junior lineman Ian Castellanos had a bit of growth spurt and is now up to 6-foot-2, 235 pounds while junior Tyler Pena is hoping to shine this season as the team’s new starting quarterback.
Also look for Deondre Henry, who came over from Palm Glades Prep, to carve out his own niche Southwest this season.
The Eagles defense isn’t a finished product yet, but could have a potential gem in junior Nicholas Serrano. The converted offensive lineman has flashed the ability to make plays in the backfield as a standup linebacker and could have a productive 2017 season.
Miami Varela Vipers
2016 Record: 1-8
Coach: Chris Mollinedo
2017 Outlook: After winning its first game in 2016, the proverbial wheels came off of Varela’s bus the rest of the way. Not only did the Vipers lose their next eight games, they were shutout in six of those contests.
Head coach Carlos Mollinedo, who is entering his sixth season at the helm, to put a foot in the ground and begin to turn things around for the program.
It will help that quarterback Kevin Medina returns in 2017. Medina started for the Vipers as a freshman this past season and endured the lean times. His return marks one of the first steps the Vipers can take to producing more than seven touchdowns this coming season.
There will be a bit of a youth movement across the entire offense. Freshman running back Sebastian Rodriguez should see a significant number of carries this season while freshman Byron Gutierrez will be one of starting offensive linemen.
Leadership can come from junior receiver Julio Abbate, who was second on the team in receiving yards this past season.
The Vipers’ defense will have upperclassmen leadership – in the form of senior linebacker Alejandro Hernandez, junior defensive lineman Alejandro Abreu and junior defensive end Daniel Fory.
Bald Prediction
Belen will be the “top dog” in this district again. Keep in mind that the Wolverines outscored district opponents 162-40 this past season – with 27 points coming against Southwest.
With the Eagles, who had been in a 1-2 battle with Belen for the past couple of seasons, going into a rebuild following the departure of Tim Neal and a handful of players, I think the Wolverines will go largely uncontested on the way to the district title – again.
I think Ferguson can jump up into the mix for second place in the district – especially if Bailey Aleman has the kind of year coaches are expecting from him.
Southwest falls down a spot and finishes No. 3 while Coral Reef takes fourth and Varela will bring up the rear in fifth.
This district will be watched closely by its neighbors to the north (District 14-8A) and the south (District 16-8A) because a lack of a second playoff qualifier from this group would mean that an extra spot opens up for a potential third playoff team from one of those other districts.
Predicted Champion: Belen Jesuit
Predicted Playoff Team(s): None
Bold Prediction
Two-for-one deal here.
First, I think that region 4-8A will be one that sees three teams from one district all make the postseason. And this district is the lynchpin of that theory.
Beyond predicted district champion Belen Jesuit getting the automatic playoff berth, this district’s other teams may struggle to accumulate the points necessary to get on the playoff bracket – which would open the door for a third team from either district 14-8A or district 16-8A.
The second one may not be as bold, but I am calling for Belen’s Don Chaney to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark this season. He got just over halfway there in 2016, but I know he has the potential and the skill set to achieve that mark.
District MVP
Don Chaney Jr. is the runaway favorite to be the district’s MVP.
As I boldly predicted above, I think he’ll crack the 1,000-yard mark this season and further cement himself as one of the top players in South Florida – regardless of classification.
Chaney’s ability to make big plays for the Wolverines – either as a running back or kick returner – will be the trump card that Belen will be able to throw down most weeks and come out on top.
Even though Belen has historically split carries amongst a multitude of backs with its Wing-T offense, I think it would be smart to give Chaney the lion’s share of the carries moving forward.
Top Players
Adrian Bichara – Coral Reef
Adrian Diaz – Braddock
Alan Goergeon – Ferguson
Alejandro Abreu – Varela
Alejandro Hernandez – Varela
Alexander Blanco – Belen Jesuit
Andrew Palacios – Varela
Anthony Cordovi – Braddock
Bailey Aleman – Ferguson
Bobby Lacasa – Belen Jesuit
Branden Castaneda – Braddock
Christopher Perez – Coral Reef
D’Andre Felton – Coral Reef
Dajon Clark – Coral Reef
Daniel Esteban – Belen Jesuit
Deondre Henry – Southwest
Don Chaney Jr. – Belen Jesuit
Francisco Aguero – Belen Jesuit
Frank Paredes – Belen Jesuit
Gabriel Aparicio – Belen Jesuit
Gabriel Estrada – Belen Jesuit
Helmis Alvarez – Braddock
Ian Castellanos – Southwest
Ivan Ramirez – Ferguson
Jason Reese – Braddock
Javan Rice – Belen Jesuit
Jaylaan Williams – Coral Reef
Joey Plasencia – Belen Jesuit
Johnny Simon – Coral Reef
Jordan Worley – Southwest
Joshua Napoles – Braddock
Kevin Medina – Varela
Leandro Pozo – Ferguson
Matthew Riverasoto – Coral Reef
Michael Maldonado – Southwest
Nicholas Serrano – Southwest
Nick Arza – Ferguson
Oscar Hernandez – Ferguson
Robert Martinez – Belen Jesuit
Santana Moss Jr. – Braddock
Santiago Venegas – Belen Jesuit
Sebastian Garcia – Ferguson
Sebastian Rodriguez – Varela
Stefano Pinto – Belen Jesuit
Steven Stallings – Braddock
Willie Carter – Southwest
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