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FHSAA releases Northeast Florida's new 2022-23 and 2023-24 high school football districts

clayton freeman, florida times-union
·4 min read

Florida's new world of high school football is here.

The Florida High School Athletic Association released on Wednesday its new district assignments under the Metro-Suburban plan for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.

Among the highlights: A District 2-1M made up of Northwest Jacksonville rivals Raines and Ribault, established Gateway Conference power Riverside and rising Jackson.

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The FHSAA board of directors voted in February to separate metro and suburban counties for high school football, part of a drastic restructuring intended to improve competitive balance. The eight most densely populated counties (Duval, Orange, Seminole, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade) are now classified as Metro, with all others in Suburban. The new system applies only to football, not to any other sports.

The Metro schools are divided into four classes based on enrollment, while Suburban schools are split into four classes in addition to the Rural class.

For the Metro schools, 4M ranges from 2,330 students enrolled to 4,843; 3M, from 1,667 to 2,329; 2M, from 601 to 1,666; and 1M, from 103 to 600. Suburban enrollment boundaries for 4S are 1,896 to 3,226; for 3S, 1,446 to 1,895; for 2S, 601 to 1,445; for 1S, 65 to 600. All Rural schools will have 600 students or fewer.

Playoff qualification will change as well. In 2M, 3M, 4M, 2S, 3S and 4S, district champions will qualify automatically, as well as the next four highest teams in each region based on the FHSAA's ranking system. For 1M and 1S, there will be two at-large qualifiers per region per class. The 1R rural class, meanwhile, continues with little change, qualifying six teams per region based on the rankings.

The new format does not restrict non-district scheduling: A school classified as Metro can continue to schedule a school classified as Suburban, and vice versa. Teams will, however, be required to play all opponents within their district, which has not been the case for smaller schools in recent years.

Schools will be allowed to begin scheduling immediately. However, schools will still have the ability to appeal their district assignments to the FHSAA through March 18. Those appeals, the association said in a release, would be based upon FHSAA Policies 12.2.6 and 12.2.7, which gives the executive director the authority to adjust a school's classification to mitigate geographic isolation within its district.

More storylines of note:

  • Rivals Bishop Kenny, Bolles and Episcopal resume their former series, all lining up together with Wolfson in District 2-2M.

  • Two Gateway Conference schools, Paxon and Stanton, are now listed as independents.

  • District 3-4S shapes up as a big-time clash of Bartram Trail, Gainesville Buchholz, Creekside, Fleming Island and Oakleaf. All except Oakleaf qualified for the FHSAA playoffs last fall.

Full lists for Northeast Florida schools are below.

DISTRICT 1-4M (METRO)

  • Atlantic Coast

  • Mandarin

  • Sandalwood

DISTRICT 1-3M (METRO)

  • Englewood

  • First Coast

  • Fletcher

  • Parker

DISTRICT 1-2M (METRO)

  • Jackson

  • Raines

  • Ribault

  • Riverside

DISTRICT 2-2M (METRO)

  • Bishop Kenny

  • Bolles

  • Episcopal

  • Wolfson

DISTRICT 3-2M (METRO)

  • Baldwin

  • Westside

  • White

DISTRICT 1-1M (METRO)

  • Christ's Church

  • NFEI

  • Providence

  • Trinity Christian

  • University Christian

DISTRICT 3-4S (SUBURBAN)

  • Bartram Trail

  • Gainesville Buchholz

  • Creekside

  • Fleming Island

  • Oakleaf

DISTRICT 4-4S (SUBURBAN)

  • Flagler Palm Coast

  • Matanzas

  • Nease

  • Ponte Vedra

DISTRICT 3-3S (SUBURBAN)

  • Columbia

  • Middleburg

  • Orange Park

  • Ridgeview

DISTRICT 4-3S (SUBURBAN)

  • Clay

  • Gainesville

  • Menendez

  • St. Augustine

DISTRICT 4-2S (SUBURBAN)

  • Suwannee

  • Taylor County

  • Wakulla

DISTRICT 5-2A (SUBURBAN)

  • Baker County

  • Fernandina Beach

  • West Nassau

  • Yulee

DISTRICT 6-2S (SUBURBAN)

  • Bradford

  • Interlachen

  • Keystone Heights

  • Palatka

  • Tocoi Creek

DISTRICT 3-1S (SUBURBAN)

  • P.K. Yonge

  • St. Francis

  • St. Joseph

  • Ocala Trinity Catholic

REGION 3-1R (RURAL)

  • Bell

  • Branford

  • Fort White

  • Hamilton County

  • Hilliard

  • Madison County

  • Mayo Lafayette

  • Union County


INDEPENDENTS

  • Bishop Snyder

  • Cedar Creek Christian

  • Eagle's View

  • Global Outreach Charter

  • Harvest Community

  • Impact Christian

  • Paxon

  • Stanton

Clayton Freeman covers high school sports and more for the Florida Times-Union. Follow him on Twitter at @CFreemanJAX.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Metro, suburban Florida high school football districts in Jacksonville area