Spring high school football: Recruiting, coaching changes, lead Volusia-Flagler things to watch
High school football's second season — or first, based on the Gregorian calendar — has arrived.
Monday marks the first allowable date, from the Florida High School Athletic Association, for non-contact football practices across the state. It will be hard to top the excitement of this past fall when the Volusia-Flagler area sent eight teams to the playoffs, including one state semifinalist and one eventual champion.
Difficult, but not impossible.
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To prepare for upcoming spring camps, here is a quick primer featuring three pressing questions involving the area's 16 squads.
Who are Volusia-Flagler's top college football recruits for 2025?
It is certainly an important time for high school coaches to set the standards ahead of the upcoming fall season. However, the next month is a critical period of evaluation for college football hopefuls as recruiters roam freely to meet with prospects during the school day, at practices and during jamborees and spring games.
And there is no shortage of talent around Daytona Beach, particularly along the defensive line.
Flagler Palm Coast's Colby Cronk already locked in a verbal commitment with N.C. State. Spruce Creek's Derry Norris has visits lined up with Georgia Tech, Minnesota and Miami, and Mainland's Christian Hudson will tour UCF, Iowa State, Maryland, Iowa and West Virginia in June. All three players cracked The News-Journal's Volusia-Flagler All-Area team as juniors.
Spruce Creek's 1,000-yard receiver Tony Kinsler is being heavily pursued by Indiana, Pittsburgh and West Virginia, among others, and safety Kamron Chamble has pulled in eight offers, headlined by Iowa State. University's Jermane Hayes is attracting interest on both sides of the ball, booking an official visit to Marshall and adding offers from Ball State, Vanderbilt and Wofford last month.
Who are the new coaches within the Daytona Beach area?
Of the 16 local schools that offer football, six will have new head coaches for the 2024 season — most notably reigning state champion Mainland.
Jerrime "Squatty" Bell jumps on board with the Buccaneers after a three-year run at neighboring Atlantic. Bell takes over following the departure of his first cousin, Travis Roland, to Camden County in Kingsland, Ga.
He will be succeeded at Atlantic by former Deltona offensive coordinator Tombe Thomas.
Seabreeze tapped DeLand defensive coordinator Mike Klein to helm its program in the area's most recent coaching move. He'll go head-to-head in district competition with Greg Miller, the new head man at Pine Ridge.
Finally, two of the area's private schools are under new leadership. Allen Johnson returns for a second spell at Trinity Christian, where he previously coached for nine seasons. Lawrence Garner II inherits the Halifax job after the Knights qualified for the FHSAA playoffs last fall.
What does the schedule of spring games and jamborees look like?
Spring football season usually culminates with an exhibition game or jamboree, and those events will run until the final week of May. Higher-profile matchups often draw a crowd of college recruiters along the sidelines.
Mainland recently joined a three-team May 22 jamboree with Spruce Creek and Gainesville Eastside, with local offseason bragging rights potentially on the line. That same night, DeLand — fresh off its first Final Four appearance since 2009 but set to endure significant losses via graduation — will battle with Edgewater and Osceola, anchored by UCF running back commit Taevion Swint.
The only one-on-one encounter between local squads will feature Pine Ridge and Flagler Palm Coast on May 23. Chris Boddie and Marcus Mitchell, two of the area's leading rushers in 2023, figure to be the focal points of their respective offenses once again.
Volusia-Flagler area high school football spring game schedule
May 15
Bayside at Atlantic, 7
May 17
Titusville at University, 7
Trinity Christian, Trinity Prep at Taylor, 7
May 22
DeLand, Edgewater at Osceola, 6
Eastside, Mainland at Spruce Creek, 6
May 23
Fleming Island at Seabreeze, 6*
Deltona at Astronaut, 7
Pine Ridge at Flagler Palm Coast, 7
May 24
Crescent City, North Florida Educational Institute at New Smyrna Beach, 6
Father Lopez at Space Coast, 7
* Ormond Beach Sports Complex
# Matanzas is playing intersquad scrimmage May 17
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: High school football: 3 spring questions for Daytona Beach area teams
