The stadium is built, the scoreboard stands at the ready and the artificial turf is secure. All that’s missing at Babcock Ranch is a Friday night football crowd.
Andy Habing’s Trailblazers will open their inaugural 8-man football season on the road, but Week 2’s home opener against Master’s Academy will be a watershed moment in the brief history of the south Charlotte County community.
Nothing says a community has arrived quite like a high school football game, and Babcock has plans to make the weekly endeavor a must-see event with food trucks, music and parades.
The initial nine-game schedule features five home dates wrapped around a pair of bye weeks. The Trailblazers will also field a junior varsity team that will tentatively play a five-game schedule.
Babcock will be competing in the Sunshine State Athletic Association for its first two years. The goal is to move to 11-man football for the next redistricting cycle in 2026, preferably in the FHSAA, but Babcock’s enrollment will dictate that progression.
Here’s a look at what the Trailblazers face this fall:
AUG. 16At Cornerstone Academy: The Trailblazers’ first game will take place on the road in Gainesville against a Cougars team that went 1-8 a year ago. Luke Jernigan made the Cougars go in 2023, leading the team with 242 receiving yards and chipping in an additional 140 rushing yards. Quarterback Chase Otts passed for 799 yards and ran for 306, accounting for 10 touchdowns.
AUG. 23Master’s Academy: One cannot say Babcock pulled its punches for the home opener. The Patriots went 12-1 in 2023, losing 26-22 to Shorecrest Prep in the SSAA’s 4A championship game. On the bright side, Master’s graduated a significant amount of its production, including its top passer, running back and receiver, as well as five of its top six tacklers.
AUG. 30At Foundation: The Valrico-based Falcons won their 2023 season opener and didn’t win again until an opponent forfeited in the opening round of the SSAA’s 1A playoffs. They lost the following week to eventual state champion Liberty Christian. In Foundation’s defense is its youth. Most of the team’s top playmakers were sophomores and if they return in 2024, the Falcons should put up a pretty good fight against the Trailblazers.
SEPT. 6At Lakeside Christian: The Lions put together a 5-6 campaign against a tough schedule in 2023, making this trip to Clearwater a rugged test for the Trailblazers. Lakeside played three of SSAA’s four state champions last year, going 2-1 with wins against 2A champ Canterbury and 1A titleholder Liberty Christian. The Lions potentially could be the most difficult team Babcock faces, since most of its playmakers return from last year’s squad.
SEPT. 13Oasis Christian: Also known as the Lions, this Winter Haven-based pride went 6-5 in 2023, playing better on the road than it did at home. Oasis operates out of a run-first, run-second, run-third offense which amassed nearly 2500 yards and 34 touchdowns. The team was also young enough that only 51 yards of production were lost to graduation. CJ Goldwire will be nightmare fuel if he’s back in 2024 for the Lions. He accounted for 13 sacks as a junior in 2023.
SEPT. 27At Donahue Catholic: The Shamrocks out of Ave Maria went 9-2 in 2023 and stand as a model for what Babcock hopes to build, at least in the short term. Both of Donahue’s losses came against eventual SSAA 4A champion Shorecrest Prep with the second coming in the state semifinals. Take away those two losses and the Shamrocks beat their nine other foes by an average score of 38-4. Leo Cantwell was the fulcrum, leading the team with 1,691 total yards of offense and 26 touchdowns. He combined with fellow juniors Isaiah Laboda and Athanasius Niewald for a whopping 34 sacks. The Shamrocks even return a very good kicker (John McCabe).
OCT. 4SLAM Tampa: Very little went right for the Spartans in 2023. SLAM was shut out five times and gave up 50 or more points six times last season with its lone win coming against a winless opponent.
OCT. 11The Classical Academy: The Sarasota-based Patriots went 5-6 in 2023 against a rollercoaster schedule. They obliterated eventual SSAA 1A champion Liberty Christian 60-6 in their season opener but got smashed, 74-21, late in the year against The Master’s Academy. Generally, the Patriots pounded the bad teams on their schedule but were bludgeoned in kind against the better teams. They only gave up 14 more points than they scored, but lost games by 53, 42 and 41 points before 2A champion Canterbury ended their season in a tense, 19-14 duel. This is another team that was ravaged by graduation.
OCT. 25Geneva Classical: It was a tale of two halves for the Lakeland-based Knights in 2023. Early on, they got their helmets handed to them with five losses in six weeks, getting outscored 275-100 in the process. Things turned around after a 52-6 loss to Donahue, however, and the Knights won four of their next five games to charge into the SSAA 1A state championship game against Liberty Christian. There, they suffered a heartbreaking, 27-26 defeat. As one might infer from that sort of turnaround, the Knights were painfully young in 2023 and return a grand majority of its playmakers this year.
BABCOCK 2024 SCHEDULEAug. 16 at Cornerston
Aug. 23 Master’s Acad.
Aug. 30 at Foundation
Sept. 6 at Lakeside Chrst.
Sept. 13 Oasis Chrst.
Sept. 27 at Donahue Cath.
Oct. 4 SLAM Tampa
Oct. 11 TCAS
Oct. 25 Geneva Class.
Most Popular
Comments / 0