Week 18 (Florida)
Normally, my high school football odyssey has ended with the final Texas UIL championship game. However, this year there was a new event taking place the last Saturday of the year.
Earlier this year, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) agreed to allow teams to participate in post-championship 'bowl games' against other states. Also, as part of they deal, they got to host the games. Despite the late start and the October approval, two states did allow their champions to participate. Those being Utah and Washington. Participation was entirely optional, and several teams of high ranking opted not to participate.
This left two games of suitable interest, and the third game, and earliest, simply to help fill the day. Paragon Marketing, an agency utilized by ESPN for high school matchups, created the "State Champions Bowl Series" to be a one-game interstate matchup of state champions. Burger King opted to sponsor it, which created a dueling identity. On twitter, it went exclusively as "Burger King Bowl", while elsewhere it went as "Burger King State Champions Bowl Series". Which was a bit wordy.
The games were scheduled to take place at Florida Atlantic's FAU Stadium in Boca Raton, Florida. Now, the games were scheduled for 12/27 just four days after the inaugural Boca Raton Bowl also being hosted at the same site. Again, ESPN owns the new Boca Raton Bowl, so the piggy-backing by the high school games is rather logical and not rather original.
For me, the trick was to make it from Arlington, Texas on Saturday night to Boca Raton, Florida early enough to catch the 6pm start of the Boca Raton Bowl. I had yet to see a bowl game in my life, and decided now would be the time. Also, it was two smaller schools that I've had an affinity for in the past. Marshall and Northern Illinois. The drive, if direct, would be done easily. But, I planned to drive through the three remaining counties of Alabama I've yet to have visited on the way.
The trip was rather uneventful. The three counties were in sparsely poulated parts of the state. The latter county led me to a toll ferry at Gees Bend. At $4, it was a short cut for those living in the Gees Bend area to town. Definitely a fun part of the trip over.
After cutting through southern Alabama on US84 to Dothan, it was south to Florida and then freeway the rest of the way. Monday night was a stop at Lake City, Florida and a 5 hour drive south on the Florida Turnpike to Boca Raton for the start of the bowl game.
Some things about the game. Tickets were a reasonable $27/each online with 'no fees'. When you get your tickets, though, you see that the tickets are really $20 with $7 in fees. Had I known, I would've just purchased at the box office. Misinformation by the bowl that they had 'sold out' of the pricier tickets at midfield turned out to be false. Also, that 29,000 tickets were issues also seemed entirely unethical. About 10,000 or so were on hand for the game. It was a beautiful night for football, and Marshall won easily, 52-23.
After that, it was to our hotel in Pompano Beach, Florida. My girlfriend's family was spending Christmas in Fort Lauderdale so it was a 'kill two birds with one stone' part of the trip. The 24th and 25th consisted of family time. Though the 26th was entirely open and we made the trip to the Florida Keys. I had been to Key West back in 2007, but my girlfriend had never ventured further south than Miami. Due to our late departure though, we only made it to Marathon before the sky was dark. We stopped for dinner at a place called "Castaways" on the waterfront. Their sushi bowl was great.
After that, it was a drive north back to Pompano Beach. One other hobby than clinching counties is clinching highways. So, both on the 26th and 28th was a drive down and around Miami to travel all the freeways and tollways in the area. However, Friday night it was back to Pompano to rest up for the Burger King State Champions Bowl Series the next day up at FAU Stadium.
Parking was the same price as the bowl game, a hefty $10 tab. Luckily, with the first game crowd drawing flies, parking was in the garage just southwest of the stadium. A nice breeze lasted throughout the day and the skies were overcast much of the time to make it really enjoyable weather.
Tickets were $10 each and the programs were complimentary. So, for two people to attend was a simple $30, or $5/game per person.
Another nice feature was that you were allowed to leave and reenter. However, we didn't go that route. Mostly because we ate prior to the games and were planning on eating once at the stadium. Being able to see the place on Tuesday gave us an idea of how to kill time during halftimes and between games.
For the high school games, the stadium was cordoned off and only the seats between endzone to endzone was open on the 'home side'. The television cameras were positioned in the seating bowl on the away side, giving a better 'crowd' for television down low. Also, the logo at midfield was a simple chalk paint over the Boca Raton Bowl logo at midfield. Green paint was used to cover the conference logos. The endzones simply read "BOCA RATON" in red. The same paint job used for the bowl game.
The stadium itself has a nice setup. Though there's one glaring problem that I can't believe they let into the design. First, when you enter you must climb steps on the home side to reach the mezzanine concourse. From the 40 to the 40, the food court area is open to the field. In front are the lower level seats descending to the field. The upper level from the food court requires you to climb either staircase on the edges of the food court and then double-back to the seating area. This design, though, means the landings before climbing up the seating bowl are obstructing the nearside view of the field if you sit too far low and some seats have horrible obstructions if you're seated to the side of the landing. This has to be a horrible design flaw that could've been elminated.
As for the food court, it's a nice open air setup with several beer vendors (not in use for the games) and other foods such as Dipn'Dots, a barbecue stand, and a stand selling lemonade and pizza. Also, near the front edge of the food court are barstool high counters you can sit at and watch the game. Though, they're exposed to the sun. Further inside was setup many banquet tables with rather flimsy cheap folding chairs. This gave plenty of cool, breezy spaces to wait out for the next game to start or at halftime during the sunny moments.
At the game, the pulled pork sandwiches were well worth the $6 each and the gigantic pretzel was $9. This pretzel should not be attempted by a single person. It comes in a box the size of a medium 10" pizza box, and the pretzel is about 3" thick. It comes with three dipping sauces. It's worth it if you have another person to share with.
Normally, my high school football odyssey has ended with the final Texas UIL championship game. However, this year there was a new event taking place the last Saturday of the year.
Earlier this year, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) agreed to allow teams to participate in post-championship 'bowl games' against other states. Also, as part of they deal, they got to host the games. Despite the late start and the October approval, two states did allow their champions to participate. Those being Utah and Washington. Participation was entirely optional, and several teams of high ranking opted not to participate.
This left two games of suitable interest, and the third game, and earliest, simply to help fill the day. Paragon Marketing, an agency utilized by ESPN for high school matchups, created the "State Champions Bowl Series" to be a one-game interstate matchup of state champions. Burger King opted to sponsor it, which created a dueling identity. On twitter, it went exclusively as "Burger King Bowl", while elsewhere it went as "Burger King State Champions Bowl Series". Which was a bit wordy.
The games were scheduled to take place at Florida Atlantic's FAU Stadium in Boca Raton, Florida. Now, the games were scheduled for 12/27 just four days after the inaugural Boca Raton Bowl also being hosted at the same site. Again, ESPN owns the new Boca Raton Bowl, so the piggy-backing by the high school games is rather logical and not rather original.
For me, the trick was to make it from Arlington, Texas on Saturday night to Boca Raton, Florida early enough to catch the 6pm start of the Boca Raton Bowl. I had yet to see a bowl game in my life, and decided now would be the time. Also, it was two smaller schools that I've had an affinity for in the past. Marshall and Northern Illinois. The drive, if direct, would be done easily. But, I planned to drive through the three remaining counties of Alabama I've yet to have visited on the way.
The trip was rather uneventful. The three counties were in sparsely poulated parts of the state. The latter county led me to a toll ferry at Gees Bend. At $4, it was a short cut for those living in the Gees Bend area to town. Definitely a fun part of the trip over.
After cutting through southern Alabama on US84 to Dothan, it was south to Florida and then freeway the rest of the way. Monday night was a stop at Lake City, Florida and a 5 hour drive south on the Florida Turnpike to Boca Raton for the start of the bowl game.
Some things about the game. Tickets were a reasonable $27/each online with 'no fees'. When you get your tickets, though, you see that the tickets are really $20 with $7 in fees. Had I known, I would've just purchased at the box office. Misinformation by the bowl that they had 'sold out' of the pricier tickets at midfield turned out to be false. Also, that 29,000 tickets were issues also seemed entirely unethical. About 10,000 or so were on hand for the game. It was a beautiful night for football, and Marshall won easily, 52-23.
After that, it was to our hotel in Pompano Beach, Florida. My girlfriend's family was spending Christmas in Fort Lauderdale so it was a 'kill two birds with one stone' part of the trip. The 24th and 25th consisted of family time. Though the 26th was entirely open and we made the trip to the Florida Keys. I had been to Key West back in 2007, but my girlfriend had never ventured further south than Miami. Due to our late departure though, we only made it to Marathon before the sky was dark. We stopped for dinner at a place called "Castaways" on the waterfront. Their sushi bowl was great.
After that, it was a drive north back to Pompano Beach. One other hobby than clinching counties is clinching highways. So, both on the 26th and 28th was a drive down and around Miami to travel all the freeways and tollways in the area. However, Friday night it was back to Pompano to rest up for the Burger King State Champions Bowl Series the next day up at FAU Stadium.
Parking was the same price as the bowl game, a hefty $10 tab. Luckily, with the first game crowd drawing flies, parking was in the garage just southwest of the stadium. A nice breeze lasted throughout the day and the skies were overcast much of the time to make it really enjoyable weather.
Tickets were $10 each and the programs were complimentary. So, for two people to attend was a simple $30, or $5/game per person.
Another nice feature was that you were allowed to leave and reenter. However, we didn't go that route. Mostly because we ate prior to the games and were planning on eating once at the stadium. Being able to see the place on Tuesday gave us an idea of how to kill time during halftimes and between games.
For the high school games, the stadium was cordoned off and only the seats between endzone to endzone was open on the 'home side'. The television cameras were positioned in the seating bowl on the away side, giving a better 'crowd' for television down low. Also, the logo at midfield was a simple chalk paint over the Boca Raton Bowl logo at midfield. Green paint was used to cover the conference logos. The endzones simply read "BOCA RATON" in red. The same paint job used for the bowl game.
The stadium itself has a nice setup. Though there's one glaring problem that I can't believe they let into the design. First, when you enter you must climb steps on the home side to reach the mezzanine concourse. From the 40 to the 40, the food court area is open to the field. In front are the lower level seats descending to the field. The upper level from the food court requires you to climb either staircase on the edges of the food court and then double-back to the seating area. This design, though, means the landings before climbing up the seating bowl are obstructing the nearside view of the field if you sit too far low and some seats have horrible obstructions if you're seated to the side of the landing. This has to be a horrible design flaw that could've been elminated.
As for the food court, it's a nice open air setup with several beer vendors (not in use for the games) and other foods such as Dipn'Dots, a barbecue stand, and a stand selling lemonade and pizza. Also, near the front edge of the food court are barstool high counters you can sit at and watch the game. Though, they're exposed to the sun. Further inside was setup many banquet tables with rather flimsy cheap folding chairs. This gave plenty of cool, breezy spaces to wait out for the next game to start or at halftime during the sunny moments.
At the game, the pulled pork sandwiches were well worth the $6 each and the gigantic pretzel was $9. This pretzel should not be attempted by a single person. It comes in a box the size of a medium 10" pizza box, and the pretzel is about 3" thick. It comes with three dipping sauces. It's worth it if you have another person to share with.
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