Baker School’s football team plays two district games this fall.
That means coach Matt Brunson had to find eight non-district games for his Class 1A squad.
So who did he schedule? A bunch of Class 1A teams.
Teams that aren’t in Baker’s district, but easily could be; games against similarly sized opponents that don’t really matter, but should.
Why can’t the Florida High School Athletic Association figure this out?
Why can’t the FHSAA find a way to fix its broken district alignment system, especially in Class 1A?
Why does Baker — and its District 1 companions, Jay and Northview — have to find eight non-district games to fill its schedule with longer road trips and more headaches?
Hats off to coach Brunson and the Baker Gators, who repeatedly get the short stick on the district realignment.
Baker’s schedule should look like this: district games against Freeport, Holmes County, Jay, Northview, South Walton and Vernon. Those are the six closest.
Now that’s an intriguing district.
And look, that’s more than half the schedule filled with meaningful, playoff-implicating football games!
Then Baker can plug in five non-district games against out-of-classification teams — such as Walton and Rocky Bayou, which Brunson scheduled, and maybe a combination of Pensacola Catholic, Marianna and Rutherford.
Instead, with the way the FHSAA set it up — with a greater number of smaller districts rather than fewer larger ones — Baker is left scrambling, trying to find eight games that don’t really mean anything.
And the Gators have to travel all the way to Liberty County and Blountstown — farther than some would-be mandatory district opponents — because some coaches might not want their teams playing (and getting mercy-ruled by) a powerhouse that has won 20 of its past 21 regular-season games.
But hey, it’s the Panhandle. So who cares, right? That appears to be the FHSAA’s mentality.
Devin Golden is a sports writer for the Northwest Florida Daily News. Email him at dgolden@nwfdailynews.com.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: GOLDEN: District realignment shorts Baker