Lake Highland has spent several years out of the district playoff picture and struggling to find wins. After a 3-0 start, mattering is part of the process.
Back in the mid-1990s, Lake Highland was a quiet Central Florida power. Or maybe more like a mid-major.
In Class 2A, Lake Highland was often good enough to defeat its peers — small Christian schools like Trinity, Bishop Moore and The First Academy — but not good enough to compete much on a statewide level. It seemed about every year, the Highlanders would have to head to Bushnell and take on South Sumter and would come home losers.
Redistricting and a downturn in participation changed the narrative on Lake Highland. The Highlanders bumped up a classification and relying on two-way players became too much for them to overcome.
Lake Highland went 2-26 the last three years and had become an afterthought. Bishop Moore had surpassed them with more talented teams. Trinity had long since stopped the annual rivalry series. The Highlanders were forced to play schedules that were too tough and lost their advantage in the district — with the trip to the state playoffs that come with it.
This year, Lake Highland is just happy to be relevant.
The Highlanders have started 3-0 with two 50-point performances to their credit. They are rolling and entering a district battle with Class 4A No. 1 Cocoa just happy that the game means something, as coach Cameron Duke told Buddy Collings of the Orlando Sentinel:
Our whole motto is brick by brick. That’s how we’re going to continue to build the program. We want our guys to go out there and play fearlessly. Play carefree. Enjoy the opportunity to play a great football team.
Cocoa is a three-time state champion. Their only loss came to nationally ranked — often No. 1 — IMG Academy. The odds seem long for Lake Highland to pull out a home win this week and continue the torrid scoring pace they have had.
For a program building up, that is not the point. The process still matters more than the results. And the Highlanders are just looking for progress. With the numbers they have put up, it is a very real possibility they could sneak into the state tournament and be one of the biggest surprises in the region.
