By Jim Halley, USA TODAY High School Sports
USA TODAY High School Sports is a partner of High School Football America
There are only eight returning teams.
RELATED: Preseason Super 25 football rankings
The top team is St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale), which won the 7A state title and had more than twice as many current alumni in the NFL at the start of last season (15) as every Conference USA college and all but two Florida universities.
See more high school sports coverage from our partner USA TODAY High School Sports
“We’re grateful for the preseason ranking recognition,” St. Thomas Aquinas coach Roger Harriott said. “‘Prove It’ is our team theme for this season. We were selected preseason No. 1 by various media sources, so I proposed a challenge for us to prove it one game at a time. Although we appreciate recognition, our goal is to be No. 1 in the nation, postseason.”
AQUINAS: More on the No. 1 team
If you don’t like the order of the very top teams, be patient. One constant for the top six teams is they all play at least two Super 25 opponents, so a few shakeups are likely. At least 12 teams play one or more Super 25 teams and the rest of the Super 25 will play a team that was in the Super 25 last season or a defending state champion.
Two-time defending Super 25 champion Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) is back at No. 3. The Gaels will test their 39-game winning streak right away at No. 5 Cedar Hill (Texas), plus games against St. Thomas Aquinas and No. 20 St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.).
RELATED: Meet the past Super 25 champions
“I think what we and other teams have done fires up a lot of other coaches and teams to do the same thing, playing a national schedule,” Bishop Gorman coach Kenny Sanchez said. “I don’t know if their goal is to win a national title. But anybody who says they wouldn’t want to win a national title is kidding themselves. It’s fun, but the chance for error is small when you have to play really good teams right away. I think the biggest thing, though, about teams playing these type of schedules is they’re doing it to be sure how good they are.”
Texas leads with five teams, all of whom were ranked in recent years: Cedar Hill, No. 10 Lake Travis (Austin), No. 12 Katy, No. 15 DeSoto and No. 18 Allen.
Cedar Hill had its first summer practice on Monday and with 10 offensive starters returning, Longhorns coach Joey McGuire said it was his cleanest opening practice ever.
“I turned to my AD and said, ‘We could play a game right now,’ “ McGuire said. “This year, the thing that separates the Texas teams is the strength of the 2017 class. Also the class behind them (juniors). It seems like everybody has two good classes back to back.”
Florida is close behind with three other Super 25 teams besides Aquinas: No. 4 IMG Academy (Bradenton); No. 6 American Heritage (Plantation) and No. 8 Booker T. Washington (Miami).
Follow USA TODAY High School Sports on Twitter at USATODAYHSS
