{"id":27851,"date":"2017-02-22T21:48:48","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T02:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.duvalsports.com\/?p=27851"},"modified":"2017-02-22T21:48:48","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T02:48:48","slug":"ssac-on-the-move-again-creates-new-first-coast-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.duvalsports.com\/?p=27851","title":{"rendered":"SSAC on the move again, creates new First Coast Division"},"content":{"rendered":"

What started out as a small eight team league nine years years ago, has become far more than what anyone could have ever imagined.<\/p>\n

A group of small Christian schools felt like they couldn\u2019t compete against the schools they were paired with in their district and in 2008 created the Sunshine State Athletic Conference.<\/p>\n

The original SSAC eight members were Mount Dora Bible, Ocala St John Lutheran, Leesburg First Academy, Foundation Academy, Hernando Christian, Bishop McLaughlin, St. Pete Canterbury and Carrollwood Day.<\/p>\n

Every year since, the league has expanded and continues to expand, last year the league added\u00a0Bishop Snyder, Out of Door Academy, Bradenton Christian,\u00a0 Shorecrest Prep and Fort Myers Canterbury.<\/p>\n

The addition of the five teams increased the state\u2019s biggest conference to 28 teams for the 2016 season as well as new divisions and a new developmental league too.<\/p>\n

The SSAC\u00a0was divided up into two separate leagues: the Coastal and Coral, within those leagues are three separate divisions: Central Florida, Beach, Atlantic in the Coastal League and North Florida, Orange and Bay in the Coral League.<\/p>\n

\"Christ's<\/a>
Christ’s Church coach Jim Stomps is looking forward to the new First Coast Division with the addition of Harvest and Duval Charter to the division.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Monday, Christ’s Church coach Jim Stomps\u00a0announced more changes within the league starting with the\u00a0creation of the First Coast\u00a0Division.\u00a0Newcomers Harvest Community and Duval Charter will join members Christ’s Church and Bishop Snyder to form an all area\u00a0division.<\/p>\n

Which is good news for Stomps who was placed in the North Florida\u00a0Division last year with\u00a0Leesburg First Academy, Mount Dora Christian and Ocala Christian along with Bishop Snyder.<\/p>\n

No more two hour plus bus rides\u00a0to Leesburg, Ocala or Mount Dora\u00a0and now short trips across the county to Harvest, Bishop Snyder and Duval Charter.<\/p>\n

“I am excited to have an all-Jacksonville Division in the SSAC,” said Stomps. “This will cut down on travel and build close rivalries between divisional schools from this area.<\/p>\n

Stomps when on to say, “I respect Coach Markoski (Bishop Snyder), Coach\u00a0Marts (Harvest) and Coach Lakey\u00a0(Duval Charter), they\u00a0are all coaches who work hard and positively build their teams players through the game of football.<\/p>\n

“I believe that they all are great\u00a0additions to the Sunshine State Athletic Conference. It also brings coverage and promotion to the SSAC in the\u00a0North Florida area having 4 teams in the Jacksonville area.”<\/p>\n

Aside from the all-area conference, Stomps is also excited about the 2017 season\u00a0and looking to extend their\u00a0playoff streak to three consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n

Christ Church joined the league in 2015 and was part of the Beach Division competing with 6 teams from the Orlando area. The Eagles were division runner-ups and made the playoffs losing on the r0ad at\u00a0Berean Christian\u00a0in the first round.<\/p>\n

This past fall with the addition of Bishop Snyder, the Eagles (8-2) remained in\u00a0the\u00a0Coastal Division\u00a0and won the North Florida Division\u00a0hosting their first ever playoff game before\u00a0falling\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0second round of the playoffs to Seven Rivers Christian.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0road will be a little easier for\u00a0the Eagles as the\u00a0division moves to the\u00a0Coral Conference and away from defending SSAC\u00a0 Independent State Champion St. Stephens Academy, which remained\u00a0in the Coastal Conference.<\/p>\n

\"Florida-Bowl-Trophy_2\"<\/a>
The Florida Bowl trophy is at stake and awarded to the winner of the SSAC each year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stomps explained that the\u00a0SSAC consists of\u00a0two\u00a0conferences the Coastal and Coral.<\/p>\n

“There are 3 divisions in each with 16 total teams (8 from each side) making\u00a0the playoffs and the winners of the Coastal and Coral Conferences will play for the SSAC Florida Independent State Championship Nov 19 at the Masters Academy,” Stomps stated.<\/p>\n

\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Year<\/strong><\/td>\nSchool<\/strong><\/td>\nChamps<\/strong><\/td>\nRunner-Up<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2008<\/strong><\/td>\nHernando Christian (10-0, 3-0)<\/strong><\/td>\nHernando Christian 22<\/strong><\/td>\nMount Dora Bible 6<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2009<\/strong><\/td>\nCanterbury School of (St Pete) (9-1, 4-0)<\/strong><\/td>\nCanterbury 48<\/strong><\/td>\nSt John Lutheran 7<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2010<\/strong><\/td>\n St Edwards School (11-1, 6-0)<\/strong><\/td>\nSt Edwards 47<\/strong><\/td>\nSt John Lutheran 6<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2011<\/strong><\/td>\nLandmark Christian (11-2, 4-0)<\/strong><\/td>\nLandmark Christian 40<\/strong><\/td>\nSeven Rivers Christian 0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2012<\/strong><\/td>\nThe Master’s Academy (7-3, 5-1)<\/strong><\/td>\nThe Master’s Academy 35<\/strong><\/td>\nSeffner Christian 17<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2013<\/strong><\/td>\nFirst Academy-Leesburg (8-2, 5-1)<\/strong><\/td>\nFirst Academy 28<\/strong><\/td>\nOrlando Christian Prep 20<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2014<\/strong><\/td>\nWindermere Prep (11-0, 5-0)<\/strong><\/td>\nWindermere 48<\/strong><\/td>\nOrlando Christian Prep 19<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2015<\/strong><\/td>\nSanta Fe Catholic (11-0, 7-0)<\/strong><\/td>\nSanta Fe \u300033<\/strong><\/td>\nSaint Stephen’s 0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\ue013\ue014\ue015\ue016\ue012\ue019\ue007\ue004\ue009\ue008\ue00f\ue010\ue01c\ue01c\ue002\ue003\ue006\ue009\ue01d\ue008\ue00a\ue003\ue01b\ue008\ue018\ue002\ue019\ue00a\ue00c\ue008\ue00f\ue005\ue00a\ue012\ue009\ue007\ue012\ue008\ue005\ue00a\ue019\ue007\ue00c\ue00c\ue008\ue00e\ue002\ue009\ue008\ue01b\ue010<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What started out as a small eight team league nine years years ago, has become far more than what anyone could have ever imagined. A group of small Christian schools felt like they couldn\u2019t compete against the schools they were paired with in their district and in 2008 created the Sunshine State Athletic Conference. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":624,"featured_media":27853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[489,220,285,488],"class_list":["post-27851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school","tag-bishop-snyder","tag-christ-church","tag-duval-charter","tag-harvest-community"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.duvalsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Christ-Church-football.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duvalsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duvalsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duvalsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duvalsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/624"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duvalsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.duvalsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duvalsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duvalsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duvalsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duvalsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}