Chaminade-Madonna makes it look easy after a difficult road to a fourth straight championship

The Lions have become a dynasty when it comes to high school football in Florida and concluded the 2024 season with another title added to the program's ever-growing trophy case

Robson Lopes

MIAMI, FLORIDA- After celebrating and speaking to numerous media members around midfield at Pitbull Stadium on a chilly Wednesday night, Chaminade-Madonna head coach Dameon Jones never really had time to take it all in.

At least not right in the moment anyways, with Jones leading the Lions to a fourth straight state championship and the program's ninth overall.

To many, Wednesday's 42-7 defeat of Clearwater Central Catholic for the Class 1A crown was just another annual romp the two teams meetup for, but Jones sees it otherwise. He sees a culmination of work his kids have put in that led Chaminade-Madonna to yet another state championship.

"One thing though is it wasn't easy," Jones said. "We had a bunch of adversity we had to fight through to get here and it's well deserved. These kids worked their behinds off and this is the gratititude of it."

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When rewinding the season of what Chaminade-Madonna went through in order to hoist the 1A title on Wednesday night, you travel back to the beginning of the season when the Lions lost back-to-back games to St. John Bosco (California) and Blanche Ely.

Starting off 0-2 for any Lions' team was not just unheard of, but coming off the previous two seasons Chaminade-Madonna had, it just seemed unfeasible.

With the collection of talent Jones had at his disposal, it was always going to turn around and was more a matter of if, not when.

Tyler Chance, who threw for 192 yards and three touchdowns Wednesday night, is a promising sophomore quarterback that began the season as the starter before going down with an injury. In stepped in Preston Wright as the team's new starter and the former Trinity Catholic signal caller played well, but then he went down with an unfortunate hand injury in-season.

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Bekkam Kritza (Penn State signee) transferred in and became the team's starter, with the senior holding down the fort with the bevy of talent the team had around him. Players like Koby Howard (Penn State signee), Kyle Washington, Denairius Gray, Derrek Cooper, Kelly Sejour Jr. and many others, the Lions battled back to win 13 straight games.

Of those 13 wins were some tough tests, including victories over Miami Norland, Monarch, Plantation American Heritage, Western and St. Thomas Aquinas. All six aforementioned teams made the postseason, with American Heritage (4A) and Aquinas (5A) playing for state titles themselves this week.

The road was certainly a tough one for Chaminade-Madonna, even though many won't give them credit for it. Nonetheless, the Lions are state champions once again and they know it was a title well deserved.

"It means a lot," Jones added about what the championship means to him and the Lions. "I guess I'll think about it more later on what it means to me, but for these kids, it means more to me for (the kids) then about me."

FHSAA 2024 1A-7A PREDICTIONS/PREVIEWS

2024 FHSAA high football state championship projections

Predicting the winner of the 2024 Florida high school football 2A state championship

Predicting the winner of the 2024 Florida high school football 3A state championship

Predicting the winner of the 2024 Florida high school football 4A state championship

Predicting the winner of the 2024 Florida high school football 5A state championship

Predicting the winner of the 2024 Florida high school football 6A state championship

Predicting the winner of the 2024 Florida high school football 7A state championship

FHSAA 2024 CHAMPIONSHIPS BRACKETS

2024 CLASS 7A CHAMPIONSHIP BRACKET

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2024 CLASS 1A CHAMPIONSHIP BRACKET

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-- Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @highschoolonsi