The mainland high school is in the Florida high school football playoffs.
The grass is green, the fall winds are strong, and no one can drive on I-95.
The Buccaneers, who won the seeded in class 3S, won’t be the only team to take the field Friday night to begin their playoff journey, but few will for the 30thth consecutive year.
Hell, a few of our local contingents for the 2023 playoffs — Atlantic (1994), Halifax Academy (2002), Matanzas (2005) and University (2010) — weren’t even schools in 1993, the last time the continent was not in the playoffs. . This is also true of Pine Ridge (1994). This trend is even outpacing some of our regional cities, including Deltona (1995) and Palm Coast (1999).
KEN WILLIS:The continent falls (hard) on Lake Mary, but history says the Bucs can put it behind them
Indeed, 30 years is a long time. You just have to ask Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II.
Too early?
Certainly, the world was a lot different in 1993. Back then, you could buy a new car for about $16,000 and a gallon of gas to run it for a little over a dollar. That would certainly make the long road trips the teams face this weekend a little more manageable, right?
It was the year Bill Clinton was sworn in and Michael Jordan bowed out after scoring a hat-trick with the Chicago Bulls. And they were both just getting started.
The world lost musicians Conway Twitty and Frank Zappa, welcomed future stars Ariana Grande, Morgan Wallen and Meghan Trainor and saw Prince transformed into a symbol.
Speaking of births, how are Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele and Wyndham Clark doing for a Class of ’93 fivesome on the links? Not to mention driver Alex Bowman and the two members of NASCAR’s greatest bromance, new champions Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace.
That was the year Monica Seles was stabbed on the court, about a month after Michigan’s Chris Webber infamously called a timeout he didn’t have at all on another court.
We’ve had conflicts in Bosnia and Somalia, watched another in Guatemala, and also endured fierce battles on American soil, mainly Evander Holyfield vs. Riddick Bowe (again), Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna, Tonya Harding against Nancy Kerrigan and, who could forget, Lorena Bobbitt against John Wayne Bobbitt?
We had a big flood, a big blizzard and a great time fighting Blanka and Chun-Li in the best-selling video game of the year, “Street Fighter II.” Supersonic detonation!
As for the News-Journal sports team? Well, yours truly turned nine in September, Chris Boyle was five and as for our young Buckeye Chris Vinel? Well, it was -6, which is somewhere around the average total that the continent’s opponents are putting up per game this season.
No, we haven’t forgotten about future New Smyrna Beach mayoral candidate and community pillar Ken Willis. But a picture is worth a thousand words and in the newspaper business you take every shortcut you can. And speaking of short cuts, is that, gasp, hair?!
We’re laughing, big guy!
Well, that’s all just part of the story.
So, for fun, let’s take a stroll down Memory Lane to the Bucs football team’s unforgettable final year.
- The continent was kept out of the football playoffs in 1993, but it was certainly building something special. And the same could be said on the hardwood as Vince Carter began his junior season in Daytona Beach that fall, a season that would end with him being named Mr. Basketball in the state of Florida the following spring, a feat that he would repeat in 1994. 1995. Few may remember that Carter was also the Volusia County Volleyball Player of the Year and received a scholarship offer from Bethune-Cookman to play …the saxophone. And to think that Vinsanity could have been Vinny C!
- It was a banner year for college football in the Sunshine State. Florida State won its first national title in an 18-16 meat grinder against Nebraska, with quarterback Charlie Ward winning the Heisman Trophy. The Gators also won a major bowl, defeating previously undefeated West Virginia 41-7 in the Sugar Bowl and Miami made the Fiesta Bowl, losing 29-0 to Arizona. By the way, the Wildcats are currently ranked 21st and the Hurricanes have lost three of five.
- College football became a little less fun when fumblerooski was officially banned… oh, and ESPN’s College GameDay had its first live broadcast from South Bend, Indiana, as No. 2 Notre Dame beat the No. 2 Seminoles 1 mentioned above.
- Who said conference realignment and geographic confusion was a modern problem? Cal State Fullerton abandoned its football program, setting off a chain of dominoes that took Louisiana Lafayette, the artist then known as Southwestern Louisiana, along with Arkansas State, Northern Illinois and Louisiana Tech to the Big West Conference . A little further east and in a completely independent move, Penn State also played its first season in the Big Ten.
- Major League Baseball has welcomed two new franchises – the Colorado Rockies and the Florida Marlins – into the fold. And on the subject of expansion franchises, the Jacksonville Jaguars were still just a blip in Wayne Weaver’s eyes. They didn’t start playing until 1995.
- We have had the unique distinction of being repeat champions in all three major professional sports: Jordan’s Bulls won their third straight, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl in early 1993, and will start again at the beginning of 1994 and the Toronto Blue Jays won their second consecutive World Series.
- Dale Earnhardt Sr. was on top of the NASCAR world, especially locally. He won a Daytona Duel and led the most laps in the Daytona 500 before losing to Dale Jarrett. Earnhardt would go on to win the summer’s Pepsi 400 and his sixth of seven Cup Series titles. It was the first season without a retired Richard Petty and it was also the rookie season of a young, mustachioed helmsman named Jeff Gordon. Also of note is the death of Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison in separate non-racing incidents.
- It was a big year in Hollywood when Steven Spielberg introduced the world to DNA sequencing and the velociraptor in “Jurassic Park,” the highest-grossing film of the year. “Unforgiven,” a western starring Clint Eastwood (who also directed), Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman — name a more iconic trio! – won Best Picture honors at the Academy Awards. And the world of cinema dominated the music as well as the soundtrack of “The Bodyguard”, supported by Whitney Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You”, which was the best-selling record of the year.
- While the world lost actors Vincent Price, River Phoenix and Brandon Lee, the latter two far too soon, 1993 saw the birth of Mia Goth, who may well be this generation’s Jamie Lee Curtis in terms of acting credentials. scream queen.
- 1993 was the year of the Rooster according to the Chinese zodiac. Coincidentally, it was also the year of the rooster in music as Alice in Chains continued the momentum of their huge 1992 record “Dirt” with the release of the song “Rooster” in February of that year .
- The world of hip-hop continues its conquest of American popular music. Snoop Dogg gave the world “Doggystyle”, the Wu-Tang Clan invited us to “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” and A Tribe Called Quest released “Midnight Marauders”, to name a few- some.
- Ultimately, the Mainland Bucs had a terrible 1-9 football season, missing the playoffs for what few could predict at the time would be the last time in three straight decades. And if the current team, ranked No. 2 in the entire 3S class, is anything to go by, they’re not going to stop any time soon.
