By Jim Halley, USA TODAY
Special to MaxPreps.com
Pahokee High and Glades Central High, just eight miles apart on the south shore of Florida's Lake Okeechobee, are linked by inky-black damp soil.
The dark ground grows a bountiful crop of sugar cane and football players.
Friday night at Glades Central's stadium in Belle Glade, the two schools play their annual rivalry game, known as the Muck Bowl. This year's game means as much as ever.
Pahokee, No. 7 in USA TODAY's Super 25 high school football rankings, is 9-0 and the defending Florida 2B champion.
Glades Central is also 9-0 and the defending 3A champion. ESPN had originally planned to televise the game but had to back out because of a mix-up in schedules. Instead, a crew from NFL Films has followed the two teams this week.
"This is maybe the biggest one they've had in a long time," says Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who played for Pahokee. "Both teams are undefeated. Both are ranked (in the state). It's a pretty big deal this week."
It will also be a big deal for a year after the game.
"If you win a state title but lose the Muck Bowl, some of our fans will tell you it's a bittersweet win," says Mike Diogostine, who does play-by-play radio broadcasts of both teams' games for WSWN 900-AM "Sugar 900" in Belle Glade.
Pahokee Mayor J.P. Sasser has an auto-body repair business in Belle Glade, and even with the Blue Devils winning last year, he heard plenty from Glades Central fans this year.
"We love to trash-talk each other," Sasser says. "When I walk into a restaurant, it just never stops. If they didn't talk, I'd have to wonder who I'd made mad. We're such a small area, our families are intertwined."
Of Florida's five smallest classifications (1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A), three of the 2006 state football champions came from the same area, about 40 miles west of Palm Beach. Glades Day of Belle Glade won the 1A title, and Clewiston was the 2A runner-up. Boldin has a unique explanation for the area's bumper crop of talent. Besides Boldin, current NFL players from the area include three Glades Central alumni: Jacksonville Jaguars running back Fred Taylor, San Francisco 49ers defensive end Ray McDonald and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Santonio Holmes.
"It's a blessing from God, that's the only way to describe it," Boldin says. "Football is a religion down there."
Rickey Jackson, who played 15 years with the New Orleans Saints and 49ers, is a Pahokee alum who works games with Diogostine at WSWN. Jackson says the area's primary business, working the sugar cane fields, is as good an explanation as any for the area's football tradition.
"The more these guys work, the tougher they get, and they've passed that on to their sons," he says. "This game is going to be the same as every year - it's going to be very competitive."
Football is a way out for some in an area where nearly one-third live below the poverty line. As sugar cane jobs have become more mechanized, unemployment has climbed.
"Our fortunes have declined with sugar cane," Sasser says. "Prior to the influx of sugar in the '60s, back when we grew more vegetables and sugar crops, both communities were very vibrant. We were just as serious about football back then."