Florida
Top 25 Florida Girls Flag Football Preseason Rankings (1/6/2025)
It’s high school football season once again in the Sunshine State! Nope, not that kind of football. Not yet anyways, darn it.
Girls flag football season will be getting underway throughout the state of Florida in about a month and there’s plenty to think about before then.
So how about some preseason rankings for an appetizer?
Headlining the top of the rankings heading into preseason play is the No. 1, Robinson Knights of Hillsborough County, and at No. 2 is Miami Palmetto. Both teams won state championships last May and are coming off strong 2024 campaigns. There’s a slew of teams we looked at for our initial rankings and now we break out the preseason edition. Check out our power rankings and let us know what you think.
The Knights went 24-0 last season, winning the Class 1A state championship the end. Returning quarterback Haidyn Spano and an experienced roster makes this an easy pick.
Miami Palmetto won the Class 2A state championship last season and Kevin Mujica returns a slew of starters, including his quarterback. Definitely will be in to winning it all this spring.
Never too far away from the top are the Ravens out of Tampa. Alonso fell well short of its annual goal of winning it all, but returning quarterback Gabby Werr and dynamo Makenna Sturgis makes this team a dangerous one.
After falling in a heartbreaker to Miami Palmetto last season, Lennard returns plenty of talent, though who will be the quarterback after Abby Ewell is a question mark.
The Patriots were the youngest team among those that played at states last year in Tampa. Returning quarterback Amaya Pablo and other starters, we like this team to make another deep run with what they have coming back.
Keidran Willis and his girls last season made program history by reaching the Class 1A state championship game. The Jaguars have the offensive talent to get back to Tampa this season.
Indians’ quarterback Diaris Morales was sensational as a sophomore last season and should be that much better as a junior this spring.
When you have a player of the caliber of Adrienne Rivera running your offense, it’s hard to ignore the Cobras as a viable state championship team this spring.
Some tend to forget that the Wolves took teams like Alonso to the brink. Newsome always is in the thick of it all when it comes to being one of the top clubs out of Hillsborough County.
The Broncos’ offense was electric last season behind the play of quarterback Jerniyah Fowles, who is back this season.
If you didn’t learn this name last year, get to know it this spring: KK Ramsey.
Beating Class 2A state runnerup Lennard during the season speaks volume of how good this Hawks’ team really is. Keep an eye on this team.
Though the Wolverines lost quarterback Keelin Coleman due to graduation, the Wolverines will be one of the top teams out of the 561.
The Raiders have continued to make their way upwards in the rankings as they came within a score of Pembroke Pines Charter in the playoffs. Easily a team we could see playing deep into the postseason this spring.
Though the Pirates lost quarterback Cydnee Brooks and a few other starters, this team has re-stocked and will be the best out of the South Suncoast.
When it came to the best of Pinellas County, the Green Devils were the top team. Beat Braden River last season during the season and have the talent to compete with anyone once again.
The Eagles finished with 13 victories a year ago and are a program on the rise out of South Florida.
Central Florida just started fielding flag football, but the Panthers have made a quick acension up the ranks. Dr. Phillips should be ready to take the next step this season.
The Wildcats are perennially one of the best teams in the state, but an early playoff exit last season set them back. Western will be looking to establish themselves as South Florida’s best.
If not for Homestead, we could’ve easily been thinking Miami Edison higher up in these initial rankings.
If there was one thing for certain, the Blue Devils’ defense was something serious in 2024. Clay only allowed 33 points last season.
Looking at the kind of talent coming back, Somerset Academy-Canyons will be a team that could move up the rankings sooner rather than later.
All three losses suffered by the Spartans last season came at the hands of Class 2A state champion Miami Palmetto.
Having quarterback Robyn Cantwell back under center has us thinking the Crusaders will be one of the better Tampa Bay area clubs.
Only team out of the North Suncoast in these rankings is the Panthers as they bring back a bevy of talent, including quarterback Peyton Dison.
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Florida
Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’
It only took three weeks for a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University (FIU) to become a place where participants eagerly used racist slurs, prompting widespread condemnation from community leaders.
Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of Miami-Dade county’s Republican party and a student at FIU’s College of Law, reportedly started the chat after the killing of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, in September 2025.
But on Wednesday, the Miami Herald published leaked WhatsApp conversations in which the college Republicans made racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic comments, including variations of the N-word used more than 400 times. Knowledge of the chat’s existence was revealed on the same day that Republican lawmakers in Florida pushed forward a bill to rename a one-mile stretch of road alongside FIU in honor of Kirk.
William Bejerano, who the Herald noted once tried to start an anti-abortion group at Miami Dade College, was the most prolific user of the N-word. Using the slur, Bejerano called for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting.
Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans’ recruitment chair, who has recently applied to become a GOP committee member, responded to the calls for violence by saying: “How edgy.” He repeatedly used “colored” to describe Black people, including writing: “Ew you had colored professors?!” and “Avoid the coloreds like the plague,” according to the Herald.
Carvajal, who was appointed to a two-year role on the city of Hialeah’s planning and zoning board earlier this year, confirmed to the paper that the group chat was his doing, but he denied knowledge of the problematic comments until the publication contacted him about its logs last week.
“It’s been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I’ve seen this message,” Carvajal told the Herald.
“I guess to an extent, I bear some responsibility, cause I created a chat. But if I had seen this at the moment, I would have removed [Bejerano] from the chat. I probably would have even blocked his number.”
The Herald found that Carvajal had deleted 14 messages sent by other participants in the chat and 42 of his own messages before the publication obtained the chat’s logs.
He also participated in some of the racist discussions. While referring to a Black student who allegedly left FIU’s College Republicans after a member of the group “called her a [N-word]”, the Floridian reported that Carvajal wrote: “Why didn’t miggress leave?” Elsewhere in the chat, the publication reported that Carvajal used “Miggress”, “Migglet” and “Migger” to refer to Black women, Black children and Black people, in general.
At one point, Gonzalez wrote: “You can fuck all the [K-word, a slur for Jewish people] you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.”
Ian Valdes, the Turning Point USA FIU chapter president, responded, “I would def not marry a Jew,” before changing the group chat’s name from “Uber [R-word slur for disabled people] Yapping” to “Gooning in Agartha”. “Gooning” is a gen-Z slang term for male masturbation, while “Agartha” is a mythical white civilization promoted by Heinrich Himmler, one of the most powerful leaders in Nazi Germany next to Hitler.
Gonzalez reportedly described Agartha to the group chat as “Nazi heaven sort of”.
Kevin Cooper, the first Jewish chair of the Miami Dade Republican party, condemned the group chat in a statement published to X and called for Carvajal’s resignation.
“The majority of our board voted to request Carvajal’s resignation. We have commenced removal proceedings and look forward to resolution from the Republican Party of Florida,” he wrote.
That call was echoed by Juan Porras, a Republican state representative and Miami-Dade GOP state committee member, who said in a statement: “Leadership carries responsibility. When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida. For that reason, I am asking the Miami Dade Republican party secretary to step down from this position.”
In a joint statement, Florida Republican state senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia and Ana Maria Rodriguez denounced the chats and called for the expulsion from party leadership of its participants.
“The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican party of Florida,” their statement said. “We call for the immediate expulsion of the individuals disseminating from any level of leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party … We will not tolerate bigotry or discrimination.”
Multiple leaked group chats from young Republicans have created controversy in recent years.
Last year, Politico published messages from a group chat of more than 100 conservatives across the country in which users also made racist and antisemitic comments. In 2022, a Young Republican group chat from North Dakota was revealed as a cesspool of homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric.
Florida
Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip
Four days into the Iranian conflict, gas prices are rising at many stations in South Florida.
“I’ve traveled all over the United States,” says Stacey Williams. CBS Miami spoke to him as he was gassing up on the turnpike. He paid $66 for 20 gallons of diesel to fill his pickup truck. Williams has noted the fluctuations in fuel as he drives to locations for his work on turbines. He just spent three weeks at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant south of Miami.
“The salary we get paid per hour does not add up to what we pay for gas, housing, and food,” he says.
Mitchell Gershon is also dealing with the higher gas prices. He has to fill three vehicles constantly for his business—Thrifty Gypsy, a pop-up store at musical venues. He’s back and forth from Orlando to Miami and says fuel is costing him 20% more. When asked how he handles these fluctuations, he said, “Have a little backup cash so you are ready for it.”
The rise in oil prices contributed to a drop in the stock market on Tuesday, which means some retirement accounts dipped, too. CBS Miami talked to Chad NeSmith, director of investments at Tobias Financial Advisors in Plantation, for perspective on the drop.
“We are seeing most of the pullback today. Yesterday was a shock,” he says. He’s not expecting runaway oil prices but says investors should stay in the loop: “Pay attention to your portfolio. Stick to your goals. Have a plan because these things are completely unpredictable.”
That unpredictability has Williams adjusting his budget. “You just cut back, cut corners, all you can do,” he says.
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