- December 4, 2025
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With summer workouts now over and fall camp kicking off Monday, July 28, the 2025 high school football season in West Orange and Southwest Orange is right around the corner. As we await the return for what promises to be another epic season of Friday Night Lights, the area’s teams converged in downtown Orlando at Camping World Stadium for the preseason tradition known as Florida Citrus Sports’ High School Football Media Day.
To celebrate the gathering of the area’s top teams and players and the ever-so-near return to the gridiron — with kickoff classics scheduled for Friday, Aug. 15 — we have put together a collection of the best notes and news from the end of spring football to the start of fall camp.
Get ready high school football fans: The 2025 season will be one for the history books.
With a new season comes new coaches, new players and new teams. Throw away what you thought you learned in 2024, because this season is going to see a few of the area’s teams outplay expectations and flip the landscape of West Orange and Southwest Orange football. Here are three teams we think will surprise fans this season.
Central Florida Christian Academy Eagles. After a winless first season and a 3-6 second season under coach Kevin Blackman, year three of his tenure as Eagles coach promises to see a dramatic turnaround.
“This is the tightest group and the group that has been the most bought into what we’re doing as a program since I’ve been around the team,” Blackman said. “I feel like we’ve grown in numbers since the spring, part of that … is because of how we played, part of it is because guys naturally want to come play with their friends. But I believe our team today is head and shoulders above where we were this time last year, and since the spring, we have grown in the weight room and on the field, as a whole.”
Foundation Academy Lions. Under the leadership of first-year coach Daniel White, the Lions have developed a culture based on aggression, athleticism and execution that should carry them beyond their 5-5 record from 2024.
“We wanted to focus on culture and make sure we do a good job of setting an expectation, and I think we’ve done that,” White said. “It’s been a great offseason for us, and we’re ready to go.”
Horizon Hawks. If you take a look beyond the surface of Horizon’s 1-9 record in 2024, you’ll see four of its nine losses came in one-score games. Add in key injuries throughout the season and it’s easy to understand how one of the more steady programs in the area saw its season unravel. It’s also easy to see why this program can bounce back in 2025, especially when you hear Horizon coach Dennis Thomas rave about his team’s offseason development.
“From our spring game, which went really well … to our summer workouts, we’ve had a great offseason,” Thomas said. “We feel like (we’ve done well) at getting stronger in the weight room during the offseason. We also added one of our track coaches to the football staff, so that’s helping us get faster, as well. But overall, we just have great kids, good parents and a good community behind us that’s helped us grow each year.”
Roster turnover because of graduation, transfers and other factors creates opportunities for players to rise through a team’s ranks and establish themselves as a star of the gridiron. With plenty of talented players developing within the area’s programs and the constant influx of talented transfers the area sees, 2025 once again will see a heap of breakout players. Here are a few we think could take advantage of their opportunity.
Zion Matthews, Dr. Phillips High RB. After sharing carries with a pair of senior backs last season, Matthews will get the chance to be featured as the Panthers’ workhorse this season — a challenge he’s more than ready for.
“I’ve been waiting patiently and working hard for this opportunity,” Matthews said. “As a freshman, I didn’t touch the field but learned a lot as part of the scout team and from my older teammates. Sophomore year, I got to play a role in a lot of big games, and last year as a junior, I feel like I did very well for myself as part of that shared backfield. … But now as a senior, I know that it’s on me to carry a bigger load for this offense, and I know that we’re going turn a lot of heads this year.”
Gavin Pritzkau, Central Florida Christian QB. Despite never playing varsity football, the eighth-grader is one of the area’s most talented quarterbacks, and according to his coach, he’ll have the opportunity to earn time under center this year.
“I don’t want to give away too much, but both of these guys — Gavin and Mason (Mathis) — will have the chance to show off their talents on the field this season,” Blackman said. “It’s a blessing to have these two guys battling for playing time. This time two years ago, we had no idea who our quarterback was going to be. But now, we’re blessed to be able to have two guys (who) can carry the load as leaders and players.”
Abishai Smith, Horizon High ATH. A factor on both sides of the ball, the Hawks’ rising junior should wreak havoc by chasing down the ball carrier on defense and with the ball in his hands on offense.
“He was injured a lot last year, so he didn’t get to make his name yet, but he’s ready to go this year,” Thomas said. “He’s just big a ol’ guy. He’s not tall or anything, but man, he has muscles in his ear lobes, and he’s loves to play physical. He’s fast, and he’s going to hit people and just be a disrupter. The thing I love about his game is that he doesn’t always have to make the play to have an effect on the play. He has the ability to just cause disruption because of just the areas he inhabits.”
What’s a football preview story without a few bold predictions? Here are three predictions we think are worth following this season.
The First Academy runs the table. Despite lining up the most difficult schedule of any team in the area — which includes eight teams ranked among the top 300 in the nation — we believe the development of returning players and additions at key positions will be enough to propel this Royals team to an undefeated season — especially when you consider that without a postseason, each regular-season game becomes even more important.
West Orange QB A.J. Chung throws for 3,000-plus yards, 25-plus TDs. After displaying his pure passing abilities as a freshman in a rotational role for the Warriors, Chung enters the 2025 season as the unquestioned QB1. Factor in his development physically and mentally this offseason, and we have no doubt that come season’s end, the sophomore not only will have surpassed the stats we are predicting but also will have led West Orange to a load of wins.
Windermere will repeat as Independent League champions. It’s hard to improve on perfection, and after a 10-0 season in 2024, folks might think 2025 will see the Wolverines take a step back. However, since Riki Smith took over the program, Windermere has increased its number of wins each season. And although the laws of mathematics do not allow for a team to win more games than it plays, making it impossible for Smith to continue his run of winning more games each season than the previous, we can say with confidence the Wolverines will be the dominant force among Orange County’s independent league teams.
