Orlando (FL) Metro Conference High School Football Rebrand (19/22)

[kb105]

Team #11: Lake Nona Lions

Est. 2009

Last Season: 3-7  4M-4 3rd Place

Best Finish: 8-3, First Round (2013-14)

Main Rival: East River Falcons

Notable Alumni: Zane Durant

Lake Nona is a relatively new school in a relatively new area of Orlando. My only real experience with the program was in youth football and my  senior year where the game was the de facto district championship. With that being said, they are kinda drab in their uniform selection. They would be navy and black with flat grey accents. Recently, they started using silver and chrome to lighten up their look, but then had an away jersey with just silver on white, which is an interesting choice. Their helmets have seemingly always been navy, switching from gloss finish to matte while the decals have been a mix of their LN logo, numbers, or both. More recently, they have been using their lion head logo, which I prefer.

          Lake Nona has never been a flashy team and never really had a major recruit until Durant these past few years. So, I wanted to go more muted, especially with their color scheme being navy and silver (black isn't official and is not needed with the navy). The helmet gets chrome fearures with the decals and facemask, similar to some of Georgia Southern's helmets. As previously mentioned, I really like the look of the lion logo on the helmet, especially in the chrome as it both fills out the space nicely and adds a nice pop against the navy. The jerseys are the same design, but appear different from far away. The home navy again borrows from GA Southern with the simple, Alabama-esque look. The shoulder caps have a Northwestern stripe, but with that stripe being the rubber/latex material seen on some uniforms, thus appearing a shade darker that the fabric. The away carries on the silver on white, but is grey on white to help legibility just a bit more. 

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Team #12: Windermere Wolverines

Est. 2017

Last Season: 2-8  4M-5 5th Place

Best Finish: 2-7, First Round (2020, everyone qualified for playoffs), beat Freedom in Play-In Round, lost to Boone in First Round

Main Rival: Horizon Hawks

 

Windermere is the oldest of the latest crop of new schools in the area, opening up in 2017. By 2021, Horizon was opened up as a relief school for them. Windermere was in our district my sophomore and junior years and we played them three times in those two years (as mentioned before we played them in the 2020 playoffs). They haven't really been able to get the ball rolling in football, unlike Horizon who already has a winning season in just their second season. Their look is Seahawks adjacent, especially when they go with silver pants. They have a decent suite of logos, anchored by their primary Wolverine head. Their helmet designs reflect this by having used numerous different decals. Also like Horizon, they have a wordmark that was created alongside their logos that I decided to use and create a number font to match.

          For these uniforms, I wanted to give them a look that could be synonymous with Windermere. So, I went with a W design on the sleeves.  The stripes on the helmets and pants take a portion of the sleeve design and creates sort of a hazard design look, perfect for the wolverine. They are also only one of two schools in the county to not have an on campus stadium, the other being Winter Park. The difference is that Winter Park's Showalter Field is a great facility with plenty of parking and amenities around the field. Windermere's is decent, but has about 200 spots and their overflow parking are soccer fields that may not be open depending on if their is any rain in the previous days. Thus, fans  must park at the school, a mile down the road, and either walk or hope to catch their shuttle system. There also is no shelter in the event of inclement weather, something rather prevalent in late summer, early fall in Florida. The topper is the away stands being located directly in front of a mosquito filled swamp. With that all being said, that is why the field design is not connected to the school as much as the location within Windermere. The only part tying into the design of the school is the font used.

 

C&C Appreciated! 

[OhioHedgehog]

LOVE this work and project.  I did something similar for my FFL a few years back.  Needs to be brought up to date.  Might I ask where you found your design template?

[kb105]

Team #13: Winter Park Wildcats

Est. 1927

Last Season: 10-2  4M-3 1st Place

Best Finish: 12-1, Third Round (2017)

Main Rival: None

          Winter Park is one of the oldest schools in the county and is actually my grandmother's alma mater. They are kind of a mixed bag when it comes to their uniforms as seemingly every other year their helmet or home jerseys change colors. They also have used many different helmet decals, ranging from their 'ball cap wildcat' to numbers to college knockoffs. One design element they have continued to use is chrome/metallic decals, which I personally like with the chrome orange. 

          I kind of wanted to keep Winter Park traditional as they are a more well establish program and most wildcat centric designs can get kitschy real quick. The home uniform would really be dependent on who they're playing that week. Obviously if a team like Boone is coming to Showalter Field, black would probably by the best option while if Evans is the opponent orange is the way to go.  

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C&C Appreciated!

[kb105]

Team #14: Jones Tigers

Est. 1895

Last Season: 11-3 3M-3 2nd Place, Lost in Semi-Finals to Homestead

Best Finish: 13-2, 2019 5A State Runner-Up

Main Rival: Evans Trojans, Edgewater Eagles

 

          Jones is quickly rising to be one of the best teams in the area. They and Edgewater are among the best in the state in the 3M classification and both drew the short straw by being in one another's district. In fact, Edgewater actually beat Jones to win the district title last season while Jones had the last laugh by winning the matchup in the playoffs. Though, Jones' success is rather recent as prior to their current head coach's arrival, they had a period of mediocre to poor seasons despite being located in an area of town with loads of successful youth programs and athletes.

          Another part of their football history is their helmets. The helmets have been white with a checkerboard stripe for as long as I can remember. Their home uniforms have usually been orange paired with either green or white pants. The same combinations are worn with their away jerseys, but also a pair of orange pants are added. Despite having orange pants, they rarely wear them with their orange jerseys outside of scrimmages or exhibition games. They also have also had green jerseys, but use them sparingly.

          For my design, I wanted to give them a more flashy set to match their style of play. I went with Bengals-esque stripes on the shoulders and sleeves with pointed pant stripes that also double as Js on the left side. The helmets keep the same design, mostly. The checkerboard goes from 4 across and tapered to 3 across and a regular shape stripe. Also, out is the Clemson Tiger paw that has been used by numerous teams. Instead, I made an orange and green version of the school's logo with Jones above, similar to LSU's helmets. 

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C&C Appreciated!

[kb105]

Team #15: Dr Phillips Panthers

Est. 1987

Last Season: 4-6 4M-5 2nd Place, Missed Playoffs

Best Finish: 13-2, 2017 8A State Championship

Main Rival: West Orange Warriors, Olympia Titans, Apopka Blue Darters

 

          The team in double blue for the longest time was 1B to Apopka in the county. More recently, DP has fallen off the past few years missing the playoffs and having two losing seasons. I had the unfortunate opportunity of facing them twice, loosing both times first by an inch and the second time by a touchdown.

          Their claim to fame is their navy helmet with the DP on the sides.  Most recently, they have used colored sleeve caps on their uniforms, including their 2017 state championship winning jersey. The sleeve stripes harken back to the uniforms in their first few years. The chest logo is this gem that along with the number font and drop shadows give a more "vintage" feel.

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C&C Appreciated!

[kb105]

Team #16: Freedom Patriots

Est. 2003

Last Season: 4-6 4M-4 4th Place, Missed Playoffs

Best Finish: 8-3, 2005 6A District 2 Runner Up

Main Rival: Cypress Creek Bears

 

 

          Freedom is one of the newer-ish schools in the county, being starting up in 2003. They were actually named in response to 9/11 by the county, and their mascot is rather original, the Patriots, only being 1 of 4 schools named the Freedom Patriots. They have been able to restrain from New England Patriots dress up for the most part, instead using either red or white helmets. They even have donned a bowling ball looking helmet. 

         For my design, I wanted to use patriotic elements but not just have US flags everywhere. So I actually looked up north to Canada and the Calgary Stampeders and put red and white stripes on the shoulders, almost as if a flag was draped over the player like medalists at the Olympics or other global games. The font and wordmarks are inspired by the old G.I. Joe logo which in turn inspired the stripes on the helmets and pants. 

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C&C Appreciated!

[kb105]

Team #17: Oak Ridge Pioneers

Est. 1959

Last Season: 1-9 4M-4 5th Place, Missed Playoffs

Best Finish: 11-1, 1974 District Champions

Main Rival: Jones Tigers, Evans Trojans, Cypress Creek Bears

          Oak Ridge is one of those schools that despite having a whole lot of talent can almost never translate that to wins on the field. A big part of that is talented players leaving after a year or two and transferring or just not having competent coaches (and when they do have competent coaches, they leave after a few years). And the hodge-podge play also extends to their aesthetics. The school uses green with a mix of athletic and metallic gold and even neon yellow-green at times. Personally, I love the basketball teams look with the green and athletic gold and the classic look they have begun using. The football team has been using that scheme recently as well, and it is a huge improvement over their previous looks. Another sign of the inconsistencies is their helmets. They have switched between black, green, white, and white to black gradient shells, however do keep using their OR logo across all colors. 

          For the loo I went with, I used the green and athletic gold as well as pulling an old logo of theirs that depicts their mascot, Lil Willie. The uniform look definitely borrows from the Oregon Ducks old look, but I feel helps give a more mature look to the team and school. The field is meant to complement the home uniforms, especially when they wear ag/gr/w or ag/gr/gr, as well as the green grass.

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C&C Appreciated!

[kb105]

Team #18: East River Falcons

Est. 2009

2023 Season: 2-8 3M-2 4th Place, Missed Playoffs

Best Finish: 9-2, 2017 District Runner-Ups (Lost 1st Round)

Main Rival: Timber Creek Wolves

          East River is a somewhat newer school, built the same time as Lake Nona and I didn't even know they existed until my sophomore year when we played them. They're located out in Bithlo, which is eastern Orange County and rather rural compared to Orlando, and the team has branded itself as Bithlo's team in recent years with their helmet decals.

          They also have a 'unique' falcon head logo, which is the inspiration for their look. The uneven stripe widths come directly from the neck feathers. Along with the striping pattern is drop shadow numbers, which carries over from previous uniforms. The helmets are a change of pace from recent years of white helmets and harken back to their first crop of teams who wore silver helmets. The Falcons have also donned charcoal/black uniform elements over the past few years, which are dropped completely. 

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C&C Appreciated!

[kb105]

Team #19: Lake Buena Vista Vipers

Est. 2021

2023 Season: 5-4 2M-2 2nd Place, Missed Playoffs

Best Finish: 5-4, 2023 District Runner-Ups

Main Rival: None

          Lake Buena Vista is the sister school to Horizon, located right in between Disney and SeaWorld off of I-4. Opening in 2021, they started 0-19 over their first two seasons before going 6-4 since the last game of the 2022 season, when they one their first game.

          Aesthetically, they have a lot of good stuff to work with. Their suite of logos are pretty decent, two of which have already been donned on their helmets. They also have a unique combo of colors with scarlet, Carolina blue, black and an electric yellow. For uniforms they have been decent in a vacuum with black helmets; red, black, and white jerseys; and black, white, and blue pants. However, they seem to like to wear the black/red/blue combo, which is not among my favorite of their looks. Although, those blue pants did inspire this new look I have for them with the striping pattern.

          I felt that the pop of yellow was a nice change of pace from most high schools and looks harkens back to their logos. Other than that, The color usage changes from red and black with Carolina blue accents to red and Carolina blue with black and yellow accents to better differentiate themselves from other red and black schools.

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C&C Appreciated!