While most high school football players and coaches aspire to win district and state championships, a growing number of them are heading another direction.

High school football in Southwest Florida is at the epicenter of a growing statewide trend of programs playing in conferences independent of the Florida High School Athletic Association, the governing body of high school football in Florida.

The 2014 season is slated to kick off tonight in Southwest Florida and across the state with preseason games. The regular season begins next week.

In Southwest Florida, Canterbury, Community School of Naples and Southwest Florida Christian are schools that compete in FHSAA districts in other sports but have broken off into the independent Sunshine State Athletic Conference for football. Gateway Charter also plays as an independent.

"As for the reason why, I think it would depend on the program at the school," saidJustin Harrison, associate executive director of athletic services for the FHSAA. "I don't think there is one answer. We have heard that the small schools are not getting as many participants. That could be a factor."

The number of participants has been a factor. Canterbury, for example, has just 23 varsity players. But because of an enhanced ability to schedule games against like-sized programs, several Southwest Florida independent coaches said dropping out of FHSAA districts has been a positive.

Whereas FHSAA programs are placed into districts based on location and size, SSAC programs are free to schedule games against each other across the state and against FHSAA programs closer to home as well.

"It gets us more access to playing schools in the rest of the state," said Paul Selvidio, the first-year coach at Community School of Naples. "We're playing schools on the east coast. We're playing similar-sized schools."

The SSAC began in 2008 with eight teams and has grown to 27 teams spread across Florida, although teams from the panhandle region have yet to join.

All of the SSAC programs are private schools, but they are not required to be. They must have school populations mirroring those of FHSAA schools in Class 2A and 3A in order for membership.

"The biggest factor for us, and the reason we are growing rapidly, is teams are looking for parity," said Stuart Weiss, the president of the SSAC and also the defensive coordinator at charter member Seffner Christian Academy. "There is no such thing in the FHSAA right now. It's the haves and the have nots. It's not a level playing field. Some schools tend to get more athletes than other schools. If you look at the FHSAA districts as a whole, there's not a whole lot of parity. Teams are looking for a chance to compete every week. We do everything in our power to make sure everyone is playing on the same levels."

Scoreboards across Southwest Florida reflect Weiss's opinion.

In the first four weeks of the 2012 season, 21 games involving area programs went to a running clock by halftime. Those games combined for a score of 1,068-110, an average score of 50-5. The blowouts involved 24 of the region's then-29 teams. Similar scoring disparities happened last season as well.

Harrison, however, said FHSAA districts provide for an evenly-matched, competitive environment.

"At a quick glance, the last two years in 8A and 7A, there were 36 different schools that made it to the 2013 playoffs that did not make it in 2012," Harrison said. "That would be out of 64 total spots, so more than half of the teams in those two classifications were 'new' to the playoffs that year."

In the SSAC, parity has been aplenty.

"Last season we had two divisions," Weiss said. "Both divisions ended up with two teams that were 5-1. Every playoff game was decided by less than 13 points, including the championship game, which was decided by eight points."

At Canterbury, sophomore quarterback Donovan Duvall transferred from Cypress Lake. He will have competed on both sides of the FHSAA-Independent spectrum.

"It's still football," Duvall said. "It's still competitive. We still get to compete for a championship, and that's still what we're playing for."

While FHSAA seasons culminate with eight championship games played Dec. 5-6 and Dec. 12-13 at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, the SSAC teams use the last two weeks of their seasons as a playoffs, with week 12 serving as the conference's championship.

At Southwest Florida Christian, first-year coach Mike Marciano has 18 varsity players, as compared to the 32 to 40 he had a decade ago at Bishop Verot, an FHSAA program competing in District 3A-6 this season. Marciano said he would not be against rejoining an FHSAA district in the future but for now is content in the SSAC.

"My goal is to build the program," Marciano said. "If we build it up to that, that would be wonderful. But if not, we're going to play the highest level of competition that we can.

"We're going over to the other coasts to play a lot of our games. The biggest challenge is, when you schedule your whole season, and there's teams that drop their programs. Nobody's really excited about that. Other than that, I think it's a wonderful league, especially when you're at a small school. You're competing against like-sized schools that are academically driven."

Jake Crandon, a junior running back at Canterbury, said playing in the SSAC gives the Cougars a better chance to compete on a level playing field, which, he said, leads to having more fun on the field.

"Since we're a smaller school, we don't have as many kids," Crandon said. "It's better than getting beat up by a 7A school.

"I have no problem being here. If you can play, you can play."

Connect with this reporter: David Dorsey (Facebook), @DavidADorsey (Twitter).

DECLARING INDEPENDENCE

Over the previous five seasons, the growth of independent high school football programs in Florida has topped that of those playing in Florida High School Athletic Association districts. Here's a look at the year-by-year total and independent number of football programs across the state:

2013-14: 557 Total, 74 Independent

2012-13: 559 Total, 71 Independent

2011-12: 554 Total, 52 Independent

2010-11: 550 Total, 59 Independent

2009-10: 543 Total, 39 Independent