Making a Point

Over midway through the 2003 season in which he has a team potentially bound for Florida state championship hardware again, there probably aren’t many prep coaches who wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of Palm Bay’s Dan Burke, who considers himself one of the luckiest in the business. Burke, with his team on the radar of the USA Today top 10 all season long and a nationally televised game on The Football Network, has built a new tradition at the Brevard County school on Florida’s Space Coast. While Cape Canaveral is just a few miles away, the Pirates of Palm Bay have sent plenty of opponents into orbit, winning state championships in two of the past four seasons and semifinal appearances in each of the last four. The program has come a long way in the seven seasons since Burke was easily lured from a feeder program (junior high school) in the area. Burke’s record and