Remember a few years ago when the Boston area was dominating the sports world? The Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots (They play in Foxborough, Massachusetts.), and Boston College Eagles hockey all won a championship, some multiple times, within a few years of each other. South Florida sports is primed to outdo even that. Let us have a look at what our teams are up to-

University of Miami Football: Already in good position to improve upon last year’s solid nine-win season, the “U” reeled in the player most considered the nation’s top high school recruit, Seantrel Henderson. A 6’8” 340 pound offensive lineman, he will free up room for our runners to roam and help protect Jacory Harris. Harris, UM’s junior quarterback, is coming off of a strong season in which he threw for over 3,300 yards to go with 24 touchdowns. This season those numbers should improve with Miami’s best batch of receivers in years. UM also continued their recent trend by nabbing a few more big recruits from Miami Northwestern High with quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and wide receiver, Eli Rodgers. I know UM fans have long talked about Miami’s return to glory, but this time you should take them seriously.

Miami Dolphins: Pulling off the trade for superstar receiver Brandon “Joey Porter has popcorn Muscles” Marshall was the biggest NFL move of the off-season. This immediately opens up a dimension to the Dolphins offense not seen since Chris Chambers was catching balls as deep as Jay Fiedler could chuck’em. Chad Henne’s arm  >  Jay Fiedler’s arm = excellent (With the Mr. Burns finger shuffle). The Dolphins also gave star inside linebacker Karlos Dansby $43 million to shine in Miami. Supposed trouble-case Richie Incognito (Great 305 name!) was also signed to shore up the offensive line. Rookies, linebacker Koa Misi and defensive tackle Jared Odrick, are  expected to be fast contributers. Most importantly, Miami will have a healthy Ricky/Ronnie tandem in the backfield.

Florida Marlins: It’s always been easy to say the Marlins will have a brightfuture considering their farm system is always stocked with great talent, but now they are actually re-signing current players instead of replacing them with cheaper interior talent. There’s a huge expected boost in revenue for the team once it begins play in their new Baseball stadium in 2012, so ownership can now start spending more money to compete every year. Marlins ownership has made sure that Hanley Ramirez and Josh Johnson are going to stay on the team by signing them to multi-year deals. The team’s starting pitching is starting to pitch consistently and looks strong for the future (Except for Chris Volstad’s recent slump and demotion). The team recently called up slugger Mike Stanton aka The Jolly Tan Giant, aka The Big Picture from Panorama (My favorite nickname I made for him, considering he’s from Panorama, California.), he will be hitting 40 home runs a year out of the new ball park for years. Gaby Sanchez is a favorite to win this season’s Rookie of the Year, which would give the Marlins four R.O.Y. winners in the past seven years…a true testament to their farm system which is about to churn up future star Logan Morrison.

Florida Panthers:I know that many of you are not Panther or hockey fans in general, but listen. New general manager Dale Tallon is working hard to change that. He immediately overhauled the team once taking over, trading veterans for young talent and draft picks. The Panthers ended up with 13 picks in the 2010 draft, including the third overall (Phenom, Erik Gudbranson.), 19th, 25th, and 33rd. The future here is very bright as they also ended up with the exciting Michael Grabner through a trade. Tallon also hired former early players Gord Murphey and Brian Skrudland as assistants to bridge the generation gap. They have a solid goaltending tandem in Scott Clemenson and Tomas Vokoun who give them a chance to win every night. When the team makes the playoffs again, I’m sure everyone will start paying attention. But just so you know, hockey is very exciting to watch live.

I’m not mentioning the Heat much because we all know Pat Riley pulled of the greatest heist since D.B. Cooper jumped from a plane. I will say that the re-signing of Udonis Haslem was the move that made all of the other signings okay in my mind. It would have been bittersweet without our hometown hero and team captain Haslem. Miami also signed Mike Miller and Zydrunas Ilgauskas to solidify them as contenders.

South Florida…get ready for a wave of hate that inevitably comes with success. I want the fans out there to appreciate and support these teams, because not all cities are so lucky. Miami sports fans have had their share of suffering, so we deserve it! From the Panthers nine-year playoff drought, to the dismantling of two different World Series champion Marlins teams and the threat of the team moving to Las Vegas a few years ago; to Nick Saban and Cam Cameron messing up the Dolphins for years with bad draft picks and tactics, to Alonzo Mourning’s kidney disease right when the Heat were on the verge, to the NBA not letting Pat Riley sign Juwan Howard in 1996, to the de-thugging of and subsequent sucking of mid 90′s UM teams- we’ve seen disappointment. Now we’re about to see a revolution!