Who’ll win the boys hockey title? February 22nd, 2012
Cypress Bay – Mandarin — Class 5A state soccer championship live blog February 19th, 2012
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SJAM to face Forest Heights in hoops final February 19th, 2012
Coral Springs Charter looking to join the girls basketball elite February 18th, 2012
It’s been an amazing season for the girls basketball team at Coral Springs Charter.
The Panthers have topped the 20-win mark. They won their first district title and their first playoff game.
Saturday night, they could make more history for the program when they travel to Gulliver Prep for a regional championship game. A win would send the team to its first state tournament, but Panthers coach Fitzroy Anthony says it will take more than one state berth to push Charter into elite status along with the Dillards, Novas and Hollywood Christians of the world.
“I think a win against Gulliver Prep would make us a program that can’t be overlooked. This game will be important in showing the community we’re not a pushover,” Anthony said. “But we have to prove this is not a one-year thing.”
This season, Charter has received strong play from a number of players including Aisha Edwards (18.7 points per game), Cecilia Wojcik (11.7 ppg and 10.5 rebounds per game) and Emily Williams (10.5 ppg and 4.0 assists per game).
All three will have to play well against Gulliver Prep to help Charter take that next step. Anthony says the team’s performance has excited students, parents and fans and he’s hoping that support will join the team in Lakeland if they get there.
“There’s a lot of excitement at school right now,” he said. “That game against [Cardinal] Gibbons, the gym was packed. And the more support you get as a kid, the more you want to receive. The girls are trying to prove they can play with the elite programs. They’re kind of on a mission.”
Three more wins and they’ll have reached the ultimate goal–becoming state champions.
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Report: Football coach loses job after posting nude photo on Facebook February 16th, 2012
With the growth of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, many high school coaches across South Florida constantly remind their young athletes to be responsible online. With many college recruiters using social media sites in their evaluation process, high school coaches know how quickly one questionable photo or post can tarnish a young athlete’s reputation–and maybe harm their chances for a college scholarship.
This week, however, it was a high school coach in Maine that learned how costly an online mistake can be.
According to a report in the Sun Journal of Lewiston, Maine, Oxford Hills football coach Paul Withee stepped down after school officials received a complaint that he had posted a nude photo of himself on Facebook.
From the Sun Journal,
“I’m embarrassed, I’m ashamed, I’m humiliated,” Withee said Monday. He said the picture was on the social media page for no more than a half-hour when he discovered what had happened and tried to correct it.
“I’ve never done anything like this before and I never will again,” he said.
“You have to be careful with what you do with social media. You can get yourself into a lot of trouble and something you love can be taken away from you just like this,” he said.
The Sun Journal reports the photo was meant to be shared privately, but was accidentally posted publicly. The paper also reports that school district officials said Withee had none of the district’s students listed as friends on his Facebook.
By all accounts, it seems this was a terrible mistake. Unfortunately, it was a mistake that cost one coach his job.
Coincidentally, the story is making headlines just as school officials in Miami-Dade and Broward counties are considering formal policies regarding teachers and adminstrators’ interaction with students on social media sites.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts. Was this coach right in his decision to resign? And are South Florida schools behind in addressing social media interactions between teachers and students?
Below is a link to the full Sun Journal report, as well as a local story on South Florida schools and social media.
Let me know what you think.
Sun Journal: Oxford Hills football coach resigns over nude Facebook photo
Blanche Ely boys hoops team remains No. 19 in national ranking February 15th, 2012
The Blanche Ely boys basketball team stormed through the District 15-7A tournament, but there wasn’t enough movement among teams ranked above the Tigers to give them a boost in this week’s national rankings.
Despite a 63-33 win over Northeast in last week’s district title game, Ely is again ranked No. 19 in the most recent ESPNHS Powerade Fab 50. The Tigers have been moving between the No. 18 and No. 20 spot since early January.
The Tigers (25-2) will get another opportunity to improve their national rank this week when they open regional tournament play with a Class 7A quarterfinal against McArthur on Thursday.
Follow this link to see the complete Powerade Fab 50.
Coral Springs DB Anthony Brand headed to Ellsworth February 13th, 2012
That Broward County-to-Ellsworth Community College pipeline just keeps flowing.
Friday morning, Coral Springs football coach Ray Gould confirmed that Anthony Brand would be signing with the Panthers.
Brand, a 5-11, 175-pound defensive back that had 8 interceptions for the Colts last year, is the latest Broward County standout headed to the Iowa school. The Panthers picked up a number of Broward players on National Signing Day and currently list seven South Floridians on their roster.
So how did this pipeline get to be? Panthers coach Mike Virden previously coached at Douglas. In his one season with the Eagles, he led the team to the playoffs–and discovered there are plenty of talented athletes here.
Hockey qualifiers are set February 12th, 2012
Live Blog: Class 2a Girls Soccer State Championship February 11th, 2012
TAMPA — American Heritage-Delray knows how to play in state title games, and on Friday, the Stallions used the knowledge of eight consecutive final appearances against Jacksonville’s Bolles.
Heritage dominated all 80 minutes of play in the Class 2A state final, overpowering the Bulldogs to win by a 5-0 margin giving the school a third consecutive state title on a rain-soaked Corbett Field on the University of South Florida Campus.
“You don’t want to say that any one is more special than the other,” Heritage coach and five-time state title winner Steve Burgess said. “I think this is the most special one for me personally. I’m very proud and very pleased.”
Bolles (18-9-2) only mustered three shots on goal in the game — Heritage (27-2-1) brought an onslaught of 13.
Tatiana Panagos had two goals and an assist in the win, but the star was left wing Yulie Lopez. The Heritage junior didn’t enter the scorebook until the 54th minute, but she was a one-person attack for the Stallions throughout. Lopez ended the game with two goals, but she created a dozen scoring chances for Heritage.
“Fantastic player,” Bolles coach Matt Tracy said of Lopez. “Even in the first half, when it was only 1-0, I still thought she was the dominant player on the pitch. It took a second, and a third, and sometimes even a fourth defender to try to contain her.”
American Heritage wasted little time to score its first goal. Penagos dribbled though the box in the eighth minute and blasted a shot inside the left post to score her 24th goal of the year, unassisted.
Rain started to fall after Penagos’ goal, but it did nothing to bog down the Heritage attack.
Lopez was injured after being drawing a free kick with 15 minutes remaining in the first half. Taken down from behind, Lopez rose to her feet slowly and hobbled away from the play, but she was able to say in the game.
Bolles took advantage of the limited Lopez and created a strong chance in the moments after the foul. That’s when a three-on-three counterattack ended with Bolles’ Naomi O’Leary slamming a shot off the crossbar that deflected out of play.
The play was Bolles’ the best — and last — scoring chance
The opening minutes of the second half brought Heritage’s second goal. Three more followed. The scoring started when Sabrina Chung clinically placed a shot from the right ride of goal past Bolles keeper Carly Stevens. The 47th-minute goal was Chung’s 16th of the season.
It was a also a momentum shift that Bolles couldn’t handle.
“We left halftime believing,” Tracy said. “But the difference between 1-0 and 2-0 is huge. At that point you have to think about how to get two goals back.”
Soon thereafter, Bolles was looking to get back three, four and eventually five goals.
Lopez scored her 51st goal of the season in the 54th minute. Panagos scored her second goal of the game off a corner kick three-and-a-half minutes later, when the ball pinballed on the legs of attackers and defenders. Eventually, Panagos was able to square up the ball and she roofed it from point-blank range.
The remaining 20 minutes of the game were an exhibition in “keep away.” Much of the possession was held by Lopez, who dribbled up, through, around and past Bolles defenders on field-spanning runs. One such run ended in Lopez’ second goal of the game, when she outfoxed six Bolles defenders and the goalie to extend the lead to 5-0.