Prep football: Manatee's ring ceremony scheduled for next Thursday

(photo by Tiffany Tompkins-Condie)

Manatee's football team will receive its state championship rings Thursday, March 8 at G.T. Bray prior to the baseball team's game with Riverview.

The ceremony is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and the game is set for 7.

Hurricanes baseball players Cord Sandberg, Chase Sandberg and Garrett Waiters were on the football team, which won Manatee's fifth state title and first since 1992.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will honor Manatee prior to their March 26th game with the Baltimore Orioles at McKechine Field.

It's the Pirates' lone home night game of the spring and is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Prep baseball: Sarasota Baseball Classic Day 1 schedule

(photo by John Lembo)

Correlle Prime and the Manatee Hurricanes are one of a handful of local teams slated to take part in this year's Sarasota Baseball Classic.

Listed below is the Day 1 schedule for each of the area teams competing:

ELITE BRACKET

Monday, March 12

Manatee vs. Flanagan, 4 p.m. at Sarasota High.

Lakewood Ranch vs. Montverde Academy, 7:30 p.m. at Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex.

PREMIER BRACKET

Monday, March 12

Cardinal Mooney vs. Martin County, 4 p.m. at Riverview High.

Palmetto vs. Tampa Berkeley Prep, 4:45 p.m. at Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex.

Braden River vs. Benjamin, 1 p.m. at Sarasota High.

The IMG Academy vs. Island Coast, 4:45 at Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex.

Prep football: Offers piling up for Manatee's Calloway

(photo by Tiffany Tompkins-Condie)It appears as if Derrick Calloway has emerged as the breakout star of Manatee's stacked defensive line.
Or at the least the most heavily-recruited.
Calloway has received scholarship offers from a number of Division I schools, including Ohio State, who offered the junior Tuesday, according to Manatee assistant coach Chris Conboy.
USF, FSU, Miami, USC and Texas Tech have also extended offers to Calloway, who received a four-star rating rating from Rivals and was ranked the fourth-best defensive lineman in the state by Flavarsity.com.
Calloway had 58 tackles and 11 sacks last year for Manatee, including three sacks against Jacksonville First Coast in the Class 7A state final.
Calloway anchors a defensive line next year that also returns Blake Keller, DeMarcus Christmas and Marquis Dawsey.
The group teamed for 43 sacks last fall in helping the Hurricanes win their fifth state title and first since 1992.

Prep basketball: Palmetto up against one of nation's best Saturday

(photo from maxpreps.com)

Palmetto's fate in Saturday's Class 6A-Region 3 final may hinge on its ability to stop Winter Haven's DeVon Walker.

Walker is a 6-foot-8, 187-pound shooting guard averaging 24 points and 10. 5 points per game for the Blue Devils (20-7), who head to Palmetto on Saturday.

Rivals rated Walker 149th in its list of the country's top 150 players for the class of 2012 and ranked him as the class' 33rd-best shooting guard.

He has 12 scholarship offers, according to Rivals, from schools such as Alabama, Clemson, Florida and USF. Walker is shooting 37 percent from the field and 78 percent from the foul line.

The winner of Saturday's game meets either Naples Baron Collier or Miami Norland on Friday, March 2 in a state semifinal at The Lakeland Center.

Prep football: Manatee's Tankersley will kick for Carson-Newman

(photo by Grant Jefferies)

Manatee kicker/punter Nick Tankersley has c0mmitted to Carson-Newman College, according to Hurricanes assistant coach Chris Conboy. Carson-Newman is a Division II located in Tennessee.

Tankersley booted 53 extra points and 16 field goals this year for Manatee, including a school-record 53-yard kick against Sarasota. He had four extra points and a pair of field goals during Manatee's 40-0 win over Jacksonville First Coast in the Class 7A state final.

Tankersley also sent 53 of 93 kickoffs into the end zone and averaged 37.3 yards per punt with a long of 50.

Tankersley was offered as Gene Chizik's preferred walk-on before accepting to play Carson-Newman, which has won five national titles and went 5-6 last season.

Prep wrestling: Cannon third at All-Class Wrestling Championships

(photo by Grant Jefferies)

Southeast's Larry Cannon finished third at 138 pounds during Sunday's Florida All-Class Championships at The Lakeland Center.

The tournament, which has no affiliation with the Florida High School Athletic Association, pitted the top three finishers from Class 1A, 2A and 3A in the same bracket.

Cannon, who placed third in Class 1A on Saturday at the state tournament, fell to Longwood Lyman's Jayden Semrad 8-6 during the All-Class semifinals Sunday.

Semrad went 44-2 during the season and was a state runner-up in Class 3A.

Cannon (42-3) took third when Anthony Colon of Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas forfeited. A junior at Southeast, Cannon won district and regional championships this season and was the area's lone placewinner during this weekend's state meet in Lakeland.

Prep wrestling: Southeast's Cannon finishes third

(photo by Grant Jefferies)

Southeast's Larry Cannon took third place in Class 1A at 138 pounds during the final day of the state wresling tournament at The Lakeland Center.

Cannon scored an 11-6 win over Fort Myers Dunbar's Shaquon Young in the consolation finals.

Check out Sunday's edition of The Bradenton Herald for full coverage of the final day of the state wrestling tournament.