Prep football: Cardinal Mooney's schedule

Cardinal Mooney heads into the football season looking for its first playoff berth season since 2008. Percentages are in the Cougars' favor - they are in a three-team Class 3A-District 6 and two teams reach the playoffs.
Here is the Cougars' schedule.
Game time is 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

8/30 LABELLE
9/6 at St. Petersburg Admiral Farragut, 7:30 p.m.
9/13 at Lake Placid
9/20 AVON PARK
9/27 TAMPA CATHOLIC
10/11 at St. Petersburg Catholic
10/18 OUT-OF-DOOR ACADEMY*
10/25 LAKELAND VICTORY CHRISTIAN
11/1 at Fort Myers Bishop Verot*
11/8 at Booker

*- Class 3A-District 6 game

Prep tennis: District tournaments begin Monday

The spring postseason gets underway this week in the form of district tennis tournaments.
Listed below are the tournaments involving area schools. District champions and runners-up advance to the regional team tournament, scheduled for Tuesday, April 9 and Thursday, April 11.
The No. 1 singles and doubles district champions advance to the individual state tournament, which begins the week of Monday, April 15 at various sites.

CLASS 4A-DISTRICT 8
When: 8:30 a.m., Monday
Where: King Middle School, Bradenton
Locals: ManateeOthers:North Port, Riverview, Seminole, St. Petersburg

CLASS 3A-DISTRICT 12
When: 8 a.m., Tuesday
Where: Charlotte High, Punta Gorda
Locals: Bayshore, Braden River, Lakewood Ranch, Palmetto
Others: Charlotte, Port Charlotte, Sarasota, Venice

CLASS 1A-DISTRICT 9
When: 8 a.m. Monday
Where: Longwood Run (boys first day); Out-of-Door Academy (second day); girls both days at Out-of-Door Academy
Locals: Bradenton Christian, Cardinal Mooney, Out-of-Door Academy, Saint Stephen's
Others: Clearwater Calvary Christian, Clearwater Central Catholic, Largo Indian Rocks Christian, St. Petersburg Admiral Farragut, St. Petersburg Canterbury, St. Petersburg Northside Christian, St. Petersburg Shorecrest Prep.

Prep sports: Representative Metz on the legislature facing the FHSAA

Prior to covering Wednesday's conference call regarding the Florida High School Athletic Association's responses to new legislation that could alter how the association handles cases involving ineligible athletes, I emailed questions to Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha.
Rep. Metz got back to me last night, and here are his answers:

What is your impetus behind the bills, which call for shorter investigations and put the burden of proof on the FHSAA to prove clear evidence of wrongdoing?
Rep. Metz: I became aware of the issues surrounding the FHSAA's heavy-handed policies during the debate on legislation last year. I respect Sen. (Kelli) Stargel, a former House colleague, and I am working with her on another education bill affecting public schools. When I heard that problems impacting student athletes still persists because the FHSAA has not embraced the changes we made last year, I decided to sponsor this legislation. The bill provides needed reforms intended to produce a more properly balanced system of checks and balances to govern investigations and ruling, as well as driving organizational culture change. The current FHSAA is too quick to assume that actions by student-athletes are in futherance of cross-school recruiting. However, students can in fact leave their current schools for perfectly legitimate reasons, including fleeing from abusive coaches, parental divorce or residential change, or because they are seeking a better academic opportunity, i.e., exercising school choice. The mere fact that they are also athletes should not subject them to onerous investigations as presumed cheaters, and the bill's presumption of eligibility provision will help reverse this trend. More importantly, student-athletes deserve true due process and should not be subjected to long, grueling investigations initiated with little or no supporting evidence. High school students have a limited window of eligibility and cannot get time back lost to an overzealous investigation. The intent of this legislation is not to allow students and families to consider athletics when picking a school. The intent of this legislation is to establish due process when it comes to FHSAA proceedings and investigations, which the FHSAA clearly lacks.

What is your response to the FHSAA's claim that this bill will undermine the integrity of prep sports and turn student-athletes into free agents who can simply jump from one school to another?
Rep Metz: The scenario described by the FHSAA is a highly unlikely one which House Bill 1279 does not allow. Both common sense and systemic checks and balances would prevent this type of extreme scenario from happening.  To begin with, in order to be eligible to play any sport, the student must be registered at each school before the particular seasons starts for that sport. In the hypothetical, a student would have to have started football at one school and then successfully execute two full and complete moves just at the right time during the school year in order to register at the destination school and maintain eligibility. Further, in order to transfer schools without a full and complete move, the student would have to obtain the school board's approval each and every time. Any school board applying common sense to those facts would realize that the same student is attempting to conduct multiple transfers in one academic year and they would likely deny the transfer requests and prevent this from happening.

Prep baseball: Mustangs a win away from playing for Sarasota Baseball Classic title

photo by Paul Videla

Lakewood Ranch takes a 2-0 record into the final day of Red Bracket pool play today at the Sarasota Baseball Classic.
The Mustangs play Eagle's View Academy at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex. Whomever wins will be the champion out of Pool B and will face the winner of Pool A - either Charlotte or Boca Raton - for the Red Bracket championship Thursday.
Listed below is today's schedule of games featuring area teams:

RED BRACKET
Pool play
Palmetto vs. Coral Glades, 4 p.m. at Sarasota High
Lakewood Ranch vs. Eagle's View Academy, 7:30 p.m. at Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex at Twin Lakes Park
BLUE BRACKET
Consolation round
Port Charlotte vs. Cardinal Mooney, 4:30 p.m. at Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
Gulliver Prep vs. Manatee, 4:30 p.m. at Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
Tampa Catholic vs. Braden River, 4:30 p.m. at Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
 

Prep baseball: Area matchups for Day 2 of Sarasota Baseball Classic

Lakewood Ranch was the only area team to win a game Monday during the first day of the Sarasota Baseball Classic.
Listed below are Tuesday's area games:

RED BRACKET
Pool play, Round 2
Lakewood Ranch vs. Dade Christian, 4 p.m. at Sarasota High
Palmetto vs. Boca Raton, 4:30 p.m. at Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
BLUE BRACKET
Consolation round
Manatee vs. Okeechobee, 4 p.m. at Riverview's homefield at Twin Lakes Park
Braden River. vs. Port Charlotte, 4:30 p.m. at Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
Cardinal Mooney vs. Tampa Caholic, 7:30 p.m. at Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex

Prep baseball: IMG hosting tournament next week

logo from imgacadmies.com

Baseball teams from four states as well as the District of Columbia will compete in the inaugural IMG National Classic.
The event runs Monday, April 1 and concludes Friday, April 5, with the championship game scheduled for 1 p.m.
Here is the schedule for the first day of the tournament. For more information, head to the tournament's official website.

Notre Dame College Prep (Ill.) vs. Fort Myers Bishop Verot, 10 a.m., IMG Field 2
Lambert (Ga.) vs. Spring Hill Bishop McLaughlin, 1 p.m., IMG Field 2
The Pendleton School at IMG Acadmies vs. Corning (N.Y.), 1 p.m., IMG Field 1
St. Laurence (Ill.) vs. Gainesville St. Francis, 4:30 p.m., McKechnie Field
Calvary Christian (Ga.) vs. St. John's College (Md.), 7:30 p.m., McKechnie Field

Prep boys basketball: Manatee hires Troy Bellamy

Manatee has hired Troy Bellamy as its new boys basketball coach, athletic director Joe Kinnan announced Monday.
Bellamy replaces Randy Smith, who stepped down after three seasons.
A Sarasota graduate, Bellamy recently worked under Stefan Gates at Cardinal Mooney, and helped the Cougars reach the Class 3A-Region 3 championship game.
"Hopefully with a renewed emphasis on tough defense and fundamentals," Kinnan said, "Manatee's basketball team will return to a competitive level under Troy's leadership."

Prep basketball, volleyball: Tentative districts released

The Florida High School Athletic Association released tentative districts Friday for volleyball and basketball.
Schools have until April 5 to appeal their classifications.
Listed below are the districts involving area teams.

CLASS 8A-DISTRICT 8Manatee
Palm Harbor University
St. Petersburg
Riverview
CLASS 7A-DISTRICT 10
Braden River
Lakewood Ranch
North Port
Sarasota
CLASS 6A-DISTRICT 11
Palmetto
Cape Coral Ida Baker
Cape Coral Island Coast
North Fort Myers
Port Charlotte
Venice
CLASS 5A-DISTRICT 10
Bayshore
Southeast
Gulfport Boca Ciega
St. Petersburg Gibbs
St. Petersburg Lakewood
CLASS 3A-DISTRICT 10
Bradenton Christian
Cardinal Mooney
Out-of-Door Academy
Saint Stephen's
Imagine School of North Port

 

Prep football: Bradenton Christian 2013 schedule

Bradenton Christian is in pursuit of the program's first playoff berth, and will be the only team on this side of the bridge competing in Class 2A-District 5.
Here is the Panthers' schedule, which originally ran on floridahsfootball.com.
Games begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

8/30 at Out-of-Door Academy (Kickoff Classic), 7 p.m.
9/6 TAMPA CAMBRIDGE*
9/13 at Imagine School of North Port
9/20 at St. Petersburg Canterbury*, 7 p.m.
9/27 CLEARWATER CALVARY CHRISTIAN
10/4 LARGO INDIAN ROCKS CHRISTIAN*
10/11 at St. Petersburg Northside Christian*
10/18 at Tampa Carrollwood*, 4 p.m.
10/25 FORT MYERS CANTERBURY
11/1 ST. PETERSBURG KESWICK CHRISTIAN*

Prep football: Braden River's 2013 schedule

photo by Tiffany Tompkins-Condie

Curt Bradley and the Braden River Pirates struggled to a 1-9 mark last season, a result of a tough schedule coupled with an avalanche of injuries.
Here is a look at who the Pirates face in the fall as they try to get back on track, courtesy of floridahsfootball.com.
All games begin at 7:30 p.m.

8/30 NORTH FORT MYERS (Kickoff Classic)
9/6 at Port Charlotte
9/13 at Southeast
9/20 LAKEWOOD RANCH*
9/27 BOOKER
10/4 at Sarasota*
10/11 BAYSHORE
10/25 NORTH PORT*
11/1 at Palmetto*
11/8 at Arcadia DeSoto

*-Class 7A-District 10 game

Prep football: Bayshore's 2013 schedule

It's a new era at Bayshore, where Elijah Freeman has been hired as the program's new coach coach.
The Bruins are hoping for some new results, too. Bayshore hasn't reached the playoffs since 2005 and hasn't had a winning season since '03.
Will they put an end to either of those streaks in 2013?
Here is Bayshore's schedule, which was originally posted on floridahsfootball.com.
Game time is 7:30 p.m.

8/30 at Riverview (Kickoff Classic)
9/6 SARASOTA
9/13 LAKEWOOD RANCH
9/20 SOUTHEAST*
9/27 at Palmetto
10/4 at Arcadia DeSoto*
10/11 at Braden River
10/18 WAUCHULA HARDEE*
10/25 at Booker*
11/8 at Venice

*- Class 5A-District 13 game

Prep boys basketball: BCS' Scheimann earns All-Star invite

Bradenton Christian Nick Scheimann has been selected to play in the Florida Athletic Coaches Association's All-Star Boys Classic on Saturday.
The game will be played after the girls game, which tips off at 11 a.m., at Indian River State College in Fort Pierce.
Scheimann will suit up for the South team, which is coached by Fort Myers' Scott Guttery.
Scheimann averaged over 16 points, eight rebounds and four blocks a game for the Panthers, the Class 3A-District 10 runners-up.
He was the area's only player to be picked for the FACA All-Star Game.

Prep baseball: Manatee's Sandberg listed as top 100 players

photo by Grant Jefferies

Manatee's Cord Sandberg is ranked 27th on MaxPreps' list of the top 100 baseball seniors.
Sandberg is known for his play at quarterback, and has signed a letter of intent to play football at Mississippi State.
But he is projected to go high in this summer's amateur baseball draft and has said he would like to take a stab at professional baseball.