Prep football: Bosco no longer Rivals' top team

Don Bosco Prep may have left Hawkins Stadium on Friday and returned to New Jersey with its winning streak still intact. But the Ironmen are no longer sitting atop the RivalsHigh100.

Bosco, which defeated Manatee 22-16 during the first game of Friday's Manatee Memorial Hospital Suncoast Challenge for its 37th-straight win, is now fifth in Rivals' latest rankings, which were unveiled this morning.

Allen High in Allen, Tx., is the new No.1.

"A game of tough sledding against Manatee last Friday proved enough evidence to move the team down," wrote Dallas Jackson, Rivals' senior analyst for high school sports, on Monday's rankings, "especially in a year when so many top schools have more impressive road wins."

Manatee led the Ironmen 10-9 with less than seven minutes remaining in the game.

The Hurricanes dropped three spots on Rivals' list and are now at No. 83 heading into the bye week.

When it came to Bosco, however, not everyone had a change of heart. The Ironmen are still No. 1 on ESPNRise's Powerade Fab 50 football rankings as well as MaxPreps' Xcellent 25.

Manatee is still ranked by ESPN, having dropped 20 spots to No. 39. And it appears the voters have taken Manatee's schedule into account: the Hurricanes are the only team on the list with two losses.

Prep football: No plans yet to televise Bosco-Manatee game

It doesn't appear that Manatee's game against New Jersey powerhouse Don Bosco Prep, scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16 as part of the Manatee Memorial Hospital Suncoast Challenge at Hawkins Stadium, will be shown on television.

"We had ESPN for both games, but the problem was they wanted to televise it at 5 and 8:30 (p.m.)," said Ken Halloy, president of Halloy Boy Sports Marketing, which is running the event. "Five was too early, and it was non-negotiable."

Halloy said there is a possibility of switching the Manatee-Bosco game to 8:30 p.m., and televising it.

But as of now, the times appear to be static, with Tampa Plant and Bergen Catholic, another Jersey team, set to follow Manatee-Bosco at 8:30 p.m.

"We're just so tight on crunch time right now," Halloy said following Thursday morning's press conference at Manatee Memorial Hospital. "We've got all these people traveling from New Jersey, and you don't want to disrupt their schedule. I think we're going to hold pat right now."

Halloy said Bright House Sports Network has expressed interest in broadcasting the games locally.

"We'll sit down and go over all the options. Manatee was going to be on ESPN, the second game was going to be on ESPN 2," Halloy said. "We just thought 5 o'clock, for people to get to the stadium, was just too early."

Prep baseball: Milledge on the comeback trail

(photo by Ron Vesely, Getty Images, and used on ESPN.com)

Does that freshly-trimmed guy look familiar?
It's Palmetto native and Lakewood Ranch graduate Lastings Milledge, one of the player's mentioned in this column by ESPN's Jerry Crasnick.
Crasnick lumps Milledge in with Jeff Francoeur and Jeremy Hermida as a once highly-touted prospect looking for a road back to the big leagues. Milledge, who spent all of last season with the Pittsburgh Pirates, is in Arizona trying to win a job with the Chicago White Sox.
Despite getting into a brawl this winer while playing in the Venezuelan league, Milledge, according to the story, has taken some steps forward, and is lockering next to veteran outfielder Juan Pierre.
White Sox DH Adam Dunn, who also played with Millege in Washington, told Crasnick that Milledge is unlike his reputation.
"He's great," Dunn said. "But baseball is a game of reputations. Once you get one, you can't get rid of it. It's unfair, but that's how it is. He's not what you would expect or how you'd think he would be. Plus, he's just a little pup still."
The good news is if Milledge does latch on with the White Sox, he will get to have a homecoming of sorts when Chicago visits the Tampa Bay Rays for a four-game series beginning Monday, April 18.

Rankings don't rattle Kinnan

Armed with a 3-0 start and a convincing win over Tampa Plant in a Kickoff Classic, Manatee finds itself on a number of national prep football polls.
It just doesn't find itself in the same place on any of them.
The Hurricanes are ranked second by ESPN Rise and fifth by USA Today - but 33rd by Rivals.com.
None of this means much to coach Joe Kinnan, however.
"I don't even know what we are," he said. "You just keep winning, and it just takes care of itself at the end."
Rankings mean little when it comes to what happens on a Friday night. Just ask the Canes, who were unranked heading into last year's Class 5A state final four and defeated Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas, ranked No.1 in the nation at the time.
"You go 15-0, and it will take care of itself. You don't, and you're not a top-10 team," Kinnan said. "If you can't win 15 games, you probably don't deserve to be in the top 10."
Manatee was idle last week and hosts Lakewood Ranch on Friday before beginning Class 5A-District 10 play Oct.8 against visiting Sarasota. The Hurricanes are still a bit banged up - defensive back Clinton Heaven (jaw) and wide receiver Anthony Lauro (knee) will not play Friday - but district play is what they are working toward, especially since Manatee hasn't won a district title since 2006.
"We broke this season down into a preseason, where we've got some really good people that we're going to play against," Kinnan said. "This is the district season. We've got to prepare ourselves."

Manatee 19th in ESPN Rise Fab 50

Manatee has been ranked 19th in ESPN Rise's Preseason Fab 50.
Its opponent for Aug. 27th's preseason classic, Tampa Plant, is ranked second.
The Manatee-Plant game, which will be broadcast live on ESPN from Hawkins Stadium, is part of the network's new ESPN Rise High School Football Kickoff. Aside from Bradenton, games will be broadcast live from Texas, Ohio, South Carolina and California.
Manatee running back Mike Blakely is ranked 116th in ESPNU's ranking of the nation's 150 best recruits. Plant linebacker and running back James Wilder Jr. is eighth.