TomSportsHack

The maintenance costs are what kills natural grass. Anybody who's ever been to a high school that makes its soccer and football programs knows how that turns out, especially if the field hasn't been properly maintained the summer beforehad. And you know who really hates the new turf? Anybody who loses to the Pirates at Belfry ... they can't blame the Pond Creek VFD for drowning the field beforehad so they have to face up to the fact that they went to Belfry and got their butts whipped on merit.

There are Lakeland Community Colleges in Ohio and Illinois, but the juco in Lakeland, Fla., is Polk Community College.

Never got out east to good ole Vipperman Stadium, huh? I always used to think that the running backs were getting a break going outside because they were running downhill. :lol: Actually, now that I really think about it ... at Vipperman, you really could only see the other team from the knees up. :eek:

I'm coming in late ... is this 4A only, or across the board?

There's only one way to describe this new rule: LEGALIZED POINT SHAVING You don't want to get beat bad? Play defense. Or adopt the rule some states have: If one team is up 35 points or more at halftime or after, the game is over and we're all going home.

Valley moves into the district championship game against Pikeville at PHS Wednesday. No details.

This is not a surprise to regular readers of this forum. http://www.bluegrasspreps.com/showpost.php?p=1689140&postcount=7 :lol:

Letcher Central will win it.

I agree with the others: If you're a junior and you haven't gotten to the varsity level, you're not going to get to the varsity level. Ever.

I think he's looking at how the football regions break down. By that determination, Beechwood is in eastern Kentucky with Danville in the west.

Ugh .. Q&A format. I hate Q&A's and think they should be banned from all media --- and that includes the Budweiser "Hot Seat." It's probably the worst interview format there is.

NCAA baseball regional host sites aren't determined several years in advance (unlike basketball) until the end of the college baseball season, because (unlike basketball) it's not a big moneymaker and (also unlike basketball) in order to host a region, a team must first be good enough to make the tournament.

The soccer alignment has no relation to the basketball alignment.

Many nice things to say about Lake Howell. Good school, good area to live. St. Cloud's not bad, either, but Lake Howell is very much a metropolitan high school in the middle of the Orlando metroplex (Class 5A of football's six classes). The Silver Hawks were 4-6 last year, 2-8 the year before and 1-9 in both 2002 and 2003. I should note that in 2002-04 Lake Howell was in a much tougher district. The former coach was dismissed for reasons I probably can't go into here. NFL players from Lake Howell include 4-time Pro Bowler Trevor Pryce (Ravens), Chiefs linebacker Kawika Smith, and now-retired players Tam Hopkins and Marquette Smith. Their QB (Taylor Beasley, sr., 6-2, 200) is supposed to be one of the best in the state, averaging 253.3 yards per game last fall (160 completions on 298 attempts); he was named second team All-State in Class 5A. St. Cloud, a Class 3A school, was 5-5 last year. Over the second half of the season, they gave up 20.1 points per game after averaging 32.8 allowed in the first five games. To show you why they made Dayne their new D-coordinator, the Bulldogs had a three-game losing streak coming into the midseason point when they scored 42, 47 and 29 points, yet still lost. I always wondered what Dayne might be able to do if he had a bigger student body and better administrative support to call on.

For some I reason, I recall people saying somewhere on the World Wide Weird (this board or another) that the coaching change would have immediate positive results. Guess not. That said, it's hard to really gauge a team without seeing it on the field. Unless there's dramatic improvement at the Little League level, this could go on a long time.

And she's only a junior. Oh by the way ... one of our local sports columnists spent some time trying to hit her pitches earlier this week. His reaction? Oh. My. Lord. The day started with reassuring words about pitches in the low 60s. When the day ended, the words were more consoling than reassuring. "You didn't bail out," said Creek pitching coach Dave Johnson. "We've thrown to some guys, and the first time she throws that inside curveball or inside riseball, they're in the dugout. You did good." http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Sports/HighSchool/sptSOFTH01042806.htm

Kelsi Dunne --- the Florida pitcher who blanked Dunbar early this month --- set a new Florida state record by striking out 38 batters in 17 innings during the Class 6A regional semifinals Friday night. She got the game-winning hit, too. :lol: http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Sports/Headlines/sptSOFTH01042906.htm PORT ORANGE -- Game-winning hit in a huge regional softball game, or state record for strikeouts -- what will Kelsi Dunne remember the best? Dunne and her Spruce Creek softball teammates survived a grueling 17-inning, three-hour and 32-minute regional semifinal-round game, knocking off Lake Mary 1-0 on Friday. In the win, Dunne struck out an individual game state record 38 batters, bettering the effort of former Niceville pitcher Kayla Collins, who struck out 35 in a game in 2004, and now pitches for Florida State. The national record for strikeouts in an extra-inning game is 61 by Alicia Hollowell of Fairfield (Calif.) in 30 innings in 2001. But it was Dunne's game-winning RBI to score Amanda Lawrence that Spruce Creek will remember the best. It broke an excruciating scoreless tie that seemed like it might not end until next July. Now, the Hawks (24-4) move on to Tuesday's regional championship round, where they'll travel to Sanford Seminole (23-7) -- which knocked off Deltona in extra innings.

East Ridge has a booming Little League fastpitch softball program, so do Paintsville/Johnson County, Magoffin County has one but is only so-so, and Belfry might still have a program (somebody correct me if I'm wrong). Everybody else is playing without significant support (including defending 15th Region champ Shelby Valley and longtime 15th Region powerhouse Pikeville). Over in the 14th Region, Whitesburg (Letcher County) has a good youth softball program.

TaN, your logic doesn't fly. I can think of any number of Eastern Kentucky high schools which don't have a fast-pitch summer league to draw on, yet are still fielding a fast-pitch softball team. The main reason to "throw away" slowpitch is this: Nobody plays it anymore.

Florida is trying 43 feet this year and there's been no great effect on the game -- neither batting averages nor ERAs have ballooned -- although some of the more mediocre pitchers have found it challenging. There's certainly no reason not to do it.

The distance doesn't make as much of a difference as a good summer team does. If the top 20 or so players from Pike County played ASA summer tournament ball, it would do a great deal to help the game there.

The advantages of better pitching and strong ASA summer traveling teams cannot be understated. It helps that the weather here favors playing year-round, of course, but there's not as much basketball pressure here, either. BTW, Florida has backed up the pitcher's rubber to the college distance of 43 feet; once pitchers get used to it, it's pretty much a nonfactor. In the case of the Dunne girl, it should do even more to prepare her for a college Division I career (I believe she's just a junior, and she has a 60mph+ screwball, curve ball, drop ball, rise ball, two change-ups, a knuckleball and a flip). But until a pitcher gets used to it, she has to watch her pitches start to tail off 3 feet short of where she expects it to. Weaker pitchers --- the ones who have trouble getting the ball 40 feet --- wouldn't have a prayer at 43.

http://www.bluegrasspreps.com/showthread.php?t=86699

Spruce Creek P Kelsey Dunne (0.19 ERA coming in) threw a perfect game and struck out 14 of the 18 Dunbar batters she faced in a six-inning game Tuesday night. Dunne also hit 4-for-4 with a double and 4 RBI. Rochelle Kellar hit 2-for-4 and scored three times for Spruce Creek, the No. 2-ranked team in Florida's Class 6A. The Lady Hawks had 13 hits. It should be noted that Creek is in midseason form; the prep season started here in February with district tournaments starting April 17.

Minor detail: Cocoa Beach, but Coco Crisp.