Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Tickets to Saturday's Lakewood-Kathleen game are long gone, a disappointment to many fans in the community.
By JOHN C. COTEY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 1, 2002
If you don't go to Lakewood High, or work there, or have some serious connections, don't plan on attending Saturday's monster showdown between the Spartans and Lakeland Kathleen.
The hottest tickets in town have all been sold.
"We gave 250 to Kathleen and the rest were bought by students and faculty," coach Dan Wright said. "This will be a student-driven game."
That might upset some fans in the community who have encouraged Wright to move the game to a bigger facility, such as the gym at Boca Ciega High or an arena at a nearby college.
But Wright is not about to give away his homecourt advantage.
The Lakewood gymnasium holds around 700 fans. Minus the tickets given to Kathleen, that left 450 to distribute to students and faculty.
Article 23.150 of the FHSAA states that in order to host a Class 4A regional playoff game, the gym must seat 900. But M. Denarvise Thornton, the FHSAA's associate director of athletics for boys basketball, says that rule is void for Saturday's games because the athletic directors from the two schools have no problems with it.
Thornton also said no one has called from Kathleen asking the game to be moved.
Kathleen, the No. 1-ranked team in the state, beat Lakewood last year in the regional final 74-72.