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Knights top SAC schools
By JAMAL THALJI, Times Staff Writer NEW PORT RICHEY -- To be the best athletic program in Pasco County doesn't mean you have to be the best in every sport. It just means you need to be pretty darn good in a lot of them. Which is why River Ridge won the 2001-2002 Sunshine Athletic Conference All-Sports award. "Congrat-me-lations," said Royal Knights athletic director Jack Homko. He noted that while River Ridge didn't make the headlines other schools did -- one exception being the state runner-up softball team -- the school's athletes and coaches still performed well. "We've had a very solid year," Homko said. "We didn't make as many headlines as Wesley Chapel did with football and they had a big basketball year, and Ridgewood had a great baseball year, but we had a big softball year and I think everybody contributed to make this thing happen. "A lot of people would have guessed that Land O'Lakes, Wesley Chapel or Ridgewood would have won it." Those schools came close. River Ridge scored 138.4 points to win the trophy by four points. River Ridge won the girls all-sports title with 77 points, besting Ridgewood by 6.5 points. River Ridge's boys finished third, scoring 61.5 to boys all-sports winner Land O'Lakes' 64.5 and Ridgewood's 64 points. It was a remarkable year for Pasco County athletics. The Wesley Chapel football team turned in the first 10-0 undefeated regular season in the county since Pasco did it in 1998. Then three teams went on to the state semifinals: Wesley Chapel in boys basketball, Ridgewood in baseball and River Ridge in softball. Ridgewood and River Ridge made it to the state finals. River Ridge's softball team was the highlight of the school's athletic year. Led by SAC player of the year Christine Beck, the Royal Knights won a school-record 31 games, including the first playoff wins in the program's 11 seasons. Then came a thrilling win in the Class 4A state semifinals at Tampa's Ed Radice Park. Becks' two-out single sent Stephanie Seaman home from second for a 1-0 win over Naples Barron Collier to advance to the state championship game. River Ridge lost 1-0 to Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas in the title game. The school earned five conference championships this school year: volleyball, softball, wrestling, and boys and girls tennis. River Ridge finished second in girls cross country, girls swimming, girls golf, boys weightlifting and baseball. Third-place finishes came in girls soccer and girls track. And no River Ridge team finished worse than eighth in the nine-team SAC. "It's just a tribute to the coaches and the kids that the whole year they stuck to it," Homko said. "It's just a feather in our cap. Some people will transfer schools and say this program is better for me, but no one else can say we won the all-sports trophy." The end of the school year also meant the release of the Florida High School Activities Association's all-sports award. Dubbed the 2002 Dodge Sunshine Cup FHSAA Floyd E. Lay All-Sports Award (after the former commissioner who served from 1963-1980) it is given to the top program in each of the six classifications. The FHSAA all-sports standings are determined by how a school performed, by male and female sports, in the postseason. Saddlebrook Prep led the county, finishing seventh out of the 91 schools who scored points in Class A. The Spartans won the Class A boys state tennis championship, led by sophomore Jose Muguruza, who also won the individual state singles title. The girls tennis team finished third at state and the boys golf team was fourth. Out of the 79 schools in Class 3A, third-year program Wesley Chapel was 27th with 132.5 points and Pasco 36th with 106. In Class 4A, River Ridge finished 36th out of 81 with 109 points, a whopping 97 of which came from the girls programs, 47 from the state runner-up softball team. Ridgewood was 52nd with 80.5 points, Land O'Lakes 54th with 79 points and Mitchell, in the program's second year, finished 56th with 77.5 points.
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From today's Pasco Times Editorial Letters |
