Seffner athletes on track to nationals

By TERRY JONES and JIM REESE
Published July 6, 2005

In addition to capturing individual state titles during the AAU Youth State Championships recently in Gainesville, three members of the Seffner Track Club qualified for nationals in New Orleans.

Andrea Bridges, a junior at Tampa Bay Tech, won the girls state heptathlon title for ages 15-16. She scored a high total of 3,269 points, competing in seven events - 100 hurdles, shot put, high jump, 200 meters, javelin, 800 meters and high jump - over a two-day period.

Erin Lyles, who will be a senior at Riverview, won the javelin throw for girls ages 17-18. Michelle Trugillo, a rising junior at Riverview, won the javelin for girls 15-16. The AAU National Championships are set for the first week of August.

BASEBALL: He failed to make the final cut, but left-handed pitcher Vinny Lally was one of only 36 players chosen from 3,400 to compete for 18 spots on the USA Baseball youth national team (16 and under). The 5-foot-10 Lally will be a junior at Wharton this year.

"You can never have enough good pitching," Wildcats coach Scott Hoffman said.

BASKETBALL: Tampa Catholic coach Tom Dziagwa's team surprised a lot of people by making the semifinals of the Tampa Bay Basketball Coaches Association Tournament last week. Three of the four top seeds - Wharton, Chamberlain and Jesuit - made the final four with Tampa Catholic, which started the season 1-3.

"I was very pleased with the way we stayed with Wharton for the first half, down by only three points at the break," Dziagwa said. "But their athleticism wore us down in the second half (Wharton won 65-47).

"We'll be starting one senior, three juniors and one sophomore, so we are young. We didn't hit the 3-pointers like we are capable of, but credit Wharton's tough defense for that. They have a very good team." SOFTBALL: Chamberlain was ranked 40th in the final Student Sports Fab 50 national poll after compiling a 24-3 record. That mark included three wins in the Class 5A tournament before a 1-0 semifinal loss to eventual champion Palm Harbor University. Chiefs coach Bobby Diaz keeps piling up success this summer.

He recently returned from the prestigious Independence Day Invitational Tournament in Boulder, Colo., where he led the Tampa Mustang Blue team to a fifth-place finish in the 80-team field.

"We have a very good travel club made up of girls from Plant, Chamberlain, Gaither, Countryside and St. (Petersburg) Catholic, among others," Diaz said. " Jo Jo Medina (Chamberlain) got us into the quarterfinal round with a late home run to beat the Texas Magic. It's a wonderful opportunity for these girls to be seen by so many college coaches." FOOTBALL: Hillsborough coach Earl Garcia not only is the leader in career wins with the Terriers, but he is at the top of the career wins list at Gaither as well.

"Before I came to Hillsborough, I was the head coach at Gaither for five years where we were 25-25. That's about as average a coach as you can be," Garcia said jokingly.

While at Gaither, Garcia was hired, fired, re-hired and fired again before joining the Terriers.

"I learned a valuable lesson there: the principal always wins," he said. "I should have known that already since my wife ( Gilda) is principal at DeSoto Elementary. The way present Gaither coach Mark Kantor is turning the program around, though, I doubt if my record there will last long."

Kantor led the Cowboys to a 6-4 mark in 2004. As he enters his 13th season at Hillsborough, Garcia is 116-22 as Terriers coach. SIGNING: Hillsborough High standout Stephon Davis, presently playing with the Louisiana High School All-Stars, signed with Southern University in Baton Rouge. Davis led all county hitters in batting this past season with a .567 average, driving in 44 runs and banging out seven homers.

Southern has had 23 players drafted in the past four years, including second overall pick Rickie Weeks in 2003, now a member of the Milwaukee Brewers.

[Last modified July 6, 2005, 00:50:11]