The bottom line

By Times Staff
Published August 31, 2006

WHERE'S THE BEEF?

There's a house of meat stacked in the middle of Pasco's defensive line. It's not porterhouse or rib-eye. It's Cameron Pope. If anyone devours the 6-foot-3, 301-pounder, Pirates coach Dale Caparaso has some free hats and T-shirts for the kids. Pope was such a force in a 9-7 loss to Springstead, he forced the Eagles running game to abandon its efforts up the middle. "Unfortunately, that ended up working too well for them," Caparaso said, as the Eagles went outside with success. Pope is such a force in the middle Caparaso yanked him out of practice Tuesday so the offense could get some work done. "He's such a dominating force," Caparaso said. "He's got the speed of a linebacker and he's 300 pounds." Apparently, Division I programs have sniffed him out. Caparaso said there's interest from N.C. State, South Carolina and Kansas State. You can officially add him to the list of the county's top college prospects, joining Gulf's Alton Voss oral commitment to USF, Land O'Lakes' Joe Weatherford and Zephyrhills' Sederrik Cunningham.

This just in: (8:02 p.m. Wednesday) Caparaso calls to say sophomore Josh Johnson will start at quarterback for Friday's game against Ridgewood.

AWARD TO BISHOP

After sitting out a year at the University of Florida, former Land O'Lakes standout Stacy Bishop, right, wasted little time making her mark upon her return. The junior forward, who did not play last season after transferring from Louisiana State, was named Tuesday as the Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Week. Bishop's penalty kick in the 86th minute knotted the score in a 1-all double-overtime tie with defending NCAA champion Portland on Friday. A 2003 Gator grad, Bishop led Land O'Lakes to a state title her final season and is the county's all-time leading scorer with 192.

BEST BET

Volleyball, tonight, 7 p.m.

Sickles at Mitchell

THE SKINNY

Trust us, this will be the best volleyball match you have seen in Pasco County this season. That speaks more to the schedule makers than to Sickles, though the Gryphons are expected to be a very good team and a contender in Class 6A, District 7. The Mustangs are rolling early behind the county's best frontline - Heather Zappacosta, Layne Spencer and Kelli Wiedinger. Softball stud Ashley Stager makes the Mustangs attack even more formidable. The Mustangs need to win this game, so don't expect them to get caught looking ahead to next week's tilt with River Ridge.

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STATS

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PHONE NUMBERS

Pasco sports coordinator

John Cotey at cotey@sptimes.com

Staff Writers

Izzy Gould at igould@sptimes.com

Steve Lee at lee@sptimes.com

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