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Passage to final no picnic

By DAVID MURPHY
Published October 19, 2006

The view at the top is the same, but the journey Nature Coast took to get there is drastically different from last year.

When the Sharks square off against Hudson tonight in the Class 4A, District 8 final at Hernando High, they'll be a heavy underdog. The Cobras are angling for their ninth district title in 12 years. But the mere fact Nature Coast is even in the championship is a testament to how much it has progressed since the end of last season.

First came the graduation of star senior Illeana Santos. In her place stepped Alex Livengood, a ferocious hitter and excellent jumper who has all the tools to be a dominant player at the high school level except experience (She's only a freshman).

Then, midway through the season, Sharks coach Maria Garcia abruptly stepped down after an unspecified incident at a match against Central. Nature Coast struggled to maintain its continuity, then found itself matched up in the district semis against a Zephyrhills team it had lost to twice.

"Talking to them and working with them, I know they have the potential, but I've been working really hard with them to get into the game, to want it," coach Aixa Crespo said after the five-game victory over the Bulldogs.

Nature Coast realizes it is the underdog tonight against a Hudson, which was nothing short of a machine in its three-game dispatching of Hernando (the match took about an hour). But the Sharks don't appear ready to concede anything.

"If we play our best," said Livengood, "we can win." SUCCESSFUL FIRST SEASON: When Cristi Brown took over for long-time Hernando coach Dena Frye, she had one record in mind: 11-13.

"I just wanted to beat Dena," said Brown, who played for four years under Frye and was an assistant on last year's team that finished two games under .500. "That's all I wanted."

She more than accomplished that, leading Hernando to 17 wins in her first year as a varsity coach. Though the Leopards lost to Hudson in the 4A-8 semifinals, their year forever will be defined by a season sweep of Central, which Hernando had not beaten in four years. Brown said the way the Leopards played against the Bears gives her hope a district title may be in their future.

"If we treat every team like we treated Central," Brown said, "we can definitely do it."

[Last modified October 18, 2006, 21:30:25]