Hillsborough: News and notes

By JOE SMITH and KEITH NIEBUHR, Times Staff Writers
Published September 28, 2007

- What do Jesuit's Andrew Werdine and Plant's Meg Anderson have in common? The two sport the county's top times in the 100 free. Newsome and Sickles remain the class of the county, teamwise, but find out the top individual performances in the county honor roll at highschool.tampabay.com

Beating the best?

Today's Berkeley Premier, arguably the year's biggest regular-season volleyball tournament, begins with a bang as the host Bucs No.2 in the state take on perennial Kentucky power Mercy Academy (No. 9 in country) at 3 p.m. at the University of Tampa. Mercy (20-2) is one of three nationally ranked teams along with nine state-ranked teams in the 16-team draw, ending with Saturday's 6 p.m. title game. Other locals are defending state champ Plant, Tampa Prep, Durant and the Academy of the Holy Names.

Volleyball coach to leave AHN

Academy of the Holy Names volleyball coach Doug Chinchar said this will be his last season as the school's coach. Chinchar, who played volleyball at Ohio State, is in his eighth season at AHN (129-55). Chinchar, 37, who works full time at a Tampa drug-testing company, said he wants to spend more time with his 2-year-old daughter, Naomi. "It was a hard, hard, hard decision."

- In another local tournament, Sickles, Tampa Catholic and Leto will start the Hillsborough Community College Invitational today at 5 at HCC.

Sound bite

"If I missed another one, it'd kill me."

Chamberlain football coach Billy Turner, on returning to the sideline tonight against East Bay after a respiratory problem forced him to miss last week's game - the first one he missed in nearly a half century.e_SClBDid you know?

Sickles' secret weapon, senior Corey Page, averages 44 yards per punt (41 net). Page, who has booted all but three kickoffs into the end zone, is a big reason the Gryphons (3-1) typically win the field-position battle. He has offers from Hofstra and Lafayette.

Numbers game

6.4 Yards per carry for Gaither tailback Jarvis Giles, the county's leading rusher at 638 through four games. The junior could be extra fast tonight on Jesuit's new synthetic turf. "He's extremely quick," Jesuit coach Joe Ross said. "Hopefully the turf will slow him a tick."

Contact us

Joe Smith can be reached at joesmith@sptimes.com or (813) 310-9024. Keith Niebuhr can be reached at kniebuhr@sptimes.com or at (813) 226-0202.

[Last modified September 27, 2007, 23:30:01]