Sports

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Pasco: News and notes

By IZZY GOULD and DAVID MURPHY, Times Staff Writers
Published October 9, 2007

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Since some games were rained out Friday night, the Times' Friday Night Rewind crew will do a special edition, with sideline reports from John C. Cotey and Joey Knight. Check it out at highschool.tampabay.com.

Bishop McLaughlin hires three

The Hurricanes have hired Gregory O'Connell boys basketball, David Cassreino (girls basketball) and Derek Plank (girls soccer) as new head coaches, Bishop McLaughlin athletic director Mike Zelenka announced Monday.

O'Connell is a familiar name on the North Suncoast after he coached at Springstead from 1977-2000. He left coaching because he was physically burned out, but continued to attend nearly every Eagles game. When Bishop McLaughlin opened, he applied for and was offered the job, but turned it down because he thought his wife had breast cancer.

O'Connell never had a losing season, and his teams won four conference and district titles, averaging 19 win per year.

"I've always had that desire to go back," O'Connell said. "This was the only job I would have gone back to. It's that simple."

Cassreino is an American history teacher at Newsome, but comes to Bishop McLaughlin with three years of basketball coaching experience.

Plank played semi-pro soccer for 14 years and has boys soccer coaching experience. He took a winless team to a district championship within two seasons. Zelenka said he hopes Plank can improve on the Hurricanes' 7-6-3 record from a season ago.

Jenkins to be re-evaluated

Wesley Chapel star Greg Jenkins couldn't play in the Wildcats' 31-7 loss to Wharton over the weekend. He's still suffering from a contusion to his right (throwing) shoulder. Wesley Chapel coach John Castelamare said Jenkins will be re-evaluated today, but doctors have told Jenkins it's basically up to him as to when he can take over his role as starting quarterback.

What's in a name?

His initials are T.D., and he's living up to them. Wiregrass Ranch wide receiver Travis Duffy, right, caught four passes for 139 yards in the Bulls' 65-18 loss to Hudson on Monday, including touchdowns receptions of 35 and 58 yards.

Career firsts

Wiregrass' loss to Hudson might not have looked like much on the scoreboard, but the Bulls turned in the best offensive performance in their short history. Sparked by the playmaking ability of junior quarterback Angel Rodriguez, the first-year program scored a season-high 18 points and gained 326 yards of offense.

Rodriguez threw for 292 yards and three touchdowns, all career highs. Wiregrass coach Ricky Thomas shook his head afterward when informed he had attempted 33 passes.

"I've never passed that much, not even at Pasco," the former Pirates coach said.

SAC golf tourney begins today

One of the more intriguing Sunshine Athletic Conference boys golf matches in recent memory will begin today at Crescent Oaks in Tarpon Springs at 8 a.m.

Mitchell and Land O'Lakes will square off a week after the Gators knocked off the Mustangs and prevented them from winning the regular-season title outright.

River Ridge, meanwhile, enters having won eight straight matches after dropping its first two of the season - to Ridgewood and Mitchell, no less - by a combined three strokes.

With almost as many quality individuals - Zephyrhills' Rick Briggs, Land O'Lakes' Wes Parrish, Ridgewood's Jordan Padova, Mitchell's Kenny Cavender and River Ridge's Kiel Jackson to name a few - as quality teams, there's no telling how the tournament will play out.

The girls tournament is scheduled for Thursday at Hidden Creek.

Set your DVR

Hudson at Zephyrhills, volleyball, 7 p.m.

The first time around, the Bulldogs knocked off the Cobras for the first time in at least five seasons. But Hudson is playing its best volleyball of the season and is anxious for revenge. Outside hitter Lara Metz has 187 kills, while Lauren Stump has 107 kills and 65 blocks. Zephyrhills is coming off a first-place finish at the Crystal River tournament.

Check it out

Catch 47 has tapped Mitchell at Ridgewood as its game of the week Friday. So if you can't make the 7:30 game, just turn on the tube.

To report scores

Coaches are asked to call 1-800-333-7505, ext. 8123 no later than 11 p.m. each night.

On the Web

Want to sound off in response to one of our county-by-county writers' blogs? Nominate Top Performers for the month? For this and more, check out our high school sports blog at blogs.tampabay.com/preps.

Send us your photos

Have a great photo from a game that you'd like to share with online readers? Take a picture or video with your camera phone or digital camera and e-mail it to submit@tampabay.com Your subject line becomes the title of the photo and the body of your message becomes the caption. Files must be JPEGs and less than 700K in size. Photo galleries will be linked from high school sports page on tampabay.com.

 

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Contact us

Izzy Gould can be reached at izzygould@gmail.com or (813) 909-4612. David Murphy can be reached at dmurphy@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1407.

 

[Last modified October 9, 2007, 01:12:11]