Pasco: News and notes

By TIMES STAFF
Published January 22, 2008

On the web: Dandy dozen

Berkeley Prep takes over the top spot in our ranking of the best bay area boys basketball teams; St. Petersburg Catholic remains No. 1 for the girls. Sound off on the lists at highschool.tampabay.com.

Reed ready for Ivy

Gulf right tackle Steve Reed will take his game to the Ivy League next season, Bucs coach Jay Fulmer said. Reed, a 6-foot-6, 260-pounder who helped running back David Williams make all-state this season, has committed to play at Brown next season, the coach said.

Speaking of Williams, Fulmer hopes to get the senior, who rushed for 2,087 yards this season, into a junior college.

"I don't want him to fall in the cracks," Fulmer said. "I want him to go somewhere that's competitive."

Joyer 'could go far'

Florida coach Urban Meyer's visit to see Kamran Joyer at Wesley Chapel last week vaulted the 6-foot-3, 320-pound lineman into the upper echelon of bay area recruits for the 2009 signing class.

Joyer is expected to visit the Gainesville campus this week as an elite junior recruit at the invitation of the school. Along with exposure he recently received as a featured athlete on the recruiting Web site flavarsity.com, he should attract tons of interest from the nation's top football programs.

Of course, Joyer's sudden celebrity in what could be classified as a down year in North Suncoast recruiting stirs up memories of former Wildcats linemen Danny Tolley and Khalil Madani. The duo was recruited by various Division I programs.

Tolley considered Florida and South Carolina, but ultimately decided to stay close to home and attend USF. Madani accepted an offer from Air Force but has since left because of recurring leg injuries. He was a volunteer assistant at Pasco last fall.

When Wesley Chapel coach John Castelamare was asked to consider Joyer's potential, he didn't hesitate.

"He could be one of the top linemen here," Castelamare said. "He could go far."

Set your DVR

Hudson's boys basketball team travels to Dade City tonight at 7:30 for what should be another competitive night of hoops in Class 4A, District 8. The nine-team district is full of top-flight teams, including the Cobras and Pirates. Hudson 11-9, 9-5 is led by scoring sensation Jarrod Branco (23.3 ppg), while Pasco (13-6, 10-3) answers with the athletic Demetrious Larry. These teams met in December with the Pirates taking a 53-48 win, a game in which Pasco held a one-point lead through three quarters before outscoring the Cobras 14-8 in the fourth. Branco scored a game-high 24; Larry had a team-high 19.

Correction

Land O'Lakes' Arianna Azzopardi was misidentified in a girls soccer photo that ran in Saturday's Times.

Compiled by Times staff writers Izzy Gould and David Murphy.

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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 January 22, 2008, 00:58:35]