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© St. Petersburg Times, published November 3, 2001
It's playoff time.
Today, the Pinellas Youth Football Conference will have its semifinal round at Osceola High School. The Pasco Police Athletic League begins its postseason in four divisions within two conferences.
The Suncoast Youth Football Conference is using today as a make-up date and will kick off its playoff schedule Nov. 10.
Following a morning of junior varsity playoffs in the PYFC today, the Flyweights Division will open the varsity action at 2 p.m. with the defending champion St. Pete Lil' Devils meeting Gibbs.
In the Mighty Mites, St. Pete and Greewood play at 3:30 p.m., followed by the Pee Wee Division defending champion Lil' Devils and Largo at 5 and the Midget Division defending champion Lil' Devils and Silver Raiders at 6:30. At the same times Sunday, Lakewood faces Greenwood in Flyweights. Mighty Mite competition includes Gibbs playing defending champion Largo, followed by the Silver Raiders challenging Palmetto. Rounding out the PYFC varsity action is the Gibbs-Greenwood matchup.
This weekend's winners move on to the PYFC championships Nov. 10 at Osceola, where there also will be varsity cheerleading competition. Junior varsity finals are Nov. 11. "We've had another outstanding season, with 10 teams making it to the first round of playoffs," said Cecil Odom, president of the St. Pete Lil' Devils in the PYFC. "You can't get complacent, though, even though you've been through it before. Because for each new player, it's a first-time experience.
"A lot of our success has to do with the fact we have a lot of players to choose from," he said. "We probably have the largest registration of any organization in either the PYFC or the SYFC. Also, the coaches have a good system. Sometimes we may tweak it a little, but we don't try to really change something that's working."
Tarpon Springs is playing host to the PPAL playoffs in the South West Division of the West Conference. East Lake meets New Port Richey in the Varsity and Mighty Mite divisions and Tarpon Springs in Flyweight and JV. All games are at the Tarpon Sports Complex.
Today's winners in each of the divisions advance to conference games Nov. 10. Those winners qualify for the PPAL Super Bowl, Nov. 17 in Hudson. Sunday, a cheerleading competition will be held, with those winners advancing to a Super Cheer-Off on Nov. 17.
In today's SYFC make-up games, Countryside plays host to Tarpon Springs, Clearwater is at Dunedin, Dixie travels to Azalea and Seminole plays at Northeast. Pinellas Park has a bye.
Following today's final games, schedules for the Nov. 10 varsity and the Nov. 11 JV quarterfinal playoffs at Northeast will be determined.
Last year, the SYFC varsity champions were Clearwater's Flyweights, Countryside's Mighty Mites and Midgets and Dunedin's Pee Wees.
GYMNASTICS: Apollo School of Gymastics earned two first-place all-around honors in Level 5 and one in Level 4 at last month's Second AAU Qualifier in Port Charlotte.
Level 5 winners were Sally Rae Fix and Kendra Miller. Tops in Level 4 was Leslie Gillespie.
Apollo's Katie Wolfe and Stephanie Hessling were second all-around in Level 5. Sherilyn Mansfield was a Level 4 runner-up.
Laura Piehl was the only Level 6 Apollo competitor to medal, earning a sixth all-around, third in floor exercise and fourth on balance beam.
The club's Level 5 event winners were Wolf (uneven bars, floor), Fix (vault, bars, beam, floor), Sarah Poutre (vault), Hessling (beam) and Miller (floor). In Level 4, it was Alexandria Crawford (floor), Gillespie (vault, beam) and Mansfield (vault).
The Tampa Bay Turners were first in Level 6 team competition in the Gasparilla Invite in Tampa.
The Turners were third in Level 4 and 5.
Leading the club in Level 6 were Ashley Sullivan and Barbara Simkanich with first-place all-around performances. Lindsay Apperson, Jennifer Lee and Dayna Adams each finished second. Top-five all-around performances in Level 5 were turned in by Jennifer Stosh, Kirsten Jamieson, Kail Jamieson and Morgan Gunning.
Kaitlin Kuzdak was tops in Level 4. Alexia Perry, Nicole Baisden, Sara McCommack and Alexandra Moench were among the top five all-around.
LaFleur's of Largo captured the Level 5 team trophy in the Trick or Treat Invite in Tampa.
All-around winners for LaFleur's were Stacy Gollinger, Ashley Card, Kaley LaFleur and Megan VonStetina. Third-place finishes were recorded by Lindsay Villandry and Brynn Fullmer.
BASEBALL: Molly McKesson pitched a complete game for the Ocala Lightning in the national Women's Baseball Championship in Fort Myers.
McKesson gave up 1 unearned run on 4 hits, striking out 6 and walking 2 in a 2-1 win over the Califronia Sabres.