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By Compiled by GREG AUMAN and KEITH NIEBUHR
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 14, 2000
Citrus and Lecanto each had two students earn Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Year honors, and five Citrus County coaches were named coach of the year in their respective fall sports.
Citrus golfer Christina Mitchell and swimmer Jim Baker were honored, along with golfer Andy Adolfsson and swimmer Allison Brundage of Lecanto.
Bruce Nelson of Citrus (boys cross country), Jere DeFoor (football) and Tim Holme (boys and girls swimming) of Crystal River and Doug Warren (girls golf) and Kathy Allen (volleyball) of Lecanto were coach of the year picks.
Instead of voting, the conference coaching honors automatically go to the coach of each sport's GCAC champion.
Citrus and Crystal River fared well in the all-sports standings. They tied for the conference lead with Hernando with 27 points. Lecanto was fifth in the seven-team league with 23 points.
Crystal River leads the boys standings. Lecanto is first in the girls rankings.
Citrus and Crystal River each had 25 athletes honored. Lecanto had 15 recognized.
The most closely contested honor might have been for football player of the year. Central's Jerry Daniels edged Hernando's Dee Brown and Crystal River's Clayton Trenary.
Trenary was the Times' pick for Citrus-Hernando Player of the Year. Brown was the Florida Athletic Coaches Association District 8 Defensive Most Valuable Player.
"It was a tough vote because there were a lot of good ballplayers," Central coach Steve Crognale said. "Dee was probably just as deserving, but I'm proud that Jerry was chosen."
Some sports' selections were based on performance in district competition -- top 14 in cross country, top eight and ties in golf, top two in each event in swimming.
Football selections are allotted to teams by conference ranking. First place has six players, second place five, third four, fourth and fifth three each, sixth two and seventh one player.
Volleyball selections are by nominations from coaches and voting.