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Jaguars stay perfect
By STEVE LEE, Times Staff Writer NEW PORT RICHEY -- If you play sports long enough, you're going to win some and you're going to lose some. Right? Apparently, the Seven Springs Middle boys basketball team may be unaware of that longtime maxim -- especially the latter part. A year after the Jaguars went unbeaten (7-0) as seventh-graders, they repeated with a perfect season as eighth-graders. A 62-17 win over Pine View on Dec. 17 earned Seven Springs (10-0) the Pasco County Middle School Athletic Conference championship. "I think (going unbeaten) this year maybe meant more to them, because there were a few more games and everybody was gunning for them," Seven Springs coach Tim Boggess said. The core of the Jaguars consists of five starters -- Blake Stockton, Mitch Foster, D.J. Crosby, Ron LaFleur and Jon Saxer -- who have spent most of the past two years together playing basketball in the Amateur Athletic Union. Foster, a power forward, is the scoring leader with a 14.4 per game average. Crosby, the shooting guard, is next with a 12.6 average and point guard Stockton scores at a 9.1 clip. But Boggess said those numbers are deceiving. All of his starters are usually on the bench before the end of the third quarter. No starter has played in the fourth quarter this season, said Boggess. Crosby and LaFleur, a small forward, are perhaps the most unselfish among the starters, according to Boggess. "D.J. and Ron are very generous with the ball," Boggess said. "They set Foster up with a lot of layups." No one sees the floor better than Stockton, whom Boggess said is "like having a coach on the floor. Blake picks up what the other defense is running." In Seven Springs' six-year history, there has never been an unbeaten boys basketball team. Now there are two with the same players recording back-to-back perfect seasons in two different grades. For his part, Boggess said he has never had such a talented group of players at the same time. Seven Springs averaged 40 points a game this season. "I wish I could take some of the credit," Boggess said. "They're a pretty highly motivated group. Their ballhandling is excellent and they play smothering defense. I know that's the key, because it sets up fastbreaks." Mitchell basketball coach Tom Jesse has seen Seven Springs play and is eager for that group to move up and become Mustangs. "We're very aware of what's going on in our feeder school," Jesse said. "We're certainly going to welcome them with open arms. "The thing that's impressive about them is the way they play. They pass the ball unselfishly. They're very fundamentally sound." Rounding out the Seven Springs team are Jeff Surmin, Casey Caldwell, Doug Cantwell, Brandon Phillips, Bryan Clum, Sean Fenech, Mitch Domond and Ryne Rich. Though Boggess will not get another chance to coach the starting five, he offered a final bit of advice for the departing eighth-graders. "My challenge to them is to maintain their success and keep on pushing," Boggess said.
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