With Woody on payroll, USF submits Gilchrist waiver

Posted Aug 27, 2008 by Brett McMurphy

Updated Aug 27, 2008 at 05:42 PM

With Gus Gilchrist’s personal trainer, adviser and spokesman Terrelle Woody officially on the University of South Florida payroll, the school submitted Gilchrist’s hardship waiver to the NCAA so that the 6-foot-10 center can play immediately and not be required to sit out a season after transferring from Maryland.

The appeal was submitted on Tuesday, the same day USF announced Woody’s hiring, USF coach Stan Heath said Tuesday night. USF assistant sports information director Jeff Wuerth said Wednesday the school expects to receive an answer from the NCAA within two to three weeks.

If the appeal is successful, Gilchrist would have four years of eligibility starting this fall. If the appeal is denied, Gilchrist won’t be eligible at USF until the fall of 2009 and will have three years of eligibility - or only one additional semester than he would have had if he remained at Maryland.

Augustus Sr. and Donna Gilchrist, Gus’ parents, told the Tampa Tribune a couple of weeks ago they were optimistic their son’s appeal to the NCAA would be successful.

“We were not going to stay here [at Maryland] and take this, we got no support,” Donna Gilchrist said. “We hope he gets his four years [at USF].

“We’re not going to think about it if he doesn’t [win the appeal]. We can’t think about it.”

As a senior in high school, Gilchrist originally signed with Virginia Tech in November 2006, but never attended school there. He signed with Maryland and began school there in January, but left after one semester and transferred to USF in June.

On Tuesday, Woody was hired by USF as a video and conditioning assistant. The job, which does not require a college degree, will pay Woody $30,000 a year, but does not include benefits, Heath said.

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The Perfect Sounding Opener

Posted Aug 27, 2008 by Mick Elliott

Updated Aug 27, 2008 at 04:51 PM

Urban Meyer isn’t going to say it, but the Florida coach could hardly be happier to have Hawaii as the Gators season-opening opponent Saturday at The Swamp.

Instead of having the always-popular get-started mismatch against an Eastern Michigan, Western Kentucky or Alabama Birmingham, the Gators have an opponent that was 12-0 last year before losing to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

Yet, there is absolutely no way Florida at home is not the superior team and doesn’t get its season off to a winning start.

“I wanted to be sure our guys had a good first game,’’ Meyer said. “Anytime you schedule a team like Hawaii as a first game, it makes your off-season that much more productive and focused than when you face a smaller-school team.

“Our focus has been so much greater than what it has been because of who we are playing in this first game and what Hawaii did last year and the way we speak of them – and the bottom line, when you flip on the film and you see them.’’

Meanwhile the minute-to-minute health watch on star playmaker Percy Harvin continues, but Meyer insists the spring surgery was successful and there is no concern of lingering issues.

Well, not really.

“Is there a concern? Yes,’’ Meyer said. “With the people who know what they are talking about, no.  Is there a concern by me? Yeah. I guess I’m concerned about everything. I was hoping he would be rock and rolling and we’d be going right now.

“It’s close. Real close. I just have to make a decision. Players play here when they are ready to go. If he is ready to go, I’ll play him.’’

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Picking Beckham: Good move

Posted Aug 27, 2008 by Marc Lancaster

Updated Aug 27, 2008 at 02:51 PM

Yes, the Rays came down to Tim Beckham and Buster Posey as finalists for the first pick in this year’s draft. But Pedro Alvarez was seriously considered as well, and while he’s obviously a great talent, here’s the latest bit of evidence that dealing with a Scott Boras client can be more trouble than it’s worth.

Boras apparently is contending that the $6 million deal Alvarez agreed to with Pittsburgh just before the Aug. 15 deadline to sign draft picks actually came after the deadline, which in theory would invalidate the contract. The Pirates have issued a response that includes a nice little hammer in the form of an assertion that Kansas City’s contract with Boras client Eric Hosmer was filed to the commissioner’s office AFTER Alvarez’s deal.

This should be fun to watch.

Elsewhere, Ken Rosenthal reports the Red Sox have completed their acquisition of outfielder Mark Kotsay from the Braves for a “mid-level” prospect. Kotsay will get $325,000 for waiving his no-trade rights and the Sox will get a guy who can help them at all three outfield positions provided he can stay healthy. Nice pickup for Boston, but replacing J.D. Drew’s production won’t be easy.

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HCU Under-15’s Close to Super-Y Championships

Posted Aug 27, 2008 by Nick Murray

Updated Aug 27, 2008 at 02:34 PM

Those of you that saw this morning’s Tribune might have seen the story about Hillsborough County United’s boy’s Under-13 team and RSL Florida’s boy’s Under-14 team looking certain to advance to the USL Super-Y North American Championships in November.

Well, after this weekend’s results, another HCU team is on the verge of joining them. The HCU boy’s Under-15 team needs only a tie in its final game against Orlando FC to move into the championships after a 7-2 win against Kendall SC on Saturday and Schultz Academy’s 2-1 loss to Sunrise. The two teams are tied on 26 points at the top of Pool A, with Schultz having completed its schedule.

But HCU coach Eric Sims doesn’t think earning a point is a given, especially after Orlando prevented the same team from moving on last year.

“They’re definitely a good team, they’re someone we’re going to have to play well against to get a point,” Sims said.

HCU won at home against Orlando earlier this season 4-1. If it earned a place in the finals, it would be the second time the team has reached the tournament. The squad also went two years ago in the under-13 division.

The game against Orlando is tentatively scheduled for September 14, having had to be rescheduled from earlier in the season. Sims said getting back to the finals would be gratifying for his team.

“That’s the reason we play the Super-Y League is to make the finals,” Sims said. “It would mean a lot. This team qualified a couple of years ago, didn’t qualify last year, and has always been right in the frame for qualifying. I think it’s something that’s important. It’s a goal we set for ourselves to qualify, it’s a way for these kids to get more exposure to hopefully get them to playat the next level.”

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Zhills Has a New Opening Date To Football Season

Posted Aug 27, 2008 by Eddie Daniels

Updated Aug 27, 2008 at 04:03 PM

The Zephyrhills football team will move it’s Oct. 17 home game against Miami Gulliver Prep to Sept. 5 – the season opener – after Gulliver Prep schedule another team in that Oct. 17 slot. The Sept. 5 date was to be an open date, but the Bulldogs’ new open date will be Oct. 17.

Stay tuned to The Tampa Tribune and TBO.com for further details.

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Chiefs Find Motivation In Heart Ache

Posted Aug 27, 2008 by Nick Williams

Updated Aug 27, 2008 at 02:20 PM

Remember this moment? Dontae Aycock does. So do members of the Chamberlain team, coaching staff and student body.

With 3.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter of his teams’ Class 5A region final against Kissimmee Osceola, Chamberlain trailed 14-7 and was 3 yards away from reaching the end zone in hopes of tying or defeating Osceola for a trip to the state semifinals.

On third-and-goal, Aycock was jammed at the line as time expired, just inches away from the end zone. 

Aycock was in tears, bent over in pain. All were dejected. It was one of the most heart breaking losses I’ve seen as a prep writer. Tampa Prep’s boys basketball loss in overtime in the Class 2A semis was hard to watch, but not like this.

Still, I’m a firm believer in what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Billy Turner is the same way.

“I think that is our key motivation,” he said. “We saw what last year’s team did and how close we were to playing (Jacksonville) Bartram Trail, which we felt like we could have beaten. We felt like we matched up better against St. Thomas (Aquinas) than anybody that would have played them. We had decent size, we had decent speed and we were clicking at that time. Osceola held us pretty good. The kids that are on our team that were here last year, they saw how close we were and I think on paper, we’re as good as we were last year. Maybe even better.”

But when you ask Billy and son Brian Turner if a state title is attainable this year, they always say “We have to get through Lakeland.”

Well, Osceola did it and the Chiefs almost beat them.

If Chamberlain goes all the way, what an ending it’ll be for the old coach. 

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Douglas Traded To Ravens

Posted Aug 27, 2008 by Anwar S. Richardson

Updated Aug 27, 2008 at 02:35 PM

Tampa Bay DE Marques Douglas has been traded to Baltimore, according to Adam Schefter of NFL Network.

Schefter said the Ravens will give Tampa Bay a 2009 late-round draft choice. The report also said there is a conditional draft choice in 2010 in the deal, which is contingent on Douglas passing his physical with the Ravens this morning.

I spoke with Jonathan Feinsod, Douglas’ agent, and he declined to comment this morning. That is probably because this deal has not been finalized yet.

Douglas signed with Tampa Bay this offseason, but was not having the impact coaches had hoped for. With Gaines Adams and Kevin Carter as projected starters, plus Greg White, Greg Peterson and Jimmy Wilkerson as probable backups, Douglas was no longer needed in Tampa Bay.

If Tampa Bay is able to obtain two draft picks for a player it would have likely cut, this ends up being a good business move by Bucs G.M. Bruce Allen.

[Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this post included the incorrect team involved in the trade.]

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Durham takes division title

Posted Aug 26, 2008 by Marc Lancaster

Updated Aug 26, 2008 at 10:05 PM

Durham captured its seventh division title in 11 years tonight as Dan Johnson’s eighth-inning homer gave the Bulls a 3-2 win over Indianapolis.

Jeremy Cummings, fresh off his stint with the U.S. Olympic team, got the win in relief.

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Hardnett Leads Raiders’ Stable

Posted Aug 26, 2008 by Adam Adkins

Updated Aug 26, 2008 at 10:12 PM

After losing a pair of running backs from 2007 who rushed for nearly a combined 2,000 yards, Plant City’s backfield was a bit thin heading into 2008.

However, first-year Raiders coach Jason Strunk believes he’s found some quality replacements – a committee of replacements, to be exact.

“I’ve got a pretty good stable of backs, and they all are going to touch the ball,” Strunk said.

At the top of the depth chart is Sharod Hardnett, a 5-foot-11, 174-pound junior who has been impressive since spring workouts and who should get the bulk of the carries. Hardnett was ineligible last season and did not play.

“It’s his job to lose,” offensive coordinator Wayne Ward said.

In addition to Hardnett, the Raiders also plan to utilize the senior Duran Lowe and freshman Dasmond Patterson routinely in the backfield, while senior Denzel Drone also will get a look, especially at fullback. In addition, senior Cortez Hargrett, the Raiders’ leading receiver in 2007, also may get a chance running the ball in a few formations, Strunk said.

“I think we’ll be fine [at running back],” the coach said.

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Top 10 Olympic moments

Posted Aug 26, 2008 by Erik Erlendsson

Updated Aug 26, 2008 at 11:02 PM

I know many of you have been waiting with bated breath anticipating the next installment of the Top 10 list here at Bolts Report, so as I started to see some faces around the area begin to turn blue - I may even have seen a few darken that shade to a slight purple today - I figured I better bolt into action (pun intended) and put fingers to keyboard.

Of course, as tends to be the case lately, plans today were disrupted as I had to make a run to the pediatrician for a case of strepp throat for my oldest son that totally threw out of whack my plans to get something up this morning before heading downtown for a meeting. So, needless to say, this is about 12 hours later than I had planned.

Now, the reason I decided to go off topic here is because I am an Olympic junkie. I love watching the Olympics, and watch them I do. Field Hockey? Yup, I watched a USA Women’s relegation game online. Team Handball? Yup, caught an exciting finish in the women’s semifinals in which Korea rallied from down three late to tie the game, only to have Norway score just as time expired. Showjumping . . . synchronized swimming . . . trampoline . . . team rhythmic gymnastics - I watched some part of all of them. That, of course, is in addition to the prime time events shown on NBC featuring swimming, beach volleyball, gymnastics, et al. I even stayed up on many of the nights of competition until 2 a.m. or later catching the live events telecast on MSNBC and would immediately turn on the television once my morning calmed down. My wife even hinted to me late last week that maybe now I’ll get some things done around the house now that the Olympics are over. She may be right. But then again, she may be wrong.

And before I get to the list, I wanted to give a shout out to the men’s team handball team from Iceland for capturing the silver medal. As some may guess from my surname, my Scandanavian roots are tied directly to Iceland, where my father was born and raised (no, I’m not from Iceland directly, I was born in Gloucester, Mass.). And I know many of my relatives take a gander at this blog from time to time, so I wanted to just say “Way to go’‘. Winning a silver medal in a team sport in the Olympics for a nation of roughly 300,000 is quite an accomplishment.

My top 10 Olympic moments, and they are not all about the glory of victory!

10 - Dara Torres showing sportsmanship - It was a terrific accomplishment for the 41-year-old swimmer to come out of the games with a silver medal in the 50m swim - and she lost by .01 of a second - but the image I will take from Torres came during her semfinal heat in the 50m freestyle. As the swimmers were called to the starting blocks, Torres walked over to a meet official to inform them that one of the swimmers were missing because of a torn swimsuit. The start was delayed slightly to allow the simmer to change and get to the starting blocks. It really was a nice moment.

9 - USA Women’s softball - They were expected to dominate the tournament, and during the preliminaries, they did. But coming away with the silver medal was a shock for this team. And while it may hurt the team to lose the game, the loss may help the sport which will not be on the docket for the 2012 games in London, mainly because the U.S. was considered too superior to the rest of the world on a competitive level. By the way, it may have been a bit melodramatic and it was ripped off from wrestling, but I did like the added touch of the U.S. players leaving their spikes at home plate in what may have been the final Olympic softball game ever.

8 - Henry Cejudo wins gold - In one of the few events I didn’t see at all, Cejudo won a gold medal in wrestling to complete a fairy tale story as the son of undocumented Mexican immigrants who goes on to win an Olympic gold for the USA. Talk about a compelling story.

7 - USA relays drop the ball - Actually, they dropped the baton. Both the men and women fail to qualify for the 4x relay race after failing to finish their qualifying heats and dropping the baton. Of course, after watching the Jamaican sprinters put on a clinic in the individual sprints, it probably wouldn’t have been much of a final had the Americans qualified anyway.

6 - Beach volleyball - It was the talk of the 2004 Olympics, especially the Walsh-May-Treanor women’s team, and this year was no exception. This year, add the Todd Rogers-Brad Dalhousser team to that list. My son was even asking me each night whether these guys were still alive in the tournament. I had to tape the quarterfinal last set, in which they fell behind 6-0 to Switzerland before rallying for the victory, so he could watch it the next morning. It certainly was compelling.

5 - Men’s gymnastics - With the Hamm brothers out of the competition, the U.S. team wasn’t expected to be a factor in the team competition. So even though they faltered badly in the final two rotations, including a near disastrous choke job on the pommel horse, it was a nice to see their joy and exuberance in winning a bronze medal, an unexpected accomplishment and quite a contrast to the women’s team tears of disappointment in capturing the silver.

4 - Nastia Liukin - She’s America’s new golden girl. Or is she? There is no doubt that NBC was pushing Shawn Johnson, the 16-year-old with the All-American smile who was the defending All-Around champion. Liukin seemed to be almost an afterthought, up until she won the gold in All-Around. I would like to think that there wasn’t a bias against her because of her Russian background. But either way, it was a treat to watch her capture the gold with a style that just screamed grace. Fortunately for NBC, Johnson was the silver medalist and then won a gold on balance beam.

3 - Usain Bolt - Fits in perfectly with this blog, eh? The Jamaican sprinter stole the show at the Bird’s Nest with dominating performances in both sprint races. To watch him just destroy the field in the 100m - how fast would his time have been had he not pulled up at the end? - to shatter the world record was a spectacle we may not witness again. Then, he did it again in the 200m just pulling away from the field with an amazing burst of speed to break a world record many though Michael Johnson would hold for decades. Sure, there will be whispers of performance enhancement, but without knowing much about the drug testing policy, I would say his performance enhancement is the 6-foot-5 frame that allows him to cover so much ground with his long strides.

2 - Michael Phelps - Sure, this maybe should be in the No. 1 spot, but it’s my blog and I’ll list them however I feel. Two images I will take away from these games are Phelps’ reaction when Jason Lezak chased down Alain Bernard in the 4x freestyle relay to help capture the gold. There was just pure passion and excitement in the reaction. Then, duriing the 100m butterfly, as it appeared Phelps would finish second, seeing his mom hold up two fingers in the stands before seeing on the scoreboard that Phelps’ had stolen the race by .01 second was priceless. Phelps is just a freak, and his eight gold medals are an amazing, amazing feat.

1 - Men’s volleyball team - Sure, winning the gold medal is great, but that’s not the story here. It was the fact that the Olympics started with the tragic death of the father-in-law of U.S. men’s coach Hugh McCutcheon in a random attack of violence. McCutcheon’s mother-in-law was also stabbed and hospitalised with serious injuries. McCutcheon missed the first three games, but returned to help lead the team to a gold medal. It’s just a touching story of overcoming tremendous personal adversity and grief to set out to do a job. And McCutcheon was so open about everything and how he dealt with it. Just a story that grabs at the heart.

So there is my list and I leave you this list with this image below - - - - - - -

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