Sunlake High School announced the hiring of three coaches for the school’s inaugural year in the fall.
Billy Garcia, Land O’ Lakes’ junior varsity coach, was named the Seahawks’ baseball coach.
Bob Marinak will be the boys basketball coach. Marinak is the boys basketball coach at Clearwater Countryside.
Ramiro Tejada will be the volleyball coach, after four seasons as Pasco’s volleyball coach.
LAKE BUENA VISTA - Updating this after talking to most of the principals, it’s virtually guaranteed Rocco Baldelli will be placed on the 15-day DL tomorrow with a strained left hamstring, but the Rays have chosen to couch it just a tiny bit.
Baldelli will return to St. Petersburg in the morning for an MRI, and a decision will be made based on the results of that exam. But really, because the Rays want to be careful, it effectively already has been made.
“My guess right now is it’s a DL situation, just to be cautious,” said Andrew Friedman. “But if the MRI comes back extremely clean and he feels a lot better tomorrow, then we won’t. But my guess is that it will be.”
That was manager Joe Maddon’s take as well. The Rays will play with 24 men tonight and make the DL move tomorrow, likely bringing up Greg Norton.
“I would anticipate somebody to be here by tomorrow,” said Maddon.
The Rays don’t need someone to play the outfield. Elijah Dukes will get most of the starts in center, with B.J. Upton also getting his share out there, and Jonny Gomes could be used on one of the corners if need be. And with three other first basemen on the roster in Pena, Cantu and Wigginton, all Norton would be asked to do in the near future is DH or pinch-hit. So yes, Norton probably will get the call.
“My guess is it would be him,” said Friedman, “but we’ll talk about it and go through all the options.”
As for Baldelli himself, he stuck with an admittedly bland, wait-and-see approach.
“I’m going to get the MRI first and then I’ll let everyone know,” he said. “I think we’ll have a better idea after that.”
He said there was no real difference in how his leg felt from last night to today—“It doesn’t feel worse or better.”
“I saw the doctor and he checked it out and there really wasn’t much new for either of us to find out,” said Baldelli. “It’s pretty much the same as yesterday.”
GAINESVILLE — Huntington, W. Va., power forward Patrick Patterson will play his college basketball next year at Kentucky. The 6-foot-9, 245-pounder chose the Wildcats over Florida and Duke.
LAKE BUENA VISTA—Joe Maddon was talking the other day in Toronto about a lack of alternatives to Rocco Baldelli in the leadoff spot, but he had to find one today. Still no word on the severity of Rocco’s injury, but we’ll get it to you when we hear.
Rays
Dukes CF
Upton 2B
Crawford LF
Wigginton 3B
Pena 1B
Harris SS
Young RF
Navarro C
Gomes DH
Fossum P
Love Andreas Karlsson’ nickname of Killer. If you have ever met Andreas or spoken to him, you will understand that the moniker just doesn’t seem to fit as he is one of the most easy going human beings you will ever meet. Always says hello in his very soft-spoken manner. But of course the nickname doesn’t come from his attitude, it’s from the move Slap Shot and the “Killer’’ Karlson character. That, however, is the irony in the nickname..... 
Five months into the season I would have thought the chances of Karlsson coming back for another season were remote - at best. He never established himself in the lineup, and though I thought he displayed some good ability to carry and protect the puck, John Tortorella never felt he was playing hard enough on the puck and Karlsson spent most of the second half of the season either out of the lineup or on the fourth line.
But his teammates stuck up for him - Jay Feaster said Marty St. Louis was a Karlsson advocate in the postseason and during the exit interview and that Brad Richards called Feaster when he heard Karlsson was signed - and that went a long way to Karlsson coming back for another season. He’s well liked and he definitely has a lot more than he showed last year. He can be a nice fit as a swing-man, much like Jason Ward, as someone who is slotted to play on the third or fourth line but can move up to the second line - as both players did in the playoffs.
Karlsson’s salary is also a very friendly number to Jay Feaster’s budget. At $500,000 Karlsson fits both the salary cap number and - more important to Feaster at this point - the cash budget which preliminarily is set around the $40 million mark.
With the signings of Karlsson and Ward, the bottom lines appear to be coming into shape as the duo presumably join Andre Roy, Nick Tarnasky, Ryan Craig and possibly either Tim Taylor or Eric Perrin (an unrestricted free agent). As far as seeking someone to play on the second line with Brad Richards, expect that talk to heat up at the draft next month in Columbus.
GAINESVILLE — Huntington, W. Va., power forward Patrick Patterson will announce his college choice in a half-hour, and it’s pretty easy to tell which fan base is most curious as to where Patterson will go.
About 2,000 people are on the message boards at Florida fan sites GatorBait.net and GatorCountry.com. About 1,000 are online between The Devil’s Den and Devils Illustrated, a pair of Kentucky fan sites. How many are online at CatsPause.com, the leading Kentucky fan site?
More than 10,000.
TAMPA – The Bucs were back on the field at One Buc Place on Wednesday. Well, most of them were.
Defensive stalwarts Brian Kelly and Simeon Rice were absent again. Both are recovering from season-ending surgery (Rice on a shoulder, Kelly on a toe) so their absence wasn’t a total surprise.
There’s talk that Rice will be in town next week, but no one expects Kelly to be back until he has to be back. That’s June 19-21, when the Bucs hold a mandatory mini-camp. If Kelly skips that, then we’ve got some issues.
Among those who were in attendance Wednesday was tight end Jerramy Stevens. Stevens was signed to a one-year, $600,000 contract, despite having been arrested on a drunken driving charge in March.
Stevens said all the right things to reporters on Wednesday, promising to put his myriad problems behind him. It remains to be seen, though, if he can erase a troubled past.
The Wharton boys basketball team was undoubtedly the best team in Hillsborough County this season and it was all because its dynamic guards. On Wednesday, two of those guards, seniors Anthony Gomez and Adam Noble, confirmed they will sign letters of intent this week. Gomez said he expects to sign with Saint Leo University sometime today if not later in the week while Noble said he will sign with Eckerd College within the next few days.
“I went up to visit and I really liked it,” said Gomez, who also received interest from Boston University.
Gomez, a 5-foot-9 point guard, was selected to The Tampa Tribune All-County first team and was the second leading scorer for the Wildcats with 13.2 points per game.
Noble, a 6-foot, do-it-all guard, averaged 10.4 points per game and was given the Alston “Mac” McGahagin Memorial Basketball Award at the Hillsborough County Public School Winter Awards for being a team player, as well as for earning a 4.83 GPA.
“I like the Eckerd coach a lot and its a great program,” Noble said.
Noble was also named an All-County honorable mention. Both helped Wharton reach the Class 5A region final, the furthest of any team in program history.
Friends for the last three years, the former teammates will become opponents.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Noble said.
“The biggest thing is that they’re both getting the opportunity to play beyond the high school level,” Wharton coach Tommy Tonelli said.
Gomez will join fellow local standout Walter Perkins of Tampa Prep, who signed with the Lions on Tuesday.
“They’re winners,” said Saint Leo coach Mike Madagan. “They played at a high level in the state and within the city.”
“(Madagan) has done a great job of recruiting local players,” Tonelli said. “I think he’s getting a great player in Anthony Gomez.”
Eckerd reached the NCAA Division II region final this past season.
“Coach (Tom) Ryan really understands what a winner Adam really is and what his value is to their team,” Tonelli said. “There is no coincident the teams he plays for win.”
Wharton’s other guard, senior Shawn Vanzant, the Tribune’s Boys Basketball Player of the Year, will attend Butler in the fall.
“I was a very lucky coach to have those three guys play together,” Tonelli said. “They were truly outstanding,”
Tonelli said senior center Leonard Simmons is expected to sign with Florida College.
I was able to grab a few minutes Tuesday night with Devil Rays owner Stu Sternberg before the game at Disney with the Texas Rangers. He made several comments that didn’t fit into the column I was writing for Wednesday’s Tribune, but were interesting nonetheless.
I’ll just post them, along with the question that drew the response for context.
ON THE UPGRADE IN OVERALL PLAYER TALENT: “What’s happening in the minor leagues is super. The way guys are buying into it on the major-league level is excellent. We’re adding a piece almost every three to four weeks. You go back to when we added [Akinori Iwamura] but now there’s no doubt we have a major-league third baseman. There were doubts about B.J. Upton in March, but I think we’ve got ourselves a major-league second baseman there. There were doubts about [James] Shields, but here he is and we’ve got ourselves a pitcher.”
ON OVERALL ATTENDANCE: “It’s been up. The numbers don’t show it, but last year we had a certain number of Yankee and Red Sox games on the weekend. We haven’t had those this year and they do affect attendance. And the TV ratings are up a good deal. I don’t think we are planning to have attendance to go from an average of 12,000 or 13,000 to 27,000 [overnight]. The incremental growth we had from last year to this year and from this year to next year still won’t answer the questions. … The questions will still be there until we get it up to 1.7 million to 2 million people. And the truth is, that’s about the minimum you need to run a franchise.”
ON TAMPA BAY AS A B ASEBALL MARKET: “As a businessman I always have to have doubts. We have to see the market do it, but we are give it every single opportunity we can to prove itself out. I have a sense the market can do it, yes. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here. If our growth levels off for a couple of years I’d be concerned. I hope to be here for a lotta lotta lotta years. We have plans like that, which is why we put the money into [the Trop] and it’s why we’re building our spring training where it is. I don’t see it any other way and I’m very confident we’re going to be there. I don’t think next year we’ll be at 1.8 million; it’s possible. I don’t expect it, let’s put it that way. But we have a better chance of being at 1.8 million next year than we do of going back to where attendance was two or three years ago.”
ON THE NOTION THAT WINNING WILL CURE THE RAYS’ ATTENDANCE PROBLEMS: “If we have to be a contender every year to survive and thrive here, that can’t happen either. Baseball doesn’t work like that.”
By EDDIE DANIELS
The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA – Brace yourself.
The Tampa Bay Storm are in playoff contention. Yes, you read it right and it’s not a joke.
After knocking off the right opponents (Southern Division mates Austin and New Orleans), reeling off three consecutive victories and winning three consecutive ball games, including Saturday’s 40-37 victory against the Los Angeles Avengers, Tampa Bay (4-6) finds itself in the fifth place slot in the National Conference – only six teams from each conference qualify for the postseason.
That said, Storm coach Tim Marcum continues to press the fact that the team needs to find itself on the winning side of the ledger before anything on the playoff scene can be settled.
“We’re not in any playoffs,” Marcum said matter-of-factly, “4-12 ain’t going to get no playoffs. We got to win, we got to win, we got to win. It is absolutely no playoffs.”
He then went into his impression of then-Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Mora’s 2001 tirade after a loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
“Playoffs?” mocked Marcum, “Playoffs?”
In addition to making its way from a dimly lit 0-5 start to a position where the Storm can see the light at the end of the playoff tunnel, Tampa Bay is on the tail end of playing three games in 12 days. The first two games included trips to Austin and Los Angeles and thus far, the squad is 2-0.
The final game in that cruel span comes 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Forum when Tampa Bay hosts the Arizona Rattlers (3-8).
“I told those guys, ‘For you guys to come in on a short week, to be doing what you’re doing after being up till a quarter till 7 and playing a 3 o’clock game, getting on an airplane on a short week, flying out to L.A., flying back,’” Marcum said. “Going out there and playing the game is the easy part. The friggin’ odyssey home, a two hour layover in Houston, almost three hours … it says something about these guys.”
IRON HAND, ER, MAN: Tom Briggs broke a bone in his left hand early in the fourth quarter against L.A. Funny thing about that is, Briggs didn’t miss any time and recorded a key sack of L.A. QB Sonny Cumbie with two seconds left. That 5-yard sack ensured Tampa Bay a victory as Remy Hamilton’s 47-yard attempt fell about 1-yard shy of tying the game.
Briggs will be fitted with a cast and will play against Arizona. The 11-year veteran leads the team with five sacks, five tackles for a loss and three forced fumbles.
BALL PROTECTION: If there’s an obvious stat, which gives the reason for the Storm’s recent success, it likely is the turnover battle. In Tampa Bay’s last three games, the Storm gave up one fumble, which took place in Austin. In the previous seven games, the Storm lost 11 fumbles and tossed eight interceptions.
FILLING THE SEATS: Tampa Bay ranks No. 4 in the league in attendance. The Storm average 14,872 fans. New Orleans is first (16,605) followed by Chicago (15,446) and Philadelphia (15,225).
BATTER UP: Jeroid Johnson recorded a team and game high five batted passes, a performance that earned him Defensive Player of the Game. Johnson, the team leader in tackles (65.5), also has a team best 11 passes defended and six interceptions.
JUST SHORT: Seth Marler, although a rookie, will be in the AFL records books as the owner of the second-longest extra point streaks in league history. Marler connected on 48 consecutive extra points. Had he made the final point after with 41 seconds left in the game against L.A., Marler would have tied the mark (49) and had a chance to break it Friday against Arizona.
BIG PUSH: The Storm defensive line had one of its best outings Saturday night in L.A. Tim McGill collected nine quarterback pressures and Mark Word tallied six. Marcum can’t remember a defensive lineman in his 13-year tenure in Tampa Bay notching as many pressures as McGill did.
The recent surge in defensive line pressure has to do with several aspects. First, McGill and Word, AFL rookies, are getting used to the game. Secondly, the group has put into use new techniques.
“Some of it’s different techniques the guys are now using… doing what we do best, pushing the pile and making the guy throw out of a can,” Marcum said. “Certainly understanding a little more about playing in the AFL because] McGill and Word, they never played Arena Football.”
UP NEXT: The Arizona Rattlers haven’t suited up against the Storm in two seasons. The last time the teams faced each other was March 2005, a 59-56 Storm victory. Tampa Bay owns a 7-4 record against the Rattlers, who will bring QB Sherdrick Bonner. Bonner, in his 15th AFL season, all with Arizona, is the franchise’s leader in passing yards, completions, attempts and touchdowns, among others.
Reporter Eddie Daniels can be reached at (813) 948-4214 or edaniels@tampatrib.com.
LAKE BUENA VISTA—Rocco Baldelli left the game after the first inning with what is being called a left hamstring strain. He hurt himself running out the groundout that dropped him to 1-for-his-last-40 in the first, pulling up a bit just before the bag.
If you’re scoring at home, it was a RIGHT hamstring problem that sidelined Baldelli for nearly two weeks at the end of spring training.
His departure forced some shuffling, with B.J. Upton going to center, Ty Wigginton to second and Josh Wilson coming in to play third base and batting in the leadoff spot.
To answer a question, Dukes is the DH, and if the Rays moved him into the field the pitcher would have to bat in the DH spot the rest of the game. Shields is a good hitting pitcher, but not that good.
GAINESVILLE — It’s official. The letter-of-intent for point guard Jai Lucas has arrived in Gainesville and has been vetted by Florida’s compliance department. You know what that means. It’s time for a canned quote from Gators coach Billy Donovan about his newest player. Here it is, straight from the e-mail press release.
“We are really excited to have Jai be a part of our program,” Donovan said in the release. “With the loss of Taurean Green, there was a strong need for a point guard. Without question, he fits that need and our style of play. He comes from a great family and has played against a high level of competition his entire life. We are thrilled Jai has decided to become a Gator.”
LAKE BUENA VISTA—Well, this is different. Looks like a spring training game, except the Rangers are taking early BP, and that doesn’t happen during spring training. Got all the Rays’ sponsor banners around the batter’s eye beyond the center-field wall, and Tropicana signage on top of both dugouts. Not that anyone else will see this but us, but for whatever reason they brought over numerous framed photos of Rays players from the Trop—big ones—to decorate the walls in the press box. There’s one of Jae Seo that’s a very tight head shot of him in the dugout with his mouth open. It’s tough to tell if he’s yelling or yawning.
We’ll see how this goes. As always this time of year, scattered thunderstorms are possible. Let’s keep our fingers crossed on that…
The lineups:
Rangers
Lofton CF
Young SS
Teixeira 1B
Diaz DH
Blalock 3B
Wilkerson LF
Kinsler 2B
Cruz RF
Laird C
McCarthy P
Rays
Baldelli CF
Dukes DH
Crawford LF
Wigginton 3B
Upton 2B
Pena 1B
Young RF
Navarro C
Harris SS
Shields P
Former Florida State point guard Josue Soto, the 2006 Florida Gatorade Player of the Year, has landed at Florida International University. Soto announced in March that he was leaving FSU after his freshman season to transfer to a program where he would have more of an opportunity to make an impact.
Well, Soto got his wish, but not at a high-profile school like his advisor, Miami Tropica AAU founder Art Alvarez, hinted at when Soto opted to leave FSU.
“Colleges from major programs wanted Josue,” Alvarez said on the Tropics’ team Web site (Miamitropicslive.com). “We’re talking about Seton Hall, Indiana, Marquette, South Florida, Duquesne and others such as FAU, Wichita State and Central Florida.
“But we felt FIU was the right spot. [FIU coach] Sergio Rouco is ecstatic to get him. Josue is the biggest recruit FIU has landed since Alex Galindo transferred from Kansas a couple of years ago. I feel that a point guard like Josue is the missing piece that FIU has lacked the past few years.
“And for me, personally, it will be great to have Josue play 5 minutes from my home in Miami.”
Hmmm, maybe that’s all we need to know about Soto’s decision. Let’s hope it turns out well for Soto, a personable kid with some real talent.
Freedom senior volleyball player Brandi Jarmon signed with Gulf Coast Community College on Monday. Jarmon, at 5-foot-4, was the libero (defensive specialist) for the Patriots this past season. Gulf Coast finished the season 15-17.
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