I remember the first time I tried a St. Clement Strawberry Shortcake very well. It was just a couple of weeks ago, at the Florida Strawberry Festival’s media party. We had just eaten dinner, and I made sure to save some room for one of those bad boys. When I took my first bite, I […]
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ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Garrett Wright
Durant High School has been focusing more on its hitting in 2014, and one of the seniors at the forefront of the movement is Garrett Wright. The center fielder sports the Cougars’ third-best batting average, at .435, but leads the team with eight RBI and nine runs scored. This past week, he went 1-for-3 with […]
Continue ReadingDurant Baseball: Life after Tyler Danish
Sometimes, as the 80s hair rockers Cinderella once sang, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.” That’s not the case with Durant baseball, though. It knew exactly what it had with star pitcher Tyler Danish. But, now that he and two other pitchers have graduated, the Cougars have had to adjust to playing […]
Continue ReadingDedication fuels Plant City karate master, Chris Welbon
It’s hard to compete with the Florida Strawberry Festival for attention, but Chris Welbon and members his karate club were hard to miss last Saturday. They gathered outside of Welbon’s Collins Street storefront early in the afternoon and hosted a “yard sale” to raise money for the club team’s impending travel expenses. With an extra […]
Continue ReadingWHAT’S ON KLINE’S MIND? Learning is part of the job
When I’m not on assignment, I sometimes find myself fielding questions about my job. A lot of the time, the question is something along the lines of, “How do you find your stories?” Other times, it’s something like, “How is such-and-such team doing, and how far can they go this year?” I don’t normally surprise […]
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BASEBALL/SOFTBALL + Cougars, Raiders renew rivalry On the boys’ side, March 4’s renewal of the Redman Rivalry was fairly close. Durant pulled away in the fourth inning and held on for a 3-0 victory at home, thanks to strong pitching from seniors Ryan Barfield and Jacob Scolaro. Together, they gave up three hits and one walk, […]
Continue ReadingATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Casey Decatur
There were a few notable performances in both of Durant’s first-ever lacrosse home games, but nobody took over quite like Lady Cougars freshman Casey Decatur. She torched Jefferson’s defense to the tune of seven goals, securing a 12-4 lead and killing the Lady Dragons’ momentum spurts at all the right times. You were on fire […]
Continue ReadingLACROSSE: Jefferson at Durant
The first home games in Durant High School lacrosse history couldn’t have gone much better for the Cougars. Though Wednesday’s rough weather caused an issue before the first face-off – rainstorms delayed Jefferson High School’s arrival by over an hour – that was Durant’s only problem. The boys won their match by a score of […]
Continue ReadingPlant City Vipers basketball comes to town
Sometimes, independent travel teams can be tricky for those involved. Organizational lapses can bring the whole operation down in a heartbeat, and the kids lose out. So, a group of concerned parents has made sure that Plant City-area kids will have no trouble playing basketball. The Plant City Vipers, the area’s newest basketball team, is […]
Continue ReadingPlant City golfer earns spot in international tournament
Before this month, Kyle Martin probably thought playing golf for Team USA while in college was a foreign concept. Now, golf is about to take him to a foreign country. Martin, 22, has accepted an invitation to represent his country in the 2014 World University Championships in June, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. Is there a better […]
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