If you’re currently in grade school, please don’t be scared off by that headline. I’m not here to preach about the joys of homework and FCAT and everything else that you hate.
The school year is my favorite time of year, as a sports writer, because there’s so much going on from day to day. While it is a grind, it more than makes up for every summer’s slow pace.
I know many of you also can’t wait to get back into sports, whether you’ll be suiting up to take the field or cheering your teams on from the bleachers. We all have something to look forward to.
With that in mind, here are a few things I can think of that should make any local sports fan jazzed for the season.
Football’s back! And it’s going to have a new look, as our district underwent a few changes for this season. We’re now considered 7A-District 9 schools, rather than 7A-8, so you can all say goodbye to Brandon as a district rival.
Joining us (and East Bay) in Brandon’s place will be Bloomingdale, Lennard and Tampa Bay Tech. I wish we had drawn Newsome, as it’s closer than Lennard and always plays great games with Durant, but I’m not complaining about replacing one team with three that won eight or more games in 2014. This will be a great test for our teams, but I’ll save the in-depth discussion for the 2015 Football Guide (which, by the way, comes out next Friday).
PLANT CITY
Plant City High fans have much to be excited for this year. Between the football, flag football, golf, softball and soccer teams, the potential for at least one of these squads to win the school’s first state title right now is real. There are some teams, such as baseball and volleyball, who showed much promise last year and could end up delivering in 2015.
As a basketball lover, I’m looking forward to seeing what Billy Teeden and Wilt Wilkerson can do with their squads. I’d love to see more excitement for the sport as a whole around town.
DURANT
2015 should be business as usual for Durant fans, who can always count on at least a few sports to make deep postseason runs. Few coaches in the area are as consistent as baseball’s Butch Valdes and volleyball’s Brittany Wade in terms of putting a great product on the field and court, year after year.
But there are certainly strides to be made in other sports. Constance Wharton made many improvements with the girls basketball team in her second season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if her third season went even better. The lacrosse teams may have taken a few hits, but a surging interest in the sport (plus some freshmen coming in with lots of hype) should make the teams just as watchable this season.
STRAWBERRY CREST
Last, but not least, there are plenty of good things on the horizon for Strawberry Crest fans. The school won its first two state titles last year, thanks to the efforts of the cheerleading team and incoming sophomore wrestling star Cullen Telfer.
The volleyball and softball squads came very close to winning district titles last season. With coaches like the Miltner sisters they are always in the playoff conversation.
The basketball programs did make the playoffs last season, but the girls were the ones to win the district. Despite losing some key players to graduation, they could still realistically be penciled in to win the district again.
Keep an eye out for the development of two-sport star Terra Brooks in her senior year — she’s one of the best athletes in the entire area, if not the entire Tampa Bay area, and looks to be the linchpin of the volleyball and girls basketball teams.