By Emily Rosen

ERosen424@aol.com

www.emilyrosen424.com

It was a Saturday night and I was “frolicking” with a group of friends when my smart phone signaled that I had received a text. I tell you that I am obsessed about not answering those damn gadgets in a social situation. To me, this is the height of rudeness. Nonetheless, something made me take a quick glance at the screen which told me in a nanosecond that Justice Scalia had died. I could not squelch my initial reaction, which was an audible, “Yay!” bringing a number of friends to my side to share what seemed to be my good news.

I tell you this in the spirit of a confessional. It is one of those moments of which I am not proud. True, the good Justice had handed down decisions that were completely anathema to me, and sent me virtually screaming in the dark, trying for a split minute each time to fathom the rationale that would arrive at a place so far beyond the range of what I considered to be rational.

And then the media – overjoyed at the prospect of being diverted from the Trump Travesty – began to expose the Life of Scalia and my closed mind began to open. In a typically narrow-minded political vise, I had not bothered to view him as a person, but saw only one side of the man and made my judgment according to my ignorance. People do that, and it’s so wrong.

I began to see him as a principled man of high intelligence and humor who just happened to see things from a perspective different from mine – but nonetheless an honest one. Was I an “originalist” as regards the interpretation of the constitution? I had given it some thought as major SCOTUS decisions were highlighted by the media, but my thoughts were fleeting as life continued to “happen.”

But that’s for another treatise. The fact that Scalia’s judgment had national consequences that I found to be abhorrent is what living in a democracy is all about. The fact that I could not separate the man from his views is scary in this time of political parody and lack of civility – and I do not want to fall in line with political haters. The more I looked into the life of Antonin Scalia, the more I could admire his qualities as a human being who felt as passionately about his views as I do about mine. Mankind is not monolithic. We are all “many people” in one body.

We talk about tolerance all the time. We talk about acceptance. We talk about coming together. We talk about compromise. These are the high values that truly make America great. It is worth noting that the Roman Empire fell into decline as onlookers cheered the gladiators for their fierceness at dirty fighting.

And so, with all due respect, and a lesson learned, I can acknowledge with sorrow, the demise of a patriot and one who was true to himself. May he rest in peace.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

Another awards season has come to an end, with only the Super Tuesday Primaries and March Madness to distract us until the next major mass media conflict on March 25, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

While Amy took the Best Documentary Oscar, the most fan favorite documentary (according to www.rotten tomatoes.com) is Embrace of the Serpent, which makes its South Florida debut on March 11. Mad Max Fury Road garnered the most awards for its well-deserved visual and technical feats, but it was Spotlight that earned the Best Original Screenplay, which led to Best Motion Picture Award.

While Chris Rock lampooned the lack of diversity for the Academy Awards, there is a box office success story that is being ignored by Hollywood: Risen. Produced on a relatively small budget of $20 million, Risen has already earned its investors a return on their investment. Directed by Hollywood veteran Kevin Reynolds (Waterworld, Rapa Nui), Risen is a thriller about an event that happened nearly 2000 years ago.

Roman Tribune Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) is assigned to oversee the execution of a political insurgent named Jesus. By the time Clavius arrives, Jesus has died on the cross during crucifixion. While two other crucified men are tossed in a common burial pit at Golgotha, Joseph of Arimathea asks of Clavius that Jesus be interred in a family tomb. Clavius agrees.

After meeting with his supervisor Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth), Clavius is told to assign two men to guard the tomb for fear that the body of Jesus would be stolen to create a new religious movement. Despite following every forensic procedure, after three days, the body disappears.

Being the middle of the Lenten Season, many Christians are counting down to Easter Sunday on March 27. Risen opens as if it were another television version of CSI and appears to offer another series of Christian clichés. Yet, unlike many New Testament epics that focus on Jesus’ final days, Risen presents a different perspective, the afterlife of Jesus Christ.

This film provides a fresh perspective to the Independent Christian genre born12 years ago with the release of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. While he does not strive for Gibson’s artistic intentions, Reynolds’s low key direction enhances the narrative. The film begins with violence and despair, but grows into a peaceful resolution that does not feel dull or forced.

While Risen is not likely to be mentioned in next year’s Academy Awards, a story about Jesus’ life after death is too good to pass over.

[On Purim, which begins March 23, we retell the story of Haman’s failed attempt to eliminate the Jewish people].

One millennium before Haman was born, at the foot of a lone mountain, the Jewish people received a gift which transformed their destiny and changed the landscape of human civilization. It was an experience which imbued Jewish life with the nobility of transcendence, the majesty of Divine ethics and the grandeur of holiness. The gift of the Torah inculcated Jewish life with great moral and spiritual responsibility, but it simultaneously bestowed upon the Jewish heart, the Jewish home, the Jewish family and the Jewish community a piece of heaven, a glow of eternity.

But what is heaven for one person may spell hell for another; piano lessons for a 4-year-old Mozart is a paradise, while for another child the lessons may be a living purgatory. Heaven for the Jews was hell for the Hamans of the world. If G-d exists, then the moral law prevails, and there must be limits to power and self-aggrandizement. If G-d exists, the barbarian must vanquish himself. Haman felt that two diametrically opposing and mutually exclusive powers were competing for the heart of humanity.

About 2300 years later, this notion was captured by a contemporary Haman, Adolf Hitler. He remarked that “The Jews have inflicted two wounds on the world: Circumcision for the body and conscience for the soul. I come to free mankind from their shackles.”

But Haman, the avid student of history, knew that this was no simple task. He knew what had happened to Pharaoh, Sisera, Goliath, Sancheirav and Nevuchadnezzar, how they each attempted to eradicate the Jew once and for all and how they each ended up eradicated and forgotten themselves.

It is here where Haman invented an ingenious strategy. Haman believed that he had the “final solution” which had eluded all of his predecessors; he knew how to solve the “Jewish problem”, this time for real.

The Talmud relates the following story:

The Evil [Roman] Empire had prohibited Torah study. Pappus the son of Yehuda came and found Rabbi Akiva making large public gatherings and teaching Torah.

Pappus said to him, “Akiva! Aren’t you afraid of the authorities?”

Rabbi Akiva replied, “I will give you a parable.”

A fox is walking along a river. He sees the fish frantically scurrying from one place to another.

He says to them, “From whom are you running? From the nets and traps of the fishermen? Why don’t you come up to the dry land and we will live happily together, just as our forefathers did!”

The fish replied, “Is it really you whom they call the cleverest of animals? You are not clever, rather a fool! If we are afraid in the place of our vitality, how much more so in the place of our death!”

Rabbi Akiva concluded: If the life is tough as we are sitting and studying Torah, about which it is written “It is our life and the length of our days”, how much worse it will be if we cease to study Torah.

The Torah – Rabbi Akiva is saying, is to the Jew what the sea is to the fish. It is his necessary habitat, the source of his vitality; it is where he can live, breathe, thrive and be most creative. Like a fish washed up ashore, the Jewish soul deprived of Torah will struggle to find real endurable meaning on “dry land”, in an environment unsuitable for his spiritual DNA to flourish and express itself fully. He, like the fish, will flip and flop, experiment with different ideologies and lifestyles, desperately attempting to find solace for his aching soul.

Haman, therefore, understood that what he had to do was dry up the sea, sever the relationship between the Jewish people and their Torah. His goal must be to antiquate the Torah, to teach the Jews how to become “land animals”. He must invite them, in the words of the fox, to “live together with us in peace as our forefathers did”. Once the fish was out of the water, it would be vulnerable to destruction.

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the Director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches. New location soon. For all upcoming events please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

By Gary Curreri

Being named to the University of Miami’s Hall of Fame in 2008 was one thing, but Octavia Blue was humbled on Sunday when her #10 jersey was retired by the school prior to the team’s 67-56 overtime victory over Virginia Tech at the BankUnited Center in Coral Gables.

“It was an awesome day,” Blue said. “It was really special.”

The University of Miami retired assistant coach Blue’s jersey before the game. She is the fourth player in program history to receive the honor, joining Maria Rivera, Frances Savage and Tamara James.

Blue’s 2008 Hall of Fame class included President’s Cup golfer Woody Austin, basketball stars Octavia Blue and Mike Wittman, football’s Jeff Feagles, Randal “Thrill” Hill and K.C. Jones, Golden Spikes winner Pat Burrell and Olympic diving medalist Wendy Williams.

“The Hall of Fame was awesome,” Blue said. “There is a 10-year gap after you finish playing before you can be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Right at my 10^th year, they put me in. That was an unbelievable honor. I got in with a great class. I was surprised and honored to be inducted with them.”

“(Sunday) was crazy,” Blue added. “It felt like 10 times more special. I don’t like to compare the two because they are both great honors, but when you go into the Hall of Fame there are basically eight to 10 of you going in and when you get your jersey retired, they are singling you out. It makes you look back and reflect over your whole career with all of the people who have been involved in your development and helped, had a hand in your success as an individual. It all came together and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was a really proud moment for me.”

Blue played with the Hurricanes from 1994-98 and still sits in seventh place on Miami’s all-time scoring list with 1,724 career points. She also ranks seventh in career field goals made with 671.

After her Miami career ended, Blue was the 15th overall draft pick by the Los Angeles Sparks in the 1998 WNBA Draft.

Blue went on to play with the Sparks and the Houston Comets, as well as playing professionally overseas with stops in Turkey, Greece, Israel, Poland, and France before beginning her coaching career.

Coaching took her to St. Thomas, St. John’s and Georgia Tech universities before she returned to Miami and joined coach Katie Meier’s staff in 2012.

Admittedly, Blue was a “late bloomer.” She was an eighth-grader at Nova Middle School when the girls’ basketball coach saw her shooting baskets in a PE class and convinced her to give the sport a try. She went on to star during her high school career at Nova High School and earned a scholarship at the University of Miami.

“When I got to high school, I was really good at it, but I was really raw,” said the 39-year-old Blue. “I didn’t have skill. I just had natural ability and that actually landed me at the University of Miami.

“When you start off so young, it could probably get stale because you have played so long, but it was still very new and fresh to me and I was excited about the game and that is how I played,” she continued. “All of that passion enabled me to get a college scholarship and, from then on, the successes just kept piling up. The opportunities kept presenting themselves.”

When the WNBA was founded in 1997, Blue knew it was something she wanted to pursue. After an Achilles tendon injury cut short her professional playing career, Blue had no aspirations of coaching. Her former college coach convinced her to coach the post players at St. Thomas University and that led to her Division 1 stints.

“For the players I coach now, it is something I tell them to strive and try to be the best in anything you put your hands in,” said Blue, Hurricanes’ recruiting coordinator and is responsible for the development of Miami’s post players. “There is so much more to accomplish.

“For me, I want to continue to inspire young people and that’s why we coach,” said Blue, who hopes to be a Division 1 head coach someday. “When you are 18 to 22, those are the years you are in college and those are the most impressionable years of their lives. That’s what coaches and teachers, and educators, do. We help mold young people. I want to continue to do that and be a role model and a model citizen, and good things will come.”

Her recognition on Sunday will last a while.

“(Sunday) had to be at the top of the list of anything of anything that ever happened to me,” she said. “Obviously, I love the University of Miami. I had so much support from family and friends. I had people come from Deerfield Beach. People that I have known since I was 6 years old all the way up to my agent who managed my professional career – she flew down from New York. So many people who have helped me along the way were all there to celebrate that special moment with me – my family, my mother … it was just really special and a nice honor.”

By “Cinema” Dave

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

While Deadpool dominated last weekend’s box office, both independent movies Risen and The Witch: A New England Folktake (printed on posters as “The VVitch”) were moderately successful, given their modest production budgets. Both films could not be more different forms of entertainment. According to Rotten Tomatoes, [the Biblical tale] Risen was well-received by the public, but was not certified “fresh” by the mainstream critics. In contrast, The Witch was not warmly received by the public, but was embraced by mainstream critics.

The Witch is an art house horror movie that was obviously influenced by The Blair Witch Project and Val Lewton’s The Seventh Victim and I Married a Zombie. The Witch is what Rob Zombie tried to do with his home movie, The Lords of Salem. With shades of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, The Witch is pure rural horror with great attention to detail.

It opens with a religious family of seven being exiled from a New England plantation. While Tomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy, a South Florida native) plays peek-a-boo with her infant sibling, the baby disappears into the black forest. Things get far worse for the exiled family.

For horror fans suckled on the slice and dice horror of Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, this film will feel slow.

Director Robert Eggers puts the viewer into another world. The language is 17th Century English with the generous use of the pronoun “Thou.” Visually, this film echoes the nightmare paintings of Francisco Goya and the contemporary (to the timeframe) work of Johannes Vermeer.

This is not a happy film, but this motion picture is pure horror, much like the cult film Se7en. It will be talked about in film school for years to come.

Truly Deadpool is in a universe far different from The Witch, which is a welcome relief.

It opens with the Chicago song “You’re my Inspiration” as we watch a slow motion car wreck. During this montage, a roster of fake credits roll, creating the first belly laughs for the film, which last right through the post-credit teaser inspired by Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

So who is Deadpool, besides being another mutant superhero who wears a shabby Spider-Man costume found in a Salvation Army store? He is Wade (Ryan Reynolds), a con artist mercenary who finds the love of his life, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) but discovers he has terminal cancer. He learns of an experimental drug that may cure his disease, but, of course, the drug is administered by a certified mad scientist who turns Wade into a mercenary mutant.

Under Director Tim Miller’s firm direction, Deadpool takes all the clichés of a successful comic book movie and makes them feel fresh. There are ties to the eight X-Men movies with a few Easter eggs tossed in from the Disney Marvel comic universe. The fourth wall is broken with Reynolds being the perfect conduit.

Both The Witch: A New England Folktale and Deadpool know how to appeal to their respective audiences.

I recently attended a concert in Delray Beach that featured the harmonious excellence of the Legato Vocal Ensemble. The gifted group of mostly African American singers and musicians delivered a powerful performance to a full house at Church of the Palms. The first half of the concert included traditional arrangements of some classic hymns, such as “Come Thou Fount” and “A Wonderful Savior”. A stirring rendition of the spiritual “Elijah Rock” drew vigorous applause from the racially-diverse audience. It also caused me to reflect upon the power of song and faith in the history of Negroes in America.

It is well-documented that slaves found comfort and hope in the Christian faith, often expressing both in the moving spirituals that were part of their worship gatherings. Though many songs were passed down orally, making it difficult to identify the original composers, they possess an enduring appeal that stirs the soul of any generation. Songs like “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”, “Rock My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham”, and “Steal Away to Jesus” provided solace and strength to a people who identified with the plight of Abraham’s descendants in Egyptian bondage. It is even known that some spirituals also served as protest songs that inspired and informed about the path to freedom in the north.

Later songs like “Oh, Freedom” and “We Shall Overcome” carried on the tradition of hope during the Civil Rights Movement. Many of the leaders of the movement, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Andrew Young, Rev. Joseph Lowery and Rev. Jesse Jackson were men who came from the church motivated by convictions that were shaped by their faith.

To this day, numerous churches can be found in any community with a preponderance of black residents. This attests to the powerful role that faith plays in the life of African Americans, who sing and worship with passion in the average black church on any given Sunday.

Negro faith predates slavery in America, despite the negative stereotypes of a superstitious and pagan people as portrayed in films about Africans. Church history has documented that the Christian faith was firmly established in North Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia as it expanded from Jerusalem in the first century. In fact, the churches in North Africa and Ethiopia were the leading churches in the second century. It has been argued that many of the church fathers, such as Clement, Origen, Athanasius and Augustine, were men of African descent.

These facts are to be appreciated and celebrated as we observe Black History Month. Undergirding the achievement of many individuals of color was a faith that inspired them to stand firm while striving upward and longing for a better day. It was a faith that trusted God’s promises of deliverance and blessing. It was a faith that inspired them to believe that they were worth far more than what their circumstances indicated. It was a faith that helped them to hold on believing that they would see the glory of God.

It is a faith that must be passed on to our children and grandchildren, a faith that will sustain them both now and in the future, a faith expressive of the same sentiment and conviction as that of Moses in Psalm 90:1. “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.”

During this observance of Black History Month, let us recognize the undeniable and indomitable faith of the Negro.

Bishop Patrick L. Kelly is the pastor of Cathedral Church of God, 365 S. Dixie Hwy., Deerfield Beach, FL 33441. 954-427-0302.

By Gary Curreri

Highlands Christian Academy boys soccer coach Darryl Mauro said his team did as well as expected given the fact they didn’t train as a full unit until midway through the season.

The Knights finished the 2015-16 campaign with an impressive 14-2-2 record following a hard-fought 2-1 loss to host Trinity Christian in the Class 1A regional semifinal.

Highlands opened the season with a 1-1 draw with Coral Springs Charter and suffered its only loss of the season to King’s Academy, 2-0, in the third game of the year on Nov. 10 and went unbeaten the rest of the way until falling to Trinity Christian.

“We had the early loss and we do what we can with the players we have,” Mauro said. “When you have four full-time players and the rest don’t touch the ball until October, we only have they little window to try and teach them.”

“They do have fight when they need to and it usually comes when their backs are against the wall,” Mauro added. “We went down 2-0 and we fought and we fought.”

Jorge Zambrano and Joey Daanti scored for the host Warriors (14-3-4), while Evan Henderson scored for the Knights with less than 10 minutes remaining in the game.

Mauro moved senior defender Caleb Bien-Aime up top and hoped no one would break through as he changed his formation to a 3-4-3. He also received strong play from senior forward Elijah Kerr.

“I had two ninth graders (Bryce Everette and Kyle Coulson) on the outside and a senior (Henderson) on the inside (defenders),” Mauro said. “They did their job. Our goalie (freshman John Harris) was sick all week and he did as well as he could.”

The Knights will graduate four starters and Mauro hopes that the school will start an intramural program.

“It would be more established with a soccer-minded (philosophy) so the kids can touch the ball because our biggest issue is, since we are a small school, most of our players don’t touch the soccer ball again until October,” Mauro said. “That’s why I have a full head of grey.”

Mauro said, in addition to the football players, another issue he faces is that he didn’t get his international baseball players until early in the season.

“I was working with baseball so that they could finish their club ball and I don’t think we had a full training session with them until mid-December,” said Mauro, who had to wait on forward Tisjar Clotida and defender Swindly Lint to come out for the team after baseball had ended. “We beat some good teams this year and we tied Hillel, which was our only other blemish.”

Mauro said the team ran into a more talented Trinity Christian squad. It was still an improvement for the Knights, who didn’t make it past the district semifinals last year and graduated a lot of seniors from that squad.

“I had two baseball players and a couple of others come back,” Mauro said. “I am thankful I can coach with my son. I just want good soccer and today wasn’t their best. I thought (Trinity Christian) was a little more talented. They had five players up top. Their midfield and forwards had a little more energy than we had.”

“Today, I just think it was the pressure on them,” Mauro concluded. “We teach them to play patient, simple soccer. I want them to dribble. I want them to pass. I just love good soccer.”

By “Cinema” Dave

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

While most people celebrated Valentine’s Day at the Renaissance Festival or the Pioneer Days Festival, yours truly was busy screening Spotlight, a movie about the child sexual abuse scandal perpetrated by Catholic priests in Boston. While the subject matter is distasteful, Spotlight is a masterful film that has earned its accolades.

The film opens on Valentine’s Day in 1976. A child is abused by a priest who is detained by the Boston police. A representative from the Catholic Church is called in with a bundle of cash to give to the family. The film fast forwards to 25 years later when a new editor, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), takes the reins of the Boston Herald newspaper. A veteran of “a Miami paper” and The New York Times, Baron assigns the Spotlight team to investigate the subject of pedophilia in the Boston community.

“Spotlight” is the code name of the investigative team of veteran journalists from The Boston Herald. Walter “Robby” Robertson (Michael Keaton) is the editor of the Spotlight team who confronts some apathy from his past. Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo) and Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) are investigative journalists who are lapsed Roman Catholics. As the team interviews victims of abuse, they are frustrated by a bureaucratic mentality that blocks their pursuit of evidence.

Given that Ben Bradlee Jr. (John Slattery) is involved, Spotlight feels like a generational sequel to All the President’s Men, given Ben Bradlee Sr.’s involvement with that White House scandal. The methods of journalistic investigation are similar. Both films reveal what successful journalistic investigations used to be.

Spotlight has a conscience. As the team (and the audience) get closer to the truth, each character is given a moment of confession. This film is full of dialogue, but the pace does not drag and the story is strong. Spotlight is a must-see.

Touched With Fire opens tomorrow. Katie Holmes portrays a bipolar poet who tries to balance the mania of creativity with the stability of a love life. Inspired by writer/director Paul Dalio’s personal struggles with bipolar disease, Touched With Fire also stars Griffin Dunne, Christine Lahti and Luke Kirby.

For those seeking less serious entertainment, join the Deadpool bandwagon. Deadpool is rude, crude and socially unacceptable, yet so funny … more next week.

Let us examine the story the Bible records following the devastating flood, the greatest natural disaster of all times, which wiped out almost all of humanity. It is the ambiguous story of the Tower of Babel. Here is how Genesis 11:4-8 reads: “The people said, Let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top shall reach the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the face of the entire earth. And G-d descended to look at the city and tower which the sons of man built, and G-d said, …Shall it not be withheld from them all they proposed to do?… G-d scattered them across the face of the earth, and they stopped building the city.”

This is a strange story. Why did G-d interrupt their project? What was their sin? Their motives for building a city with a tower “whose top shall reach the heavens” are quite understandable, even noble. Mankind was only just reconstructing itself after the Flood, which had wiped out the entire human race, except for Noah and his family. If humanity were to survive, they needed to construct a strong city and tower that could possibly avoid the next disaster. What was wrong with their scheme? Hasn’t the Bible made it a moral imperative to “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it”? [Genesis 1:28]

One of the possible answers is this: In stating their objective in creating the city and the tower, the people declared, “Let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top shall reach the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.” Their motive behind this dramatic construction plan was to immortalize their legacy in concrete structure, the endurance of their names in the annals of history.

But what’s the big deal? The answer is simple. When you have observed a flood in which the entire human race has perished, have you nothing else to think about but securing for yourself a name and a legacy? Imagine somebody gazing at a home swiftly being consumed by a flood. Instead of running to rescue the people inside the home, this person stands and reflects how he can be sure to make a name for himself in the process. This would be grotesque. Can’t you ever forget about your ego? Is there never a moment you are capable of saying to yourself, “Forget my legacy! Human lives need to be saved!”

This is true of every grand campaign undertaken to help humanity. If the objective is self-aggrandizement rather than service to G-d and His children, the very core is tainted; the consequences of this blemish will likely be manifested in the future.

In our own lives we often observe people whose lives have been destroyed by a “flood”, in one form or another. Our question at such a time must always be how do I rebuild a broken heart? How can I ignite a tortured soul? How can I help a survivor? How do I bring more light into a dark world? How do I increase acts of goodness and kindness? What new deed can I undertake to heal the world? How do I extend myself to be there for another person? What can I do to change my corner of the world and make it a more moral and holy place? What will I do today and tomorrow to move our aching planet one step closer to redemption?

On Tuesday morning, we all witnessed tornadoes peel away roofs, rip trees from the ground and dump branches and debris all over the streets. However, as I stood in the Sand & Spurs equestrian park moments after the storm, I watched strangers selflessly helping anyone that needed it – people were schlepping debris, passing out water and assisting animals in getting shelter. To me, this was the human race on its best behavior.

So to you and to G-d I say, we have learned from the past; your children look out and care for each other, so please continue blessing us with peace and health. Thank you to all the nameless people who continue to restore our faith in humanity. To the City of Pompano and all its employees, you should be proud. It was an awesome response and job well done – thank you!

Good luck with the hard work ahead rebuilding!

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the Director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches. New location coming soon. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

Photo by Bryan Hursh

National Signing Day is in the books. On Wednesday, Feb. 3 the top prospects from Deerfield Beach High School signed their letters of intent to play college football at their respective universities. Congratulations to the class of 2016!

Athletes

• Aaron Robinson (DB): University of Alabama

• Cavin Ridley (WR):University of Georgia

• James Pierre (SS):University of North Carolina

• Simeon Brown (FS): Bethune Cookman University

• Jefferson Souza (K): Alcorn State University

• Michael Arthur Jr. (DE): ASA New York

• Jefftey Joseph (WR):Virginia Union University