Tag Archive | "boys"

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mendez makes Florida sports history

Posted on 12 December 2019 by LeslieM

By Gary Curreri

Kevin Mendez

Kevin Mendez is in a select company after he became just a third boys diver in Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) history to win four straight diving titles.

The Lighthouse Point resident and Pine Crest School sophomore joined Brian Gillooly of Gateway (Kissimmee), who won diving titles in 1990-93, and Mark Ruiz of Dr. Phillips (Orlando), who won titles in diving from 1994-97.

Coincidentally, he is the third diver from the school to win four in a row as he joined Pine Crest’s Carolyn Chaney, who won four straight titles in diving from 2011-14, as did another Panthers’ female diver in Joel Lenzi, who won in 1956-59. 

There were three other girls divers to win four straight, including Cherie Hammond (West Orange, Winter Garden) from 2007-10; Mary Hoerger (Miami Beach) from 1937-40, and Patty Kranz (Westminster Academy, Ft. Lauderdale) from 2007-10.

Mendez’s win in diving this year in Stuart at the FHSAA 2A State Championships gives the state championship diving title to the Pine Crest School for seven years in a row.

In addition to his FHSAA accomplishments, Mendez has been a stellar USA Diving junior diver, winning nearly a dozen USA Diving National Championship titles.

“Probably the best thing to happen to me was winning states because I came back two months before the high school season after taking a year off from the sport,” Mendez said. “I did not expect to win states.”

Ely boys expect to contend for state title

Blanche Ely’s Lamont Evans, right, tries to get past St. Andrew’s Landon Brody in a Kreul Showcase game at Monarch High School. Evans led the Tigers with 17 points and 5 assists in the 60-46 setback at the hands of St. Andrews. Photo by Gary Curreri

One thing is a given, the Blanche Ely boys basketball team stumbles in the early season Kreul Showcase basketball tournament and then rises to the occasion during the state tournament at the end of the year.

Lamont Evans led the Tigers with 17 points and 5 assists in the 60-46 setback at the hands of St. Andrews at Monarch High School as part of the Kreul Showcase, which featured many of the top teams in South Florida.

Even in defeat, coach Melvin Randall was pleased with his team’s performance. 

“Tonight, we finally played Tiger basketball,” Randall said after the game. “It’s small steps, but we will get there.

You will see a humungous difference in the coming weeks.”

Blanche Ely (3-1) was shorthanded in the contest as they were waiting for Iowa State commit Dudley Blackwell to become eligible after transferring from Huntington Prep (WV).

“We are always going to learn from a loss and keep growing,” Randall said. “St. Andrew’s is a good, well-coached ball club and a good team. It is a work in progress. We are young and inexperienced, but (this) week you will see a huge difference. All this, like it has been in the past, we learn from this. We watch the film, correct some of our bad habits and praise some of our good ones and move forward.”

Last year, the Tigers opened the season with a 62-52 loss to University School in the Kreul Showcase as both teams went on to win state championships. 

University School won the Class 5A state title, while the Tigers won a record eight state championships in March with a 57-52 win over Bradenton Lakewood Ranch in the Class 8A championship at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland.

Comments Off on Mendez makes Florida sports history

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pompano boys win county volleyball title

Posted on 20 March 2019 by LeslieM

By Gary Curreri

Photo by Gary Curreri

The Pompano Beach boys volleyball team won the school’s first county middle school championship in the sport with a 22-24, 21-13, 21-12 victory over Silver Lakes at Pompano Beach High School.

In the first set, the teams traded leads before eighth-graders Christensen Paul and Nikolai Jones slammed home kills for Silver Lakes to pull out the win.

Pompano Beach broke a 2-2 deadlock in the second set to go up 9-2 behind the serving of eighth-grader Logan Keothavy. They held that margin for most of the set and closed it out with two service points by eighth-grader Samson Lormeus.

In the final set, Pompano Beach seized an 11-8 margin after several early lead changes before pulling away from Silver Lakes as eighth-grader Nolan Debrocq had five straight service points and after a couple of side outs, and the score 18-10, the Bengals outscored Silver Lakes 5-2 for their first county championship in the sport.

Tournament MVP and Pompano Beach Middle School eighth-grader Logan Keothavy played an instrumental role during the season and in the playoffs. He’s played the sport since he began middle school athletics.

“I like playing and the team,” said Keothavy, 13, of Lighthouse Point. “I like passing, and hitting, and it feels pretty good to win the championship. I felt everyone in the crowd cheering for us – our parents, our families, everyone.”

When Pompano Beach dropped the first set of the championship game, Keothavy rallied the troops.

“We lost the first set and we didn’t think we should have lost that,” he said. “We weren’t moving our feet and playing like we usually do. Winning this is pretty big. We are 12-0 and that is better than any team.”

He said he wasn’t sure when the season began if they would hoist the championship trophy.

“It wasn’t until the fifth or sixth game of the season when I thought we had a chance to finish undefeated and win the county championship,” Keothavy said. “We were winning all of the time and it was fun.”

Pompano Beach Middle School coach Michael Miller was in his second year as volleyball coach at the school. Last season, he coached the girls team and this year the boys. Both teams lost in the quarterfinals of last year’s playoffs.

“It was a team of seven boys where no one was above the other and they all worked well as a team,” said Miller, who also teaches science at the school. “They listened to their coaches and captains and we all worked as a unit. No one was elitist and no one was above anyone else. It was a beautiful thing really.”

Miller said after losing the first set, they just talked about what they did wrong and what they could do to fix it.

“And we motivated each other,” Miller said. “We just needed to play stronger. We didn’t lose a single match during the entire season, not a single game. They played well as a unit.”

They lost two games (sets) in the playoffs. The other was in the quarterfinals in Coral Springs.

“It’s big,” Miller said. “The kids can see that you can be successful and work as a team. It is good life skills and it is beneficial to everybody, including the school. I couldn’t be prouder of these guys. They are very humble. They are all good students. They work well together. It’s a good thing.”

In addition to Keothavy, Miller also said the play of his captains, eighth-grader Zack Ruge and seventh-grader Garrett Weadock, were instrumental to the team’s success.

“Finishing undefeated is pretty special,” Miller said.

Comments Off on Pompano boys win county volleyball title

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ely boys hoops on track for postseason

Posted on 24 January 2019 by LeslieM

By Gary Curreri

Blanche Ely boys basketball coach Melvin Randall never rebuilds, he just reloads.

He subscribes to that theory as the Tigers have won five of the past seven state championships. Last year, Blanche Ely romped Jacksonville Creekside 77-54 in the Class 8A final.

Before missing out on states in 2017, Ely had won four in five seasons, with 2014 the only year without a ring. The Tigers also won in 2007 and 1993.

Following a heart-breaking, 62-52 early-season loss to the defending Class 5A state champion, University School, Randall said games like that will prepare them for the postseason and tough games down the stretch.

“We fought well, but we made a lot of mistakes,” Randall said. “We did some good things, we just have to look at the film and reevaluate some of the things we did well and some of the things that cost us. I don’t believe in moral victories. I could care less about a moral victory. It is either win or lose.”

Blanche Ely led 18-14 after the first quarter, before University School outscored the Tigers 19-12 in the second to open up a 3-pont lead. The teams tied 14-14 in the third before University School outscored Blanche Ely 15-8 in the fourth quarter to pull out a 62-52 win.

Blanche Ely junior Aderes Staton-McCray had a team-high 17 points, while junior Tyrecke Francois added 12 points and five rebounds in the loss.

“I have to find a leader,” Randall said. “Although I have a person who has been here all four years and supposed to lead, I guess he wanted to play the childhood game of hide and go seek and he won. I couldn’t find him.”

Since that time, the Tigers (13-6) have started to roar winning five straight games, including victories over Pembroke Pines Charter, Plantation, Dillard, St. Thomas Aquinas and Western. The team is currently at 5-0 and leading the District 14-8A standings.

Randall said he is counting on Joshua Scott to spearhead of the group. He also cited Francois, junior Lamont Evans and Malachi Hazelton.

“There are quite a few,” added Randall, whose team graduated six players from last year’s team – including four starters. “We are young, but we still have a little talent. We just have to get on the same accord. We are going to reload and we are going to be alright. We are going to be better than alright. Trust me.”

Registration begins for women in distress tourney

Registration for the 7th annual Women in Distress golf tournament has begun and will continue until the maximum field of 32 teams are complete.

Once again, the Colony West Women’s Golf Group will be producing the tournament, which will be on March 21, however, the tournament will be held at Pompano Beach Municipal Golf Course this year because of construction at the Colony West Golf Club.

“Because the (clubhouse) building is demolished so we could not have a luncheon after golf,” said Jan Parke, tournament chair. “We will play the tournament at Pompano Beach and eat at Galuppi’s Restaurant which is at the golf course.

For more information, details or the registration form, e-mail janparke@bellsouth.net or the registration chair, Geri Thomas, at gthomas6116@gmail.com.

Comments Off on Ely boys hoops on track for postseason

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bucks win regional semifinal

Posted on 01 March 2018 by LeslieM

By Gary Curreri

Deerfield Beach High School boys’ basketball coach Kenny Brown switched his team to a zone defense and the Bucks were in a zone in taking out the state’s second-ranked Class 9A team in Coral Springs, 73-60 on Tuesday night.

Senior Lutelson Jerome led four players in double figures for the Bucks with 19 points in the Class 9A regional semifinal at Coral Springs High. Jonathan Lemy and Hansley Senatus had 12 points each, while Michael Johnson added 11 in a winning effort.

Deerfield Beach (22-8) will travel to play Wellington in the regional final on Friday night. The Wolverines, who lost in the state semifinals last year to the eventual state champion, Osceola, are 29-0 this year.

We held some things back in the first three games,” said Bucks coach Kenny Brown, whose team entered the game as the eighth-ranked team by MaxPreps in Class 9A. “We weren’t going to do certain things. We just stuck to the basics. We decided to do some things tonight that we felt would work against them.

Tonight, we decided to play a zone (defense) and we knew they weren’t going to be prepared for that because we hadn’t done it before,” Brown continued. “They thought we were going to play man-to-man the whole game…we just played some 1-3-1 (zone) and never played man-to-man the whole night.”

Coral Springs (22-7) had defeated Deerfield three times during the season winning 61-55 in OT in the first meeting and then 60-54 in the second. The Colts, the second-ranked team in Class 9A and 8th ranked overall, then topped the Bucks 71-56 for the district championship.

Deerfield opened up an early 12-2 lead before the host Colts clawed back to tie the game at 30-30 on a lay-up by Deante Moore. The Bucks’ Hansley Senatus drained a 3-point basket at the buzzer as the Bucks took a 33-30 lead at the intermission.

Deerfield Beach used an 18-11 run in the third quarter to break open a close game and the Colts were unable to recover.

Coral Springs was led by Moore who scored 11 of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter, but the Colts were unable to recover from an 18-11 run in the third quarter that stretched the lead to double digits. The Colts, who won the state title in 2016, led just once in the first half as Jelani Heard opened a 2-0 lead with two free throws.

It was a rematch of last year’s regional semifinal won by Coral Springs, 47-44. Deerfield Beach reached the state semifinals in 2013 when it fell to eventual champion Haggerty, 57-54.

This is huge for these kids,” Brown added. “I have a lot of kids who this is their first year on varsity and this has been a year where they learned on the fly. We have had some ups and downs because of their youth, but they learned from it and they played a lot better tonight.”

Tigers rally past Dwyer, 65-50

Michael Forrest scored a game-high 38 points as Blanche Ely blew past Dwyer, 65-50, in the Class 8A regional semifinal in Palm Beach Gardens on Tuesday night.

Tigers coach Melvin Randall said Forrest has been the key to the team’s success down the stretch.

He is finally getting it that he is the leader,” said Randall, whose Tigers (21-8) will host McArthur on Friday in the Class 8A regional finals. “We don’t go anywhere without him.”

The win was the Tigers’ fourth straight year where they ended the Panthers’ season in the playoffs. Dwyer (26-2) saw its 13-game win streak come to an end. The team’s only other setback came on Jan. 9 to University School, 66-62.

Joshua Scott added 11 points on the night for Blanche Ely, which won four state titles in a five-year span from 2012-16. The Tigers, who won back-to-back championships in 2015 and 2016, were upset in their bid at a three-peat last year when it fell to Palm Beach Lakes in the regional semifinals.

Forrest scored 14 first-quarter points to stake the Tigers to 11-point lead after eight minutes and stretched the margin to 38-22 at the intermission. Dwyer made a late run, but it wasn’t enough.

Comments Off on Bucks win regional semifinal

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tornadoes show improvement on court

Posted on 18 January 2018 by LeslieM

By Gary Curreri

The first thing on Pompano Beach High School boys’ basketball coach James Stone’s bucket list was to win a game.

Check!

The Tornadoes were coming off an 0-21 (2016-17) season and lost the final game in the 2015-16 season when they finished 5-16. Pompano Beach dropped their first eight games of the 2017-18 campaign before a 72-65 victory against host Plantation on Dec. 14 snapped a 30-game losing streak. The team was 5-16 and 4-16 the two years prior to that.

My biggest priority was to get a win after they went 0-21 last year,” said Stone, who moved up from the junior varsity team after a year with the Tornadoes and a year at Coral Springs Charter School. It is his first varsity head coaching job.

I told them to act like we won before (after beating Plantation) so we got on the bus and we had one guy, Conrad (Bennett), he’s a sophomore so he was about to cry,” Stone said. “He was on the team last year and he said, ‘coach that was my first win as a Pompano basketball player.’ It was a big moment for me to get him his first win.”

Pompano Beach (4-9) defeated a team from Australia in the Deerfield Beach Holiday Tournament in an exhibition game and that has sparked the team to back-to-back wins over Cardinal Gibbons (60-56) and Coconut Creek (57-55). Pompano Beach travels to play at Hallandale on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

That was a big tournament for us because last year they didn’t win a game,” Stone said. “This was a good confidence builder for them this year. It was a great experience for us to play against a team from Australia.”

Stone said he has a junior oriented team, with eight juniors and three seniors. Senior Andre Francis leads the team with 16 points and 10 rebounds a game and Stone also said he’s received solid play from the following juniors — Cedric Camper, Braxton McMillon, Takobe Clark, Brandon Peets and Tristen Anderson.

Stone said the team is buying into his philosophy.

They keep their composure,” Stone said. “They are a very composed group of guys. They don’t get rattled when they go down.”

There has been little adjustment in becoming head coach.

There really hasn’t been too much of an adjustment since most of these guys came up with me from the JV,” Stone said. “The transitions are easy since they already knew the system. The ones who played on the varsity last year, those are the ones that had to buy into the system.”

Knowing that all but three players will return next year has Stone excited.

Having the core coming back is great,” Stone said. “I wanted this to be a building year and next year I would have had my guys together for three years, so next year I am looking to turn it around. I want to go far in the district and make the (BCAA) Big 8 tournament.

They can be a great team,” Stone continued. “Sometimes they get into the ‘I’ basketball and they want to be the guy to carry the team and I tell them it is a team sport. If I can get them to focus on team and play hard and fight for all 32 minutes, we’ll be alright.”

Comments Off on Tornadoes show improvement on court

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Tigers roar to title

Posted on 04 January 2018 by LeslieM

By Gary Curreri

Blanche Ely’s boys’ basketball team roared to the championship in the Under Armour Challenge bracket at the 28th annual Kreul Classic at Coral Springs City Gymnasium.

The Tigers topped Leflore (Mobile, AL) 66-48 in the championship game as it finally strung together two solid efforts on both sides of the court.

You play with five individuals on the court,” said Blanche Ely coach Melvin Randall. “If you have those five kids coming on the court together with one fist and delivering that punch you can do some things. Tonight, they were able to put it together. We still have some things to work on, but we are getting better.”

Randall hadn’t been pleased with his team’s effort earlier in the year.

But the Tigers (10-5) put things together on both ends of the court Monday night en route to whipping Leflore, of Mobile, AL, 66-48 in the championship game of the Under Armour Challenge bracket at the 28th annual Kreul Classic at Coral Springs City Gym.

In the beginning of the season, he (Randall) wasn’t happy,” said Ely senior guard Michael Forrest, who was named the MVP of the bracket. “He said that we would always quit on him. He put us to the challenge. We accepted the challenge and we stepped up. We played hard. we played as a team.”

Forrest finished with 19 points and Anthony Byrd Jr. added 14 for the Tigers (7-3), winners of four straight after starting 3-3.

Ely led only 16-15 after one quarter, but broke the game open after that.

The (defensive) pressure gives us more energy to get stops,” Forrest said, “and, as we get more stops, we get easy buckets.”

Baseball showcase

The South Florida Baseball School and STEALTH are teaming together for the Phenom Recruiting Showcase event on Jan. 6 at Highlands Christian Academy, 501 NE 48 St., Pompano Beach.

The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. There will be a pro-style workout with evaluations and the cost to register is $150.

Confirmed schools that will be in attendance include Barry, ASA, Broward, Felician, Florida National, Hillsborough Community College, Palm Beach Atlantic, St. Thomas (NY) and more.

To register, go to www.Phenomrecruiting.com. For more information, call 973-295-5409.

Wallace Field House opening

Highlands Christian Academy baseball coach Bruce Charlebois and the South Florida Baseball School, based at the Pompano Beach campus, will hold a grand opening of the Wallace Field House from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Jan. 13.

The field house is a 5,000 sq. ft. indoor baseball and softball training facility complete with a Raw Juice and Smoothie Bar, as well as dugout seating and a waiting area with TVs.

The grand opening will include self-guided tours of the facility, demonstrations, guest speakers, music, food and more.

Comments Off on Tigers roar to title

Tags: , , , ,

Tigers fall in regional semifinal

Posted on 20 February 2014 by LeslieM

Pages 09-16By Gary Curreri

And just like that, Blanche Ely’s hopes for a boys’ basketball three-peat were squashed by a team that had its number all season. The Blanche Ely boys’ basketball team dropped a 61-54 decision in the Class 7A regional semifinal to host Boyd Anderson on Tuesday night, and, with it, vanished a spot in history.

Blanche Ely (21-5), which last season became the first boys’ basketball team to win back-to-back titles as it joined Dillard (2000-03) and Pine Crest (2008-09). They came up short in their bid to become the 12th in state history to win three consecutive titles.

Cobras’ guard Pitchon Pierre sank eight free throws in the fourth quarter as host Boyd Anderson (24-5) held off a late charge by the two-time defending Class 7A state champion to pull out the win. Pierre finished with 12 points, 5 assists, 3 steals and 3 rebounds.

Blanche Ely (21-5), which had won 11 consecutive playoff games, closed to within two points at 45-43 with 6:24 left in the game, but struggled at the line and fell for the fourth consecutive time in five meetings against Boyd Anderson this season. The Cobras were 19 of 24 from the line, while Ely converted just 14 of 24 from the charity stripe.

It was a well-fought game, and what killed us was we lost it at the free throw line,” said Tigers coach Melvin Randall. “We missed double digits at the line.

You have to get to the line and knock them down and we didn’t. That was an important factor in the game. We have been shooting like that off and on the entire season. We had a couple of games this season where we shot 70-plus percent, but we made it hard in games this year by missing what we did at the line.”

Boyd Anderson’s Rodney Simeon had 17 points, while Nick Eubanks added 14 points and eight rebounds. Lance Tejada led Blanche Ely with 18 points, while Therell Gosier and Javon Heastie each had 11.

Boyd Anderson jumped out to a 12-8 lead in the first quarter as Simeon scored seven of his team-high 17 points and Dondre Duffus hit a 3-pointer with 2:05 remaining in the period.

Blanche Ely battled back to take a 15-14 lead as it scored the first four points of the second quarter on two free throws by Javon Heastie and a basket off a steal by Gosier.

The host Cobras then went on an 8-0 run to take the lead for good at 22-15 on two free throws by Diondre Wilson. Boyd Anderson led 27-21 at halftime and extended the advantage to 29-21 on a rebound and layup by Nick Eubanks. Tejada then got hot as he made a free throw and a short jumper and found Gosier cutting to the basket for a layup to trim the lead to 26-29 with six minutes left in the third quarter.

The Tigers were also dealt a blow in the third quarter when Gosier was whistled for two fouls in a 38-second span and had to sit with four fouls and Boyd Anderson leading 30- 28. Gosier had scored eight points, pulled down nine rebounds and blocked three shots until then and didn’t re-enter the game until there was 3:02 remaining and the Cobras leading 51-46.

The game seesawed back and forth; however, the Tigers, which had won 11 consecutive playoff games, could get no closer than two points at 45-43 with 6:24 left.

I am disappointed, but I am not upset or mad that we lost,” said Tigers coach Melvin Randall. “It would be selfish for me to bicker. Of course, I wanted to win; but, in looking back, I have been there six times and won five.”

Comments Off on Tigers fall in regional semifinal

Advertise Here
Advertise Here