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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.

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BUSINESS BEAT: Boca means business

Posted on 12 December 2018 by LeslieM

By Karen Lustgarten

Which of the 38 cities in Palm Beach County attracts the highest number of corporate relocations? More than half selected the city of Boca Raton to establish headquarters. According to Andy Thomson, newly-elected member of the Boca Raton City Council, that amounts to more than 30 international corporations that have moved into or expanded in Boca Raton.

The council member cites several reasons for Boca’s big-business boom. With the establishment in 2014 of the Office of Economic Development being funded by the city, attracting corporations became a priority.

The marketing strategy and message is ‘Boca is open for business; we are serious about helping corporations thrive here,’” said Thomson.

Technology and health are among the top sectors relocating to Boca, such as Modernizing Medicine and Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

Mr. Thomson is quick to add that marketing a “unique quality of life” is an easy sell. The obvious attributes include warm weather, beaches, sunshine and leisure lifestyle throughout Florida, along with no state income tax and corporate tax incentives. Among Boca Raton’s unique qualities attracting employees and businesses, he cites an executive airport for corporate jets with a new U.S. Customs facility, quality public and private schools, good housing, low crime and 46 parks.

We are a city within a park,” he says, “and we take our green spaces seriously.”

The two local colleges — Florida Atlantic University and Lynn University — funnel a tech-ready workforce into job openings at area corporations.

This helps transition graduates to nearby jobs so there is less of a brain drain,” he said.

One marketing challenge is overcoming the perception of a growing aging population.

The fear companies have in considering relocation is the mistaken perception that Boca is the retirement community depicted in the hit TV series Seinfeld. But the age demographic is actually trending younger,” he says.

Jessica Del Vecchio, manager of the city’s Office of Economic Development, concurs that the population is growing younger, from migrating retirees to a median age of 47 according to Forbes magazine.

When corporations relocate to Boca Raton, they have an economic impact on our overall economy by adding property tax income and creating jobs. More above average salary jobs become available to the talent pool of our local college graduates. They stay, find gainful employment and the quality of life improves,” she says.

The quality livability claim is backed up by online studies Del Vecchio references that rank Boca Raton high on their lists:

Best Beach Towns to Live In: Boca Raton is No. 7 of 205 cities nationwide (WalletHub.com)

Best Suburbs to Live in Florida: No. 13 of 351 (Niche.com)

Top 100 Places to Live: No. 45 of 2,300 cities surveyed (Livability.com)

“A” rating in a satisfaction survey of 45,000 renters (Apartment List)

The Office of Economic Development serves Boca Raton’s corporate community. Some corporations recently headquartered in the city are Shoes for Crews, Miami Grill, El-Ad National Properties and Gift of Life Marrow Registry (2019). Companies expanding (moving to new and larger space) include Modernizing Medicine, Cosmetic Solutions, Hair Club and TherapeuticsMD.

The Boca Raton Resort and Club is a popular destination for corporate conferences during the year, especially in winter.

Del Vecchio sums up a typical scenario: “Executives come in from all over the country [and world] and they experience a beautiful lifestyle, a luxury resort, warm weather, lower taxes. At the end of the conference, they’re thinking, ‘Why are we getting on a plane heading back to terrible weather in a higher tax state when we can be productive in paradise?’ That’s when relocation thoughts kick in.”

Karen Lustgarten is president of Multi-Media Works, a multiple award-winning media company specializing in video, PR, print and social media with offices in Broward and Palm Beach Counties. She founded a newspaper in Washington, DC, was a syndicated columnist and a bestselling author. www.multi-mediaworks.com

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Irwin wins, Silvestro runner-up in Top-8 bowling tournament

Posted on 17 October 2018 by LeslieM

By Gary Curreri

The biggest obstacle Deerfield Beach’s Alannah Irwin faced in the Broward County USBC Association Top-8 tournament at AMF Margate Lanes recently was keeping up with the lane changes. Then, the 27-year-old had to unseat defending champion and tournament bowler Rhoda Rodriguez, of Plantation. Irwin managed both and edged Rodriguez, 181-178, to win the Women’s Division of the tournament that featured the best bowlers Broward County had to offer.

I was just having fun and trying to watch how everyone else was playing,” Irwin said. “I was watching where I should and shouldn’t throw the ball in the lane. I had to keep up with the lane changes and see what everyone else was doing.”

It was very difficult,” said Irwin, who qualified for a second time as an adult. She reached the Top-8 seven times as a junior bowler, where she won three times – the last time coming in 2010. “It takes a real technical eye to really see what the lanes are doing and how the oil patterns are transitioning. You also see what adjustments you have to make whether it is changing bowling balls or changing your angle or the speed of the ball.”

Irwin came into the tournament with little expectations because she hadn’t been bowling on a regular basis.

This was kind of my first year back bowling in two different leagues and in two different houses,” Irwin said. “It was nice to get the (qualifying) letter. I came in with no expectations.

I was just bowling in one house, one league a year,” she added, “and was asked to bowl in a second league and said, ‘yes.’ It’s a good comeback. It was nice to win it in my second time as an adult. The last time was in 2013. I didn’t even make the top four that year. I finished like fifth.”

The top eight bowlers from around Broward County competed in the one-day event in six divisions — Junior Boys and Girls, Men’s and Women’s Open, and Senior Men and Women. Bowlers in the tournament began by bowling qualifying matches and ultimately wound up competing in a ladder format where the bowlers worked their way up to challenge the top qualifier who got a bye.

Another local bowler, Jeanne Silvestro, 59, of Pompano Beach, dropped the final of the Women’s Senior Division title match to Pembroke Pines’ Paula Rappaport, 185-156. It was Rappaport’s third win in the Top-8 and first as a senior. Her back-to-back wins in 2009 and 2010 came in the Women’s Open Division.

This was awesome,” said Silvestro, who was bowling in the Top-8 for the first time. She was the top qualifier for the final, but had to sit through two ladder matches before bowling for the championship. “That was hard. It was tiring and I got stiff. Then they bowled three games on the lanes and there was no oil left at all. It was just tough to sit.”

Still she was pleased with making her debut and reaching the final. She has bowled for the past 40 years and is self-taught. She never participated in junior bowling.

To qualify for the event, bowlers need to bowl in two leagues in two different houses (bowling alleys) and they have to compete in at least 2/3 of the league. Those top scoring averages earn them a berth in the annual tournament.

It was unbelievable,” Silvestro said. “I had no idea (how she’d do). I always bowled in one house, so this was the first year I bowled in two houses and when I got the (qualifying) letter in the mail, I was shocked.”

I was happy if I came in eighth,” she continued. “To qualify first was crazy. This was great. I had a great time.”

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