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Innocent wins middle school long jump title

Posted on 20 June 2019 by LeslieM

Deerfield Beach Middle School’s Vitawens Innocent takes a bite out of his first place medal at the Broward County Middle School track and field meet at Coral Springs High School. Innocent won the boys long jump. Photo by Gary Curreri

By Gary Curreri
Vitawens Innocent capped off his 8th-grade year at Deerfield Beach Middle School by winning the Broward County championship in the boys long jump. Innocent, 15, was the lone competitor to surpass 19 ft. in the event and easily topped the field with a jump of 19 ft., 10-1/4 in. He also finished 5th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.28.
“The sport is very important to me because it shows people that I am doing something with myself and that is exciting,” said Innocent, of Pompano Beach. He has only been competing in track for two years. He is planning on playing football for Deerfield Beach High School in the fall.
“The long jump is a little bit scary in the beginning, but when I am in the air, I just float. It feels like I am flying.”
The Pompano Beach girls finished seventh overall with 28 points, while Deerfield Beach was 18th with 8 points. Pembroke Pines Charter won the girls title with 71 points.
In the boys competition, Forest Glen captured the county title with 50 points. Deerfield Beach finished in 8th place with 24 points.
Other locals who fared well in the competition were Steven Martin of Deerfield Beach Middle who finished second in the shot put (41-09.25); Deerfield Beach Middle’s Stanley Jean-Claude, who finished 7th in the 800-meter run (2:22.47); Pompano Beach Middle’s Ashley Shaw was 2nd in the girls 100-meter dash (12.50) and 3rd in the 200-meter dash (26.08); Pompano Beach Middle’s Alyssa Irwin was 4th in the girls high jump (4-07.75); Deerfield Beach Middle’s Ty’Kerra Edwards was 2nd in the girls long jump (14-11.50); Pompano Beach Middle School’s Tierra Nesmith was 6th in the girls discus (68-03) and 8th in the girls shot put (26-02.25); the Pompano Beach girls 4×200 meter relay was 4th (1:50.77).

Sunshine State Games water polo headed to Deerfield
The 2019 Sunshine State Games Water Polo Championships takes center-stage starting Friday as 59 teams throughout Florida, and international teams from Ecuador, Trinidad & Tobago, and Barbados as well, strap on the headgear and maneuver the competition to score in the watery nets.
With approximately 1,180 athletes, the SSG Water Polo Championship is the largest annual water polo tournament in the Southeast Zone ranging in age groups 10 and under to Open Men’s and Women’s Divisions.
The three-day tournament will take place at two venues in Broward County, including the Coral Springs Aquatic Center (Friday-Sunday) and Deerfield Beach Aquatics Center (Saturday and Sunday only).
“I have been participating in the Sunshine State Games as an athlete for 17 years, three years as a coach, and now in my second year as the state director,” said Water Polo state director Anna Rosen. “The Games provide a great sense of community and family in this area. I have always loved this tournament, and I look forward to seeing the continued growth for years to come.”

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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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Bengals win county middle school title

Posted on 26 January 2017 by LeslieM

By Gary Curreri

Pompano Beach Middle School girls basketball coach Brittany Harvard knows firsthand what it means to put together a perfect season and in the process be MVP for county champion.

Harvard recently guided her team to a 14-0 season and the Broward County Middle School championship with a convincing 65-29 victory over Pembroke Pines Charter at Stranahan High School.

It was a sense of déjà vu for Harvard who was MVP in 2003 for the Bengals when they finished 13-0 and won the county championship.

The focus level was unbelievable,” said Harvard, who went on to star at Blanche Ely High School and then play at Benedict College in Colombia, SC. “To see a middle school team focus like that was unbelievable. The year we won, the whole team wasn’t focused – maybe a couple, maybe the starting five. To have a strong 10 girls just lock in and focus on one goal, it was amazing.”

Bengals eighth-grader Ja’Leah Williams scored a game-high 34 points as Pompano Beach handed Pembroke Pines Charter its only loss of the season in 14 games.

Along the way, Pompano Beach abruptly halted two-time defending county champion Dillard Middle School’s 41-game win streak in the semifinals, 60-17. Dillard had lost just once to Westglades in the county semifinals the year the school opened three years ago. They are 53-2 during that span. The victory over Dillard this year avenged a 33-32 setback in last year’s semifinals that ended Pompano’s season.

Pompano Beach lost to William Dandy three years ago in the second round of the playoffs and is 37-2 during that span.

We beat Dillard this year so they knew how we felt last year, but worse,” said Williams, 14, of Pompano Beach, who has been on the team all three years. She averaged 36 points a game this year.

We were thinking about that one point loss all season, since the first practice,” said Williams, who averaged 36 points a game this year. “At the beginning of the championship game I knew we had it. We had more skill than they did.”

Williams scored five of her game-high 34 points in the first quarter and dropped in another 13 in the second quarter as the Bengals led 33-12 in the title game. Williams added nine in the third and seven in the final quarter to earn MVP honors for the game. She also dished out five assists, had six steals and five rebounds in the contest.

Bengals’ eighth-grader Mikihia Lumsdon and seventh grader Mya Kone each added 10 points, while seventh graders Michiyah Simmons and Zaria Blake had 6 and 4 points, respectively.

Pompano Beach also went 12-0 in 1993, this season marking the third time in school history that they were perfect.

The one thing that stood out was their dedication and their working hard,” Harvard said as she reflected on the season. “They were always determined to learn, even what they already knew. They stayed determined to work on their craft – both strengths and weaknesses – from the time we lost last year all the way up to now.”

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Pompano Beach Middle takes third in county

Posted on 18 June 2015 by LeslieM

sports061815By Gary Curreri

Pompano Beach Middle School eighth-grader Shariff Rodriguez couldn’t have picked a better time to perform his best.

Rodriguez, 14, bettered his previous best throw by nearly 11-ft. in winning the discus event (109-02.50) to take first place in the recent Broward County Middle School Track and Field championships at Coral Springs High School.

His performance helped the boys’ team place third with 30 points.

It was my greatest throw I made in track ever,” said Rodriguez, of Pompano Beach, whose previous best was 98-ft., 6-in. “When I heard the total, my heart was just pounding. I was happy they had to get another measuring tape because the first one had run out.”

My nerves struck, threw me, and my right arm just felt like Superman,” Rodriguez said. “I just got in the circle and all my nerves filled me up while I was throwing and all of a sudden I just let the disc go and it did its job. That surprised me a lot. This is really big. It is a blessing to be here.”

It was redemption for Rodriguez, who thought he had won the regional competition last year; however, his throw of 87- ft., 9-in. didn’t count because he was disqualified.

I threw the game-winning throw and stepped out the front (of the ring) and got disqualified so I couldn’t get to county’s last year,” Rodriguez said. “So, this year, I kept reminding myself to go through the back.”

Rodriguez, who hopes to throw in college, said he is unsure why he was able to better his mark so substantially this year.

I don’t really know,” Rodriguez said. “Every sport I do, the nerves fill in my stomach before I compete. I was about to fall apart because it was county meet and the nerves just went through me, and I just threw and went as far as I could.”

Other top performers for the Bengals included: Pompano Beach Middle’s Joshua Scott, who was fourth in the high jump (5-04); Jovan Williams, who took fifth in the 100-meter hurdles (15.92); Tosheum Meade, who was fifth in the boys 200-meter dash (24.48), and Brian McClain, who captured seventh in the boys 800-meter run (2:20.39).

The Pompano boys’ 4×100- meter relay took third with a time of 46.41, while the Bengals’ 4×400-meter boys’ relay was fourth with a time of 3:52.81.

The girls team took sixth with 20 points led by Jaleah Williams, who finished third in the girls’ 400-meter dash (59.81). The girls’ 4×100-meter relay was second with a time of 51.27, while the girls’ 4×400- meter relay was third with a time of 4:23.88.

MIDDLE SCHOLAR ATHLETES

For the first time ever, the Broward County Middle School Athletic Association (MSAA) handed out Scholar/Athlete Awards. Every MSAA middle school was eligible to select students to receive this award.

The awards ceremony was held at the Plantation High School Auditorium on May 28. Each student named by a middle school was recognized and presented with a scholar athlete medallion.

Local middle school scholar athlete award winners included: Rodriguez from Pompano Beach Middle for the boys and Allegra Allen (girls). Deerfield Beach was represented by Claire Ries (girls) and Zacharie Saint Victor (boys).

Each member school was eligible to select a male and female from their school to receive this award,” said Michael Roland, student activities liaison for Broward County Public Schools.

To be eligible, a student must have an unweighted 3.0 GPA, have no ‘U’s for the entire year and have participated in two sports.”

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Bengals win county flag football championship

Posted on 07 May 2015 by LeslieM

sports050715By Gary Curreri

It didn’t take long for Pompano Beach Middle School to flex its muscle in the Broward County Middle School boys’ flag football championship game against Plantation Middle School recently.

Just 10 plays into the game, the Bengals were able to put the game away early as it scored on its first three possessions to take a 20-0 lead. It held off a late charge by Plantation and hung on for a 20-13 win.

Pompano Middle School boys flag football coach Khristopher Ramsey said some players quit the team during the season and the rest remained a “family” and stuck it out.

The most gratifying thing is to see the kid win in life, so if we can win a championship here, it’s awesome, but I think my coaching job is not complete until I see those kids move on and move forward in their lives,” Ramsey said. “We felt confident. We planned on coming out here today and winning this game.”

The Bengals (9-2) held Plantation on its first drive and scored on its second play from scrimmage on a 16-yard scoring run by Jervon Williams for a 6-0 lead.

Plantation Middle School quarterback Benjamin Hernandez was intercepted on the next play from scrimmage by Jerico Wilson and his 15-yard return set up a 2-yard scoring run by Keven Walker. LaDarius Queen caught the 2-point conversion pass from tournament MVP James Wallace for a 14-0 advantage. Wallace, 15, of Pompano Beach, said winning was important for the players.

We were looking forward to winning everything,” said Wallace, an eighth-grader. “We just had to play as a team and execute the plays we needed to execute and we would come out with the victory.”

Pompano Beach Middle School stretched the cushion to 20-0 on a 30-yard TD scamper by first-year player Sean Martin, of Pompano Beach, midway through the first quarter.

I didn’t think we would be playing for the title,” said Martin, 15, of Pompano Beach. He is also an eighth-grader and this was his first year playing flag football. “I knew we had it in us to play for the championship. I wasn’t sure we’d make it all of the way.”

Plantation Middle School (9-2-1) cut the deficit to 20-7 on a 25-yard interception return for a TD by David McFadden and a conversion pass from Hernandez to Daniel Carter. The Patriots cut the lead to 20-13 on a 31-yard scoring toss from Hernandez to McFadden with 1:30 remaining in the game, but could get no closer.

Pompano Beach Middle School won four consecutive county titles in flag football from 2003-06 before the sport was among the sports trimmed by Broward County because of budget cuts.

Martin said the team’s two late losses helped the team focus for the playoffs.

Losing the last game of the regular season to Crystal Lake was a good lesson,” Martin said. “It showed that winning all of our games didn’t mean nothing. We had to play as a team and not argue with each other and stuff like that.”

Pompano Middle School eighth grader Keavan Walker said teams around the county doubted the Bengals’ ability.

It is a big opportunity to play for a county championship,” said the Pompano Beach eighth grader. “You have other schools and people think that a school from Pompano couldn’t make it like this, so it is an opportunity for us to have a team and make it here. We learned from the losses. We learned we had to play as a team.”

Walker said the school will put a picture up on the gym wall for winning the county title.

This is great!” Walker said. “We can take it back to our school. It is a huge accomplishment because they haven’t won this in seven years. Now, we can come back and see our picture up there and everything.”

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Pompano Middle falls in county semifinals

Posted on 05 February 2015 by LeslieM

sports020515By Gary Curreri

Pompano Beach Middle School boys basketball coach Leonard Fudge had hoped for more.

The fourth-year coach fell for the second consecutive year to the eventual Broward County Middle School champion in the county semifinals.

They fought all year,” said Fudge, whose team finished 13-2 this year. They lost to Millennium last year in the county semifinals. “We were inexperienced. We had one sixth grader and all eighth graders who had never played basketball before. They were fighters. They just wanted it.”

Pompano Beach came all the way back from an eight-point deficit with one minute to go to force overtime, but eventually fell to Lauderdale Lakes, 39-35, in overtime. Khristopher Bogle had 11 points in the game before fouling out in the first minute of overtime. His buzzer-beating basket tied the game and forced overtime.

That was really hard losing Khris,” Fudge said. “My big kid, Joshua Noel Saint, came off the bench after having a rough start and he really turned it around. I am very proud of them. I couldn’t ask for anything more. They exceeded my expectations.”

Eighth grader Joshua Scott had eight points, while eight grader Brandon Peets and seventh grader Jordan Bennett each had five points.

After the fourth game of the season, when the team got off to a 4-0 start and defeated Lyons Creek Middle School, Fudge believed his team had a shot at making a run deep into the playoffs.

It was a total rebuilding year,” Fudge said. “The kids fought hard and they believed they could do it all year long. They really did.”

The best part of the season was the work they put in,” Fudge added. “The guys dedicated themselves all year long. Every day they came to practice and worked. They really did.”

Ely remains undefeated

Blanche Ely’s boys’ basketball team remained undefeated with a 69-63 victory over previously unbeaten Cardinal Gibbons in the Broward County Big 8 tournament recently at Fort Lauderdale High School.

Both teams entered the game undefeated and nationally ranked and the game see-sawed back and forth until the Tigers (22-0) closed out the contest with a 6-0 run for the win for its fifth Big 8 title and fourth over the past six years. It also avenged a loss to the Chiefs (25-1) in last year’s final.

Laquincy Rideau led Ely with 18 points as all five starters scored in double figures.

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