Suwannee Sports
From the sideline: Be careful what you eat
Live Oak —
The next time you bite into a nice juicy hamburger, hot dog, sausage dog, chicken sandwich or nachos you might want to take a look around at the facilities.
ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” reviewed health department inspections for food and beverages outlets at all NHL, NBA, MLB and NFL teams in 2009.
At 30 of the venues (28 percent) more than half of the concession stands or restaurants had been cited for at least one critical or major health violation, Such violations pose a risk for foodborne illnesses that can make someone sick or, in extreme cases, cause death.
While there hasn’t been a documented mass outbreak of illness at a professional stadium, fans, players and coaches have said they have fallen ill from food, including Red Sox manager Terry Francona, who blamed bad sushi in the clubhouse for a bout of food poisoning he had before a playoff game in Anaheim last fall.
According to the findings, inspectors found no violations at US Cellular Field or Wrigley Field, where the Chicago White Sox and Cubs play, or at the United Center, where the Bulls and Blackhawks play.
A map in the story shows the USA outlined and results shown based on a percentage of violations at each stadium. The chart breaks down the stadiums with no violations, 1-25 percent, 25-50 percent 50-75 percent and 75-100 percent.
So how did Florida stadiums fare? Not too well.
At Tropicana Field (home of the Rays), every one of the 47 food outlets were cited for critical violations, including food residue in a cooler, toxic chemicals stored too close to food preparation areas, slime in the ice machines and thermometers not readily visible to measure the temperature of hot foods.
A worker at a Rays game commented there so much volume going through at one time that it’s hard to do the necessary things to keep everything cleaned. Sometime you sacrifice the cleanliness for expediting the service.
Another fast food worker at what is now called Sun Life Stadium (Dolphins/Marlins) told inspectors that small insects were mixed into frozen alcoholic beverages at a stand where workers hadn’t cleaned equipment.
Amercian Airlines (Heat) rated 93 percent, Sun Life 93 percent, Amway (Magic) 75 percent, Tropicana 100 percent, St. Pete Times Forum (Lightning) 88 percent, Raymond James (Bucs) 84 percent , Bank Atlantic (Panthers) 67 percent and EverBank (Jaguars) 77 percent.
Amway was hit for not getting rid of meat quick enough after opening it, the St Pete Times Forum was observed washing dirty dishes and then putting up clean dishes with out washing their hands. Raymond James was cited for not cooking the chicken tenders at a required 185 degrees and EverBank was cited for holding temperatures below 135 which causes potential bacteria growth.
So the next time you reach for a pizza, pretzel or popcorn think about what you could really be eating or what kind of germs you could be putting in your mouth.
- Suwannee Sports
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Jamboree time for Dog Pound
The Suwannee Dog Pound travels to Starke Saturday to participate in the annual Putnam Athletic League Jamboree. Admission is $3 for adults and free for kids under 17-years old.
All four teams including the Tiny Mites, Mighty Mites, Jr. Pee Wee and Pee Wee, will play a 20 minute running clock quarter at Bradford County High School.
The Tiny Mites will meet the Gainesville Blue at 10:40 a.m., the Mighty Mites will meet host Bradford at 11:55 a.m., Jr. Pee Wee will meet Gainesville Orange at 2 p.m. and Pee Wee will meet Santa Fe at 5:20 p.m. -
Dress rehearsal
Since the end of May when Spring football practice ended both Suwannee and Branford have been extremely busy in the summer preparing for the fall.
The wait over, as both schools will participate in their annual Kickoff Classic tonight. One of the many things that kept the teams busy was competing in a 7-on-7 passing league, conditioning and attending camps.
Branford coach Bill Wiles said in addition to his team playing 7-on-7 they have been lifting weights and conditioning. -
A new beginning
LIVE OAK-Another school year has begun and one school is taking the phrase “a new beginning” to another level.
Before leaving her post as principal at Suwannee High, Dawn Lamb hired Willie Spears as the new football coach. Newly hired Athletic Director Hunter Abercrombie has been on the job for two months now, joining newly hired principal Ted Roush, and in that short period, Abercrombie has had to replace several coaches as well.
Abercrombie accepted the job over the summer after working at First Federal for the three previous years. -
Back-to-back champs
LIVE OAK-Despite winning the regular season title, there was one team that remained a constant thorn in Suwannee River Community Church’s side: First Baptist Church of Live Oak.
SRCC (16-2) held off Tabernacle Baptist (15-3) by one game to win the title, with First Baptist (14-4) two games behind.
The lone team to knock off SRCC was First Baptist, which did it twice, so when First Baptist and SRCC met in the Suwannee Parks and Recreation Men’s Church League tournament at First Federal Sportsplex, you know SRCC was looking for some revenge. -
Dog Pound kicks off
The Dog Pound met arch-rival Columbia Tigers in a running clock scrimmage Thursday at Paul Langford Stadium.
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85 years of history
LIVE OAK-Suwannee High football celebrates its 85th season this year, having started in 1926.
This reporter has been researching the history of all four area schools and has come across many interesting stories. I am still in need of help of schedules and scores from several years, the attached chart shows some of what I have found and still need. -
Suwannee football history
^-Need schedule/scores
1939: (10-1) ^
1960: (2-8) ^
1961: (6-4) ^
1962: (11-0) ^
1967: (10-1) ^
1970: (6-5)
1971: (7-4) -
Quarterback Club on the move
LIVE OAK-The Suwannee High Quarterback Club has been busy over the summer with various activities.
Among them was handing out scholarships to deserving student-athletes to go towards their college tuition.
Recent graduate Joe McMillan now at Cumberland, was the recipient of the Ken Baldwin award and a Wesley Silas $500 scholarship winner.
Silas was a very active as a volunteer with the Suwannee High football team before his accidental death on the job on March 1, 1994.
Minnie Silas, mother of Wesley Silas, donates $100 towards the scholarship, while the Quarterback Club chips in with $400. Initial funding for the scholarship came from a successful charity golf tournament. -
Babe Ruth wrapup
LIVE OAK- We watched them compete for district and state titles for weeks at the First Federal Sportsplex, but what happened when they left town?
In the span of a month, about 60 Babe Ruth baseball teams competed in the District 6 (June 10-13) and North Florida State tournaments (July 15-17), but after winning or losing in the tournaments they all went their separate ways. So what happened to the winners from each of those tournaments? -
Green, White game this weekend
After two weeks of intense practices, Suwannee High will have its annual Green and White football scrimmage game Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at Paul Langford Stadium.
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Jamboree time for Dog Pound
