Suwannee Sports
From the sideline: Leveling the play field
Live Oak —
With South Carolina closing the final curtain at Rosenblatt Stadium last week, the Gamecocks not only ended the Rosenblatt era, but put a cap on the 2009-2010 college sports season.
The final thing left to do was crown the annual Director’s Cup award recipient, which recognizes the top collegiate athletic program in Division I, Division II, Division III and NAIA. Not surprisingly, Stanford took home the trophy again.
You see aside from North Carolina winning the inaugural award in 1993-94, Stanford claimed its 16th consecutive Director’s Cup award this past week.
The award symbolizes the best overall collegiate athletic program annually based on how successful a schools top ten male and female sports finish nationally.
The problem is Stanford (1,508.50 points), which tallied points in 28 total sports including 17 top-10 finishes this season and two national titles in men’s volleyball and women’s tennis, has the advantage to pick and choose which sports it wants to count unlike other schools.
With 35 sports, they can choose the top 20 achievements each season. Unlike other schools which average around 20 sports and have no room for margin of error.
Stanford didn’t count women’s cross country, women’s field hockey, football, mens and women’s indoor track and field, women’s lacrosse, baseball and softball, yet counted points in several sports which the majority schools don’t field teams in like women’s rowing, men’s volleyball, women’s water polo, men’s water polo, fencing, men’s rowing, sailing, men’s gymnastics, men’s soccer, squash, syncronized swimming and wrestling.
Florida (1310.25) finished a school record second place with just 18 sports out of 21 eligible, 8 in men’s and 10 in women’s. The Gators had 14 top-10 finishes including national championships in women’s swimming and men’s indoor track and field.
Since the inception of the annual all-sports awards, Florida is the only program in the nation to finish among the nations top ten in each of the 27 seasons.
Over the last 17 years, Florida has finished second (twice), third (three times), fourth (twice), fifth (three times), sixth (four times), and seventh (three times).
Virginia (1253.25) and UCLA (1124.00) finished third and fourth respectively.
Florida State (1087.50) finished a school best fifth place with 19 sports (10 women, 9 men) earning points, twelve spots ahead of last year’s seventeeth place finish.
All 19 of the Seminoles teams participated in the postseason, highlighted by the mens basketball team advancing to its second straight NCAA tournament, the women’s basketball team advancing to the Elite 8 losing to eventual national champion U-Conn, women’s soccer getting to the Elite 8 again and the baseball team finishing tied for fifth at the College World Series.
Shouldn’t a better way to calculate the award be based on some sort of average between how many sports you have and how many points you have earned to make a level playing field.
- Suwannee Sports
-
-
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.
-
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.
- More Suwannee Sports Headlines
-
Jamboree time for Dog Pound
