Suwannee Sports
Storm off to a good start
Live Oak —
corey.davis@gaflnews.com
ORLANDO-The Suwannee Storm has been in Orlando since last weekend competing in the YBOA National tournament. Storm sponsor Tracie Daniels sent me an update Wednesday with how the team is doing.
According to Tracie, the team arrived on Sunday and officially registered. There are eight 16-under Division 2 teams in attendance, all from the United States except one team from Mexico.
The out-of-state teams include the Bomb Squad, Massachusetts; the Cajuns, Louisiana; the GT Stars, Georgia; the Urban Ballers, Maryland and METEPEC, Mexico. We also face in-state rivals Central Florida Yellow Jackets and the current D2 state champions, Heart and Soul.
The tournament kicked off on Sunday with individual and team skills competitions. Tony Frierson represented the Storm in the national free-throw competition and placed second overall in the 16-under age division. Others representing the Storm included DeAngelo Ross and Jimmie Taylor, III.
The official opening ceremonies were held Sunday evening. The Storm walked in olympic-style fashion behind the banner that members of the Live Oak community had signed in support of the team, in front of a crowd of over 3,500.
In their opening game, the Storm fell to the GT Stars 57-49, but rallied to win the next two games against the Urban Ballers 49-33 and Mexico 51-20.
Leading scorers and rebounders have included Jimmie Taylor, Marcus Lane, Tony Frierson, and DeAndre DeVore and Big Jarvious George, who achieved his second dunk in the game against Mexico.
Taylor is playing with a back injury sustained in the first game; DeVore and Alex Robinson have been filling in at the point guard position.
The Storm placed second in their pool and now advances to the final playoff bracket. In order to win the championship they will have to win the next three games in a row, which will begin with the Central Florida Yellow Jackets on Thursday.
Many of the games and award ceremonies are covered through live-stream internet at allmetrosports@ihigh.com, including the entire game of Storm vs/ Mexico. Please refer to that site to follow the team the rest of the weekend.
- 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
