By Mike Ridaught
Twitter & Facebook – @ThePrepZone
Thursday, Dec. 8
Last year in mid-January, the Gainesville boys’ basketball team travelled to Vanguard (Ocala) with a 14-2 record overall, including 6-0 in the district, but the visiting ‘Canes lost the game, 70-57, denying Gainesville coach Kelly Beckham his 700th career victory.
On Friday, Gainesville travels to Vanguard for the first of two 7A-District 4 meetings and enters the game with a record of 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the district. Vanguard, which plays Ocala West Port tonight, is currently 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the district.
Both teams were in the playoffs last year. GHS was the district champion and Vanguard was the runner-up. And the action was pretty intense every time they were on the floor. In fact, Gainesville eliminated Vanguard in the 2nd round of the 6A state playoffs last year with an 85-83 win at home in overtime on a shot by then senior Rudy Bibb-Boyd with five seconds left. Just 11 days earlier, in the district final, the ‘Canes rallied from a 20-point deficit in the first half and 12-points going into the fourth period for a 52-49 win.
Gainesville is very tough to beat at home, they’ve won 13 in a row at the Purple Palace and 36 of their last 37, but this one is on the road in what will be an emotional night for the Vanguard family. Former coach Jim Haley, who retired in 2009, is having the court named after him in a ceremony before the game.
As Ocala Star-Banner writer Richard Burton put it, Haley is ‘the most influential man in the history of Marion County high school boys’ basketball.’ Haley, who coached his first game for the Knights in November of 1973, won three state titles, made four FHSAA final four appearances, won 12 district titles, and over 600 games.
It’s a great way to begin our radio high school basketball coverage on Florida Sports Talk The Team (92.1 FM & 1230 AM in Gainesville and 100.1 FM & 900 AM in Ocala). I’ll be on the call, along with Ryan Urquhart, tomorrow at 7 p.m. on local radio as well as online at ThePrepZone.com.
Showdown in O-Town
This weekend all eight high school football state championship games are being played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando.
There are two 1-2 match-ups, plus a #1 vs. #3, as well as four teams who hail from the 904 area code in defending state champions University Christian and Trinity Christian of Jacksonville, the all-time winningest state champion Bolles (Jacksonville), and newcomer Ponte Vedra.
Pahokee won the 1A state title with a 34-21 win against Baker in a match-up of unbeaten teams. It was the Blue Devils’ first state title since 2008.
The first match-up of #1 vs. #2 is between Bolles and Cocoa, who will have combined for 10 state titles in 16 years when this one is done. Marty Pallman has the preview of all the Northeast Florida teams, including the 4A title game preview of the the ‘Dogs & the Tigers.
I had a chance to broadcast Bolles’ goal-line stand against South Sumter (Bushnell) in the 4A state semifinals as the ‘Dogs stopped the Raiders on 4th-and-goal at the 1 with 13 seconds to play to advance to the title game. Hall of Fame coach Corky Rogers moved to 16-0 all-time in state semifinal games.
I also had the pleasure of calling the Ponte Vedra at Clay (Green Cove Springs) Class 5A state semifinal where it was the offenses who stole the show in a 52-42 win for the visitors. In fact, both teams combined for four TDs in a 53-second span.
It was one of the greatest performances by a high school quarterback that I have witnessed in my 25 years of covering high school football.
UNC Charlotte commit Nick Tronti put on a show. The Ponte Vedra QB was 29-of-40 for 313 yards and 2 TDs, plus he had 16 carries for 239 yards rushing and four TDs for the Sharks (13-0), who advanced to their first state title game since their existence in 2008. It’s a tough match-up for No. 3 Ponte Vedra against top-ranked American Heritage (Plantation). Prognosticator Joe Pinkos has American Heritage by 13.
From pigskin to hoops, to back to pigskin with three more state football championship games on Saturday, it is quite the weekend for high school sports in North Central Florida. And there’s more exciting action on the way.
The month of December will heat up with holiday tournaments right around the corner, including next week’s Kiwanis Christmas Tournament at Bradford (Starke), and the Hitchcock’s Challenge at Santa Fe (Alachua) and the Kingdom of the Sun at Vanguard (Ocala) the last week of the month.
‘Tis the season to be jolly!
