Thanks for playing
By Steve Lee
Sports Editor
LAND O’ LAKES — The prep football playoffs got under way Nov. 20 with Land O’ Lakes, Pasco and Hudson holding the county’s hopes of celebrating a state championship — albeit to no avail after first-round losses for each.
The onset of the so-called second season meant the conclusion of the 2009 regular season. It also wound up The Laker’s second annual Friday Night Lights, a good-natured contest featuring local advertisers trying to beat the weekly picks of yours truly.
In the inaugural season of Friday Night Lights, I finished as the runner-up to Chris Drews, who along with Shelley Ketchum and Terri Williamson sold advertising space to the contestants. Drews bowed out this year — you know, that whole quit while you’re ahead thinking — and I hung on for a narrow victory over Mike Mira.
The owner of Maine-ly New England, a seafood restaurant in Zephyrhills, also coaches the Zephyrhills High girls soccer team. That insight into the prep sports scene, not to mention his community involvement, helped Mira get 55 picks right. That was just one fewer than me.
Still, competition was not what Friday Night Lights was all about. The fun of picking each week, and having folks at football games I covered come up and rag on me for the losses, made it a fun-filled venture.
I also got a kick out of staff members Gena Crowder and Carolyn Bennett tracking down weekly picks, and co-workers Mary Rathman and Stefanie Burlingame hounding me for updates on Monday morning deadlines.
A special thanks goes to Mira and the seven other participants, each of whom picked their shares of winners and losers. That group included Alex Altenhoff, Gary Bailey, Tino Gonzalez, Kevin Hansut, Jeff Martin, Shael Morgan and Kevin Ryman.
Now for the best part. All eight participants, along with publisher Diane Kortus, Drews, Ketchum, myself and staff writer Kyle LoJacono, who shoulders most of the sports load for the Lutz News, will gather at the Plantation Palms Clubhouse on Dec. 10 at 2 p.m. for a free lunch. Hey, it’s the least we could do.
Plus, Ketchum has made arrangements for a tacky trophy with the names of all who took part in Friday Night Lights engraved on it. In the tradition of the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup, everyone will take possession of the Cup — er, tacky trophy — for 30 days before passing it on.
And that, folks, could lead to an entirely different column.
