Check This Out

The Florida High School Athletic Association and RP Funding Center (formerly The Lakeland Center) have announced a two-year extension for the 2018 and 2019 Boys and Girls State Basketball Championships.

“We are thrilled to return to Lakeland as we continue our goal of providing our student-athletes with a quality championship experience,” FHSAA Executive Director George Tomyn said, in a release. “The current renovations and new partnership with the Orlando Magic make the RP Funding Center an even stronger venue for our basketball state championships.”

The tournament will now run Monday through Saturday. The format will remain the same with four-team single-elimination tournaments conducted in each of the nine classifications for both the girls and boys events, as well as the Special Olympics Unified Sports State Championships.

“We’re very excited about continuing our relationship with the FHSAA,” said Tony Camarillo, executive director of the RP Funding Center. “We look forward to providing a top-notch facility for the student athletes of the State of Florida, and providing a great event for our community and visiting guests to come out and support Florida Basketball.”

Currently undergoing $14 million in renovations, the RP Funding Center is home to the Lakeland Magic, the Orlando Magic’s NBA G-League team set to begin play in November.

Dates for the 2018 girls basketball state finals are Feb. 26 through March 3, and the boys tournament runs March 5 through March 10. The girls 2019 tournament is slated Feb. 25 through March 2 and the boys tournament is slated to take place March 4 through March 9.

The awards keep piling up for Marie Coors, who graduated from Saint Leo University.

Most recently, Coors was named the 2016-17 Sunshine State Conference (SSC) Woman of the Year.

She is the first athlete in SSC history to claim all three of the conference’s major awards for women: Woman of the Year, Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and Female Athlete of the Year.

Coors, who is a native of Gross-Zimmern, Germany, is just the second Saint Leo student-athlete to receive the SSC Woman of the Year award, joining former women’s soccer standout Virginia Davenport, who earned the accolade in 2007-08.

The conference’s athletics directors, senior woman administrators, athletics communications directors, and faculty athletics representatives took part in the voting. Candidates were scored based on the NCAA Woman of the Year award criteria.

Coors, the 2017 Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) Division II Golfer of the Year and a First Team All-American, captured the individual championship at the 2017 NCAA Division II Women’s Golf Championship in May after carding a seven-over 295 over 72 holes. She finished the season with a 72.16 stroke average over 32 rounds — the lowest stroke average of any Division II women’s golfer and 22nd-lowest among all collegiate women’s golfers regardless of division.

Callie Turner, a rising junior at Land O’ Lakes High School, was recently selected to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-South Region First-Team.

The NFCA awards honor softball student-athletes from the association’s five regions with first- and second-team recognition; member coaches from each region’s respective committees selected the honorees.

Turner, a University of Tennessee softball commit, is one of 160 student-athletes representing 93 programs to receive 2017 NFCA High School All-Region accolades.

Besides Turner, just two other players from Florida received honors— Canterbury’s Danielle Romanello and Taylor Bump.

Turner, the Miracle Sports Class 6A Pitcher of the Year and one of the state’s most dominant aces, helped guide Land O’ Lakes (29-3) to its first fastpitch title in May.

She won 17 games, posting a 0.21 ERA and 249 strikeouts in 132.2 innings pitched.

In her 20 starts, Turner tallied 18 complete games, 10 shutouts and four no-hitters.

Also a standout hitter, she batted .319 with 14 RBIs.

Patrick Morris, a 2017 Steinbrenner High School graduate, has inked a professional baseball contract with the Toronto Blue Jays, netting a signing bonus of $206,500.

Shortly after agreeing to terms, Morris was assigned to the Gulf Coast League Blue Jays in Dunedin, the club’s rookie-level minor league affiliate.

The 6-foot-1, 190-pound power-hitting left-handed first baseman was drafted by Toronto in the 14th round of last month’s MLB Draft — the primary mechanism for assigning amateur baseball players, from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs.

Morris was ranked by Baseball America as the the state’s 89th best draft prospect.

Over the past two seasons at Steinbrenner, he displayed extra-base and home run power, tallying eight home runs, 17 doubles and 43 RBIs cumulatively. Also a solid pitcher, he posted a career 2.71 ERA, with 82 strikeouts in 95.2 innings.

Besides Morris, other draft picks from The Laker/Lutz News coverage area who have signed pro baseball contracts include: Nate Pearson (Odessa/Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School/Florida International University/College of Central Florida), who signed with the Toronto Blue Jays; Kevin Merrell (Steinbrenner High School/University of South Florida), who signed with the Oakland Athletics; and, Josh Falk (Steinbrenner High School/Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School/University of Pittsburgh), who signed with the Oakland Athletics.

Saint Leo women’s basketball rising sophomore Gina Brierley was selected as one of 12 players to represent Great Britain at the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) U20 Women’s European Championships (Division B).

The tournament runs from July 8 to July 16, in Eilat, Israel.

“I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to be selected for the Great Britain U20 squad,” Brierley said, in a release. “It’s always an honor to get a call from your home nation; it’s the icing on the cake of what has been a fantastic year for me. I just want to take the opportunity to thank the coaching staff at Saint Leo, especially Coach (Anthony) Crocitto, who gave me the chance to further my sporting career at an amazing university.”

Brierley and her squad will first face Ireland on July 8. They will also face Romania, Israel, Belarus and Croatia in consecutive days as part of group play. The other group will include Germany, Iceland, Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Greece and Ukraine.

The native of Manchester, England finished her freshman season at Saint Leo averaging 6.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists.

The 5-foot-7 guard also scored in double figures four times, including a season-high 22 points at Eckerd on Dec. 10.

“I’m so proud to see Gina represent and make this team,” Saint Leo head coach Anthony Crocitto said. “She has mentally and physically put in the work this summer and deserves this opportunity. We are all excited to follow Gina’s success.”

Meanwhile, Brierley’s teammates will be student-athletes from Louisiana State, Illinois State, Lipscomb, Loyola University Maryland, and others from around Great Britain.