DarterBlue2

Darn. It is hard for me to understand what's going on in the minds of these kids. And, if you're going to sell stolen stuff, you would think you would be more discreet about it and not use social media attached to your name. But the tragedy is each of these young men may have just blown opportunities at the college level and beyond over stuff that really could have/should have been avoided. If your life is at a dead end there is still no excuse for doing the wrong thing. But at least you are not blowing up an opportunity that could lead, possibly, to fame and fortune.

I saw that. But you have proven that you can win. That is half the battle. Soccer (football) was the second most popular sport in Jamaica next to track. At the schoolboy level, our standard was pretty good. Unfortunately, you could not make a living out of it (unless you migrated to England like John Barnes), so where it mattered (World Cup qualifiers), we did not have what it took (only made the World Cup once in many tries). But a good district game back when I was a boy would draw 5,000+ fans easily. So it was pretty exciting stuff. As a result, i have never lost my love for the sport even after all these years.

Very true under the new rules. You gotta do what is best for YOUR playoff chances.

Zoe, actually, Canes is wrong. A never was program can never be a faded program. A faded program is one that was once good but is now bad. To some extent a Lincoln would fit that bill. Or an Edgewater. Or in South Florida, Miami Northwestern between 2009 and 2014 (time span probably not long enough). A never was program would be a: Cypress Creek here in Orlando or a Varela in South Florida. Canes can't have it both ways with Columbia. Columbia cannot be both faded and never was at the same time. It must be one or the other or neither of the above.

Like when he transfers to another school for his senior year. Some coaches probably won't take kindly to that. At the end of the day, in most circumstances, this is petty.

Canes, I respect your knowledge. But in all truth, you sir, are an a@@!

Hopefully, the best is yet to come for you man!

Figure I got a ways to go. Hope to make 90 before I sign off!

College overtime rules, though not perfect, would be fairer than what is now in place. The problem with the NFL rules is that too much rides on a random flip of a coin (which determines which team gets the ball first). To me, it should be I score, you get your shot, you score ... and so on till one team fails to score. That way, the coin toss is solely strategic and is not a gimme for the team winning it.

It was last Friday.

Happy Birthday Columbia. I am many, many years older than you, but our birthdays are pretty close if today is yours!

Happy Birthday Columbia. I am many, many years older than you, but our birthdays are pretty close if today is yours!

My guess is that he and the girl had an argument and he took the gun for whatever reason. Hence, the call to the police about trespassing by the parents. Regardless, this is so stupid. He probably just forfeited his chance to play college football free of cost at a very good program over something that was probably totally avoidable. The odds are fairly high that Michigan State will pull the scholarship. Hopefully, he can learn from the situation, get past this, exercise better judgment in the future, and find a spot on another college football roster. The kid has the size, frame and bloodlines to be a big time football player. Time will tell whether he has the judgment and maturity to realize his potential.

Instead of signing his LOI Wednesday: http://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/michigan-state/2017/02/02/donovan-winter-arrest-michigan-state/97396052/ Hope he can salvage his college football career and learn from this mistake.

I was impressed with him. Glad he has offers. In the right situation, he should do well.

Good luck to your boys, Columbia. Hope they all succeed at the next level and in life!

Oakridge's soccer season ended on a bad note when Plant City scored in overtime to win 3-2 off a free kick just outside the box that was on a questionable call. It was a disappointing end to a good season. Oakridge has been knocking on the door for the past five or six seasons and I believe that their turn will come. In tonight's game they led 2-1 for most of the game. The lead evaporated inside five minutes of regular time when Plant City scored on what I will call a defensive mix-up involving a couple of defenders and the goalkeeper. I believe the kids should feel good about a good season. The team loses a lot; however, some good talent returns. I feel that if the current staff remains intact, the team will continue to perform well.

Demetri Burch of Apopka flipped his commitment from USF to Oregon following Judson's lead.

I don't think she would ever play for St Thomas unless she is Benedict Arnold personified.

I agree with you. The truth is the truth!

Last year they finished the regular season undefeated only to lose in their first district tournament game to a team they had beaten easily during the regular season. This year a three loss Oak Ridge team (17-3-1, prior to the district tournament), has knocked off its first two opponents in the district tournament including Winter Park, last year's state finals runner up in 5A to Boca Raton, and Timber Creek, the team that upset them last year. In both of these games Oak Ridge not only had to come from behind, but did so a man down due to losing a player in each game to the dreaded red card (blue in high school). In the Timber Creek game they played about 65 minutes with this player deficit and went from being 1-2, to reeling off 4 unanswered goals to win 5-2. Against Winter Park, they came back from a 0-1 deficit at the end of the first half, to send the game into double overtime and then a penalty shootout, which they won 7-6 when their keeper (a good kid, but who may be their weakest link), made a good save of Winter Park's penalty kick in the sudden death portion of the shootout, and then their star player and central striker, Sonely Cius, calmly slotted the ball into the far right hand corner of the net to seal the win after nearly two and a half hours on the pitch. Made up largely of Haitian and Latino kids, Oak Ridge has been knocking on the door for the past six or so years. The program was taken over by Jamaican/American Head Coach Kenny Coutain eight years ago, and he turned a foundering soccer school, which could not even finish the regular season due to lack of players the year before he became head coach, into a very solid Orlando area program. Kenny, who grew up in Dade County, I believe, was: a football, soccer and track athlete in high school, and went on to star at Memphis in College Football as a receiver. He spent one season with the Green Bay Packers after his college career in the early 2000s before moving on to the more mundane things most of us do for a living. He deserves a lot of credit for what he has accomplished with Oak Ridge soccer. Knowing a thing or two about soccer having grown up in Jamaica, I can honestly say that this year's team, just like last year's is truly talented. It would not surprise me if they found a way to make it to the state final four, and from there anything could happen. Since the conclusion of the football season, after they knocked off Apopka, I have become an honorary fan of theirs to root on my Caribbean brothers (I guess I should say grand kids at this stage of my life ). At their coach's request, I gave them a little pep talk after they came back from a 1-3 deficit in one of the last games of the regular season to tie it 3-3, and they have responded well. They are a good group of kids battling a hard life, and unlike some of their better opponents, only a few of them get to play club soccer, which in America is so important to their development, due to a lack of financial resources. But they have made up for this disadvantage with speed, natural talent for the game, and a lot of enthusiasm. It would be nice if they could win a state championship, as this would, I believe, be the first time an urban, inner-city school in Florida would have accomplished that goal (assuming Miami Edison does not beat them to it).

The Haitian population in Orlando has exploded over the last 15 to 20 years. When I moved to Orlando at the end of 1990 there weren't many. Back then it was mostly Jamaicans. I would say that in Greater Orlando there are now at least as many Haitians as Jamaicans, possibly more. I have become a big fan of the Haitian version of Rice and Beans.

I am happy for them too. Haiti and Jamaica are only 100 miles apart at the closest point. Oak Ridge High has a lot of Haitian kids (about 30 to 40% of the school population), as does Evans with about 25%. Apopka is about 5 to 10% Haitian, it would have been more, but some got diverted to Wekiva when that opened up in the mid 2000s.

I just checked on him. I see he has started on Varsity all four years and has scored, I believe, over 80 goals. Those are some pretty good stats.

That's what I am starting to think. Edison had some good teams in the early 2000s, but not much recently. This may mark the resurrection of the football program. I see the soccer team just won GMAC trophy, too.