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Nature Coast's county streak reaches 30

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By CHRIS BERNHARDT JR.

Published: December 7, 2007

SPRING HILL - Perhaps the concept has grown so old, that it has lost much of its meaning. The people that made it happen mostly shrugged off the accomplishment.

Still, no matter what, going 30-0 is impressive. It just didn't come with a whole lot of drama attached.
Nature Coast Technical again remained perfect in county play during its five seasons of existence, improving to 30-0 by pounding winless Springstead High at the Lady Eagle gym Tuesday night, 59-15.

"Any time you win 30 games in a row; there's been some close games," said first-year Nature Coast Head Coach Travis Lamle, an assistant the previous three seasons. "We've had some nail-biters against Central. Hernando has given us good runs.

"Teams prepare for us. They know who our stars are. They try to take them away."

It was the Lady Sharks (7-0 overall, 6-0 Class 4A, District 8, 4-0 Hernando County Athletic Conference) who took things away, literally, by tallying 27 steals.

Cherikhan Waddy, Kaitlin Wadsworth, Crystal Anthony and Jen Marshall each had four, while Lauren Wajerski added three.
Shareka Maner tallied six steals to go along with a game-high 17 points. She did that without ever stepping on the court in the second half, played completely under a running clock thanks to a 47-6 halftime lead.

"We just played hard, getting ready for the next game. We have three games this week," said Maner, who was unaware of the county streak reaching 30. "I'm just playing hard, staying on top of my game.

"I think our press was good. We stayed on the ball. Everyone did good on the press today."
Waddy finished with 14 points. Emily Brockhoff scored seven points on the bench, taking advantage of extended minutes in the second half.

Anthony played well in the final two quarters as well, the point guard dishing out four assists. Alyssa Joens chipped in four points, six rebounds and a steal.
Springstead (0-6 overall, 0-4 4A-8, 0-2 HCAC) got four points apiece out of Jazmin Armstrong and Taylor Tuomey. A 6-foot-2 sophomore, Armstrong added a game-high seven rebounds.

"It showed that even my young players don't want to give up," said second-year Springstead Head Coach Todd Toomer. "You saw it tonight, four sophomores and a freshman. We're building this program and I love watching them.

"Even though we're making mistakes, they're mistakes that can be fixed. And they all want to play hard. There's going to be games like this, especially with a young team."

The Lady Eagles are hampered by a season-ending knee injury to senior center Jen Knoer.

The Lady Sharks have no such worries at the moment, still awaiting their first major challenge as they bull their way through their district and county.

"We try to focus on the bigger picture," Lamle said. "We focus on Bishop Moore and trying to find out what competition will come out of the other district for us (in regionals).

"...We're a good team. We're looking forward to going to Kentucky (for a holiday tournament Dec. 20-23) and playing teams like nothing we've ever seen. We're looking forward to going to Indian Rocks Christian (for a tournament Jan. 3-5) and playing St. Pete Catholic right away."

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