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Pasco Displays Versatility En Route To Title

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By EDDIE DANIELS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 11, 2008

DADE CITY - For the better part of this season, the Pasco boys basketball team has not had an issue when it comes to posting points.

That includes Saturday night's 60-48 victory against Hudson in the Class 4A-District 8 finals for the program's eighth district title.

This season, the Pirates (20-7) have scored 65 points or better 13 times, so when Friday night's 36-32 quarterfinal victory against Springstead rolled around, Pasco coach Poncho Broner had to listen to the questions.

"It's a scrappy bunch," Broner said. "Friday night we had the low-scoring game, 36-32, and people were like, 'How do you feel about that,' 'Did you expect it to be that low scoring?' No, I didn't expect it to be that low scoring, but we've been in those games.

"This group right here, if we have to get up and down and run, we'll get up and down and run, but if we got to grind it out, they'll grind it out. Staying focused, staying at it. Rebounding and grinding it out."

That's an attribute Broner hopes will allow his team, which has won 10 of its last 11 games, to adjust to opposing styles and carry them through the playoffs, which begins Thursday at the Dr. Donald McBath Activity Center.

Hudson (15-13), which entered as the tournament's No. 5 seed, knocked off top-seeded Springstead in Friday's semifinals. The Cobras will travel to face the winner of the Class 4A-District 7 tournament Thursday.

Let's put Friday's victory and tournament success into perspectives for Hudson.
Springstead pounded Hudson 63-32 in December and edged the Cobras 66-56 a month later. Now add Hudson's boys basketball history to the mix.

When Jason Vetter took over in 2003, the squad fumbled through the season, going 1-24. Then there was 2004's 2-23. Followed by records of 2-24 and last season's 6-19.

Taking the Cobras' past into consideration, which has never produced a playoff appearance and only two previous winning seasons, Saturday night's second-place finish in the district tournament is a major milestone in Hudson boys basketball history.

"When we started, the talent level was down, I'm new, so I don't know what I'm doing, time goes on, I get better at what I'm doing, the players get better," Vetter said. "The one thing I know is there's no coach that's worked harder than me and there's no group of players that's worked harder than these kids and that's what we've preached to them, just teamwork and hard work and I don't know any other way."

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