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Tampa Bay's Best: The Process

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 2, 2008

With the Women's Final Four headed to Florida for the first time - April 6 and 8 at the St. Pete Times Forum - The Tampa Tribune is saluting the sport at its grassroots level by featuring the all-time elite players in Tampa Bay area high school girls basketball.

Nominations were solicited from high schools throughout a 10-county region - Citrus, DeSoto, Hardee, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Polk, Pinellas and Sarasota counties. The question: Who was your all-time best girls basketball player? (Active players were not eligible).

From 101 high schools, we have 101 different girls basketball players. Three have played in the WNBA. Nearly three dozen of them reached some level of All-American or all-conference in college. Most were all-state or all-county in high school. Some never played competitively after their prep days ended.

All displayed excellence in their own right.

That initial list was pared to 35 finalists.

And those finalists, complete with detailed biographies, were placed on ballots sent to an advisory panel of current and former longtime coaches - Walt Cermak (formerly of Hernando), Harry Elifson (Morehead State assistant, formerly of Boca Ciega), LeDawn Gibson (Winter Haven), Lelani Gordon (Riverview), John Harder (Bradenton Southeast), Ed Jackson (Gibbs), Betty Lambert (Chamberlain), David Mead (formerly coach at Haines City, now the school's athletic director), Tom Mosca (Jefferson), Tom Shaneyfelt (Clearwater), Cayll Smith (Northern Arizona assistant, formerly of Sarasota Riverview), Jim Van Til (Bradenton Christian), Dean Soles (formerly of Clearwater Central Catholic and Northside Christian) and Joi Williams (UCF head coach, formerly a University of Florida assistant and USF player).

They were asked to vote for their top players, emphasizing high school performance above all other factors. After one round of voting, we had our Final Five.

Now it's up to you.

For the next two weeks (through March 16 at midnight), you can vote for your favorite among the five players - Akita Heatly (Boca Ciega), Sherisha Hills (Academy of the Holy Names), Bernice Mosby (Hernando), Dominique Redding (Clearwater) and Necole Tunsil (Lakewood).

They will be honored in a public ceremony during the Women's Final Four weekend Monday, April 7, when the No. 1 vote-getter is announced.

To vote, log onto TBO.com (Keyword: Tampa Bay's Best), where you will also find photo galleries and audio interviews on the Final Five, along with photographs and biographies on each of the 101 players, plus a look at where many of them are now.

Joey Johnston

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