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Cardozo Does It All For Freedom

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By SCOTT PURKS

Tribune correspondent

Published: May 20, 2008

TAMPA - It's not that Freedom's Sarah Cardozo is fearless.

"No," she said, "I do get nervous."

It's more like her curiosity is stronger than her fear.

That's why she talked with Coach Marquel Blackwell about kicking field goals for the boys football team.

"I thought, hey, maybe I can help," said Cardozo, who did in fact help with a key extra point in a 49-48 homecoming quadruple-overtime victory against Middleton - which turned out to be the Patriots' only victory of the season.

"Blackwell asked me if I could handle the pressure just before the overtime started and I said, 'I'm going to make them, I'm better under pressure,'" she said. "But there was a huge homecoming crowd and this was our best chance to win and I wanted so much to help the team. I really, really didn't want to mess it up. So yes, I was nervous. Of course I was."

She also was money, converting all four of her chances in the OT. Then Middleton's kicker missed his final one and Cardozo said, "We won! ... It was one of the best feelings I've ever had."

Then came soccer, where she switched from a front-line scoring position to goalkeeper, because, she said, "That's where Coach said the team needed me the most."
Cardozo ended up recording 10 shutouts, including a 4-0 victory at Bloomingdale, a team that hadn't lost at home in years.

And finally there was the spring, when Cardozo for the first time ran track and for the third straight year quarterbacked the Patriots flag football team.

"I wanted to try something else, and I thought this is one of the last chances I may have to try something like track," Cardozo said.

So she ran the hurdles until a flag football game coincided with the district track meet, which meant she was playing flag football.

It wasn't until a few weeks later in a regional final in Plant City that Cardozo's flag football season ended in three overtimes in a 27-26 loss.

Freedom finished 12-1, and though she said it hurt, it wasn't devastating.

"Both teams played great and it could have gone either way," Cardozo said. "I was OK with it because I knew we played as well as we possibly could."

Add it all up, and Cardozo had a year that few girls athletes could duplicate.

For all she did, The Tampa Tribune has awarded her the title of 2008 Female Athlete of the Year.

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