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Plant takes 2 top-10 finishes

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By NICHOLAS MURRAY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 10, 2009

Despite finishing fifth at the Mallory Cup in St. Petersburg, and eighth at the Baker Cup in Redwood City, Calif., Plant High's sailing team came away from both national regattas with a sense of disappointment.

"They knew that they could have done better at both regattas," Plant coach Ian Lineberger said. "We just didn't get a lot of the breaks. The kids really battled, and they did really well in the Mallory, the fleet races at St. Pete."

So well, in fact, that the Panthers held second place to eventual champion Newport Harbor entering the final rotation. But a desire to try and win the title instead of protecting their position ended up costing the crew as they slid back late.

Senior skipper Ian Heausler led the "A" boat strongly all weekend, and teamed with Alec Ruiz-Ramon and Becca Schiff to earn two victories and nine top-five finishes over the 18-race regatta. Fellow seniors Trey Lehan and Taylor Vann teamed with Schiff and Claire Abberger in the second boat, which also won twice and took seven top-fives. Lineberger said the team didn't have any regrets.

"No, I don't think so," Lineberger said. "I think they realized what we were trying to accomplish. We went into both regattas with the idea that we wanted to win the regatta, we wanted to go right for it, we thought we'd trained enough to be able to do. We knew it was going to be a very difficult challenge, especially to beat that Newport team that won both regattas.

"We could have sailed better in both regattas, we made mistakes that weren't particularly characteristic of the team, but so did a lot of other ones. Overall they probably felt like they could have done better, but they learned a lot, they learned they can compete at that level."

Team Florida roster has 13 local players

If you want a tangible means to chart how lacrosse is growing in the Tampa Bay area, you need only look at the Team Florida rosters that were released last week for showcase events next month.

Thirteen local lacrosse players from the Tampa Tribe and Tampa Bay Fire were named across four age groups, including five players on the under-13 squad and four on the under-17 team.

"I think the younger kids are getting the benefit of having the program," Tribe coach Tom Fitzsimons said. "We only started eight years ago with lacrosse, and we started with two or three middle school teams, and the following year we started the high school.

"What you're starting to see now, and what's benefiting these programs, is you're getting kids who've had the stick in their hands like the kids up north from the age of eight- or nine-years old, and they get to this U-13, U-15, U-17, U-19 levels, they've had the stick in their hand for five or six years."

Fitzsimons is one of the coaches for the under-13 team, on which the Tribe will be represented by middie Cameron Doane and attackmen Zach Carter and Tyler Fitzsimons and the Fire by defenseman Mike Myers and middie Jackson Costello. They and the Under-15 team that includes the Fire's Connor Whipple and Randy Kreig, will play in the Chocolate Shootout in Hershey, Pa., beginning July 25.

The under-17 team that includes the Fire's Will Daniel and Maurice Lorenzo and the Tribe's Tyler Schroer and Chris Kelly and the under-19 team that includes the Fire's Kevin Losier and the Tribe's Morgan Weed will play in the Battle of the Hotbeds at the University of Delaware, beginning on the same date.

With former Jesuit player Garrett Olson now playing for Providence, and Newsome's Chris Carter going to play for Roanoke next season, the opportunities for players are growing. Showcases like these can provide a boost for players who want to pursue that opportunity.

"The coaching world now, just like in most of the sports, they start zeroing in on kids in 10th grade," Fitzsimons said. "So they know who they're going to go after, they're planning two or three years down the road for their recruiting classes, so when we get these kids out for these tournaments, they get a leg-up and they get seen."

Nicholas J.E. Murray can be reached at (813) 259-8243.

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