February 2, 2024 • 36 mins
On this week’s Keys Weekly Sports Wrap Podcast, Sean and Tracy will go in-depth on a week full of rivalry basketball games, cover the prep soccer playoffs and dive into the details on girls weightlifting district meets as hardware-winning athletes move on to regional competition.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome back, everyone to the Keys Weekly sports rap podcast.
The number one rated Monroe County prep sports podcast in
the world. I'm Sean mcdonald. Next to me is Tracy mcdonald.
How are you doing today? Tracy. I'm having a
Speaker 2 (00:19):
great day because it's a great week. You know what week?
That is, what week? Rivalry
Speaker 1 (00:24):
week it was Rivalry week. We talked about it last week,
we talked about it in pre rivalry week,
pre rivalry week, we talked about it just like I said, so, very,
very rarely does anything ever live up to the hype,
does it? Yeah,
Speaker 2 (00:40):
it's usually a big let down. I mean, that's life
in general. Al
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Capone's vault. Let down. Thanks a lot. Geraldo y2k. Huge.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Let down enormous. I stocked rice for nothing.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Most super bowls let
Speaker 2 (00:55):
down. I don't even care about that. It's not the Dolphins.
Who cares?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
That's very true. This one thing that I'm gonna talk about,
in fact, two things. But the first one being the
marathon Coral Shores basketball game, the Battle of the Keys
on the hardwood. Lived up to the hype, wouldn't you
say so?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Not a letdown,
Speaker 1 (01:13):
not a letdown. It lived up to the hype. It
was a great night. It was last Friday night at
Marathon high school.
The big battle, the one everybody loves. Marathon. High school
versus Coral Shores in basketball. We've seen some great games
in the past some close games. We've seen Marathon beat
Corl Shores by a lot. We've seen Coral Shores beat
(01:35):
Marathon by a lot and, you know, we were just
hoping for a nice game and we got a great game.
It was one of those nights
where fortunately for marathon, everything that they did worked, they
got every bounce, they got every call, they got every role.
I mean, no one's shoes came untied. It was a
(01:56):
perfect night for marathon. Everything that they did worked.
And there was a little luck for them in the
air because to be honest, Tracy Marathon was the underdogs
Speaker 2 (02:05):
by far, they, they had lost a couple of times
already this season and they, they didn't lose by one
or two. They lost by 1012. They lost by some
big rips and they were definitely the underdog. But like
you said, everything just seemed to be in their favor.
I mean, the, the shots that probably, you know, should
have banked off the rim. They just went in like crazy.
There were, there were threes that barely touched the net.
(02:27):
It was amazing. And then for Coral Shores,
they had great shots and then they just weren't going
in and that happens sometimes. You know, you take a
shot and then it bounces out. They had so many
opportunities and props to them. It's not their fault that
these shots are about, I guess. I don't know, I
don't want to blame anybody but it seemed like I like,
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I like the way you're being positive
Speaker 2 (02:48):
shots were not falling for them. And, you know, I've seen,
I've seen games where like that should have gone in
and there were multiple shots that should have gone in
and you can't play the baskets. There was no trickery
because
it happened on both sides. It was just not their
night and everything seemed to fall in place. It was
a perfect storm for marathon and the final outcome, the
score was not really indicative of the back and forth
(03:09):
battle that the game was for the entire game. Nobody
knew who was going to win. It was a battle.
The kids were gassed, they were sweaty, their uniforms were
three shades darker by the end of the game and,
you know, everybody paid $7 to get into that event.
They got their money's worth
Speaker 1 (03:27):
$7. It's a lot of money. Um, but money well spent,
no doubt about it. And the fact of the matter is,
is the old adage of that's why they play the game.
This is why you play the game on paper. Carl
Shores was gonna win big, but it was a rivalry game.
So you throw the records out the window and it
was a game played with a,
(03:48):
a lot of emotion on both sides. The student section,
it was a home game for marathon. The student section
for marathon was packed. Carl Shores had some fans there too.
They were cheering. It's just like you were talking about
today and we're gonna get into next Key West versus
Crowl Shores game that happened last night. So you guys
on the podcast, you're getting a scoop here. Um
(04:11):
I thought you hit the nail right on the head.
All the kids in Key West know the kids at Marathon,
know the kids at Coral Shores. These are big games
when we play because everybody knows everybody, the people in
the stands for Coral Shores know the people in the
stands for Marathon and vice versa. So usually if Coral
Shores is playing Somerset Charter the third,
(04:33):
there's not a rivalry. I don't care.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Nobody cares. Nobody knows anybody on that team. It's, it's
just a game, it's all business. There's nobody in the stands.
It's not, you know what, I'm going to go on record.
I don't care. I'm gonna say it's not even a
real school.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Somerset Charter the third. That it's not a real school.
I made it up.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah. But I mean, these charter schools, they, they put
together a school to have a basketball team and it's
somebody's travel team and this year they might be great.
And then next year, the coach leaves and some of
the kids leave with them. It's, it's this, I don't
like
and it's not a real school and I'm just going
to say that I don't care.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So then the basketball teams like the marathon, the Coral Shores,
the Key West, they have that same sense. They have
that same feeling. So obviously they go up there to
play and they want to win, but it's not like
wanting to beat marathon.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
It's not the same. And, you know, during the game,
it's like the gloves are off, the kids are battling
it out. But when the final whistle blows for the
most part, obviously, there, there are some, you know,
Speaker 1 (05:27):
rumors and innuendos that this isn't
Speaker 2 (05:30):
true. Yeah. But for the most part, these kids, they
grow up together. I mean, we live on a string
of islands and they'll play, you know, like they last
night and we're not into this yet. But, you know,
the Coral Shores kid who will play baseball down in
Key West and there'll be a Key West kid who
maybe plays at a different travel team and the kids
know each other. They know each other from, from social
media and they know each other from actually playing on
(05:50):
different travel
teams and, and, you know, maybe moving or so they
do know each other and for the most part, it's
friendly rivalries and once the game's over, you know, they'll
see each other shaking hands and it's a pretty good,
nice thing. The parents know each other and, you know,
during the game you would think that they're the most
bitter rivals ever, but after the game, you know, whistle
blows and then it's off to hating Palmer and Somerset
(06:12):
and everybody
Speaker 1 (06:13):
else. And then,
so that was Friday night.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
What about the girls though? Even the girls. Cool Shores
stacking up wins. Coach Mandos, he's up there doing a
great job. Coach Thomas, they're putting in the work coach Russell,
they're all working hard on this basketball team
win after win after win. They get their first loss
at home, you know, but they still have a ton
of wins. So you're talking
Speaker 1 (06:33):
about girls, basket, girls basketball, girls basketball right now, preach
what's going on? They're doing
Speaker 2 (06:38):
great. I mean, they are on this huge win streak.
They're doing awesome. They're making a run and they only
beat marathon by a couple of points in their first
meet up. But they really, I, I would have given
them the upper hand. I would have given them the
odds but, you know, don't bet on me. I've been
bad lately so they come down here and, you know,
marathon. They got off to a bit of a rocky start,
(06:59):
but I looked at their record, I think it's evened
up now. So, you know, Coach Garvey has really been
putting in the work. The girls are putting in a
lot of work. So that was that was a battle
as well. And you know, Elena Ubank came alive, Marty Kilbourne,
she added a lot of points and pulled down some rebounds.
They played physical ball, you know, for Carl Schwarz Brook, man,
Dozy again, leading scorer doing her best to lead her
(07:22):
team to a victory. But in the end,
you know, marathon one and it was, it was a
great game to see. And then right after that was
the boys game. So, you know, those people paid $7
they got two for one,
Speaker 1 (07:34):
they got two wins. If you're a marathon fan, you
got two wins. And, um, the student section was in
effect for the girls game. They did a great job
for both. And it's just sort of, you know, I mean,
there's a lot of,
uh, some people say there's a lot of negatives about
being in education and all that. But nights like that
make it worth it makes the job great. It was
(07:54):
a lot of fun for the kids and for the
adults and seeing
Speaker 2 (07:57):
the students, they had so much fun, they did a
great job. They were very positive. They cheered their team
on and, you know, for both schools, everybody
was into the game 100%. No one's on their phone,
no one's scrolling through, no one's, you know, shopping and
everyone's just watching the game living in the moment. Absolutely.
Which is something we don't see that often anymore. No,
Speaker 1 (08:17):
that's a whole another podcast. Um So
Speaker 2 (08:20):
let's, let's move on to Wednesday or Tuesday, Tuesday
Speaker 1 (08:23):
night, last night recording this on Wednesday. We're breaking down
the fourth wall here. You guys understand the inner workings
of the number one
Monroe County prep sports podcast in the world. You're seeing
how it works. It's today's Wednesday. We're recording this right
now yesterday,
I was coaching my middle school team to a victory
(08:44):
against Hob, but that's not the story because this is
a prep sports podcast, not a middle school sports podcast.
So
Tracy was down in Key West at the Bobby Menendez gym.
We talked about Bobby Menendez last week to see the
final game between Coral Shores and Key West High School
(09:04):
in basketball, boys basketball, only this one and this was
a makeup game for the other game that, that couldn't,
couldn't quote unquote be played before and they got to
play it last night
and it was a barn burner. Coral Shores comes out
of the gate on fire. What was that like for
you down there, Tracy? It was, you
Speaker 2 (09:26):
know, at first I, I get there and there aren't
that many fans. And I thought, well, what on earth
is going on? Is there something else happening tonight? You know,
is there an event? Am I missing? Is there a carnival?
I don't know. But then they start, Key West comes
in the gym, everybody starts to trickle in and, you know,
I looked up around half time and, and I
tell me that it was packed in there and Key
West student section did a great job. Coral Schwarz traveled. Well,
(09:47):
they had quite a few players there and I have
to tell you Coral Shores came out, they look like
the underdogs. Key West is taller. You know, they, they
seem to be hitting more shots, but, you know, Corals
is a scrappy team. They're a very physical team and
they were, they were out to win. They, um, they
lost the previous match up by a couple
points and they wanted to avenge themselves and Key West
(10:10):
of course, wanted to have the sweep. So it was
like you said, a barn burner back and forth, back
and forth lead by two points here. Somebody else is
up next and it really came down to the final
minutes again. It was a spectacular game. Key West fans
were amazing Cohos fans as many as they brought were
great and you have to answer to them. Both teams
were awesome and
(10:32):
they left, they left their records at the door. They
left their prior matchups at the door and it was
a battle from whistle to whistle and what a game
it was,
Speaker 1 (10:41):
um, just a couple of notes from that game.
If you go back in time, the last couple of years,
Coral Shores has been the county champs. They swept Key West,
they swept marathon
in the year 2022. And 2023 basketball season. So they
were the unofficial Kings of the Keys in basketball this season.
(11:03):
Key West early in the year goes up to Coral
Shores and gets the upset victory. It was an upset
for us at the time. We thought it was an
Speaker 2 (11:11):
upset and Key West has a young team. Their, their
roster has primarily sophomore, uh sophomore, key as freshman and
there they are
fairly young team and for them to go up there, they're,
they're getting, you know, maybe if they played the very
first game of the year, it would have been different.
But every single game it seems like coach Butler and
his conks are getting better and those, those sophomores and
(11:32):
freshmen are evolving and I feel like they're gonna be
pretty dominant in the next couple of years. So, Coors
and Marathon are on notice, they need to pick up
their game and, and figure out a way that they
can go down there and beat them because it's gonna
be tough in the next couple of years.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
It's gonna be tough and the rivalry continues.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Did we tell them who won?
No, you can tell him you can. That's the Key
West came out with that victory. I believe they won.
They won by a lot. I mean, they pulled out the,
but
Speaker 1 (11:57):
it's like the basketball thing. If anybody watch high school basketball,
it's like the first quarter is always super tight and
then usually for the most part, there's a breaking point
where two teams are close no matter the difference in
skills sometimes. And then at 1.1 of the teams win
breaks and then the floodgates open. And for the floodgates
(12:18):
last night, they opened in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It was down to two minutes before those floodgates opened.
And what happened to Carl Schwarz is, is very similar
to the game at marathon where I told you there
are physical players, they're scrappy, they'll go up for a
rebound without worry of falling, turning their ankle. I mean,
they play aggressive basketball. The problem with that is
you get into foul trouble and it happened to Carl
(12:41):
again last night. Um, they're big guys picking up fouls and,
you know, by the fourth quarter they have a couple
of kids fouled out. Same thing happened in Marathon and then,
you know, it's, it's just not the same, you don't
have the same spark as your starting
Speaker 1 (12:53):
five. You know, this is the Florida Keys you have
in basketball, you know, Key West
Scroll Shore's Marathon. If they have six or six good
basketball players, really, really capable basketball players, they're ahead of
the game. So when you have a player foul out
at a Coral Shores, you have a starter foul out
(13:13):
that's gonna impact your team no matter
Speaker 2 (13:15):
what. It's enormous. And then Coral Shores is down a
couple of players in any way. I know they've had
a couple of injuries. I know,
um, a couple of their football players had, had some
knee problems from football and basketball. Um, a couple of
kids weren't traveling so they've had injuries. Key West has
had their share of injuries, you know. So have we,
so it's, it's rough this late in the season and
this is, the chips are on the t here's what happened.
(13:35):
And
Key West, they held their composure, they never let down
and they came out victorious. So they swept Marathon, they
swept Coral Shores.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
They are the official kings of the Keys in basketball
for 2024. Congratulations to the Conch nation in Key West
to coach Butler, to Justin Martin athletic director all the
way up the chain of command to Rebecca Palomino's principal.
Congratulations to all of you guys. Um
I know that's a big thing. I know it's a
big thing for Key West to beat Marathon and Coral Shores.
(14:09):
It's a big deal. It's a very big
Speaker 2 (14:11):
deal. Well, it's a must win. It's a must win.
It's hard to lose the marathon when you're Key West.
That's
Speaker 1 (14:16):
very, that's very true. It's
Speaker 2 (14:18):
hard to lose the Coral Shores when you're Key West.
It's a bitter taste too. But yeah, so let's move on.
What else do we have?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Let's move on. You're gonna, so we got, we have
soccer going on. There's a lot to touch base on there.
Um You know, all year long, the big story has
been Key West boys soccer. They picked up win number
nine on January 24th. They beat uh South Miami 9
to 1 mercy rule.
Um So a big win for them on January 26th,
(14:46):
the number three seeded Conks headed to Gulliver to take
on the second seeded Makos of Mast Academy. So it's
district playoffs territory. They're playing at Gulliver against Mast. Key
West lost the semifinal match four to nothing that ended
their season. But their late season run and difficult schedule
(15:06):
may give them an at large spot to regionals. So
they will take into consideration sometimes strength of schedule and
how far they went. And they have some of these
wild cards to hand out for the FHSA A playoffs.
But as of right now, Key West high school successful
season cut short by
(15:29):
the Massed Academy, Mao
Speaker 2 (15:31):
right now, I got you said they find out Friday
they might have that regional wild card spot maybe 5050
at this point because they did play some tough teams. So,
you know, I'm, I'm holding out hopefully Key West gets
that spot and, you know, those boys could really, you know,
go far if they, they are afforded that opportunity, let's
hope they are. But really in prep soccer
(15:52):
in the Keys and then there was one, we have
one team left for sure. Key
Speaker 1 (15:57):
West high school girls, Scott Paul coach for a long,
long time with the Conch girls. Took a break came
back and he's bringing back that Conk pride to the
Lady Conk team. They got a win against top seeded
Mast Academy in a shootout. That was a big win
and they are moving on to the FHSA, a district
(16:20):
16 4, a title against second seeded Saint Brendan's on
January 31st. So they are playing for a district championship
as of press time or, or recording day is what
we call it. Hey, it's recording day. Wake up Tracy,
it's recording day. Let's get there. Let's, let's have this.
So today's January 31st, they're playing today. Um, it will
(16:42):
be out in the Thursday edition of the newspaper. Not,
not today. The following Thursday, February 6 ish around there.
I'm bad with, we're a once a
Speaker 2 (16:52):
week publication and there's a bit of, you know, lead
time here. So you're gonna get, you're gonna, you
Speaker 1 (16:57):
know, and we'll talk about it on the podcast. It's
worth the wait. So
Marathon boys had a big upset. They defeated higher seeded
Somerset Silver Palms on a for a 43 win in
their first round of the district playoff. Unfortunately, for them,
in the second round of the district playoff, they got
Juggernaut Palmer, whose boys soccer team is traditionally one of
(17:19):
the top in the state Palmer ended up beating them
for nothing ending the Marathon boys
Speaker 2 (17:24):
season. No, that game was
00 at the
Speaker 1 (17:27):
half. I heard they
Speaker 2 (17:29):
took on Crazy Palmer. They're so good. But you know what,
00 at the half. But then, like you said, a
lot of times these teams are, they're battling it out
in any sport and then the floodgates open. So that
second half, they,
Speaker 1 (17:41):
as you say in the, in the print edition,
in the print edition, quote unquote marathon, put up, put
forth a valiant effort.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I stand behind
Speaker 1 (17:52):
those words. You felt that it was a valiant effort
by coach Wiley's team. I mean, that's impressive to go
00 at the half. Can you imagine what Palmer coach
is saying to them? I bet
Speaker 2 (18:01):
there was some yelling.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
I bet you there was. And then really,
obviously the big story is Key West in the district
championship for the girls. But the real big
Speaker 2 (18:10):
and they knocked out the top seed to get there.
That's super impressive. They're playing the number two seed today.
I think they're so this is a big deal for
Key West and we'll talk a lot about that next week,
but we won't talk about these other tunes anymore. So
let's talk about them. Now,
Speaker 1 (18:23):
the, the, the real big story, the real, real big
story would have been, you have the district playoffs? Oh,
a sudden marathon, girls and Crowl Shores girls are in
the same district. Oh, my goodness. Look, they're playing in
the first round. We've had Carl Shore beat Marathon this year.
We've had Crow Shore's Tie marathon this year. So it
(18:45):
was like, is this gonna be the one where marathon
wins in the district in the district playoff? Um, short answer. No, no,
no close but no cigar. I just made that up. Um,
the match came down to the final whistle. It was
a 32 win for Coral Shores. So Coral Shores moves forward. So,
(19:10):
after getting the big win against marathon, that was the
good news. The bad news is Coral Shores got matched
up with Palmer and Palmer girls great soccer. They ended
up losing 8 to 1
ending their season. Jenna Manzi um, had a nice goal
off of a corner kick but it was not enough.
(19:31):
Palmer moves on. Carl SHS girls soccer ends a successful season. Um,
three wins, 10 losses and a tie.
Um, and the only one left and then there was
one Key West high school lady Conk soccer fighting
Speaker 2 (19:47):
for a district title tonight. We'll have that in. Not,
not the paper that's coming out probably as you listen
to this. But next week we'll have coverage of that
and let's move on. What's our next
Speaker 1 (19:56):
sport? Moving on to girls? Weightlifting? Oh,
Speaker 2 (20:00):
big deal today. No, not today. Today is a boy.
Actually. Spring sports have opened up. Boys. Weightlifting is having
their first meet today and that's with marathon traveling to,
I believe Coral Shores because Key West does not have
a boys weightlifter. It'll be
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Gulliver and Coral Shores meeting at Coral Shores. But
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Key West does have a girls weightlifting team
Speaker 1 (20:21):
and let's talk about girls weightlifting. After a long season,
the lifters are headed to district meets or
no, they went to last week and they're getting ready
for regionals. A relatively new sport
marathon coach, Jesse Schubert clarified exactly what to expect in
(20:42):
the postseason. There's four districts that compete to go to regionals.
The top eight lifters in each weight class with a
maximum of two per weight class. Competed districts, regional competitions
take the top 20 from the district. So to advance
to the regionals, an athlete must be in the top
20 of those 32. So
(21:03):
what's going on?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
So the only way to really get a free pass
to regionals is to take the district title and we
did have quite a few athletes do that in the
Keys and then they take, they're like, basically, you know
how Key West soccer boys are waiting for their wild
card spot. There are 19 wild card spots for regionals
and um, a crazy amount of girls actually pick these up.
(21:24):
Typically the second place finisher and third place finishers will
always add districts move on to regionals unless there's just
one crazy stack district which tends to be ours. And
this year some of the girls even down to the
sixth place finish have made it on through to regionals.
I did take some notes here of some of our
lifters in the
Speaker 1 (21:43):
keys. I have, I have it. I have it right.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
You have that. I have moved a step ahead. So
I have some that look really strong to move on
from districts to regionals. But I'll let you do who
are our district gold medal winners? We need to honor,
Speaker 1 (21:58):
we do honor the district champions appropriately who brought home
the Gold
Coral Shores had a pair of double district champions
Speaker 2 (22:07):
and that means they won the traditional event and they
won the Olympic event. So, you know, you have two
as a weightlifter, you've got two chances to medal and
these ladies got double gold. So
Speaker 1 (22:18):
they won
traditional and they won an Olympic. That is Janelle Arias
at the £169 weight class. And Sidney Eisenbach at the
unlimited weight class. They are the two district champions. You
are honored from the Keys weekly sports rep podcast, double
Speaker 2 (22:31):
goal, but they had more than that bringing home medals.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Absolutely. Now, when you talk about other medals at Crow Shores,
you have Rachel Rush at 100 and 10, 1 district
golden traditional and a spot in the regional lineup. Other
top performers in traditional were Callie Gomer Madison, Tillman, Vanessa
Gabriel J
Roche and Leticia Lima placed third. And Elizabeth Giordano won 10,
(22:56):
came in fourth. So those are your medalists for Coral
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Shores. They had three gold medal district champion winners,
Speaker 1 (23:03):
won two double winners. Key West. They had, they were
the first of the teams to go to their district meet.
They were at Doctor Joaquin Garcia High School. I love
that actor.
Um, that's Joaquin Phoenix. Oh, sorry. The Conk took third
place in Olympic list as a team and fifth and
traditional out of seven teams. But you
Speaker 2 (23:23):
didn't, you didn't marathon won the district champion there.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Claire Boyen was Key's biggest winner securing the district runner
up in both lifting events. Das Jenkins and Yuma Medi
Unlimited took second place medals in the Olympic lifts with
Jenkins coming in fourth and Midi winning third in traditional
Shiloh Sanchez and Adelaine. Sir both scored fourth in both events.
(23:49):
Other top finishers was Nelo Attila and Alexandra Konica who
were fourth in Olympic Lift. So Key West High School,
they are making it happen at Doctor Joaquin Garcia High School.
There come, some of their guys are getting, some of
their ladies are getting ready for regionals
now. Marathon bump but a bum coach Schubert and the
(24:13):
oldest girls weightlifting program in Monroe County. This
Speaker 2 (24:17):
tradition runs long like five
Speaker 1 (24:19):
years at least. Marathon can now claim four district champions
this season. Justice Lee, 100 and 83
won both events and a pair of regional spots at
100 and £19. Sierra Earnhardt won the golden traditional plus
the silver and Olympic. Ava Merriman won 39. Markeesha Abraham
and Sabrina Schofield are the reigning district
(24:41):
champions in traditional lifts. Schofield won silver in Olympic and
Abraham won bronze. Ella Dunn had a pair of second
place performances. Ryland Richards came in second in traditional and
fourth in Olympic, Michael Ross was second in traditional and
third in Olympic,
Elise Dalton and Harley Daniels both won silver in traditional
(25:03):
and fourth. And Olympic Cammy Ryn won bronze bronze in
Olympic in fourth place in traditional Samantha Schofield brought home
a pair of fourth place medals while Ella Evans claimed
a third place medal in traditional
Elizabeth Piper came in fourth in traditional lift. So a
lot of names for marathon, a lot of honors. A
lot of
Speaker 2 (25:21):
honoring the van was heavier on the way home with
all those medals and the big trophies. And I believe
there are some pictures of the trophies and the girls
with medals in the weekly this week. And
um thank you to Justice's mom, Justice Lee's mom, Amanda Lee.
She provided those pictures. She was, you know, very excited
to travel and she was trying to take pictures for
our marathons yearbook, which, you know, Justice is one of
(25:43):
the editors and she was trying to take pictures for
the Weekly as well. So she did a great job.
She did better than I would do and she had
all those jobs going on. Plus she was rooting for
our team and the Karl Schwartz girls. So props to
Speaker 1 (25:52):
her.
Thank you to all the weightlifting teams. I'm a little,
to be honest with you. I'm a little bit tired
of honoring, honoring. They're too good. A lot of honor.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
There will, there will be fewer after this week when
regionals does weed out some of the girls. But we
have a lot of people in place to meddle and,
you know, I'll wait till next week. You did a
great job honoring. Let's move on to the next
Speaker 1 (26:14):
sport.
We talk about the winter sport ending spring sports beginning.
Some spring sports are beginning more than others because Coral
Shores baseball has a new coach, a new beginning, not
even a new season. He's not a new
Speaker 2 (26:29):
coach.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
He's new to Carl Shore High
Speaker 2 (26:32):
School.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Wait, ok. He's new to the Keys,
right? New to the Keys. He's a young
Speaker 2 (26:41):
guy. No,
Speaker 1 (26:43):
he's never coached baseball before. Never been. Ok. Stop the presses.
Scroll Shores High School has a new baseball coach with
a familiar name, Tony Hammond. You guys could read the
article in the print edition of the Keys Weekly, but
Tony Hammond is
when you talk about old school, he's old school. He
was actually the second baseball coach in Coral Shores High
(27:06):
school history. Taking over for the iconic Roger Allen who
was actually Tony's coach at Coral Shores. Roger Allen is
an iconic name in coaching. He had, he was at
Carl Shores from the be the day it opened for
about 40 years and he coached everybody in the upper keys, football, basketball, baseball,
(27:27):
one of those old school coaches that coached everything. So
that's where
Tony learned from. And then all the way back in
1975 when someone I know was born, Tony Hammond started
a varsity baseball program at Island Christian school and was
then there for 40 years coaching there. He is coached
(27:48):
at the high school level. He's taught, he was a,
a school administrator at Island Christian.
Uh He is also the pastor emeritus of Island Community Church.
He's been a senior pastor there from 89 to 2019.
He's authored three books and he's continued his education by
traveling to UN,
(28:10):
I almost said un undeserved, I would say, wow, deserved,
underserved populations of the world. So
this gentleman is more than qualified to take the helm
of the Coral Shores High School baseball program and, and
Speaker 2 (28:24):
coach Holly will be assisting him. So they have a
lot of experience there with Ed Holly, the athletic director,
football coach at Coral Shores. He's coached pretty much every
sport he knows about being at a small school where you,
you know, you pick up where there's, there's some slight you,
you know, you do what you
Speaker 1 (28:37):
gotta do. Well, Tony Hems is coming back to pick
up the slack and he's more than
Speaker 2 (28:41):
capable experienced duo
are up there. So it should be a good season
for Coral Shores. And we'll talk about con baseball, obviously
coming up here soon. They were down there practicing while
I was in Key West yesterday. We'll talk about marathon
baseball and, and who we have coming back but we'll
get to that track, we can
Speaker 1 (28:58):
talk about,
Speaker 2 (28:59):
you know, so we will. Lacrosse, lacrosse. Um, but let's
talk about the team going to States right now.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Who's going to state, states going to state to state?
It's not 88 basketball. No, soccer. No, not yet. Um,
let me see what, weightlifting, weightlifting,
Speaker 2 (29:17):
different study, ladies, competitive,
Speaker 1 (29:19):
cheerleading, what they have, states they do
Speaker 2 (29:21):
and Key West is headed there. They're going to be
here there this weekend on Saturday, they perform and they're
up in Lakeland, uh, they'll take 18 teams, they'll have
some preliminaries. And what happens is,
is the top team from each region gets bid automatically
to the finals. So there's, there's preliminaries finals, top four,
you know, first place finisher from, you know, each region goes,
(29:43):
do they get rings? No, I don't know why. I
don't know. My team did not win, they
Speaker 1 (29:47):
win state, they should get rings.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
You know, if Justin Martin's listening, um, we're gonna put
it out there. We coach Martin these, if they get States,
they should get some rings.
Absolutely. Absolutely. So they, you know, they, they had to
kind of dig deep. They're changing up their routine a
little bit. They're practicing their stunts, they looked. So
Speaker 1 (30:03):
this is like who cheers loudest. They have, they have
like a,
they have a little box that measures the noise. Is
that what, you know,
Speaker 2 (30:11):
how do you score this? It's this great set of score.
Sheets where they have to talk about the difficulty of
their stunts. It has to be clean. Um You know,
there's little nuances. It's better to have an insane, difficult
stunt and drop it than it is to have a
lame stunt and then hit it. They have to have engagement,
they have to have props. There are so many things
that they have to hit to win state
(30:32):
that it's, it's insane to just look at, at, you
understand the score sheet. So, so it's a lot that
they're working through and they're, they're choreographing and syncing and
changing things up at the last minute. And they're hoping
to at least make it to the finals. They have preliminaries,
I think about 10 a.m. or something on Saturday. So,
you know, keep your fingers crossed for, for the lady
cock in LA land this weekend. Let hope they bring
(30:55):
home some medals. They are, you know, they're
not ranked, I don't believe they're ranked to get a medal,
but you never know. You never know. They, they really
were adding some difficulty and they were doing fantastic out
there in the cold last night, it was freezing and
they were out there in shorts and throwing girls and
hitting stunts and dancing and they sounded great. They look
great and let's, let's wish them the best of luck.
(31:17):
All right. What do we have next?
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Sue? I'm really excited about that. And congratulations to the
competitive cheer girls and
next, we have our favorite portion of the podcast is
where you miss wresting again. I was gonna talk about
it right now.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Oh, ok. Well, I thought I'd tell you where they're
going this weekend.
Oh, ok. Go ahead. Cool Shores is going to, I
don't know, actually they're going to an event called The
Courtyard Duel. The problem is, I don't know where the
Courtyard is.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Marriott, the Marriott Marriott Courtyard.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Is that the hotel with the cookies?
Speaker 1 (31:48):
No, that's the Doubletree. Neither of them advertise here. So
we need to stop talking about
Speaker 2 (31:54):
that. Maybe they do so either way. But, um, so
it's in the courtyard.
It's in a courtyard, a courtyard and it's a courtyard
du it's between Florida Christian Coral Shores, Keys Gate and
it's still on the schedule and maybe Key West, but
it's not Qs because I ran into coach Jimenez yesterday.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Congratulations on the
Speaker 2 (32:09):
baby. Yeah, he's got a baby. He's got his teams.
He's got two teams. Girls are traveling here, boys are
traveling there. It's an insane time of year for him.
So let's throw in a newborn in the mix and
make it even crazier for him and he's teaching full
time as well. And he told me he's got a
heck of a drive. They're going to the Green
Green Cove Springs meet. Do you know where that is?
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Green Cove? No. Where's Green Cove?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Green Cove is in Jacksonville? Oh, that's a long drive.
They
Speaker 1 (32:32):
drive so that a smelly van after the events factor
before is one thing. Do you think they probably like
last match everybody get in the van. Let's get back
to Key West
Speaker 2 (32:43):
and then we're not blaming Key West wrestlers for sticking
up the s come on. These are, these are vans
that travel, these are high
Speaker 1 (32:49):
school wrestlers. Yeah,
Speaker 2 (32:50):
they
not just wrestling. All the different groups travel in these vans,
they travel, they cross country runs 3.5, 3.1 miles.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
But we're not talking about, they sit in the seat
and talking about the Green Cove. I'm blaming
Speaker 2 (33:04):
the football coaches for being sweaty and stinky. Then they
sit on those seats and it stinks. It's not the,
it's not the competitive cheer squad sticking up. The,
Speaker 1 (33:11):
no, I never said that. I said it's the wrestling team.
I'm sure the wrestling team, I'm sure the wrestling team
would be like, wow, we sunk up the van
with our tremendous body that, because we are the hardest
working sport in the whole school.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
I feel like the school board of Mono County needs
to spring for like naga hide seats in the future.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Just a nice, a nice, our
Speaker 2 (33:30):
kids are sweet. They need padding but, but cloth is
not a good idea or just get some. But boy,
you've driven those vans. There's, it's not good. So he's
going to Jacksonville in one of those and
Speaker 1 (33:41):
let's hope, let's hope it makes it number one,
Speaker 2 (33:43):
our vans are in good mechanic
conditions. They are, they are, they just, they get a little,
maybe some Febreze help them out. But, you know, good
luck to Key West wrestling. Um, and speaking of Key
West wrestling and Coral Shos wrestling and all the work
they're doing, we do have our athlete of the week bum,
Speaker 1 (33:58):
but a bum athlete of the week, keys weekly sports
rap as picked by 52 voters across the nation. They
voted this week for Natalie Awe, Senior Key West wrestling.
So you have Natalie who's been on the wrestling team
for at least two years.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
They've only had a team two years. She is a,
she made it to founding mother.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Ok. I like it. Founding mother.
She won her weight class last two weeks. She attended
bringing home gold at the Lady Bear Invita Lady Bear Invitational,
January 6. I thought
Speaker 2 (34:31):
it was a she bear. But as a former English teacher,
I digress
Speaker 1 (34:34):
and the Lady Indian Invitational in a mole, January 20th,
Key West head coach Chasen had been impressed with her
dedication this season and Conk ad Justin Martin agreed she's
constantly working on her craft and has really pushed herself
hard to reach her full potential. Martin said
so
Speaker 2 (34:51):
she, you know, she was out there yesterday and putting
in work. Yeah, they, they're doing sprints on the track
and she's keeping up with some of the boys. She's
just put it all out there. I hope she brings
home some state gold this year. Well deserved hard working athlete,
bringing a lot of conch pride home to the southernmost
Speaker 1 (35:08):
city. Hey, she's, she's trying to win the state. Yeah. Absolutely.
She probably watches Vision Quest too. I don't
Speaker 2 (35:14):
know that anyone watches
Speaker 1 (35:15):
it. It's a wrestling movie from the eighties that every
wrestler watches. So, I'm sure she knows about it. I'm
sure Coach Jimenez told her about Vision Quest and you
have to watch that. If
Speaker 2 (35:24):
not, then maybe that needs to be on the queue.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
It's on the queue. It's, it's a fantastic film. Um,
but
let me tell you this right now, Natalie argue. Consider
yourself honored by the Keys Weekly. You have
Speaker 2 (35:38):
been honored. She brings us joy and pride in the Keys,
makes us look good and congratulations, we can give her this.
All right. So it's of air time.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
I don't know what we're going to talk about next week,
but you better tune in because it's going to be
the greatest thing you ever
Speaker 2 (35:52):
heard. Yeah, we'll let you know about what happened at regional. Yeah,
for sure. We'll tell you who's head of the States.
We'll let you know about how Key West did at States.
We'll let you know about the upcoming spring seasons and
everything else you never knew you wanted to hear about
Speaker 1 (36:03):
and more. All right guys, thank you all for listening
to the Keys Weekly Sports Raft podcast brought to you
by the Keys Weekly, your companion piece to the print
edition that comes out every Thursday.
Not only is this the greatest world's greatest prep sports
weekly podcast that features Monroe County. It also has a
(36:24):
print edition which is the greatest newspaper in the history
of the world. So make sure you check that out.
It gets delivered to you every Thursday. Enjoy. Thank you
guys for listening.
Welcome back, everyone to the Keys Weekly sports rap podcast.
The number one rated Monroe County prep sports podcast in
the world. I'm Sean mcdonald. Next to me is Tracy mcdonald.
How are you doing today? Tracy. I'm having a
Speaker 2 (00:19):
great day because it's a great week. You know what week?
That is, what week? Rivalry
Speaker 1 (00:24):
week it was Rivalry week. We talked about it last week,
we talked about it in pre rivalry week,
pre rivalry week, we talked about it just like I said, so, very,
very rarely does anything ever live up to the hype,
does it? Yeah,
Speaker 2 (00:40):
it's usually a big let down. I mean, that's life
in general. Al
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Capone's vault. Let down. Thanks a lot. Geraldo y2k. Huge.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Let down enormous. I stocked rice for nothing.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Most super bowls let
Speaker 2 (00:55):
down. I don't even care about that. It's not the Dolphins.
Who cares?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
That's very true. This one thing that I'm gonna talk about,
in fact, two things. But the first one being the
marathon Coral Shores basketball game, the Battle of the Keys
on the hardwood. Lived up to the hype, wouldn't you
say so?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Not a letdown,
Speaker 1 (01:13):
not a letdown. It lived up to the hype. It
was a great night. It was last Friday night at
Marathon high school.
The big battle, the one everybody loves. Marathon. High school
versus Coral Shores in basketball. We've seen some great games
in the past some close games. We've seen Marathon beat
Corl Shores by a lot. We've seen Coral Shores beat
(01:35):
Marathon by a lot and, you know, we were just
hoping for a nice game and we got a great game.
It was one of those nights
where fortunately for marathon, everything that they did worked, they
got every bounce, they got every call, they got every role.
I mean, no one's shoes came untied. It was a
(01:56):
perfect night for marathon. Everything that they did worked.
And there was a little luck for them in the
air because to be honest, Tracy Marathon was the underdogs
Speaker 2 (02:05):
by far, they, they had lost a couple of times
already this season and they, they didn't lose by one
or two. They lost by 1012. They lost by some
big rips and they were definitely the underdog. But like
you said, everything just seemed to be in their favor.
I mean, the, the shots that probably, you know, should
have banked off the rim. They just went in like crazy.
There were, there were threes that barely touched the net.
(02:27):
It was amazing. And then for Coral Shores,
they had great shots and then they just weren't going
in and that happens sometimes. You know, you take a
shot and then it bounces out. They had so many
opportunities and props to them. It's not their fault that
these shots are about, I guess. I don't know, I
don't want to blame anybody but it seemed like I like,
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I like the way you're being positive
Speaker 2 (02:48):
shots were not falling for them. And, you know, I've seen,
I've seen games where like that should have gone in
and there were multiple shots that should have gone in
and you can't play the baskets. There was no trickery
because
it happened on both sides. It was just not their
night and everything seemed to fall in place. It was
a perfect storm for marathon and the final outcome, the
score was not really indicative of the back and forth
(03:09):
battle that the game was for the entire game. Nobody
knew who was going to win. It was a battle.
The kids were gassed, they were sweaty, their uniforms were
three shades darker by the end of the game and,
you know, everybody paid $7 to get into that event.
They got their money's worth
Speaker 1 (03:27):
$7. It's a lot of money. Um, but money well spent,
no doubt about it. And the fact of the matter is,
is the old adage of that's why they play the game.
This is why you play the game on paper. Carl
Shores was gonna win big, but it was a rivalry game.
So you throw the records out the window and it
was a game played with a,
(03:48):
a lot of emotion on both sides. The student section,
it was a home game for marathon. The student section
for marathon was packed. Carl Shores had some fans there too.
They were cheering. It's just like you were talking about
today and we're gonna get into next Key West versus
Crowl Shores game that happened last night. So you guys
on the podcast, you're getting a scoop here. Um
(04:11):
I thought you hit the nail right on the head.
All the kids in Key West know the kids at Marathon,
know the kids at Coral Shores. These are big games
when we play because everybody knows everybody, the people in
the stands for Coral Shores know the people in the
stands for Marathon and vice versa. So usually if Coral
Shores is playing Somerset Charter the third,
(04:33):
there's not a rivalry. I don't care.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Nobody cares. Nobody knows anybody on that team. It's, it's
just a game, it's all business. There's nobody in the stands.
It's not, you know what, I'm going to go on record.
I don't care. I'm gonna say it's not even a
real school.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Somerset Charter the third. That it's not a real school.
I made it up.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah. But I mean, these charter schools, they, they put
together a school to have a basketball team and it's
somebody's travel team and this year they might be great.
And then next year, the coach leaves and some of
the kids leave with them. It's, it's this, I don't
like
and it's not a real school and I'm just going
to say that I don't care.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So then the basketball teams like the marathon, the Coral Shores,
the Key West, they have that same sense. They have
that same feeling. So obviously they go up there to
play and they want to win, but it's not like
wanting to beat marathon.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
It's not the same. And, you know, during the game,
it's like the gloves are off, the kids are battling
it out. But when the final whistle blows for the
most part, obviously, there, there are some, you know,
Speaker 1 (05:27):
rumors and innuendos that this isn't
Speaker 2 (05:30):
true. Yeah. But for the most part, these kids, they
grow up together. I mean, we live on a string
of islands and they'll play, you know, like they last
night and we're not into this yet. But, you know,
the Coral Shores kid who will play baseball down in
Key West and there'll be a Key West kid who
maybe plays at a different travel team and the kids
know each other. They know each other from, from social
media and they know each other from actually playing on
(05:50):
different travel
teams and, and, you know, maybe moving or so they
do know each other and for the most part, it's
friendly rivalries and once the game's over, you know, they'll
see each other shaking hands and it's a pretty good,
nice thing. The parents know each other and, you know,
during the game you would think that they're the most
bitter rivals ever, but after the game, you know, whistle
blows and then it's off to hating Palmer and Somerset
(06:12):
and everybody
Speaker 1 (06:13):
else. And then,
so that was Friday night.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
What about the girls though? Even the girls. Cool Shores
stacking up wins. Coach Mandos, he's up there doing a
great job. Coach Thomas, they're putting in the work coach Russell,
they're all working hard on this basketball team
win after win after win. They get their first loss
at home, you know, but they still have a ton
of wins. So you're talking
Speaker 1 (06:33):
about girls, basket, girls basketball, girls basketball right now, preach
what's going on? They're doing
Speaker 2 (06:38):
great. I mean, they are on this huge win streak.
They're doing awesome. They're making a run and they only
beat marathon by a couple of points in their first
meet up. But they really, I, I would have given
them the upper hand. I would have given them the
odds but, you know, don't bet on me. I've been
bad lately so they come down here and, you know,
marathon. They got off to a bit of a rocky start,
(06:59):
but I looked at their record, I think it's evened
up now. So, you know, Coach Garvey has really been
putting in the work. The girls are putting in a
lot of work. So that was that was a battle
as well. And you know, Elena Ubank came alive, Marty Kilbourne,
she added a lot of points and pulled down some rebounds.
They played physical ball, you know, for Carl Schwarz Brook, man,
Dozy again, leading scorer doing her best to lead her
(07:22):
team to a victory. But in the end,
you know, marathon one and it was, it was a
great game to see. And then right after that was
the boys game. So, you know, those people paid $7
they got two for one,
Speaker 1 (07:34):
they got two wins. If you're a marathon fan, you
got two wins. And, um, the student section was in
effect for the girls game. They did a great job
for both. And it's just sort of, you know, I mean,
there's a lot of,
uh, some people say there's a lot of negatives about
being in education and all that. But nights like that
make it worth it makes the job great. It was
(07:54):
a lot of fun for the kids and for the
adults and seeing
Speaker 2 (07:57):
the students, they had so much fun, they did a
great job. They were very positive. They cheered their team
on and, you know, for both schools, everybody
was into the game 100%. No one's on their phone,
no one's scrolling through, no one's, you know, shopping and
everyone's just watching the game living in the moment. Absolutely.
Which is something we don't see that often anymore. No,
Speaker 1 (08:17):
that's a whole another podcast. Um So
Speaker 2 (08:20):
let's, let's move on to Wednesday or Tuesday, Tuesday
Speaker 1 (08:23):
night, last night recording this on Wednesday. We're breaking down
the fourth wall here. You guys understand the inner workings
of the number one
Monroe County prep sports podcast in the world. You're seeing
how it works. It's today's Wednesday. We're recording this right
now yesterday,
I was coaching my middle school team to a victory
(08:44):
against Hob, but that's not the story because this is
a prep sports podcast, not a middle school sports podcast.
So
Tracy was down in Key West at the Bobby Menendez gym.
We talked about Bobby Menendez last week to see the
final game between Coral Shores and Key West High School
(09:04):
in basketball, boys basketball, only this one and this was
a makeup game for the other game that, that couldn't,
couldn't quote unquote be played before and they got to
play it last night
and it was a barn burner. Coral Shores comes out
of the gate on fire. What was that like for
you down there, Tracy? It was, you
Speaker 2 (09:26):
know, at first I, I get there and there aren't
that many fans. And I thought, well, what on earth
is going on? Is there something else happening tonight? You know,
is there an event? Am I missing? Is there a carnival?
I don't know. But then they start, Key West comes
in the gym, everybody starts to trickle in and, you know,
I looked up around half time and, and I
tell me that it was packed in there and Key
West student section did a great job. Coral Schwarz traveled. Well,
(09:47):
they had quite a few players there and I have
to tell you Coral Shores came out, they look like
the underdogs. Key West is taller. You know, they, they
seem to be hitting more shots, but, you know, Corals
is a scrappy team. They're a very physical team and
they were, they were out to win. They, um, they
lost the previous match up by a couple
points and they wanted to avenge themselves and Key West
(10:10):
of course, wanted to have the sweep. So it was
like you said, a barn burner back and forth, back
and forth lead by two points here. Somebody else is
up next and it really came down to the final
minutes again. It was a spectacular game. Key West fans
were amazing Cohos fans as many as they brought were
great and you have to answer to them. Both teams
were awesome and
(10:32):
they left, they left their records at the door. They
left their prior matchups at the door and it was
a battle from whistle to whistle and what a game
it was,
Speaker 1 (10:41):
um, just a couple of notes from that game.
If you go back in time, the last couple of years,
Coral Shores has been the county champs. They swept Key West,
they swept marathon
in the year 2022. And 2023 basketball season. So they
were the unofficial Kings of the Keys in basketball this season.
(11:03):
Key West early in the year goes up to Coral
Shores and gets the upset victory. It was an upset
for us at the time. We thought it was an
Speaker 2 (11:11):
upset and Key West has a young team. Their, their
roster has primarily sophomore, uh sophomore, key as freshman and
there they are
fairly young team and for them to go up there, they're,
they're getting, you know, maybe if they played the very
first game of the year, it would have been different.
But every single game it seems like coach Butler and
his conks are getting better and those, those sophomores and
(11:32):
freshmen are evolving and I feel like they're gonna be
pretty dominant in the next couple of years. So, Coors
and Marathon are on notice, they need to pick up
their game and, and figure out a way that they
can go down there and beat them because it's gonna
be tough in the next couple of years.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
It's gonna be tough and the rivalry continues.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Did we tell them who won?
No, you can tell him you can. That's the Key
West came out with that victory. I believe they won.
They won by a lot. I mean, they pulled out the,
but
Speaker 1 (11:57):
it's like the basketball thing. If anybody watch high school basketball,
it's like the first quarter is always super tight and
then usually for the most part, there's a breaking point
where two teams are close no matter the difference in
skills sometimes. And then at 1.1 of the teams win
breaks and then the floodgates open. And for the floodgates
(12:18):
last night, they opened in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It was down to two minutes before those floodgates opened.
And what happened to Carl Schwarz is, is very similar
to the game at marathon where I told you there
are physical players, they're scrappy, they'll go up for a
rebound without worry of falling, turning their ankle. I mean,
they play aggressive basketball. The problem with that is
you get into foul trouble and it happened to Carl
(12:41):
again last night. Um, they're big guys picking up fouls and,
you know, by the fourth quarter they have a couple
of kids fouled out. Same thing happened in Marathon and then,
you know, it's, it's just not the same, you don't
have the same spark as your starting
Speaker 1 (12:53):
five. You know, this is the Florida Keys you have
in basketball, you know, Key West
Scroll Shore's Marathon. If they have six or six good
basketball players, really, really capable basketball players, they're ahead of
the game. So when you have a player foul out
at a Coral Shores, you have a starter foul out
(13:13):
that's gonna impact your team no matter
Speaker 2 (13:15):
what. It's enormous. And then Coral Shores is down a
couple of players in any way. I know they've had
a couple of injuries. I know,
um, a couple of their football players had, had some
knee problems from football and basketball. Um, a couple of
kids weren't traveling so they've had injuries. Key West has
had their share of injuries, you know. So have we,
so it's, it's rough this late in the season and
this is, the chips are on the t here's what happened.
(13:35):
And
Key West, they held their composure, they never let down
and they came out victorious. So they swept Marathon, they
swept Coral Shores.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
They are the official kings of the Keys in basketball
for 2024. Congratulations to the Conch nation in Key West
to coach Butler, to Justin Martin athletic director all the
way up the chain of command to Rebecca Palomino's principal.
Congratulations to all of you guys. Um
I know that's a big thing. I know it's a
big thing for Key West to beat Marathon and Coral Shores.
(14:09):
It's a big deal. It's a very big
Speaker 2 (14:11):
deal. Well, it's a must win. It's a must win.
It's hard to lose the marathon when you're Key West.
That's
Speaker 1 (14:16):
very, that's very true. It's
Speaker 2 (14:18):
hard to lose the Coral Shores when you're Key West.
It's a bitter taste too. But yeah, so let's move on.
What else do we have?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Let's move on. You're gonna, so we got, we have
soccer going on. There's a lot to touch base on there.
Um You know, all year long, the big story has
been Key West boys soccer. They picked up win number
nine on January 24th. They beat uh South Miami 9
to 1 mercy rule.
Um So a big win for them on January 26th,
(14:46):
the number three seeded Conks headed to Gulliver to take
on the second seeded Makos of Mast Academy. So it's
district playoffs territory. They're playing at Gulliver against Mast. Key
West lost the semifinal match four to nothing that ended
their season. But their late season run and difficult schedule
(15:06):
may give them an at large spot to regionals. So
they will take into consideration sometimes strength of schedule and
how far they went. And they have some of these
wild cards to hand out for the FHSA A playoffs.
But as of right now, Key West high school successful
season cut short by
(15:29):
the Massed Academy, Mao
Speaker 2 (15:31):
right now, I got you said they find out Friday
they might have that regional wild card spot maybe 5050
at this point because they did play some tough teams. So,
you know, I'm, I'm holding out hopefully Key West gets
that spot and, you know, those boys could really, you know,
go far if they, they are afforded that opportunity, let's
hope they are. But really in prep soccer
(15:52):
in the Keys and then there was one, we have
one team left for sure. Key
Speaker 1 (15:57):
West high school girls, Scott Paul coach for a long,
long time with the Conch girls. Took a break came
back and he's bringing back that Conk pride to the
Lady Conk team. They got a win against top seeded
Mast Academy in a shootout. That was a big win
and they are moving on to the FHSA, a district
(16:20):
16 4, a title against second seeded Saint Brendan's on
January 31st. So they are playing for a district championship
as of press time or, or recording day is what
we call it. Hey, it's recording day. Wake up Tracy,
it's recording day. Let's get there. Let's, let's have this.
So today's January 31st, they're playing today. Um, it will
(16:42):
be out in the Thursday edition of the newspaper. Not,
not today. The following Thursday, February 6 ish around there.
I'm bad with, we're a once a
Speaker 2 (16:52):
week publication and there's a bit of, you know, lead
time here. So you're gonna get, you're gonna, you
Speaker 1 (16:57):
know, and we'll talk about it on the podcast. It's
worth the wait. So
Marathon boys had a big upset. They defeated higher seeded
Somerset Silver Palms on a for a 43 win in
their first round of the district playoff. Unfortunately, for them,
in the second round of the district playoff, they got
Juggernaut Palmer, whose boys soccer team is traditionally one of
(17:19):
the top in the state Palmer ended up beating them
for nothing ending the Marathon boys
Speaker 2 (17:24):
season. No, that game was
00 at the
Speaker 1 (17:27):
half. I heard they
Speaker 2 (17:29):
took on Crazy Palmer. They're so good. But you know what,
00 at the half. But then, like you said, a
lot of times these teams are, they're battling it out
in any sport and then the floodgates open. So that
second half, they,
Speaker 1 (17:41):
as you say in the, in the print edition,
in the print edition, quote unquote marathon, put up, put
forth a valiant effort.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I stand behind
Speaker 1 (17:52):
those words. You felt that it was a valiant effort
by coach Wiley's team. I mean, that's impressive to go
00 at the half. Can you imagine what Palmer coach
is saying to them? I bet
Speaker 2 (18:01):
there was some yelling.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
I bet you there was. And then really,
obviously the big story is Key West in the district
championship for the girls. But the real big
Speaker 2 (18:10):
and they knocked out the top seed to get there.
That's super impressive. They're playing the number two seed today.
I think they're so this is a big deal for
Key West and we'll talk a lot about that next week,
but we won't talk about these other tunes anymore. So
let's talk about them. Now,
Speaker 1 (18:23):
the, the, the real big story, the real, real big
story would have been, you have the district playoffs? Oh,
a sudden marathon, girls and Crowl Shores girls are in
the same district. Oh, my goodness. Look, they're playing in
the first round. We've had Carl Shore beat Marathon this year.
We've had Crow Shore's Tie marathon this year. So it
(18:45):
was like, is this gonna be the one where marathon
wins in the district in the district playoff? Um, short answer. No, no,
no close but no cigar. I just made that up. Um,
the match came down to the final whistle. It was
a 32 win for Coral Shores. So Coral Shores moves forward. So,
(19:10):
after getting the big win against marathon, that was the
good news. The bad news is Coral Shores got matched
up with Palmer and Palmer girls great soccer. They ended
up losing 8 to 1
ending their season. Jenna Manzi um, had a nice goal
off of a corner kick but it was not enough.
(19:31):
Palmer moves on. Carl SHS girls soccer ends a successful season. Um,
three wins, 10 losses and a tie.
Um, and the only one left and then there was
one Key West high school lady Conk soccer fighting
Speaker 2 (19:47):
for a district title tonight. We'll have that in. Not,
not the paper that's coming out probably as you listen
to this. But next week we'll have coverage of that
and let's move on. What's our next
Speaker 1 (19:56):
sport? Moving on to girls? Weightlifting? Oh,
Speaker 2 (20:00):
big deal today. No, not today. Today is a boy.
Actually. Spring sports have opened up. Boys. Weightlifting is having
their first meet today and that's with marathon traveling to,
I believe Coral Shores because Key West does not have
a boys weightlifter. It'll be
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Gulliver and Coral Shores meeting at Coral Shores. But
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Key West does have a girls weightlifting team
Speaker 1 (20:21):
and let's talk about girls weightlifting. After a long season,
the lifters are headed to district meets or
no, they went to last week and they're getting ready
for regionals. A relatively new sport
marathon coach, Jesse Schubert clarified exactly what to expect in
(20:42):
the postseason. There's four districts that compete to go to regionals.
The top eight lifters in each weight class with a
maximum of two per weight class. Competed districts, regional competitions
take the top 20 from the district. So to advance
to the regionals, an athlete must be in the top
20 of those 32. So
(21:03):
what's going on?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
So the only way to really get a free pass
to regionals is to take the district title and we
did have quite a few athletes do that in the
Keys and then they take, they're like, basically, you know
how Key West soccer boys are waiting for their wild
card spot. There are 19 wild card spots for regionals
and um, a crazy amount of girls actually pick these up.
(21:24):
Typically the second place finisher and third place finishers will
always add districts move on to regionals unless there's just
one crazy stack district which tends to be ours. And
this year some of the girls even down to the
sixth place finish have made it on through to regionals.
I did take some notes here of some of our
lifters in the
Speaker 1 (21:43):
keys. I have, I have it. I have it right.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
You have that. I have moved a step ahead. So
I have some that look really strong to move on
from districts to regionals. But I'll let you do who
are our district gold medal winners? We need to honor,
Speaker 1 (21:58):
we do honor the district champions appropriately who brought home
the Gold
Coral Shores had a pair of double district champions
Speaker 2 (22:07):
and that means they won the traditional event and they
won the Olympic event. So, you know, you have two
as a weightlifter, you've got two chances to medal and
these ladies got double gold. So
Speaker 1 (22:18):
they won
traditional and they won an Olympic. That is Janelle Arias
at the £169 weight class. And Sidney Eisenbach at the
unlimited weight class. They are the two district champions. You
are honored from the Keys weekly sports rep podcast, double
Speaker 2 (22:31):
goal, but they had more than that bringing home medals.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Absolutely. Now, when you talk about other medals at Crow Shores,
you have Rachel Rush at 100 and 10, 1 district
golden traditional and a spot in the regional lineup. Other
top performers in traditional were Callie Gomer Madison, Tillman, Vanessa
Gabriel J
Roche and Leticia Lima placed third. And Elizabeth Giordano won 10,
(22:56):
came in fourth. So those are your medalists for Coral
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Shores. They had three gold medal district champion winners,
Speaker 1 (23:03):
won two double winners. Key West. They had, they were
the first of the teams to go to their district meet.
They were at Doctor Joaquin Garcia High School. I love
that actor.
Um, that's Joaquin Phoenix. Oh, sorry. The Conk took third
place in Olympic list as a team and fifth and
traditional out of seven teams. But you
Speaker 2 (23:23):
didn't, you didn't marathon won the district champion there.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Claire Boyen was Key's biggest winner securing the district runner
up in both lifting events. Das Jenkins and Yuma Medi
Unlimited took second place medals in the Olympic lifts with
Jenkins coming in fourth and Midi winning third in traditional
Shiloh Sanchez and Adelaine. Sir both scored fourth in both events.
(23:49):
Other top finishers was Nelo Attila and Alexandra Konica who
were fourth in Olympic Lift. So Key West High School,
they are making it happen at Doctor Joaquin Garcia High School.
There come, some of their guys are getting, some of
their ladies are getting ready for regionals
now. Marathon bump but a bum coach Schubert and the
(24:13):
oldest girls weightlifting program in Monroe County. This
Speaker 2 (24:17):
tradition runs long like five
Speaker 1 (24:19):
years at least. Marathon can now claim four district champions
this season. Justice Lee, 100 and 83
won both events and a pair of regional spots at
100 and £19. Sierra Earnhardt won the golden traditional plus
the silver and Olympic. Ava Merriman won 39. Markeesha Abraham
and Sabrina Schofield are the reigning district
(24:41):
champions in traditional lifts. Schofield won silver in Olympic and
Abraham won bronze. Ella Dunn had a pair of second
place performances. Ryland Richards came in second in traditional and
fourth in Olympic, Michael Ross was second in traditional and
third in Olympic,
Elise Dalton and Harley Daniels both won silver in traditional
(25:03):
and fourth. And Olympic Cammy Ryn won bronze bronze in
Olympic in fourth place in traditional Samantha Schofield brought home
a pair of fourth place medals while Ella Evans claimed
a third place medal in traditional
Elizabeth Piper came in fourth in traditional lift. So a
lot of names for marathon, a lot of honors. A
lot of
Speaker 2 (25:21):
honoring the van was heavier on the way home with
all those medals and the big trophies. And I believe
there are some pictures of the trophies and the girls
with medals in the weekly this week. And
um thank you to Justice's mom, Justice Lee's mom, Amanda Lee.
She provided those pictures. She was, you know, very excited
to travel and she was trying to take pictures for
our marathons yearbook, which, you know, Justice is one of
(25:43):
the editors and she was trying to take pictures for
the Weekly as well. So she did a great job.
She did better than I would do and she had
all those jobs going on. Plus she was rooting for
our team and the Karl Schwartz girls. So props to
Speaker 1 (25:52):
her.
Thank you to all the weightlifting teams. I'm a little,
to be honest with you. I'm a little bit tired
of honoring, honoring. They're too good. A lot of honor.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
There will, there will be fewer after this week when
regionals does weed out some of the girls. But we
have a lot of people in place to meddle and,
you know, I'll wait till next week. You did a
great job honoring. Let's move on to the next
Speaker 1 (26:14):
sport.
We talk about the winter sport ending spring sports beginning.
Some spring sports are beginning more than others because Coral
Shores baseball has a new coach, a new beginning, not
even a new season. He's not a new
Speaker 2 (26:29):
coach.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
He's new to Carl Shore High
Speaker 2 (26:32):
School.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Wait, ok. He's new to the Keys,
right? New to the Keys. He's a young
Speaker 2 (26:41):
guy. No,
Speaker 1 (26:43):
he's never coached baseball before. Never been. Ok. Stop the presses.
Scroll Shores High School has a new baseball coach with
a familiar name, Tony Hammond. You guys could read the
article in the print edition of the Keys Weekly, but
Tony Hammond is
when you talk about old school, he's old school. He
was actually the second baseball coach in Coral Shores High
(27:06):
school history. Taking over for the iconic Roger Allen who
was actually Tony's coach at Coral Shores. Roger Allen is
an iconic name in coaching. He had, he was at
Carl Shores from the be the day it opened for
about 40 years and he coached everybody in the upper keys, football, basketball, baseball,
(27:27):
one of those old school coaches that coached everything. So
that's where
Tony learned from. And then all the way back in
1975 when someone I know was born, Tony Hammond started
a varsity baseball program at Island Christian school and was
then there for 40 years coaching there. He is coached
(27:48):
at the high school level. He's taught, he was a,
a school administrator at Island Christian.
Uh He is also the pastor emeritus of Island Community Church.
He's been a senior pastor there from 89 to 2019.
He's authored three books and he's continued his education by
traveling to UN,
(28:10):
I almost said un undeserved, I would say, wow, deserved,
underserved populations of the world. So
this gentleman is more than qualified to take the helm
of the Coral Shores High School baseball program and, and
Speaker 2 (28:24):
coach Holly will be assisting him. So they have a
lot of experience there with Ed Holly, the athletic director,
football coach at Coral Shores. He's coached pretty much every
sport he knows about being at a small school where you,
you know, you pick up where there's, there's some slight you,
you know, you do what you
Speaker 1 (28:37):
gotta do. Well, Tony Hems is coming back to pick
up the slack and he's more than
Speaker 2 (28:41):
capable experienced duo
are up there. So it should be a good season
for Coral Shores. And we'll talk about con baseball, obviously
coming up here soon. They were down there practicing while
I was in Key West yesterday. We'll talk about marathon
baseball and, and who we have coming back but we'll
get to that track, we can
Speaker 1 (28:58):
talk about,
Speaker 2 (28:59):
you know, so we will. Lacrosse, lacrosse. Um, but let's
talk about the team going to States right now.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Who's going to state, states going to state to state?
It's not 88 basketball. No, soccer. No, not yet. Um,
let me see what, weightlifting, weightlifting,
Speaker 2 (29:17):
different study, ladies, competitive,
Speaker 1 (29:19):
cheerleading, what they have, states they do
Speaker 2 (29:21):
and Key West is headed there. They're going to be
here there this weekend on Saturday, they perform and they're
up in Lakeland, uh, they'll take 18 teams, they'll have
some preliminaries. And what happens is,
is the top team from each region gets bid automatically
to the finals. So there's, there's preliminaries finals, top four,
you know, first place finisher from, you know, each region goes,
(29:43):
do they get rings? No, I don't know why. I
don't know. My team did not win, they
Speaker 1 (29:47):
win state, they should get rings.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
You know, if Justin Martin's listening, um, we're gonna put
it out there. We coach Martin these, if they get States,
they should get some rings.
Absolutely. Absolutely. So they, you know, they, they had to
kind of dig deep. They're changing up their routine a
little bit. They're practicing their stunts, they looked. So
Speaker 1 (30:03):
this is like who cheers loudest. They have, they have
like a,
they have a little box that measures the noise. Is
that what, you know,
Speaker 2 (30:11):
how do you score this? It's this great set of score.
Sheets where they have to talk about the difficulty of
their stunts. It has to be clean. Um You know,
there's little nuances. It's better to have an insane, difficult
stunt and drop it than it is to have a
lame stunt and then hit it. They have to have engagement,
they have to have props. There are so many things
that they have to hit to win state
(30:32):
that it's, it's insane to just look at, at, you
understand the score sheet. So, so it's a lot that
they're working through and they're, they're choreographing and syncing and
changing things up at the last minute. And they're hoping
to at least make it to the finals. They have preliminaries,
I think about 10 a.m. or something on Saturday. So,
you know, keep your fingers crossed for, for the lady
cock in LA land this weekend. Let hope they bring
(30:55):
home some medals. They are, you know, they're
not ranked, I don't believe they're ranked to get a medal,
but you never know. You never know. They, they really
were adding some difficulty and they were doing fantastic out
there in the cold last night, it was freezing and
they were out there in shorts and throwing girls and
hitting stunts and dancing and they sounded great. They look
great and let's, let's wish them the best of luck.
(31:17):
All right. What do we have next?
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Sue? I'm really excited about that. And congratulations to the
competitive cheer girls and
next, we have our favorite portion of the podcast is
where you miss wresting again. I was gonna talk about
it right now.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Oh, ok. Well, I thought I'd tell you where they're
going this weekend.
Oh, ok. Go ahead. Cool Shores is going to, I
don't know, actually they're going to an event called The
Courtyard Duel. The problem is, I don't know where the
Courtyard is.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Marriott, the Marriott Marriott Courtyard.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Is that the hotel with the cookies?
Speaker 1 (31:48):
No, that's the Doubletree. Neither of them advertise here. So
we need to stop talking about
Speaker 2 (31:54):
that. Maybe they do so either way. But, um, so
it's in the courtyard.
It's in a courtyard, a courtyard and it's a courtyard
du it's between Florida Christian Coral Shores, Keys Gate and
it's still on the schedule and maybe Key West, but
it's not Qs because I ran into coach Jimenez yesterday.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Congratulations on the
Speaker 2 (32:09):
baby. Yeah, he's got a baby. He's got his teams.
He's got two teams. Girls are traveling here, boys are
traveling there. It's an insane time of year for him.
So let's throw in a newborn in the mix and
make it even crazier for him and he's teaching full
time as well. And he told me he's got a
heck of a drive. They're going to the Green
Green Cove Springs meet. Do you know where that is?
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Green Cove? No. Where's Green Cove?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Green Cove is in Jacksonville? Oh, that's a long drive.
They
Speaker 1 (32:32):
drive so that a smelly van after the events factor
before is one thing. Do you think they probably like
last match everybody get in the van. Let's get back
to Key West
Speaker 2 (32:43):
and then we're not blaming Key West wrestlers for sticking
up the s come on. These are, these are vans
that travel, these are high
Speaker 1 (32:49):
school wrestlers. Yeah,
Speaker 2 (32:50):
they
not just wrestling. All the different groups travel in these vans,
they travel, they cross country runs 3.5, 3.1 miles.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
But we're not talking about, they sit in the seat
and talking about the Green Cove. I'm blaming
Speaker 2 (33:04):
the football coaches for being sweaty and stinky. Then they
sit on those seats and it stinks. It's not the,
it's not the competitive cheer squad sticking up. The,
Speaker 1 (33:11):
no, I never said that. I said it's the wrestling team.
I'm sure the wrestling team, I'm sure the wrestling team
would be like, wow, we sunk up the van
with our tremendous body that, because we are the hardest
working sport in the whole school.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
I feel like the school board of Mono County needs
to spring for like naga hide seats in the future.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Just a nice, a nice, our
Speaker 2 (33:30):
kids are sweet. They need padding but, but cloth is
not a good idea or just get some. But boy,
you've driven those vans. There's, it's not good. So he's
going to Jacksonville in one of those and
Speaker 1 (33:41):
let's hope, let's hope it makes it number one,
Speaker 2 (33:43):
our vans are in good mechanic
conditions. They are, they are, they just, they get a little,
maybe some Febreze help them out. But, you know, good
luck to Key West wrestling. Um, and speaking of Key
West wrestling and Coral Shos wrestling and all the work
they're doing, we do have our athlete of the week bum,
Speaker 1 (33:58):
but a bum athlete of the week, keys weekly sports
rap as picked by 52 voters across the nation. They
voted this week for Natalie Awe, Senior Key West wrestling.
So you have Natalie who's been on the wrestling team
for at least two years.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
They've only had a team two years. She is a,
she made it to founding mother.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Ok. I like it. Founding mother.
She won her weight class last two weeks. She attended
bringing home gold at the Lady Bear Invita Lady Bear Invitational,
January 6. I thought
Speaker 2 (34:31):
it was a she bear. But as a former English teacher,
I digress
Speaker 1 (34:34):
and the Lady Indian Invitational in a mole, January 20th,
Key West head coach Chasen had been impressed with her
dedication this season and Conk ad Justin Martin agreed she's
constantly working on her craft and has really pushed herself
hard to reach her full potential. Martin said
so
Speaker 2 (34:51):
she, you know, she was out there yesterday and putting
in work. Yeah, they, they're doing sprints on the track
and she's keeping up with some of the boys. She's
just put it all out there. I hope she brings
home some state gold this year. Well deserved hard working athlete,
bringing a lot of conch pride home to the southernmost
Speaker 1 (35:08):
city. Hey, she's, she's trying to win the state. Yeah. Absolutely.
She probably watches Vision Quest too. I don't
Speaker 2 (35:14):
know that anyone watches
Speaker 1 (35:15):
it. It's a wrestling movie from the eighties that every
wrestler watches. So, I'm sure she knows about it. I'm
sure Coach Jimenez told her about Vision Quest and you
have to watch that. If
Speaker 2 (35:24):
not, then maybe that needs to be on the queue.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
It's on the queue. It's, it's a fantastic film. Um,
but
let me tell you this right now, Natalie argue. Consider
yourself honored by the Keys Weekly. You have
Speaker 2 (35:38):
been honored. She brings us joy and pride in the Keys,
makes us look good and congratulations, we can give her this.
All right. So it's of air time.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
I don't know what we're going to talk about next week,
but you better tune in because it's going to be
the greatest thing you ever
Speaker 2 (35:52):
heard. Yeah, we'll let you know about what happened at regional. Yeah,
for sure. We'll tell you who's head of the States.
We'll let you know about how Key West did at States.
We'll let you know about the upcoming spring seasons and
everything else you never knew you wanted to hear about
Speaker 1 (36:03):
and more. All right guys, thank you all for listening
to the Keys Weekly Sports Raft podcast brought to you
by the Keys Weekly, your companion piece to the print
edition that comes out every Thursday.
Not only is this the greatest world's greatest prep sports
weekly podcast that features Monroe County. It also has a
(36:24):
print edition which is the greatest newspaper in the history
of the world. So make sure you check that out.
It gets delivered to you every Thursday. Enjoy. Thank you
guys for listening.
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