March 20, 2024 • 35 mins
On this week’s Keys Weekly Sports Wrap Podcast, Sean and Tracy break down all this week’s scores and events. You can hear all of the latest in prep sports in the Keys, plus some behind-the-scenes details you won’t catch anywhere else. This week, the duo goes in depth on Key West’s baseball season thus far, including highlights, key players and important upcoming matchups.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome back, everybody to the Keys Weekly sports, rap podcast.
Your one stop shop for everything. Florida, keys prep sports.
I'm Sean mcdonald. I'm here with Tracy mcdonald. How are you, Tracy?
I'm great.
And it's a very busy week in the world of
Monroe County prep sports and in the world of the
mcdonald's
Speaker 2 (00:21):
true. You called it a whirlwind and you were right.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
It is. So we got a lot of things going on.
There's a lot of sports going on and we're looking
forward to bringing you all of the news. So,
where should we start today? Let's do a breakdown for
the week, for the week. Ok. What are you breaking down?
You have the papers?
(00:45):
You
Speaker 2 (00:45):
don't want to pay for this?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Well, let's see. Let's start with girls softball. How do
you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I'm feeling like we're almost halfway, maybe a third of
the way through the season. And I, I don't know, it's, it's,
it's an interesting season. I thought things would be different
and
it, I just don't know if they're gonna end. I,
I don't feel like I can even speculate much. Um,
Coral Shores is playing very few games and kind of
(01:13):
rebuilding this year marathon though. They're young. I, I thought
they would struggle a few more years. They seem to
be pretty dominant and Key West is struggling a little bit.
So I'm hoping that's just like a, an early season,
you know, trip up here and there and they're going
to do great at the end of the season.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
You know, sometimes you have teams that use the regular
season to get ready for the postseason and I know
that Key West is playing a lot of really good
schools and this is gonna help them out. Their
Speaker 2 (01:38):
strength, their strength of schedule is not comparable to the
other two, teams in the district. Key West definitely plays
a hard schedule and it's good that they're testing themselves
now and hopefully that will help them and serve them
well in the postseason.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, definitely. And you could definitely check out your scores
and your news as far as girl softball goes in
today's edition of the Keys Weekly, my favorite newspaper in
the world. Sure.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
We got some, get some great hitters. We've got some
pitchers doing fantastic things and, you know, softball, I think
after spring break is when it really starts to heat up.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So this is like the preseason
but not really.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's early, it's still pretty early for softball and baseball.
So this is, this is early in the season even
though it seems like it's been going on for quite
a while early in the season of a long season. So,
you know, a lot of time left for it, things
to fall into place
Speaker 1 (02:27):
for everybody. But you say that and it's sort of
funny because once spring break is over then it becomes
this downhill thing to districts and regionals. So. Oh, yeah,
you're ready for the end of the year, for the
end of the year. Um, next up we have,
I would say it's a relatively new sport in the
world of Monroe County. Lacrosse.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It is for Monroe County. It's pretty new. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (02:49):
like right now, Key West and Coral Shores. I know
Coral Shores. Coral Shores has had lacrosse. I would dare
say probably close to 15 years.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I do remember going up there for track meets and
things like that and seeing them practicing lacrosse and, and
feeling a bit nostalgic for my northeast roots and thinking, oh,
that'd be great to have. And then I, you know,
I realized that
there are only so many students and so many athletes
available to play at a given season. So the larger
two schools have those teams. Uh, whereas marathon does not,
(03:20):
but it's a great sport. I love it.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
You got boys and girls playing at both schools. Um,
last year, Key West suffered a lot of injuries and
they were sort of rebuilding, they struggled. But this year,
I gotta say that Key West boys are coming on
strong sitting on a six and two record at the
halfway point of the season.
Um, they're beating some really good teams and they're getting
(03:43):
ready for a solid postseason. Um, Lady Conks are playing well.
They lost to Westminster 9 to 4. Um, what's your
take on Key West lacrosse?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Um, some boys, they really, you know, last year it
should have been a, a different outcome with wins and
losses and they should have probably done better. Like you said,
they were plagued by injuries and they had some serious injuries.
They had breaks
and, and some season enders. So this year, I think the,
you know, they're staying healthy and they practice hard and
they work hard and they've, they've just really been, you know, the,
(04:19):
a team that, that didn't, didn't give up, didn't
they, they kept their body together, their group of players
where sometimes someone will try a sport and then say, yeah,
I think I'm gonna try a different sport next year and, and,
you know, they'll kind of be wayward but they've really
kept their, their crew together and that's, that's serving them. Well,
the girls are doing great. They're a young team as well.
They've got people that have never played lacrosse before. Very,
(04:42):
very new to the sport and, and
they're coming together and gelling as a team. So, I
think the boys already had their parts in place and
they just had a rough year. Last year, the girls
are putting the parts in place. So Key West looks
pretty dominant in lacrosse and, you know, I, I could
say at least so for Monroe County, they're looking good.
There are only two teams, they're looking good across South Florida. They,
they've got some, they've got a lot of hope in
(05:02):
the postseason.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So, um, for our listeners out here that don't even
understand lacrosse, what's like, sort of the background of lacrosse,
Speaker 2 (05:10):
believe it, it originated in Native Americans, you know? You know, it,
it's almost like if it's great, it's, there's like this scrappy,
you know, hockey element to it where you, you know,
there's a little bit of hitting and there's some jostling
and so there's that and then the, the finesse of
using the stick and, and, you know,
ball control and, and picking up ground balls and, and
(05:31):
things like that. So there's, there's more to it than, than,
you know, just
physical dominance or, you know, they, they just, there's a
lot of elements and it's, if you watch it, it's,
it's a lot. So the first time you watch it,
you'll be confused. It's like ice hockey the first time
you watch it, you're like, what is going on and
after a while you catch on, but this is really
awesome
Speaker 1 (05:51):
to date myself. I have a, a sort of a
cliff Clavin type of thing going on. You know, who many,
most people agree that know about lacrosse, say the greatest
lacrosse player is of all time. I certainly would not
know that NFL great running back, Syracuse Orangemen, Jim Brown
when he was at Syracuse. I think he was a
(06:12):
three time all American in lacrosse. And many say he
was the greatest lacrosse player of all time.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Doesn't surprise me. It's that northeast, you know, strong, strong
area of lacrosse and, and that does not surprise me
at all. Was that
Speaker 1 (06:25):
pretty cliff cla,
Speaker 2 (06:26):
that was sort of embarrassing that you do. That
made that like a pop
Speaker 1 (06:30):
simple cigar or something. Probably. Maybe. Yeah.
Um, boys weightlifting, you know, we were talking about weightlifting
for a long time. We've had girls weightlifting in the fall.
We have boys weightlifting going on now and, and we're
starting to sort of get towards the postseason because, like,
our spring sports, they all have different postseasons because you
(06:52):
can't have lacrosse, weightlifting, baseball, girls softball, all have districts
the same week, all have region there, there's not enough
officials and teams,
Speaker 2 (07:03):
school bus transportation, hotel rooms venues, schools can't all their
kids at one time and it's, that would be a
logistical nightmare. So they spread it out a little bit
and that's why boys weightlifting. It seems like it falls
a little bit early and it does because it starts
Speaker 1 (07:17):
early. Well, and like, obviously boys weightlifting was sort of
started because football players were lifting weights in the off season.
It was a way for them to compete. So usually
they make sure that weightlifting is done before spring football
starts and that starts this year. July April 29.
As far as boys weightlifting goes, they're getting ready. Uh,
marathon and Coral Shores are the only ones who have
(07:41):
weightlifting this year
and they are competing in the district championship. March 28th.
So their March for a state championship begins there. Hopefully
we get some medal
Speaker 2 (07:51):
winners. Yeah. And now, now they're in the part of
the season where they're sort of like switching weight groups
and trying to, you know, logistically figure out who they
could be in their district and, and maybe if they
gained a couple pounds and went up or down a
weight class, you know, they, they have a better chance
now is where, where all those little things are falling
into place and it's getting interesting. So, I mean, that's,
I think they want a week, less than a month.
(08:13):
They have districts.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, March 28th. So really when we come back from
spring break, it's a couple of weeks away and then,
you know, you have districts, regional state and it's boom, boom, boom.
So hopefully we bring some medals like the girls did
for Monroe County. We get some of these gentlemen,
some of these dolphin gentlemen, some of these hurricane gentlemen
to bring home some hardware to Monroe shop.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Now for the, the boys, I'll say they really, you know, the,
the older they are, the more, the more opportunity they
have to, to be dominant. I mean, you, you could
even speak to that. So, the, the girls, it's almost
like they have skill and they're strong. They have, you know,
they can go earlier, like,
uh, a sophomore or junior has a chance to win
a medal for the boys. It's usually the upper classman and,
(08:57):
you know, the both teams are a little, a little
bit young this year.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah. Well, one of your favorite sports, one of the
many sports that you coached before we're gonna talk about.
And that's track and field. I, I
Speaker 2 (09:09):
only like it because I, I understand it and, you know,
when you put me on the spot, at least I
could say something and not sound completely
Speaker 1 (09:16):
ridiculous putting you on the spot. I don't like being
so tell me all your thoughts on count.
Um, ok, so basically track has started and with track,
all three schools, Cor Shores Marathon and Key West, all
three have track teams, boys and girls. Um, we just,
(09:36):
everybody had a meet, uh, two days ago at Key
West high school Corl Shores Marathon in Key West.
Uh, track is really just starting. It's really hard for
us to flesh out who's doing what, um, we do
have a couple records of flu yon set a school
record and Williams and Merriman claimed the top prize when
(09:59):
they went to Palmer to the track meet. So
Speaker 2 (10:02):
that, that they were against a lot of people that
are going to be moving their district and people in
a bigger district. So that was a pretty good, that
was a pretty good indicator of how marathon's going to do.
And you know, Fogg is a fantastic athlete. He's a,
he does a triple jump like no other, you know,
he's just a gifted athlete and he's smart and he
does all the little things, so he's doing great. Um,
(10:23):
you know, the Ava Merriman is doing fantastic in the pole,
Daisy
Daisy Williams looks great. And um and yeah, obviously the
distance group at marathon is fantastic. They are struggling with
a little bit of injury here and there though. And
you know, here and there, there's a good athlete at,
at any given event. So, you know, marathon, they're, they're
(10:44):
scrapping it out. Key West has some pheno. Oh, I
forgot about Jay Marshall.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah. How could you forget? He's one of the fastest
guys in 100 m dash in South Florida.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Now, Coral Shores, they have a couple of distance runners
sprinkled in there and then some guys and some throwers
that are pretty strong and there, it's still early in
their season. And Key West, um they unfortunately are photographer
Grace Andrew who's very talented in photography, also a talented
soccer player. She is so fast over the hurdles and
she's got a foot injury. So she was not able to,
(11:15):
you know, she's not able to hurdle obviously, but she's
still trying to do the, the javelin and, and, you know,
keep up with her, her fitness and also in Key West,
their pole vault teams look strong and they, you know,
Key West is gonna be dominant again this season. I think.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So. Big things going on in track and field in
Monroe County, there's also big things going on in tennis. Tennis,
anyone
Speaker 2 (11:39):
not today, maybe
Speaker 1 (11:41):
tomorrow. Oh, I hope so. Well, Key West. Uh the
Key West Cons and Coal Shores, they met up for
a battle of the Keys their very own in tennis.
March 7th.
Um The Hurricane boys swept the Conks while the Lady
Kings narrowly defeated Key West 4 to 3. So we
have tennis going on. I know um, today, Tracy, we
(12:02):
have marathon and Coral Shores are going against one another
in tennis.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
All three marathon is going to play Key West and
Coral Shores this week. So last week was Coral Shores
against
Key West. And this year it's a marathon against Key
West and Coral Shores separately. So all the teams are
getting a lot of, a lot of play against one another.
And it's nice to see if you ever watch a
tennis match in the Keys. They're so nice to each other.
(12:27):
It's the same as golf. A couple of these like
singleton sports, they just are so nice to each other
and it's a lot of sportsmanship and camaraderie and they'll
help each other out and it's nice to watch.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Now, moving on to baseball this week, we're gonna, we're
gonna talk about marathon baseball and then we're gonna talk
a little bit about Coral Shore's baseball and then we're
gonna talk, we're gonna break down a little bit about
the history of Key West High school baseball.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
That was the promise in the printed edition.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
It was. So I'm gonna do that and then you're
gonna fill everybody in on what's going on with the president.
Sure. So that's the play in everybody. So sit back
and relax marathon. Last week was only able to play
one baseball game. They had a couple, I think they
had a cancellation or two. The
Speaker 2 (13:09):
team, they were going to play, they, they beat them
like 20 to nothing in the first game and they,
you know that that team was going to travel down
here again and it's, it's kind of a long trip
to come down and get
destroy like that. And I think they just said no,
Speaker 1 (13:22):
no. But last week we did have a good game
in marathon at home against a relatively new school. Mater
Academy Bay. Now, this, this, uh, I'm not gonna go
fake school. I, I don't know what they are but
Ma Academy has been, we're playing them in football
(13:43):
in the preseason
Speaker 2 (13:44):
game. You're just saying that because you're playing football. I
still call him a fake.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Ok, I have nothing to say to that. Now, I
still say meter is actually, has been around for a
long time. They sort of a legitimate school, I'm gonna
say sort of fake. There's, there
Speaker 2 (13:58):
are 10 of them. There's like Academy.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Well, this is a, well, I'm gonna tell you something,
Academy Bay came down and they were young
but they had some good baseball players. We had a
very good baseball game, uh, marathon was able to win
the game three nothing. Dylan Zeal started on the mound
for Marathon. He pitched five innings and struck out six.
Gabe Leal finished out the game with three strikeouts. He
came in as the closer. Um, they combined it for
(14:24):
a no hitter against the Rays for Marathon, Aidan Gonzalez Mason, Thornton,
Tommy Norris and Gabe Leal, each had one single um,
marathon at, at press time
for you, which is Monday is your deadline. Marathon was
seven and one. we're recording this on Wednesday. It's coming
out today is Thursday, but on Tuesday marathon had a
(14:48):
heartbreaking loss to ransom Everglades. They went up to ransom,
I think they played like 14 innings or something. They played,
they played an incredible amount of innings and they ended
up losing 4 to 3. So marathon baseball is going
strong right now. They're, I think they're sitting at a
seven and two record this week for the, for today
(15:11):
and tomorrow. Ransom's a real school. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Um, they're also traveling to another real school Thursday
and Friday. There's playing two against Barry and Christian. And
they're staying up there right before spring break and then
after spring break, you know what, everybody's starting to point
towards is good old battle of the Keys. Monday. March
(15:35):
25th
Coral Shores comes to town for the only battle of
the Keys matchups. So there's
Speaker 2 (15:42):
not going to be a softball matchup. Usually it's a
home and home with marathon and Coral Shores this year.
It's just in marathon and marathon has that high record.
They're doing great. Coral Shore record doesn't look so great.
But their team, I mean, they're, they're racking up a
lot of hits. I see that, you know, they, the
town is there, I think they might have a stronger schedule.
(16:03):
100% certain on that because they haven't, they've played a
couple of, a couple of similar
Speaker 1 (16:08):
teams. We'll find out March 25th. That's,
Speaker 2 (16:10):
everyone's gonna have to come down a marathon and see
on March 25th, I believe it's seven o'clock, the Keys.
The only way you're going to see in,
Speaker 1 (16:17):
um, baseball this year. So Coral Shores last week they
suffered a pair of losses. First one coming at a
new school that Tracy would call fake. A BF Academy Hialeah.
But I will tell you A BF,
Speaker 2 (16:30):
there's the Cowboys and they're both
Speaker 1 (16:32):
fake.
Let me tell you this. Let me tell you this
because you're a
Speaker 2 (16:37):
fake school doesn't mean you can't be great at sports.
That's why you're great at sports because you're not focused.
I mean, I want to see your Fs a
Speaker 1 (16:43):
score.
Uh They have very good baseball at both. So Coral
Shore has struggled to, they could, they, they struggled to hit,
they had three hits. AJ PTI
and uh Keller Blackburn both doubled while Grady Tamkin added
a base hit in the 63 loss to the Cowboys.
Um So Coral Shores is, they're, they're playing this week,
(17:09):
but really everybody's starting to talk about that March 25th
game that's gonna be at marathon. Um
So now everybody, everybody talks about, we're gonna talk a
little bit about Key West High School and like we said,
in the paper, we're gonna break down sort of the
history of Key West high school baseball and everybody's heard
(17:30):
about Key West baseball and, and people when you move,
when you move down here, people would be like Key
West high school is great. Key West High school is
so good.
And uh
Key West High School, really the first team that they
have on record they were older now
is 1944. That's the first time they played baseball. Um,
(17:55):
the team that we know about, there were teams in
the forties earlier, but the information is sketchy. I'm getting
this information from Judd Wise in World War Two. Yeah,
that's for sure. More
Speaker 2 (18:05):
important things were going on. I mean, not really in
Key West is baseball. That's the most important thing. But
I'm sure other people beg to differ. So,
Speaker 1 (18:13):
so let's just give a shout out to the first
team to start this whole bit. The 44 team they
were led by Rh Stone. He was the first coach.
The Conks played Lake Worth High. What does R
Speaker 2 (18:26):
H stand for? Put you on the spot?
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yes, you got it right. Ronald Herbert Stone and they
played Lake Worth High in their very first game and
they lost 19 0. So it wasn't always, you know,
they had to Key West had to work for
on that squad. The very first squad was good old
Harry Bubba smelting Charles Roach Kenneth Meador, Jim Barker, Joe
(18:53):
Alonso Florencio Reyes Adolf last year's Jimmy Register Claude Valdez.
I'm sure he's related to Chris Valdez, Gaily Sweden, Joe
Fleta Arthur Boza Lee Griffin, Donald Lund and Zan Zetti.
First name, unknown
Zanetti.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
That's your last name. Why would you ever go by
your
Speaker 1 (19:15):
first? Never.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
There's never going to be two Zan. And it's not like,
you know, growing up there were four, Tracy's
Speaker 1 (19:20):
so that's a very, that's the very first team and
the very, so that's 1944 the very first team to
win a district championship. A mere five years later in 1949.
And the district Key West high school has had 32
district championships, hopefully 33 after this year,
(19:41):
1949 50 53 54 55 56 57. 58 59 69
year drought. 1969. What happened in 61? We don't know.
Uh I can go into it if you want, but
then this podcast is gonna go very, very late 69
72 74. Then a drought until 82. 84 86 88
(20:05):
89 93 94 9596
drought to 2003. 2003, 2004, 2005, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019,
2022 and 2023. So 32 district championships since 1944 that's
(20:25):
pretty decent.
So not only that, there's only six losing seasons in
the whole program history since 1944. Nice.
So those horrible years of losing seasons. 66 71 2013,
1719 and 21. That's it every other year winning season
Speaker 2 (20:49):
and then take into account the teams that they're playing.
Oh, well, he plays all real
Speaker 1 (20:55):
schools all the time. Well, if you go even like
going back throughout the years, I mean, up until probably
the eighties, they were just playing mi, you know, there
were less high school, they were playing Miami high, Miami
Jackson throughout the fifties. Coral Gables High school. It was like,
if you think about it back then in the South
(21:17):
Florida landscape, you know, you'll have Miami High, Miami Edison,
Miami Jackson.
Um, you'll have Homestead High School, you know, and then
you'll have Key West and there weren't that many people
down here, there weren't that many high schools. And even
though Key West was small, the only other schools they
could play were these big schools in Miami. So a
(21:37):
lot of times they were winning district championships against teams
234 times the population as them.
Um, after 73 seasons, the program has 1289 wins and
11 state championships.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Well, I would say unheard, but someone else has done
this and, and Key West is trying to become the
only one
Speaker 1 (22:02):
that, so what, what, what Tracy is, is alluding to
is that Westminster Christian. Um, they have 11 state championships
and they're tied with Key West High School for the
most state championships in the state of Florida. So each
team is trying
to win that next one. So they can be the
world champion of Florida of Florida state championships. Now, Key
(22:26):
West High school is 11 and three in the state
championship game. Their first state championship came in 1953 all
the way back then. Uh Key West beat Tate 7
to 3. Then they go back to back state champions,
Saint Petersburg
nine Key West high school five. So they end up
going back and losing the next year. They come back
(22:50):
around in 55. So it's their third time in three years.
They're in the championship game. They win 3 to 2
over Jacksonville, Andrew Jackson High school now defunct.
It's not there anymore. Is it called something else? Maybe just,
I don't know, it's not called the Andrew Jackson
1956. So four years, four state championship games, um, they
(23:14):
win 83 to again. Jacksonville, Andrew Jackson 1958. They go back,
they beat Avon Park 1 to 0, 1959. They beat
Milton 3 to 2 and then a 10 year absence
blowouts either. No close games. I, I'll tell you what, um,
(23:37):
on one of those teams was a good friend of mine,
Wayne Goldstein and I can remember, I, I don't even
know the year. He's on one of these teams from
the fifties. It could have even been the 59 team
that wins 3 to 2.
And he told me that they all year long. They
practiced bunting and they practiced suicide squeeze. And in the
(24:00):
state championship game, the winning run was scored on the
suicide squeeze. And that's where we have a runner on third.
The batter bunts it down the third base line, the bat,
the runner is stealing. So, what an exciting way to win.
They win 3 to 2. 1969. Key West beats Lakeland. Kathleen.
I've never heard of them. They must be now the
(24:21):
funk three to nothing. Kathleen
Speaker 2 (24:23):
with a K, it's not a typo with a K
Speaker 1 (24:25):
or something. I'll ask coach wise. That's a good point. Yeah,
it is. I don't think wise. No, I agree. So,
the 1969 team, do you think there were hippies on
that team?
Not in,
Speaker 2 (24:38):
not in
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Key West.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
They came to that because all the
Speaker 1 (24:46):
69 of the,
Speaker 2 (24:49):
in 1969 it was in the seventies when it was
fed up. That's it. I'm coming to West to continue
to
Speaker 1 (24:57):
be a, that's a good point. 1972 Key West goes
to the state champion game. Unfortunately, they lose to ST Petersburg,
Bishop Barry five to nothing.
And then you go like throughout the, the seventies, no
state championship games until the big eighties in 1984. And,
you know, Pedro Fraga wins a state championship as a
(25:18):
coach after a long run there, that was big for
him and that 84 team is considered by many one
of the top Key West high school teams of all time.
They beat Melbourne Palm Bay in a close game 7
to 5.
Um, as we move forward through the decades, we go
to really the first round of coach Enriquez, the mid
(25:42):
nineties is when he starts coaching Key West High School.
And they have one of their greatest runs of all
time in 94. They go to the state championship and
they lose to Miami Palmetto. Not a fake school, as
you say, big school 7 to 6. What a heartbreaker
in 95 they win against Seminole Osceola 6 to 4.
(26:08):
You know, the 95 team at one point was the
number one team in the country there. If you go
on youtube and you google it, there's an ESPN piece
on them. I think when they're traveling to California, as
they're still continuing to do, uh, the 96 team comes
back to the state championship game. They beat Jacksonville, Bishop Kenny, uh,
(26:30):
11 to 6.
Coach Enriquez. Um, then leaves, I think it's after the
96 season, Brooks Carey takes over and then in 1998
they go back to the state championship with Brooks Carey
at the helm and they win 4 to 3 against
(26:51):
Monsignor Pace, a longtime Key West high school rival. And
you know, you have a couple years, Coach Enriquez comes back.
Uh Ralphie, his son is catcher on the team and
in 2005, they go back to the state championship game
and they win seven to nothing against Orlando Bishop Moore.
(27:14):
So Key West, like we said, is tied for the
most state championships with 11. Key West is the only
school to ever win five titles in one decade. The fifties,
um, the Conks have played in 100 and three tournament
games after districts and 171 and no school travels to
a state tournament better than Key West as they average
(27:35):
over 2000 loyal supporters at the state final four. So
if Key West makes the final four, the citizens of
Key West are traveling to that game Sure. Now all the,
all
Speaker 2 (27:47):
these schools, they don't want to come down here, like, oh,
it's such a long trip and they cried.
Every trip is a long trip for Key West. And
it doesn't seem to be difficult for the people of
Key West to travel to these games. So, rest of
state of Florida, you gotta pick it up
Speaker 1 (28:01):
and, like, you know, to, to be sort of a
nerd about it. That's really not, not the end of
the story when it comes to baseball in Key West.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
No, no, not at all. There's so much
Speaker 1 (28:15):
more. You have Mary Immaculate
had baseball in 1966. They actually beat Key West 3
to 2 at Wickers Field. Can you imagine that scene?
Um In 1966 Mary Immaculate also goes to the state
semifinals in 71. They go to the state semifinals in 72.
(28:36):
They also go to the state semifinals. Um They had
one player, Kelly Scott leads division two, Valdosta State to
a national championship in 1980.
He is signed by the Yankees and gets as high
as AAA. So Mary Immaculate put out some decent baseball
teams and they have a rich history also and you know,
(28:57):
who knows, Tracy, maybe one day as Mary Immaculate is
moving forward with their high school, maybe one day they'll
have a baseball team again.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Mary Immaculate will never have a high school baseball team again.
It is now
basilica, but I
Speaker 1 (29:10):
will ever have a
Speaker 2 (29:12):
team
Speaker 1 (29:25):
of people.
Now, how about present day Key West High School? We
did talk about the huge emotional uplifting win last week.
It didn't make the paper, but we talked about it. So,
what's going on this week with our Key West Conch
baseball team? All right. Well,
Speaker 2 (29:44):
this week, um, we had another big win and they
split again,
they split again on their, um, their, you know, their,
their two games and again, Anthony Wars had a heck
of a game. You did. Awesome. You have to read
about that in the paper, but just an overall of
Key West, they're five and two right now, they have
two games this week. So by the time this comes out, they're,
you know, that will have changed. Um, and then they're,
(30:07):
they're headed to California. So that's awesome. But right now
the big game is going to be, it's today Wednesday, which,
you know, this will air tomorrow.
I, which is Thursday and I'm gonna confuse the heck
out of everybody. But Key West will play American heritage
now in four, a baseball, they're region four. And that's
gonna be a team where, you know, Key West should
(30:29):
be the district champion. I mean, they're, they're the heir
apparent where they have like sunset, Saint Brendan, South Miami
Killian and Key West on any given day should be
all these schools, you know, I'm gonna call it now,
Key West should be district champions again. And
when they get to regionals and, and as they work
through the, the state um championships, they are gonna come
up with some big obstacles. One of them being American
(30:50):
heritage in the region, American Heritage is hosting Qs this week.
So that's going to tell us a lot.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Absolutely. So, a lot of things are gonna start to
come alive for all three of the baseball teams. We're
gonna know what's going on with Coral Shores and Marathon
after the 25th.
And then Key West High school, your
Speaker 2 (31:12):
hair is just gonna be big. But then, you know,
also region four, you got Jenson Beach and then the
nemesis
Speaker 1 (31:17):
who's the nemesis, you know, who they are? I don't
Speaker 2 (31:21):
know, sort of a trade in this aspect. ST Douglas,
Miami
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Springs.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
They have done a number on Key up the past
couple and it's, you know, it's time for some payback,
Speaker 1 (31:33):
the goals and Hawks,
we'll see. It's pretty exciting. I mean, Miami Springs is
right next to Hialeah and Hialeah has a fantastic youth baseball.
I mean, they had tons of major league baseball players
come out of Hialeah, the most hated umpire Angel Hernandez
comes out of Hialeah. He's the guy that they're always like, oh,
he made a bad call. He made a bad call.
(31:54):
He's from Hialeah. He learned that at Babcock Park. Um,
but
baseball is exciting, but the most exciting part of the podcast.
Are you ready? I'm ready the athlete of the week. And,
you know, we, we met as an editorial staff for
a long time.
You know, we were trying to figure out who the
(32:15):
athlete of the week is. We brought in. Everybody from
all corners of the keys and everybody agreed. No, no
doubt about it. Madeline Thornton freshman marathon softball lately, her
bat has come alive and it is a significant contributor
to our offense, head coach, Lance Martin when we, like
(32:35):
Tracy said before, you know, like I'm going to be
completely honest here. Um,
you know, we weren't, really, weren't expecting too much of
marathon softball this year. You know, they're so young, we thought, oh,
it's gonna be another rebuilding year. You know, coach Martin's
gonna be patient and, and they might improve some, but
they are playing really well. Madeline herself is only in
(32:55):
ninth grade. It's her third year as the varsity catcher.
She's a
Speaker 2 (32:59):
freshman. It's her third year as, and when she's not
like in, you know, the outfield,
a pinch runner, it's her third year as the catcher
Speaker 1 (33:08):
because it's marathon. You could play a varsity sport from
6 to 12. It's Thornton's bat though, which has garnered
the big attention. She's leading the team with a 556
batting average and a 636 on base percentage.
She's boasting an 8, 33 slugging percentage and her hits,
not only are they plentiful, they're coming at the right time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
And then she, she's just a heck of an athlete
and we're talking about, you think about a big hitter and,
you know, they call them big hitters for a reason.
Mad, it's kind of small. I mean, she's a cross
country runner. She's just a solid athlete and she's got
quick hands and she's, you know, got a good focus
when it comes to softball and, and there, there you go,
she hit one out
Speaker 1 (33:49):
last week. Maybe it was like foreshadowing how the previous
week Madeleine was on the cover of the sports rep
is one of the three softball players. She was one
of the people on the cover. Yes. Yeah. So maybe
that was sort of like the reverse of the Madden curse.
She was on the front page the previous week and
she got to be athlete of the week who's on
the
page this week. Do we know yet? I don't look
(34:09):
at it, put you on the
Speaker 2 (34:09):
spot. You did. I, I, sometimes I like it to
be a surprise but we don't choose it. No, they
do such a good job that, you know, the editorial
people at the weekly and the graphic designer and the photographers,
they do such a good job and sometimes I, I
always like it, but sometimes I look at it, I'm
just like, oh, and I, I probably should not want
to show the kids early. Like, look how great this is.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
It's a little exciting for me. To go home on
a Thursday and get the weekly and open it up
and forget about the regular stuff.
Go right to the sports R and see who's on
the cover. It's
Speaker 2 (34:40):
sort of Christmassy for me because sometimes I peek, like
I'll open the folder or the share folders and look
at like, oh, this one looks
Speaker 1 (34:45):
good. Well, congratulations to Madeline and Marathon softball. Keep on
keeping on, as they used to say in the, I
Speaker 2 (34:53):
remember a couple years ago when they were even younger,
which is insane, they were just like in the crib and,
you know, so they're babies and they made it to the,
the state championships because there were so few teams there,
there weren't that many teams in the district and the,
the region and that like in two way, there were
like not enough teams. Somehow they made it with their
strength of schedule and, you know, this year they're winning games.
(35:15):
So things are looking good for them, like you said,
no Battle of the Keys in softball this year. Unless,
unless coach Bonnie and, and coach Martin maybe broker a
deal somewhere and, and we can have that, but
Speaker 1 (35:26):
maybe the Keys weekly could make it happen. We could
have the Keys Weekly. Battle of the Keys and chat.
Both teams show up. I would love to see it.
But that's you guys if you've listened to the podcast
all the way through. Thank you. We appreciate it. Um
We will be back next week with, with more stuff.
Thank you guys for listening and have a great day.
Welcome back, everybody to the Keys Weekly sports, rap podcast.
Your one stop shop for everything. Florida, keys prep sports.
I'm Sean mcdonald. I'm here with Tracy mcdonald. How are you, Tracy?
I'm great.
And it's a very busy week in the world of
Monroe County prep sports and in the world of the
mcdonald's
Speaker 2 (00:21):
true. You called it a whirlwind and you were right.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
It is. So we got a lot of things going on.
There's a lot of sports going on and we're looking
forward to bringing you all of the news. So,
where should we start today? Let's do a breakdown for
the week, for the week. Ok. What are you breaking down?
You have the papers?
(00:45):
You
Speaker 2 (00:45):
don't want to pay for this?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Well, let's see. Let's start with girls softball. How do
you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I'm feeling like we're almost halfway, maybe a third of
the way through the season. And I, I don't know, it's, it's,
it's an interesting season. I thought things would be different
and
it, I just don't know if they're gonna end. I,
I don't feel like I can even speculate much. Um,
Coral Shores is playing very few games and kind of
(01:13):
rebuilding this year marathon though. They're young. I, I thought
they would struggle a few more years. They seem to
be pretty dominant and Key West is struggling a little bit.
So I'm hoping that's just like a, an early season,
you know, trip up here and there and they're going
to do great at the end of the season.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
You know, sometimes you have teams that use the regular
season to get ready for the postseason and I know
that Key West is playing a lot of really good
schools and this is gonna help them out. Their
Speaker 2 (01:38):
strength, their strength of schedule is not comparable to the
other two, teams in the district. Key West definitely plays
a hard schedule and it's good that they're testing themselves
now and hopefully that will help them and serve them
well in the postseason.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, definitely. And you could definitely check out your scores
and your news as far as girl softball goes in
today's edition of the Keys Weekly, my favorite newspaper in
the world. Sure.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
We got some, get some great hitters. We've got some
pitchers doing fantastic things and, you know, softball, I think
after spring break is when it really starts to heat up.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So this is like the preseason
but not really.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's early, it's still pretty early for softball and baseball.
So this is, this is early in the season even
though it seems like it's been going on for quite
a while early in the season of a long season. So,
you know, a lot of time left for it, things
to fall into place
Speaker 1 (02:27):
for everybody. But you say that and it's sort of
funny because once spring break is over then it becomes
this downhill thing to districts and regionals. So. Oh, yeah,
you're ready for the end of the year, for the
end of the year. Um, next up we have,
I would say it's a relatively new sport in the
world of Monroe County. Lacrosse.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It is for Monroe County. It's pretty new. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (02:49):
like right now, Key West and Coral Shores. I know
Coral Shores. Coral Shores has had lacrosse. I would dare
say probably close to 15 years.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I do remember going up there for track meets and
things like that and seeing them practicing lacrosse and, and
feeling a bit nostalgic for my northeast roots and thinking, oh,
that'd be great to have. And then I, you know,
I realized that
there are only so many students and so many athletes
available to play at a given season. So the larger
two schools have those teams. Uh, whereas marathon does not,
(03:20):
but it's a great sport. I love it.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
You got boys and girls playing at both schools. Um,
last year, Key West suffered a lot of injuries and
they were sort of rebuilding, they struggled. But this year,
I gotta say that Key West boys are coming on
strong sitting on a six and two record at the
halfway point of the season.
Um, they're beating some really good teams and they're getting
(03:43):
ready for a solid postseason. Um, Lady Conks are playing well.
They lost to Westminster 9 to 4. Um, what's your
take on Key West lacrosse?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Um, some boys, they really, you know, last year it
should have been a, a different outcome with wins and
losses and they should have probably done better. Like you said,
they were plagued by injuries and they had some serious injuries.
They had breaks
and, and some season enders. So this year, I think the,
you know, they're staying healthy and they practice hard and
they work hard and they've, they've just really been, you know, the,
(04:19):
a team that, that didn't, didn't give up, didn't
they, they kept their body together, their group of players
where sometimes someone will try a sport and then say, yeah,
I think I'm gonna try a different sport next year and, and,
you know, they'll kind of be wayward but they've really
kept their, their crew together and that's, that's serving them. Well,
the girls are doing great. They're a young team as well.
They've got people that have never played lacrosse before. Very,
(04:42):
very new to the sport and, and
they're coming together and gelling as a team. So, I
think the boys already had their parts in place and
they just had a rough year. Last year, the girls
are putting the parts in place. So Key West looks
pretty dominant in lacrosse and, you know, I, I could
say at least so for Monroe County, they're looking good.
There are only two teams, they're looking good across South Florida. They,
they've got some, they've got a lot of hope in
(05:02):
the postseason.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So, um, for our listeners out here that don't even
understand lacrosse, what's like, sort of the background of lacrosse,
Speaker 2 (05:10):
believe it, it originated in Native Americans, you know? You know, it,
it's almost like if it's great, it's, there's like this scrappy,
you know, hockey element to it where you, you know,
there's a little bit of hitting and there's some jostling
and so there's that and then the, the finesse of
using the stick and, and, you know,
ball control and, and picking up ground balls and, and
(05:31):
things like that. So there's, there's more to it than, than,
you know, just
physical dominance or, you know, they, they just, there's a
lot of elements and it's, if you watch it, it's,
it's a lot. So the first time you watch it,
you'll be confused. It's like ice hockey the first time
you watch it, you're like, what is going on and
after a while you catch on, but this is really
awesome
Speaker 1 (05:51):
to date myself. I have a, a sort of a
cliff Clavin type of thing going on. You know, who many,
most people agree that know about lacrosse, say the greatest
lacrosse player is of all time. I certainly would not
know that NFL great running back, Syracuse Orangemen, Jim Brown
when he was at Syracuse. I think he was a
(06:12):
three time all American in lacrosse. And many say he
was the greatest lacrosse player of all time.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Doesn't surprise me. It's that northeast, you know, strong, strong
area of lacrosse and, and that does not surprise me
at all. Was that
Speaker 1 (06:25):
pretty cliff cla,
Speaker 2 (06:26):
that was sort of embarrassing that you do. That
made that like a pop
Speaker 1 (06:30):
simple cigar or something. Probably. Maybe. Yeah.
Um, boys weightlifting, you know, we were talking about weightlifting
for a long time. We've had girls weightlifting in the fall.
We have boys weightlifting going on now and, and we're
starting to sort of get towards the postseason because, like,
our spring sports, they all have different postseasons because you
(06:52):
can't have lacrosse, weightlifting, baseball, girls softball, all have districts
the same week, all have region there, there's not enough
officials and teams,
Speaker 2 (07:03):
school bus transportation, hotel rooms venues, schools can't all their
kids at one time and it's, that would be a
logistical nightmare. So they spread it out a little bit
and that's why boys weightlifting. It seems like it falls
a little bit early and it does because it starts
Speaker 1 (07:17):
early. Well, and like, obviously boys weightlifting was sort of
started because football players were lifting weights in the off season.
It was a way for them to compete. So usually
they make sure that weightlifting is done before spring football
starts and that starts this year. July April 29.
As far as boys weightlifting goes, they're getting ready. Uh,
marathon and Coral Shores are the only ones who have
(07:41):
weightlifting this year
and they are competing in the district championship. March 28th.
So their March for a state championship begins there. Hopefully
we get some medal
Speaker 2 (07:51):
winners. Yeah. And now, now they're in the part of
the season where they're sort of like switching weight groups
and trying to, you know, logistically figure out who they
could be in their district and, and maybe if they
gained a couple pounds and went up or down a
weight class, you know, they, they have a better chance
now is where, where all those little things are falling
into place and it's getting interesting. So, I mean, that's,
I think they want a week, less than a month.
(08:13):
They have districts.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, March 28th. So really when we come back from
spring break, it's a couple of weeks away and then,
you know, you have districts, regional state and it's boom, boom, boom.
So hopefully we bring some medals like the girls did
for Monroe County. We get some of these gentlemen,
some of these dolphin gentlemen, some of these hurricane gentlemen
to bring home some hardware to Monroe shop.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Now for the, the boys, I'll say they really, you know, the,
the older they are, the more, the more opportunity they
have to, to be dominant. I mean, you, you could
even speak to that. So, the, the girls, it's almost
like they have skill and they're strong. They have, you know,
they can go earlier, like,
uh, a sophomore or junior has a chance to win
a medal for the boys. It's usually the upper classman and,
(08:57):
you know, the both teams are a little, a little
bit young this year.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah. Well, one of your favorite sports, one of the
many sports that you coached before we're gonna talk about.
And that's track and field. I, I
Speaker 2 (09:09):
only like it because I, I understand it and, you know,
when you put me on the spot, at least I
could say something and not sound completely
Speaker 1 (09:16):
ridiculous putting you on the spot. I don't like being
so tell me all your thoughts on count.
Um, ok, so basically track has started and with track,
all three schools, Cor Shores Marathon and Key West, all
three have track teams, boys and girls. Um, we just,
(09:36):
everybody had a meet, uh, two days ago at Key
West high school Corl Shores Marathon in Key West.
Uh, track is really just starting. It's really hard for
us to flesh out who's doing what, um, we do
have a couple records of flu yon set a school
record and Williams and Merriman claimed the top prize when
(09:59):
they went to Palmer to the track meet. So
Speaker 2 (10:02):
that, that they were against a lot of people that
are going to be moving their district and people in
a bigger district. So that was a pretty good, that
was a pretty good indicator of how marathon's going to do.
And you know, Fogg is a fantastic athlete. He's a,
he does a triple jump like no other, you know,
he's just a gifted athlete and he's smart and he
does all the little things, so he's doing great. Um,
(10:23):
you know, the Ava Merriman is doing fantastic in the pole,
Daisy
Daisy Williams looks great. And um and yeah, obviously the
distance group at marathon is fantastic. They are struggling with
a little bit of injury here and there though. And
you know, here and there, there's a good athlete at,
at any given event. So, you know, marathon, they're, they're
(10:44):
scrapping it out. Key West has some pheno. Oh, I
forgot about Jay Marshall.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah. How could you forget? He's one of the fastest
guys in 100 m dash in South Florida.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Now, Coral Shores, they have a couple of distance runners
sprinkled in there and then some guys and some throwers
that are pretty strong and there, it's still early in
their season. And Key West, um they unfortunately are photographer
Grace Andrew who's very talented in photography, also a talented
soccer player. She is so fast over the hurdles and
she's got a foot injury. So she was not able to,
(11:15):
you know, she's not able to hurdle obviously, but she's
still trying to do the, the javelin and, and, you know,
keep up with her, her fitness and also in Key West,
their pole vault teams look strong and they, you know,
Key West is gonna be dominant again this season. I think.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So. Big things going on in track and field in
Monroe County, there's also big things going on in tennis. Tennis,
anyone
Speaker 2 (11:39):
not today, maybe
Speaker 1 (11:41):
tomorrow. Oh, I hope so. Well, Key West. Uh the
Key West Cons and Coal Shores, they met up for
a battle of the Keys their very own in tennis.
March 7th.
Um The Hurricane boys swept the Conks while the Lady
Kings narrowly defeated Key West 4 to 3. So we
have tennis going on. I know um, today, Tracy, we
(12:02):
have marathon and Coral Shores are going against one another
in tennis.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
All three marathon is going to play Key West and
Coral Shores this week. So last week was Coral Shores
against
Key West. And this year it's a marathon against Key
West and Coral Shores separately. So all the teams are
getting a lot of, a lot of play against one another.
And it's nice to see if you ever watch a
tennis match in the Keys. They're so nice to each other.
(12:27):
It's the same as golf. A couple of these like
singleton sports, they just are so nice to each other
and it's a lot of sportsmanship and camaraderie and they'll
help each other out and it's nice to watch.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Now, moving on to baseball this week, we're gonna, we're
gonna talk about marathon baseball and then we're gonna talk
a little bit about Coral Shore's baseball and then we're
gonna talk, we're gonna break down a little bit about
the history of Key West High school baseball.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
That was the promise in the printed edition.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
It was. So I'm gonna do that and then you're
gonna fill everybody in on what's going on with the president.
Sure. So that's the play in everybody. So sit back
and relax marathon. Last week was only able to play
one baseball game. They had a couple, I think they
had a cancellation or two. The
Speaker 2 (13:09):
team, they were going to play, they, they beat them
like 20 to nothing in the first game and they,
you know that that team was going to travel down
here again and it's, it's kind of a long trip
to come down and get
destroy like that. And I think they just said no,
Speaker 1 (13:22):
no. But last week we did have a good game
in marathon at home against a relatively new school. Mater
Academy Bay. Now, this, this, uh, I'm not gonna go
fake school. I, I don't know what they are but
Ma Academy has been, we're playing them in football
(13:43):
in the preseason
Speaker 2 (13:44):
game. You're just saying that because you're playing football. I
still call him a fake.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Ok, I have nothing to say to that. Now, I
still say meter is actually, has been around for a
long time. They sort of a legitimate school, I'm gonna
say sort of fake. There's, there
Speaker 2 (13:58):
are 10 of them. There's like Academy.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Well, this is a, well, I'm gonna tell you something,
Academy Bay came down and they were young
but they had some good baseball players. We had a
very good baseball game, uh, marathon was able to win
the game three nothing. Dylan Zeal started on the mound
for Marathon. He pitched five innings and struck out six.
Gabe Leal finished out the game with three strikeouts. He
came in as the closer. Um, they combined it for
(14:24):
a no hitter against the Rays for Marathon, Aidan Gonzalez Mason, Thornton,
Tommy Norris and Gabe Leal, each had one single um,
marathon at, at press time
for you, which is Monday is your deadline. Marathon was
seven and one. we're recording this on Wednesday. It's coming
out today is Thursday, but on Tuesday marathon had a
(14:48):
heartbreaking loss to ransom Everglades. They went up to ransom,
I think they played like 14 innings or something. They played,
they played an incredible amount of innings and they ended
up losing 4 to 3. So marathon baseball is going
strong right now. They're, I think they're sitting at a
seven and two record this week for the, for today
(15:11):
and tomorrow. Ransom's a real school. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Um, they're also traveling to another real school Thursday
and Friday. There's playing two against Barry and Christian. And
they're staying up there right before spring break and then
after spring break, you know what, everybody's starting to point
towards is good old battle of the Keys. Monday. March
(15:35):
25th
Coral Shores comes to town for the only battle of
the Keys matchups. So there's
Speaker 2 (15:42):
not going to be a softball matchup. Usually it's a
home and home with marathon and Coral Shores this year.
It's just in marathon and marathon has that high record.
They're doing great. Coral Shore record doesn't look so great.
But their team, I mean, they're, they're racking up a
lot of hits. I see that, you know, they, the
town is there, I think they might have a stronger schedule.
(16:03):
100% certain on that because they haven't, they've played a
couple of, a couple of similar
Speaker 1 (16:08):
teams. We'll find out March 25th. That's,
Speaker 2 (16:10):
everyone's gonna have to come down a marathon and see
on March 25th, I believe it's seven o'clock, the Keys.
The only way you're going to see in,
Speaker 1 (16:17):
um, baseball this year. So Coral Shores last week they
suffered a pair of losses. First one coming at a
new school that Tracy would call fake. A BF Academy Hialeah.
But I will tell you A BF,
Speaker 2 (16:30):
there's the Cowboys and they're both
Speaker 1 (16:32):
fake.
Let me tell you this. Let me tell you this
because you're a
Speaker 2 (16:37):
fake school doesn't mean you can't be great at sports.
That's why you're great at sports because you're not focused.
I mean, I want to see your Fs a
Speaker 1 (16:43):
score.
Uh They have very good baseball at both. So Coral
Shore has struggled to, they could, they, they struggled to hit,
they had three hits. AJ PTI
and uh Keller Blackburn both doubled while Grady Tamkin added
a base hit in the 63 loss to the Cowboys.
Um So Coral Shores is, they're, they're playing this week,
(17:09):
but really everybody's starting to talk about that March 25th
game that's gonna be at marathon. Um
So now everybody, everybody talks about, we're gonna talk a
little bit about Key West High School and like we said,
in the paper, we're gonna break down sort of the
history of Key West high school baseball and everybody's heard
(17:30):
about Key West baseball and, and people when you move,
when you move down here, people would be like Key
West high school is great. Key West High school is
so good.
And uh
Key West High School, really the first team that they
have on record they were older now
is 1944. That's the first time they played baseball. Um,
(17:55):
the team that we know about, there were teams in
the forties earlier, but the information is sketchy. I'm getting
this information from Judd Wise in World War Two. Yeah,
that's for sure. More
Speaker 2 (18:05):
important things were going on. I mean, not really in
Key West is baseball. That's the most important thing. But
I'm sure other people beg to differ. So,
Speaker 1 (18:13):
so let's just give a shout out to the first
team to start this whole bit. The 44 team they
were led by Rh Stone. He was the first coach.
The Conks played Lake Worth High. What does R
Speaker 2 (18:26):
H stand for? Put you on the spot?
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yes, you got it right. Ronald Herbert Stone and they
played Lake Worth High in their very first game and
they lost 19 0. So it wasn't always, you know,
they had to Key West had to work for
on that squad. The very first squad was good old
Harry Bubba smelting Charles Roach Kenneth Meador, Jim Barker, Joe
(18:53):
Alonso Florencio Reyes Adolf last year's Jimmy Register Claude Valdez.
I'm sure he's related to Chris Valdez, Gaily Sweden, Joe
Fleta Arthur Boza Lee Griffin, Donald Lund and Zan Zetti.
First name, unknown
Zanetti.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
That's your last name. Why would you ever go by
your
Speaker 1 (19:15):
first? Never.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
There's never going to be two Zan. And it's not like,
you know, growing up there were four, Tracy's
Speaker 1 (19:20):
so that's a very, that's the very first team and
the very, so that's 1944 the very first team to
win a district championship. A mere five years later in 1949.
And the district Key West high school has had 32
district championships, hopefully 33 after this year,
(19:41):
1949 50 53 54 55 56 57. 58 59 69
year drought. 1969. What happened in 61? We don't know.
Uh I can go into it if you want, but
then this podcast is gonna go very, very late 69
72 74. Then a drought until 82. 84 86 88
(20:05):
89 93 94 9596
drought to 2003. 2003, 2004, 2005, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019,
2022 and 2023. So 32 district championships since 1944 that's
(20:25):
pretty decent.
So not only that, there's only six losing seasons in
the whole program history since 1944. Nice.
So those horrible years of losing seasons. 66 71 2013,
1719 and 21. That's it every other year winning season
Speaker 2 (20:49):
and then take into account the teams that they're playing.
Oh, well, he plays all real
Speaker 1 (20:55):
schools all the time. Well, if you go even like
going back throughout the years, I mean, up until probably
the eighties, they were just playing mi, you know, there
were less high school, they were playing Miami high, Miami
Jackson throughout the fifties. Coral Gables High school. It was like,
if you think about it back then in the South
(21:17):
Florida landscape, you know, you'll have Miami High, Miami Edison,
Miami Jackson.
Um, you'll have Homestead High School, you know, and then
you'll have Key West and there weren't that many people
down here, there weren't that many high schools. And even
though Key West was small, the only other schools they
could play were these big schools in Miami. So a
(21:37):
lot of times they were winning district championships against teams
234 times the population as them.
Um, after 73 seasons, the program has 1289 wins and
11 state championships.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Well, I would say unheard, but someone else has done
this and, and Key West is trying to become the
only one
Speaker 1 (22:02):
that, so what, what, what Tracy is, is alluding to
is that Westminster Christian. Um, they have 11 state championships
and they're tied with Key West High School for the
most state championships in the state of Florida. So each
team is trying
to win that next one. So they can be the
world champion of Florida of Florida state championships. Now, Key
(22:26):
West High school is 11 and three in the state
championship game. Their first state championship came in 1953 all
the way back then. Uh Key West beat Tate 7
to 3. Then they go back to back state champions,
Saint Petersburg
nine Key West high school five. So they end up
going back and losing the next year. They come back
(22:50):
around in 55. So it's their third time in three years.
They're in the championship game. They win 3 to 2
over Jacksonville, Andrew Jackson High school now defunct.
It's not there anymore. Is it called something else? Maybe just,
I don't know, it's not called the Andrew Jackson
1956. So four years, four state championship games, um, they
(23:14):
win 83 to again. Jacksonville, Andrew Jackson 1958. They go back,
they beat Avon Park 1 to 0, 1959. They beat
Milton 3 to 2 and then a 10 year absence
blowouts either. No close games. I, I'll tell you what, um,
(23:37):
on one of those teams was a good friend of mine,
Wayne Goldstein and I can remember, I, I don't even
know the year. He's on one of these teams from
the fifties. It could have even been the 59 team
that wins 3 to 2.
And he told me that they all year long. They
practiced bunting and they practiced suicide squeeze. And in the
(24:00):
state championship game, the winning run was scored on the
suicide squeeze. And that's where we have a runner on third.
The batter bunts it down the third base line, the bat,
the runner is stealing. So, what an exciting way to win.
They win 3 to 2. 1969. Key West beats Lakeland. Kathleen.
I've never heard of them. They must be now the
(24:21):
funk three to nothing. Kathleen
Speaker 2 (24:23):
with a K, it's not a typo with a K
Speaker 1 (24:25):
or something. I'll ask coach wise. That's a good point. Yeah,
it is. I don't think wise. No, I agree. So,
the 1969 team, do you think there were hippies on
that team?
Not in,
Speaker 2 (24:38):
not in
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Key West.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
They came to that because all the
Speaker 1 (24:46):
69 of the,
Speaker 2 (24:49):
in 1969 it was in the seventies when it was
fed up. That's it. I'm coming to West to continue
to
Speaker 1 (24:57):
be a, that's a good point. 1972 Key West goes
to the state champion game. Unfortunately, they lose to ST Petersburg,
Bishop Barry five to nothing.
And then you go like throughout the, the seventies, no
state championship games until the big eighties in 1984. And,
you know, Pedro Fraga wins a state championship as a
(25:18):
coach after a long run there, that was big for
him and that 84 team is considered by many one
of the top Key West high school teams of all time.
They beat Melbourne Palm Bay in a close game 7
to 5.
Um, as we move forward through the decades, we go
to really the first round of coach Enriquez, the mid
(25:42):
nineties is when he starts coaching Key West High School.
And they have one of their greatest runs of all
time in 94. They go to the state championship and
they lose to Miami Palmetto. Not a fake school, as
you say, big school 7 to 6. What a heartbreaker
in 95 they win against Seminole Osceola 6 to 4.
(26:08):
You know, the 95 team at one point was the
number one team in the country there. If you go
on youtube and you google it, there's an ESPN piece
on them. I think when they're traveling to California, as
they're still continuing to do, uh, the 96 team comes
back to the state championship game. They beat Jacksonville, Bishop Kenny, uh,
(26:30):
11 to 6.
Coach Enriquez. Um, then leaves, I think it's after the
96 season, Brooks Carey takes over and then in 1998
they go back to the state championship with Brooks Carey
at the helm and they win 4 to 3 against
(26:51):
Monsignor Pace, a longtime Key West high school rival. And
you know, you have a couple years, Coach Enriquez comes back.
Uh Ralphie, his son is catcher on the team and
in 2005, they go back to the state championship game
and they win seven to nothing against Orlando Bishop Moore.
(27:14):
So Key West, like we said, is tied for the
most state championships with 11. Key West is the only
school to ever win five titles in one decade. The fifties,
um, the Conks have played in 100 and three tournament
games after districts and 171 and no school travels to
a state tournament better than Key West as they average
(27:35):
over 2000 loyal supporters at the state final four. So
if Key West makes the final four, the citizens of
Key West are traveling to that game Sure. Now all the,
all
Speaker 2 (27:47):
these schools, they don't want to come down here, like, oh,
it's such a long trip and they cried.
Every trip is a long trip for Key West. And
it doesn't seem to be difficult for the people of
Key West to travel to these games. So, rest of
state of Florida, you gotta pick it up
Speaker 1 (28:01):
and, like, you know, to, to be sort of a
nerd about it. That's really not, not the end of
the story when it comes to baseball in Key West.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
No, no, not at all. There's so much
Speaker 1 (28:15):
more. You have Mary Immaculate
had baseball in 1966. They actually beat Key West 3
to 2 at Wickers Field. Can you imagine that scene?
Um In 1966 Mary Immaculate also goes to the state
semifinals in 71. They go to the state semifinals in 72.
(28:36):
They also go to the state semifinals. Um They had
one player, Kelly Scott leads division two, Valdosta State to
a national championship in 1980.
He is signed by the Yankees and gets as high
as AAA. So Mary Immaculate put out some decent baseball
teams and they have a rich history also and you know,
(28:57):
who knows, Tracy, maybe one day as Mary Immaculate is
moving forward with their high school, maybe one day they'll
have a baseball team again.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Mary Immaculate will never have a high school baseball team again.
It is now
basilica, but I
Speaker 1 (29:10):
will ever have a
Speaker 2 (29:12):
team
Speaker 1 (29:25):
of people.
Now, how about present day Key West High School? We
did talk about the huge emotional uplifting win last week.
It didn't make the paper, but we talked about it. So,
what's going on this week with our Key West Conch
baseball team? All right. Well,
Speaker 2 (29:44):
this week, um, we had another big win and they
split again,
they split again on their, um, their, you know, their,
their two games and again, Anthony Wars had a heck
of a game. You did. Awesome. You have to read
about that in the paper, but just an overall of
Key West, they're five and two right now, they have
two games this week. So by the time this comes out, they're,
you know, that will have changed. Um, and then they're,
(30:07):
they're headed to California. So that's awesome. But right now
the big game is going to be, it's today Wednesday, which,
you know, this will air tomorrow.
I, which is Thursday and I'm gonna confuse the heck
out of everybody. But Key West will play American heritage
now in four, a baseball, they're region four. And that's
gonna be a team where, you know, Key West should
(30:29):
be the district champion. I mean, they're, they're the heir
apparent where they have like sunset, Saint Brendan, South Miami
Killian and Key West on any given day should be
all these schools, you know, I'm gonna call it now,
Key West should be district champions again. And
when they get to regionals and, and as they work
through the, the state um championships, they are gonna come
up with some big obstacles. One of them being American
(30:50):
heritage in the region, American Heritage is hosting Qs this week.
So that's going to tell us a lot.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Absolutely. So, a lot of things are gonna start to
come alive for all three of the baseball teams. We're
gonna know what's going on with Coral Shores and Marathon
after the 25th.
And then Key West High school, your
Speaker 2 (31:12):
hair is just gonna be big. But then, you know,
also region four, you got Jenson Beach and then the
nemesis
Speaker 1 (31:17):
who's the nemesis, you know, who they are? I don't
Speaker 2 (31:21):
know, sort of a trade in this aspect. ST Douglas,
Miami
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Springs.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
They have done a number on Key up the past
couple and it's, you know, it's time for some payback,
Speaker 1 (31:33):
the goals and Hawks,
we'll see. It's pretty exciting. I mean, Miami Springs is
right next to Hialeah and Hialeah has a fantastic youth baseball.
I mean, they had tons of major league baseball players
come out of Hialeah, the most hated umpire Angel Hernandez
comes out of Hialeah. He's the guy that they're always like, oh,
he made a bad call. He made a bad call.
(31:54):
He's from Hialeah. He learned that at Babcock Park. Um,
but
baseball is exciting, but the most exciting part of the podcast.
Are you ready? I'm ready the athlete of the week. And,
you know, we, we met as an editorial staff for
a long time.
You know, we were trying to figure out who the
(32:15):
athlete of the week is. We brought in. Everybody from
all corners of the keys and everybody agreed. No, no
doubt about it. Madeline Thornton freshman marathon softball lately, her
bat has come alive and it is a significant contributor
to our offense, head coach, Lance Martin when we, like
(32:35):
Tracy said before, you know, like I'm going to be
completely honest here. Um,
you know, we weren't, really, weren't expecting too much of
marathon softball this year. You know, they're so young, we thought, oh,
it's gonna be another rebuilding year. You know, coach Martin's
gonna be patient and, and they might improve some, but
they are playing really well. Madeline herself is only in
(32:55):
ninth grade. It's her third year as the varsity catcher.
She's a
Speaker 2 (32:59):
freshman. It's her third year as, and when she's not
like in, you know, the outfield,
a pinch runner, it's her third year as the catcher
Speaker 1 (33:08):
because it's marathon. You could play a varsity sport from
6 to 12. It's Thornton's bat though, which has garnered
the big attention. She's leading the team with a 556
batting average and a 636 on base percentage.
She's boasting an 8, 33 slugging percentage and her hits,
not only are they plentiful, they're coming at the right time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
And then she, she's just a heck of an athlete
and we're talking about, you think about a big hitter and,
you know, they call them big hitters for a reason.
Mad, it's kind of small. I mean, she's a cross
country runner. She's just a solid athlete and she's got
quick hands and she's, you know, got a good focus
when it comes to softball and, and there, there you go,
she hit one out
Speaker 1 (33:49):
last week. Maybe it was like foreshadowing how the previous
week Madeleine was on the cover of the sports rep
is one of the three softball players. She was one
of the people on the cover. Yes. Yeah. So maybe
that was sort of like the reverse of the Madden curse.
She was on the front page the previous week and
she got to be athlete of the week who's on
the
page this week. Do we know yet? I don't look
(34:09):
at it, put you on the
Speaker 2 (34:09):
spot. You did. I, I, sometimes I like it to
be a surprise but we don't choose it. No, they
do such a good job that, you know, the editorial
people at the weekly and the graphic designer and the photographers,
they do such a good job and sometimes I, I
always like it, but sometimes I look at it, I'm
just like, oh, and I, I probably should not want
to show the kids early. Like, look how great this is.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
It's a little exciting for me. To go home on
a Thursday and get the weekly and open it up
and forget about the regular stuff.
Go right to the sports R and see who's on
the cover. It's
Speaker 2 (34:40):
sort of Christmassy for me because sometimes I peek, like
I'll open the folder or the share folders and look
at like, oh, this one looks
Speaker 1 (34:45):
good. Well, congratulations to Madeline and Marathon softball. Keep on
keeping on, as they used to say in the, I
Speaker 2 (34:53):
remember a couple years ago when they were even younger,
which is insane, they were just like in the crib and,
you know, so they're babies and they made it to the,
the state championships because there were so few teams there,
there weren't that many teams in the district and the,
the region and that like in two way, there were
like not enough teams. Somehow they made it with their
strength of schedule and, you know, this year they're winning games.
(35:15):
So things are looking good for them, like you said,
no Battle of the Keys in softball this year. Unless,
unless coach Bonnie and, and coach Martin maybe broker a
deal somewhere and, and we can have that, but
Speaker 1 (35:26):
maybe the Keys weekly could make it happen. We could
have the Keys Weekly. Battle of the Keys and chat.
Both teams show up. I would love to see it.
But that's you guys if you've listened to the podcast
all the way through. Thank you. We appreciate it. Um
We will be back next week with, with more stuff.
Thank you guys for listening and have a great day.
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