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By DAREK SHARP

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 28, 2008

PLANT CITY - It was a year rich with achievements for the athletic programs at Plant City and Durant high schools.

Teams from the schools excelled in many sports in 2007-08, from flag football to boys basketball.

As the school year draws to a close, here's a look at 10 of the top sports stories:

•A preseason soccer tournament set the tone for Plant City's season. The Raiders won the early November event at Wharton and then kept winning and didn't lose until the middle of January.

The Raiders' boys soccer team set a record for victories. Led by goal scorers Stevie Lamas and Jonathan Dupree, the Raiders got out to a 12-0-2 start.

Plant City won the district championship, coming from behind to beat Sarasota in the semifinals and then winning one of the more exciting games in school history, 5-4 against Sarasota Riverview to win the title.

The Raiders lost in the first round of the playoffs but gave Alonso a battle, 1-0.

•Durant has had its share of football players go through the college ranks with honors, but never had a Cougar been selected in the National Football League draft.

That is until April, when Trae Williams was chosen by the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.

Williams was a star running back and kick returner at Durant, scoring four long touchdowns against Lakeland in a 2002 win. Recruited only by the University of South Florida and University of Central Florida, Williams chose the Tampa school and was transformed into a defensive back.

Williams was ensconced in the USF secondary as a starting cornerback for his last three seasons there.

Jacksonville selected Williams in the fifth round.

•With the exception of football, perhaps no other sport brings out the best in the Durant-Plant City rivalry as does baseball. Fans always come out in droves, and the matchups are always intense.

But for a rivalry, there needs to be strong competition between the teams. And though Plant City had in recent years come close to beating Durant, the series has always been exceptionally one-sided in the Cougars' favor. But for the first time in a regular season game, the Raiders won. On March 13, Ross Kip had the game-winning hit, and Aaron Gerbasi and Kip combined to shut out Durant 2-0.

The Cougars won the rematch a month later, but the stage was set. Plant City has established itself as a near-equal with Durant in baseball - and promises for some slam-bang action in the future.

•In the six sports where athletes can compete individually for the state championship, five of them had a Raider, Cougar or both do so. As always, the Cougars were well-represented at the state wrestling meet, with Yamil Crespo, Nick Hadick, Alex Hamm and Christian Reed all making it to The Lakeland Center. Travis Vollick was the only Raider to reach the 3A finals, but he also made it the furthest of the locals, reaching the semifinals and finishing with a 3-2 record.

Distance runner Grace VanDeGrift, a rising star freshman for Durant, made both the cross country and track state meets, posting a pair of top-10 finishes at the latter. Plant City's Jasmine Pope came in eighth in the state long jump and nearly qualified in two other events.

Durant's Amy West was outstanding in golf, reaching the state tournament for a second year in a row after placing second at the regional tourney.

Durant seniors Chris Plante and Kaylee Doback capped off stellar Cougar careers with their best finishes ever at the state diving meet, where both had qualified for a third straight year. And Plant City's Stephanie Barker made the finals of the 50-yard freestyle race.

Barker earned a swimming scholarship at Florida Atlantic University, one of many athletes from Plant City or Durant who signed with Division I schools. Plant City's Mark Popek will play football at USF, and softball team catcher Kendall Dawson is headed to the University of Alabama.

•For a loss to make the top 10 sports stories of the year it must have been a special one, and that was the case for the Raider football team. Armwood High School had made a habit of destroying most of its Hillsborough County opponents and had beaten the Raiders 42-7 and 39-0 the previous two meetings.

Armwood entered Raider Stadium with a 6-0 record, having not allowed more than nine points in a game and having scored at least 26. The Hawks put up 14 points in the first quarter and remarkably, that was it. A long touchdown run by Sirchauncey Holloway pulled the Raiders to within 14-10.

In the second half, Armwood reached inside the Raider 10-yard line three times only to get turned away. It was an electric night at Raider Stadium, and the Hawks were just happy to leave with a win.

No other team scored in double figures against Armwood until the state semifinals, where the Hawks fell 34-14 to eventual 4A champion Miami Washington.

•John Mitchell has grown up as a basketball player, who more or less ventured into running as a hobby. The Durant junior has had moderate success in cross country but nothing at the track level until this season.

Mitchell put forth a stunning effort in the mile run at last month's Class 4A state track meet, winning the mile run.

Mitchell pulled away from his chief rival, Sickles' Derek Wehunt, in the last half-lap. It was Durant's first individual title in track.

•When the state softball finals moved to Plant City Stadium in 2006, both local schools dreamed of someday playing for a championship in front of the home crowd. But in 2006 and 2007, neither team made it past the first round of the playoffs.

Durant got to live the dream this year. The Cougars, who had a dramatic extra-inning rally to defeat Plant City in the district finals, got over a couple of humps to win the regional title.

Senior standouts Sara DeMuth and Kristen Jones had never won a first-round game until Durant handled Gaither, then the Cougars took care of Countryside, which had ended Durant's season the last three times they played.

A home victory against West Orange landed Durant in the state semis. Though the Cougars lost to Palm Beach Gardens, Durant almost came back from behind 5-1 in the 10th inning.

The game drew the best attendance of the weeklong event.

•There was another great run from a spring sports team. Playing at the varsity level for only its second season, Plant City made it all the way to the state championship in flag football.

Led by the athletic talent of quarterback Quet Shaw, and bolstered by a strong defense, the Raiders were never threatened in a perfect regular season. In the district tournament game, Plant City had to hold its breath to defeat Durant 14-10.

After that it was a classic battle against fellow 12-0 team, Freedom High. In what had to easily be the most dramatic finish of any game played at Raider Stadium all year, Plant City scored a last-ditch touchdown to force overtime. Twice in the overtime, the Raiders were in a must-score situation, and Shaw hit Tekeyah Clark for a pass both times.

The duo then connected again for the winning point-after pass for a 27-26 triple overtime win that sent the Raiders to Boca Raton for the state quarterfinals. In two days, Plant City posted victories against undefeated Dunedin and Jupiter before succumbing to defending champion Tallahassee Leon in the finals.

No Raider team had made a state final, in any sport, since 1982.

•Also making the finals, and perhaps given even less of a shot to do so, was the Durant High volleyball team. While the Cougars had a fine regular season, breaking Sarasota Riverview's three-year hold on the district title, nothing Durant did suggested it would go as far as it did.

But with a trio of seniors, Aly Anzalone, Alexa Donini and Stephanie Eukovich, who obviously weren't ready for their careers to end, the Cougars showed state-caliber stuff in the second round of the playoffs. Durant achieved an intense, four-set win at Sickles that earned the Cougars a home date against Orlando Edgewater in the region finals. It was a tough match, but the Cougars prevailed to advance to the state semis at The Lakeland Center.

In the 6A semis, Durant beat Jupiter 25-22, 25-22, 23-25 and 25-22 before losing to powerhouse Gainesville Bucholtz.

•Back in the day, Plant City Raider basketball meant as much to this town as a sport could to a community. When Horace Broadnax led the Raiders to the state championship in 1982, basketball engulfed Plant City.

And it stayed that way for a decade-plus. The Raiders were nationally ranked in 1987, and then the Russell Evans era began in '90 and crowds overflowed for the next four years. Evans, still Hillsborough County's all-time leading scorer, led the Raiders to the final four in his senior season.

Only one Raider team even made a district tournament final after that, but no playoffs. And though the hoops passion was still flickering, it was never able to completely explode - until this year.

With first-year coach Dale Chambers and longtime assistant Dave Robbins at the reins and a senior-led lineup raising its level as the season progressed, the signs were there. Getting to the playoffs, naturally, was no breeze as Sarasota made it tough in the district semifinals. But the Raiders won that game. A loss to Lakeland in the district finals meant Plant City had to hit the road.

First it was a convincing win at Sickles, then came the game that will go down as the signature performance for the starting lineup, Channing Woodall, Rod Henderson, Steve Hardnett, Denzel Drone and Josh Thiebe. Against a top 10 Lakeland team, one that had beaten the Raiders three times out of three, Plant City played at its highest level and won 77-68.

What was almost as exciting as the play on the court was the fan support off of it. At Lakeland, and in the regional final in Apopka against Orlando Evans, the Raiders had more fan support than the home team. Plant City lost the game 70-52.

Reporter Darek Sharp can be reached at dsharp@tampa

trib.com.

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