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School Boasts Strong Hoops

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By DAREK SHARP dsharp@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 26, 2008

PLANT CITY - Keeping up with the speed of the Plant City Raiders is going to be a major challenge for most teams that play them. Then again, it's also proven to be an issue for the Raiders themselves.

"Right now we have to get our brains to catch up with our speed," joked Raider girls basketball coach Ginger Forte. Her team sometimes wants to run so much they forget about making sure the ball keeps up.

Basketball, soccer and wrestling are all under way as the winter sports season has gotten started.

In girls basketball, Plant City is hoping to build on the promise of last season, when the team won a district tournament game for the first time in recent memory. Forte says her team's goal is to make the playoffs, like the boysteam did last year for the first time in15 seasons.

Plant City has not been to the girls hoops postseason since 1986.

It has the right combination of athletes to go around, starting with super-quick scorers Jade Forte and Quet Shaw, who return along with other capable performers Tekeyah Clark, Collisha Walker, Articia Bennett and outside threat Victoria Cappezza.

The Raiders lost their top inside player, Sade Dunkley, but have a couple of 5-10 newcomers who might help offset the loss. Julie Knighten is "one to watch" according to her coach, who says Knighten can already palm a basketball as a freshman. Kiana Robello also is a possible option inside.

"We basically are like a stick of dynamite; I just don't know the words to describe how quick they are," Forte said. "We have such depth too, I can't just pull anyone off the bench and put 'em in. We just need a little fine-tuning."

Plant City started the season with a loss, but played always-strong Plant to a very close 55-50 defeat. Then the Raiders took care of Newsome 52-49, with Shaw scoring 15 points to lead the way.

District play starts off next Tuesday when the Raiders visit Durant. The Cougars are already into their district schedule.

Boys basketball got under way this week. Durant opened with Newsome on Monday and takes on Tampa Prep for a rare time this Friday.

Speaking of different scheduling, Plant City's second-year coach Dale Chambers seems to want to branch out into the surrounding counties. Plant City started the season last week at Pasco High, was to host Dunedin on Tuesday and then next week will host East Lake.

The first Plant City-Durant clash is set to take place at Plant City High on Dec. 3.

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