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Association Changes Districts

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By DAREK SHARP

dsharp@tampatrib.com

Published: February 18, 2009

PLANT CITY - When Sarasota and Sarasota Riverview met for the District 6A-8 girls basketball finals early this month, the atmosphere was not befitting the occasion.

That's because the tourney was hosted by Plant City High, and considering the teams involved there was little interest locally.

Thankfully, that type of thing won't happen again.

Last week the Florida High School Athletics Association, on the heels of its drastic alteration of the districts for football, made equally big changes to three more major head-to-head team sports. And in all three - basketball, soccer and volleyball - Durant and Plant City had to be smiling at what they saw.

For the past six seasons, all the above sports teams, for the Raiders and Cougars, were in Class 6A. Since the only other 6A teams from Hillsborough County were East Bay and Riverview, they all had to be grouped together in a district with the closest schools. That meant both the Sarasota programs and Lakeland High.

In the newly proposed alignment Plant City and Durant will stay district rivals maintaining East Bay. The rest of their district opponents will be from Hillsborough County: Armwood, Newsome, Tampa Bay Tech and Freedom.

The new proposed district is Class 5A-District 9.

Sarasota and Sarasota Riverview stay in 6A where they will be grouped with North Port and four Pinellas County schools, Palm Harbor, East Lake, Countryside and St. Petersburg. Schools have until Feb. 20 to request changes to their assignment.

Some Hillsborough programs were moved up to 6A, but they will be in their own district: Bloomingdale, Brandon, Alonso, Plant and Wharton.

The switch likely benefits the Raiders and Cougars in all three sports.

And it may open up some long-awaited playoff trips for the Plant City schools in girls basketball. Since 2004, when Durant made it in as district runner-up, only one time in the last five seasons has the 6A-8 final been anything other than a Sarasota-Sarasota Riverview matchup.

This season the two teams did not lose to anyone else in the district and ended up playing the championship Feb. 7 at Plant City. Sarasota Riverview won the title.

Plant City was eliminated in the tournament's first game 63-60 by East Bay. The Raiders finished with a record of 8-10. Quet Shaw ended the year with a team-high 16.2 points per game average.

Durant defeated Riverview in the first round but then fell to Sarasota Riverview. The Cougars led at the half but lost 52-35, done in by poor shooting. Eryka Williams scored 12 points and Janae Lancaster had 11for Durant, which wound up with a record of 14-8.

The boys tournament began last week. Both Plant City and Durant won their openers and if they were victorious in Friday's semifinals, will be in the state playoffs which start Thursday.

Plant City pulled out a 61-53 win against Sarasota in the first round of the district tourney, played Feb. 10. Chris Smith scored a season-high 20 points as the Raiders rebounded strongly after giving up a double-digit lead. Sarasota went ahead 35-34 in the last second of the third quarter, but Kenny Adams scored four straight points to put the Raiders ahead by four.

Josh Thiebe sank a key 3-pointer, and Smith followed that with a steal and hoop as the Raiders got the lead to 48-40. Sarasota again made it close, 50-47, with 2:50 to play, but then Smith and Sharrod Hardnett scored consecutive hoops off steals to put away the Sailors.

In its opener, Durant got a scare from bottom-seeded Riverview, which came in with only two wins but played loose and had the margin down to four points in the final minutes. But A.J. Garden scored on consecutive trips, and Durant executed well down the stretch, making its free throws and winning 62-54.

Sarasota Riverview, which Durant defeated in both regular-season meetings, got its revenge Friday and ended the Cougars' season with a 69-53 victory. Durant finished the season 21-6.

In Friday's other semifinal, Plant City (8-10) lost to the sixth-ranked Lakeland, the tourney's top seed, 62-46. Lakeland went on to defeated Sarasota Riverview on Saturday for the district title with both teams advancing to the playoffs.

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