Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Hooping, testing, hunting, returning
Tuesday October 25, 2005
Attention, column shoppers: We have a three-for-one deal today covering St. Johns basketball, Alan Rick on random steroid tests and hunting with Chipper Jones and Tony Alred’s return to Palatka — all for our usual low price. Enjoy.
Hoop it up
Buster Harvey’s first “boot camp” at St. Johns River Community College has given way to plain ol’ basketball practice (fairly demanding itself) with the season a mere 10 days away.
The Vikings open Nov. 1 — a week from Tuesday n at Pasco-Hernando CC, culminating five weeks of conditioning drills on top of a full month of practice.
“Boot camp” was Harvey’s term for the conditioning phase n two days a week of long-distance running (gradually working from two miles up to six), two days a week of sprinting outdoors and “elevation running” on Fridays at Ravine Gardens. Oh, and weights every day.
Practices run three hours a day n heavy on fundamentals n plus an hour working with weights.
“They survived,” said Harvey, the Vikings’ new coach who came to SJRCC via Edward Waters College via Florida CC-Jacksonville (winning seven Mid-Florida Conference championships), plus a stop at Jacksonville University, where he was interim head coach.
“The kids learned they can go a lot farther than they think they can mentally and physically, and they like it. And they’re starting to see some definition in their bodies.”
It’ll help them play the 94-foot game that Harvey prefers — and that they’ll have to play to offset a lack of size.
The two biggest players n Mark Barber and Josh Hood, sophomores who saw little action during a 4-24 season in 2004-05 n are both working through injuries. Barber (6-foot-6, 246 pounds) will miss two or three weeks with a severe ankle sprain and it’s fair to wonder whether Hood (6-9, 258) will ever become a factor because of the foot problems that dogged him throughout his freshman year. Only one other Viking, EWC transfer Chris Lamb, is as tall as 6-5.
“We’ve got scorers,” Harvey said. “The weakness, of course, is going to be height and inside strength. We’ve got a tough schedule and we’re going to have to grow up quick. The sophomores are learning a new system and the freshmen are adjusting to college.
“Progress, I think, is pretty good. We’re pushing them pretty hard and they’re responding.”
Testing and hunting
How serious is minor league baseball about combating steroid abuse? So serious that if, say, Alan Rick wanted to go hunting with Chipper Jones on his west Texas ranch, he’d have to advise the proper authorities he was heading out of town so that arrangements could be made were his number to come up for a random test.
Did I say “if” he wanted to go hunting with Chipper?
Rick n 2002 Palatka High grad, son of SJRCC baseball coach Sam Rick and a class A catcher in the Chicago Cubs’ system — has been there, done that and probably will do it again, which brings us back to steroid testing.
“I keep my cell phone on me and if they call, I have 4-6 hours to go to the local hospital and get tested for steroids,” Rick said. “I know I’m perfectly clean, but if I don’t take the test, I’m considered positive for steroids.”
The first positive finding brings a 50-day suspension without pay, he said, followed by 100- and 150-day suspensions for subsequent offenses n the third positive test accompanied by mandatory counseling.
If Rick gets the call n no, not THAT call, but for a steroid test — a minor league baseball representative contacts Putnam Community Medical Center to verify that he has been tested within the prescribed time.
If he’s headed out of town n again, say, for a hunting trip with Chippern he must advise the appropriate authorities as to his itinerary so that plans can be made for an alternate test site.
“They weren’t this strict last year,” Rick said.
OK, OK, about hunting with Chipper.
Seems they have the same agent, B.B. Abbout, who invited Rick and some of his other clients to join Jones on a hunting trip last year at the ranch. (Incidentally, Sam Rick and Larry Jones — Chipper’s father — know one another. And being from Pierson, where a youth baseball-softball complex is named in Chipper’s honor, Chipper is familiar with Palatka.)
“We went to Atlanta and flew out on Chipper’s private plane. We went out there just to clear out some deer,” Rick said. “(Braves first baseman) Adam LaRoche was there. We also took batting practice with Chipper in his cage.
“It was a blast. We’re probably going out again.”
Him again
A familiar face will be on the visitors’ sideline tonight when Palatka hosts Clay in a pivotal District 4-3A football game.
Tony Alred is in his first season as the Blue Devils’ defensive line coach after 33 years of coaching and teaching in Palatka. He coached the offensive and defensive lines at various times n the o-line more recently n and guided the wrestling programs first at Palatka South and then PHS.
Alred still lives here and was to have spent one last season with Panther football this fall before retiring. But when wife Diana accepted a position as guidance counselor at Green Cove Springs Middle School over the summer, he took a job at nearby Clay High. He won’t be involved with wrestling, however.
“I’ve seen some of the kids and Wilson (Edwards, Palatka’s second-year head coach with whom Alred long served as an assistant) and told them I’m going to pull for them in every ball game but this one,” he said. “I miss Palatka. I miss the prayer breakfasts on Friday morning. It’s going to be funny looking (across the field) at everybody.
“(But) I don’t think it will be that big a deal. Once the game starts, it’s just competition. We have a lot of the same type of kids (at Clay) that they have in Palatka. In fact, some of them are related.”
Jim McCool, the Panthers’ head football coach from 1983-2003, was the first to call and wish him well, said Alred, joking (or maybe not joking) that McCool has tried to pump Alred for information on the Blue Devils in subsequent telephone conversations.
Where Alred was part of a veteran staff at PHS, he is among comparative youngsters at Clay. “Most of the assistants are in their 20s, coach (Jim) Reape is in his 30s n and I’m 60. Most of them call me the old man,” he said. “I told them, ‘You better listen to this old man.’”
They have n and not just about high school football. The good people of Green Cove were quick to pick up on Alred’s love of Tennessee football and pretty much everything Volunteer.
Thus he entered his classroom the Monday after Florida’s 16-7 win over his Vols to find the place decorated in orange and blue.
Source: http://www.palatkadailynews.com/
Attention, column shoppers: We have a three-for-one deal today covering St. Johns basketball, Alan Rick on random steroid tests and hunting with Chipper Jones and Tony Alred’s return to Palatka — all for our usual low price. Enjoy.
Hoop it up
Buster Harvey’s first “boot camp” at St. Johns River Community College has given way to plain ol’ basketball practice (fairly demanding itself) with the season a mere 10 days away.
The Vikings open Nov. 1 — a week from Tuesday n at Pasco-Hernando CC, culminating five weeks of conditioning drills on top of a full month of practice.
“Boot camp” was Harvey’s term for the conditioning phase n two days a week of long-distance running (gradually working from two miles up to six), two days a week of sprinting outdoors and “elevation running” on Fridays at Ravine Gardens. Oh, and weights every day.
Practices run three hours a day n heavy on fundamentals n plus an hour working with weights.
“They survived,” said Harvey, the Vikings’ new coach who came to SJRCC via Edward Waters College via Florida CC-Jacksonville (winning seven Mid-Florida Conference championships), plus a stop at Jacksonville University, where he was interim head coach.
“The kids learned they can go a lot farther than they think they can mentally and physically, and they like it. And they’re starting to see some definition in their bodies.”
It’ll help them play the 94-foot game that Harvey prefers — and that they’ll have to play to offset a lack of size.
The two biggest players n Mark Barber and Josh Hood, sophomores who saw little action during a 4-24 season in 2004-05 n are both working through injuries. Barber (6-foot-6, 246 pounds) will miss two or three weeks with a severe ankle sprain and it’s fair to wonder whether Hood (6-9, 258) will ever become a factor because of the foot problems that dogged him throughout his freshman year. Only one other Viking, EWC transfer Chris Lamb, is as tall as 6-5.
“We’ve got scorers,” Harvey said. “The weakness, of course, is going to be height and inside strength. We’ve got a tough schedule and we’re going to have to grow up quick. The sophomores are learning a new system and the freshmen are adjusting to college.
“Progress, I think, is pretty good. We’re pushing them pretty hard and they’re responding.”
Testing and hunting
How serious is minor league baseball about combating steroid abuse? So serious that if, say, Alan Rick wanted to go hunting with Chipper Jones on his west Texas ranch, he’d have to advise the proper authorities he was heading out of town so that arrangements could be made were his number to come up for a random test.
Did I say “if” he wanted to go hunting with Chipper?
Rick n 2002 Palatka High grad, son of SJRCC baseball coach Sam Rick and a class A catcher in the Chicago Cubs’ system — has been there, done that and probably will do it again, which brings us back to steroid testing.
“I keep my cell phone on me and if they call, I have 4-6 hours to go to the local hospital and get tested for steroids,” Rick said. “I know I’m perfectly clean, but if I don’t take the test, I’m considered positive for steroids.”
The first positive finding brings a 50-day suspension without pay, he said, followed by 100- and 150-day suspensions for subsequent offenses n the third positive test accompanied by mandatory counseling.
If Rick gets the call n no, not THAT call, but for a steroid test — a minor league baseball representative contacts Putnam Community Medical Center to verify that he has been tested within the prescribed time.
If he’s headed out of town n again, say, for a hunting trip with Chippern he must advise the appropriate authorities as to his itinerary so that plans can be made for an alternate test site.
“They weren’t this strict last year,” Rick said.
OK, OK, about hunting with Chipper.
Seems they have the same agent, B.B. Abbout, who invited Rick and some of his other clients to join Jones on a hunting trip last year at the ranch. (Incidentally, Sam Rick and Larry Jones — Chipper’s father — know one another. And being from Pierson, where a youth baseball-softball complex is named in Chipper’s honor, Chipper is familiar with Palatka.)
“We went to Atlanta and flew out on Chipper’s private plane. We went out there just to clear out some deer,” Rick said. “(Braves first baseman) Adam LaRoche was there. We also took batting practice with Chipper in his cage.
“It was a blast. We’re probably going out again.”
Him again
A familiar face will be on the visitors’ sideline tonight when Palatka hosts Clay in a pivotal District 4-3A football game.
Tony Alred is in his first season as the Blue Devils’ defensive line coach after 33 years of coaching and teaching in Palatka. He coached the offensive and defensive lines at various times n the o-line more recently n and guided the wrestling programs first at Palatka South and then PHS.
Alred still lives here and was to have spent one last season with Panther football this fall before retiring. But when wife Diana accepted a position as guidance counselor at Green Cove Springs Middle School over the summer, he took a job at nearby Clay High. He won’t be involved with wrestling, however.
“I’ve seen some of the kids and Wilson (Edwards, Palatka’s second-year head coach with whom Alred long served as an assistant) and told them I’m going to pull for them in every ball game but this one,” he said. “I miss Palatka. I miss the prayer breakfasts on Friday morning. It’s going to be funny looking (across the field) at everybody.
“(But) I don’t think it will be that big a deal. Once the game starts, it’s just competition. We have a lot of the same type of kids (at Clay) that they have in Palatka. In fact, some of them are related.”
Jim McCool, the Panthers’ head football coach from 1983-2003, was the first to call and wish him well, said Alred, joking (or maybe not joking) that McCool has tried to pump Alred for information on the Blue Devils in subsequent telephone conversations.
Where Alred was part of a veteran staff at PHS, he is among comparative youngsters at Clay. “Most of the assistants are in their 20s, coach (Jim) Reape is in his 30s n and I’m 60. Most of them call me the old man,” he said. “I told them, ‘You better listen to this old man.’”
They have n and not just about high school football. The good people of Green Cove were quick to pick up on Alred’s love of Tennessee football and pretty much everything Volunteer.
Thus he entered his classroom the Monday after Florida’s 16-7 win over his Vols to find the place decorated in orange and blue.
Source: http://www.palatkadailynews.com/
