No Love for the Charlotte Tarpons by the Sara Herald Tribune

[gatorman001]

The outcome wasnt what most of us here were hoping for, as the Tarpons hindered by a 20.8 FG percentage were defeated by Edgewater HS in the semi-final 6A game 44-34.

I was disapointed however to see no mentioned what so ever about the game online by the Herald Tribune this morning? I noted also that their coverage of area outstanding male track atheletes showed a complete lack of genuine sports journalism, as their were a number of atheletes that were not mentioned. I know their excuse will be, that they can only report what is provided to them, but if I can know who is and who isnt in track locally over 60 miles away armed only with my laptop.....I think that pretty much exposes what really is going on here with the want and desire to cover local sports by the local fish wrappers!

Again hats off to the Tarps and their semi-final appearence in boys 6A basketball!

 

[gatorman001]

Mark Cannon, were you planning on catching the Columbus contest? Very interested in the Boozer brothers from Columbus, and what your thoughts are after seeing them play?

 

[Silver King]

We're in Mullet Wrapper no-mans land between FM News Press and H-T. Their cheap a$$ editors run their sports guys ragged, covering local sports in their hub cities - both are fortunate to have some great ones who love the area and have stayed with all the cuts. The H-t considers us SW Fl, the N-P considers us Suncoast - carpetbagger editors who moved here from northern cities made that determination starting a couple decades ago, I used to go back and forth with David Dorsey about it. Of course until they do their NFL lists, then both claims us.

Our Boosters had the game on the big screen at PG Beefs, nice spread of food. I don't think either team looked very good. I thought our D played good enough to win, but we couldn't hit a shot to save our lives early or late. I guessed we were around 23-25% shooting, but we were even worse.

We did hit foul shots, they weren't hitting them. We should have been in more control driving the lane and drawing fouls than the half dozen spin moves trying to avoid their shot blockers and missing.

But congrats to the Tarps, second time in four years to the final four. Coach Mike Williams (A Tarpon hoopster) is off and running in his 3rd year. Former Great Dago Pena (Marshall, Dominican Natl team, played professionally around the world) is back coaching this year.

 

[MarkECannon]

Just spoke to Darterblue2. He is at the Columbus game right now. He didn’t mention the Boozer brothers but it appeared Columbus was handling Evans as expected. Their championship game is Saturday at 8pm.

 

[MarkECannon]

Attended the Charlotte-Edgewater game. The Tarpons had their opportunities to win it. They played their hearts out but did not possess the shooting touches to pull it off.

 

[MarkECannon]

The best team and player I’ve seen this week is Tampa Blake and their junior guard Joshua Lewis. I’m considering going tonight really to see them and him play. They play Miami Norland tonight at 8pm. Lewis is just a junior. He is 6’6” and silky smooth, handles the ball with ease, sweet shooter and jumps like he is on a pogo stick. Blake also has sophomore 6’9”, Joe Philon, who possesses the talent that should lead to a successful college career.

 

[gatorman001]

Peezy, did the counters possibly malfunction........Am I seeing over 5000 views for this thread?

 

[Silver King]

Yes, everyone at the papers and readership must have seen this. That means you're probably going to be responsible for Big Changes coming in H-T Coverage and FM News Press.

I think it may have even been featured by one of the speakers at the "Local Page Editors of America Conference" held in beautiful down town Lutz yesterday.

Or the Slaps are back in "Sup Broham?" fashion.

 

[gatorman001]

Nah, Seriously.....Normally on a highly traffic threads you might see several hundred views, but when I saw 5K, I figured something had to have malfunctioned.

I met with the owners of several Newspapers several times in Georgia before I retired. I was there to help with answering questions about developing "Total Marketing Concepts" TMC's, utllizing the USPS for delivery in lieu traditional newspaper deliveries, as well as more technical questions regarding postage rates and qualification for thse rates, what was nominal to still be considered a paid subscriber, publication requirements for different type periodical publications etc.........

The common theme for all was they were struggling with remaining viable The Athens Banner even had made siginifcant changes from the time I 1st arrived in Athens, in Sept of 1993. When I first arrived it was published twice daily except Sunday, When I left Athens for Atlanta in 2012 it had moved to being pubished once daily and I had discussed with the circulation director about it possibly going to a Monday, Wednesday Friday - Sunday delivery. Many of the publishers I spoke to in NE Georgia were using centralized printing as they could no longer afford to run a prinnting process as well as scaling back publishing like the Athens Banner had done.

So I understand the dynamics in as far as having a limited news staff. My issue is with the apparent lack of effort that now goes into writing a local story. I know its a question of effort because of what I can do with gathering information without ever leaving the comfort of my home. I was bothered the Tarps trip to the final 4 wasn't covered and then discovered while reviewing the local sports scene online it hadn't even put a 1/2 hearted effort into putting together a profile of the local HS track athletes.....

Edgewater put a prett good fight in its 6A championship game but ultimately faded at the end. Columbus almost blew its 7A championship game against Oak Ridge as the contest went to overtime. Both Boozer brothers went double figures with the 6'9" Boozer scoring 25 to pull out a OT win over Oak Ridge. Norland took care of Blake for the 5A title and St Pete Gibbs beat Jackson HS of Jacksonville for the 4A tiitle 49-43.

As a side note in as far as the USPS goes, caught the Charlotte Co Supervisor of elections office mailing smaple ballots out at incorrect rates recently. They went out at Non Profit rates, which they arent qualified for. Only 501(c)(3) organizations typically qualify for Non-Profit rates. It wasn't mailied locally which could account for it not being caught at the acceptance office, as full service rates and seemless verification make it almost impossible to catch this kind of stuff unless you're on your game from a acceptance standpoint. The difference in postage (regular rates vs Non-Profit rate) would amount to a few thousand dollars and I thought about decoded the Intelligent Mail Barcode "IMB" and forwarding it all to someone I know in the USPS......but ultimately decided not to......the USPS like the print media is a dying dinasaur.

 

[MarkECannon]

It could be a search engine that is picking up a name or certain word that is causing its users to come to Flavarsity to check out what it is. This is a little different but I used to produce a short lived talk radio show called The Frank Foster Show. I had a role moderating the website. The website was picking up about 5k hits, ironically, from a musician who had a somewhat significant fan base in a European country(Finland, Norway or another, I can’t recall). Not knowing about the other Frank Foster we were pleased that the website was getting reactions from this country. Needlessly to say we were disappointed to find out the truth.

 

[gatorman001]

It could be a search engine that is picking up a name or certain word that is causing its users to come to Flavarsity to check out what it is. This is a little different but I used to produce a short lived talk radio show called The Frank Foster Show. I had a role moderating the website. The website was picking about 5k hits, ironically, from a musician who had a somewhat significant fan base in a European country(Finland, Norway or another, I can’t recall). Not knowing about the other Frank Foster we were pleased that the website was getting reactions from this country. Needlessly to say we were disappointed to find out the truth.

Interesting theory, hadnt considered that but that word association process is very similar to the way youtube goes about demonatizing programing for certain program creators and or controling your google search outcomes on its browser.........which is probably what happened here..........Thanks Mark

 

[peezy28]

My first reaction to the views is that it was not real. Mark's scenario is as good of an explanation as any that I can think of.

 

[MarkECannon]

Mark Cannon, were you planning on catching the Columbus contest? Very interested in the Boozer brothers from Columbus, and what your thoughts are after seeing them play?

I apologize that I’m just getting back to you. Went to the tournament four days in a row. Attended the 7A championship game, Oak Ridge vs Columbus Saturday night. The game lived up to its billing. The Boozer brothers did too. 6’10” Cameron had the softest shooting touch in the tournament. He plays almost too under control. His drive down the lane finshed with a dunk in OT was probably the most important play of the game. His twin 6’5 Cayden played well as the point guard. Had a soft touch also, handled the ball well and hit some big shots and free throws late. Jase Richardson also played for Columbus. He is the son of Jason Richardson, Michigan State and NBA star, and is very talented.

I bragged on Blake in an earlier post but Norland out played and out coached the Yellow Jackets to defeat them in the 6A final. Norland played aggressive defense. Had a great plan which was executed beautifully. They practically shut down Joshua Lewis. Norland defenders stayed in his face and were constantly physical with him. The other main factor was Lewis and Ray Pilon were stayed in foul trouble which limited their playing time. A lot of ticky tack calls were made to their detriment. Regardless, Norland deserved to win the game.

 

[Silver King]

I remember when my youngest was a freshman, we beat Miami Norland at the Wally Keller Classic one of the years they went on to win State Title (Think it was 6A).

My son got in for a half minute right before the half but hit a 3 to give us the lead going in to halftime - that was one of the years we were pretty good, Pena (mentioned above) was playing, and the Stephenson bros who now coach our girls team.

Funny story. I'm behind their bench smack talking as they sat down after half about it being a long ride across the alley to come over and get beat by the Tarpons. No reaction, so finally I yelled, "And Rick Ross ain't s--t!."

Every single player and all the coaches whip their head around, see it was an older white guy and burst out laughing. I was laughing too. Think they appreciated the effort.