They knew they couldn't set this little country community right in a day - the storms had been too brutal for that. But at least, they figured, they could clean it up. ...more

February 8, 2008

TAMPA - With sirens wailing and a tornado approaching, 19-year-old Claire Elmblad of Wesley Chapel began praying out loud. Her fellow Union University dormitory roommates, all hunkered down in the cramped bathtub and surrounded by blackness, did the same. ...more

February 7, 2008

AVON PARK — Missy Lander thinks the 2008 Avon Park softball team has a chance to make history. If Tuesday's throttling of Booker was any indication, she might be on to something. ...more

February 7, 2008

A day after tornadoes in five states killed dozens of people, Hillsborough County students crouched in hallways, heads tucked to their knees, practicing what to do should a twister threaten here. ...more

February 7, 2008

SARASOTA – When you're in a tight game on the road, you don't expect to get the close calls. That was the case in Saturday night's Class 4A-District 10 championship game between Sarasota Booker and Sebring. Booker's Brittani Williams made two free throws with 1.6 second remaining in overtime to give the Tornadoes a 39-37 win over the Blue Streaks. Williams, who finished with 10 points and six rebounds, drove to the basket along the baseline as the final seconds ticked down in overtime and threw up a prayer. ...more

February 4, 2008

Brittani Williams made two free throws with 1.6 seconds left in overtime to give the Booker girls basketball team a 39-37 victory over Sebring in the Class 4A-District 10 tournament final on Saturday night. ...more

February 3, 2008

SARASOTA — Daija Barrett's tears told how close the Avon Park girls basketball team came to a rematch with the Sebring and an extension of its season, as the junior reluctantly relived the final seconds of Friday's Class 4A–District 10 semifinal game against Booker. "My father has told me time and time again that free throws win games," Barrett said. "It was a lot of pressure, but as a player you want the ball in your hand to win the game. It just didn't fall for me tonight." ...more

February 3, 2008

SARASOTA — No championship is just handed to a team, and the Sebring girls basketball team seemingly tried to rest on its laurels of past tournament wins and almost saw their chance at a third-straight district championship slip away. Hannah Shoop's basket on a beautiful no-look pass by senior Whitney Lee with 1:07 to play ended a Blue-Streak scoring drought — which saw a 15-point lead dwindle to just four points — and lifted the Blue Streaks past the No. 4 seed Palmetto Tigers 52-44 in the semifinals of the Class 4A-District 10 tournament on Friday. ...more

February 3, 2008

The chilly conditions, Saturday's Children's Gasparilla Parade washout and NFL playoff games caused a sparse turnout for Sunday's "Piratechnic" Extravaganza on Bayshore Boulevard. ...more

January 21, 2008

Sophomore forward Okaro White's tip-in of a Luke Loucks miss with 39 seconds left gave Clearwater a 45-44 win against Pinellas Park on Friday night. The loss was the Patriots' first of the season against a Pinellas County team. ...more

January 19, 2008