It was only a few years before the last U.S. Women’s World Cup win in 1999 when I saw my first-ever girls high school soccer game. In the years before Paul R. Wharton High opened in New Tampa, most New Tampa kids attended King High on N. 56th St. in Temple Terrace and several New Tampa girls were on the King team.
I was stunned by the level of play, the fierceness of these high school girls and their knowledge of the game — and, from that point forward, anyone who ever mocked female athletes got an earful from a guy who has been a rabid sports fan since the mid-1960s but who had never been much of a women’s sports fan. Oh, I already loved the summer and winter Olympics every four years and simply had to respect the female tennis stars (Billie Jean King, Chrissie Evert and Martina Navratilova, to name a few) I got to see up close and personal every year at the U.S. Open in my native New York, but women’s soccer?
Well, considering that the U.S. women’s 5-2 win over defending champ Japan in the 2015 World Cup Final was the most-watched soccer game ever — men’s or women’s —in the U.S., the hope here is that women’s soccer will finally find success at the professional level, even though it may never rival the Men’s World Cup or even men’s Premier Leagues around the world. I would love to someday see girls who are playing travel soccer today in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel make it all the way to that level — so their hometown news magazine can give them the credit they deserve.
Say It Ain’t So, NHL Hall!
Although I had seen him at Hunter’s Green Country Club a few times before I first met him at the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon a decade ago, I’m not the kind of guy who thinks someone should get into a sports hall of fame simply because he was a nice guy. Whether baseball, football, golf or ice hockey, I think greatness should be rewarded with enshrinement in a hall.
And, make no mistake about it, former Tampa Bay Lightning Stanley Cup-winning captain (and long-time New Tampa resident) Dave Andreychuk was a great player. How do I know that, when it’s now been seven years Dave’s been eligible for the Hall and he hasn’t yet gotten the call?
Because, from the time Dave scored 38 goals as a 20-year-old rookie in 1982, every time I watched a Buffalo Sabres game and Dave was on the ice, I paid attention…you had to because once this 6’-4” power-play-goal-scoring machine planted himself in front of the opposition’s net, no one seemed to be able to move him out of his spot (reminiscent to me of Bolts founder Phil Esposito)…and good things usually happened.
My understanding is that 18 people decide who gets into the Hockey Hall every year and it takes 14 of 18 votes to make the cut. That means at least five of those people thought that Dave’s all-time NHL record 274 power play goals were simply the result of him playing 23 years and not because of his uncanny ability to endure the mayhem he always received — or the skill it took to redirect so many 100-mph slap shots and poke in so many rebounds.
The fact that there are only three men who scored more than 600 NHL goals in their careers who aren’t in the Hall — and two of them aren’t eligible yet — indicates to me that at least a few former hockey greats aren’t giving our Cup-winning captain his just due. And that’s a true travesty.
Congrats To A Local Kid
Blood lines are one thing, and talent is another, but young golfer (and long-time Tampa Palms resident) Jimmy Jones, Jr. (photo), has both going for him.
Jones, Freedom High’s “Athlete of the Year” in 2014, is the son of Jimmy and Dawn Jones, who are well known fixtures on the links at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club. Dawn also is a former Ladies Professional Golf Assn. (LPGA) touring pro who won three LPGA tournaments and more than $3 million during her 24-year pro career. Her career highlights were a third-place finish in the Women’s PGA Championship in 1990 and fifth place at the U.S. Women’s Open in 1992.
But, Jimmy Jr. isn’t banking on mom’s laurels. After recording a 73.00 scoring average in 33 rounds and 11 events during his first collegiate season, including five Top-10 (with three Top-5) finishes and 13 rounds of par or better on the season (including a low round of 68), the Florida Southern College (in Lakeland) freshman was named a PING Division II Honorable Mention All-American last month. And, Jones followed up that honor by winning the Florida State Golf Assn. Amateur Golf Championship in Ocala (by one stroke) on June 28.
Keep up the great work, Jimmy!
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