Manatee Y Tech High graduates its first class

Keynote speaker Nick Bollettieri congratulates a Manatee Y Tech grad.

Manatee Y Technological High School celebrated its inaugural graduation at the South Florida Museum and the graduates are Kelvin Arrington, Hildus Dawes, Keith Dean, Tron Edmond, Sandra Garcia, Laquinton Hart, Carneshia McCants, William Myers, Dannika Oliver, Crystal Palacios, Marquis Trice, Ashley Watson and Davon Whitfield.
Kiwanis Club of Bradenton also gave the Manatee County YMCA $10,000 for the 59th Street West YMCA SPLASH program.

•  Deacon Jones passing Tuesday touched a lot of people, including Pat Curran, my Lakeland College teammate in Sheboygan, Wis., many moons ago.
Pat played 10 years in the NFL and was a Los Angeles Ram rookie in 1969 when he got a personal introduction to the legendary defensive end in training camp.
“The first time in practice I’m playing tight end and the play was an off-tackle run,” said Pat, now a Snap On Tools exec in Escondido, Calif. “My job, down block the D-end. It was Deacon. The ball got snapped and
all I blocked was air. I asked Deacon, ‘How did you know I was going to block you?’ He answered, ‘You look at me before the snap, Rookie.’
“I never looked at him again, but still had trouble trying to block him.”
That went for half the NFL during Deacon’s 14-year Hall of Fame career.

• Circuit Judge Diana Moreland was the commencement speaker at the Jane B. Pratt Alternative School Just for Girls on Wednesday.

Read more Friday in Vin's People on Bradenton.com.