Sugar 'Canes regain stride at nationals

The Manatee High School Sugar ‘Canes shined on Super Bowl Sunday.
Director Vicky Duquette’s dance team took ninth in the Universal Dance Association national high kick finals at Disney’s Wide World of Sports.
There were 36 teams in the prelims and 16 made the cut.
Led by captain Lauren Bellant, co-captain Breslyn Reiber, lieutenants Margarida Phelan and Rachel Schmitt and dance officer Emma Galati, the Sugar ‘Canes were Emily Barnes, Cierra Cydrus, Brianna DiTommaso, Darci Elfervig, Alessandra Krause, Elly Kretchman, Katherine Pace, Ellie Potter, Sarah Smith, Jennifer Walstad and Jenny Winchell.

Dairy Queen Grill & Chill, 7155 State Road 70 East, is hosting a "Be My Valentine ‘Blizzard’ Benefit" 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday in hopes of opening a lot of hearts around our community.
The owners are donating all proceeds to the families of Josh Rogers and Brett Wagner to help them defray the cost of the medical expenses incurred after the Lakewood Ranch seniors lost their lives in that tragic Christmas night crash.
For details, call Tracy Hirschauer at 941-751-4600 or Tracey Bodmer at 941-504-8297.

Visit www.conleyssbrfinals.com for bullriding details on the Conley Buick/GMC SSBR Finals at the Manatee County Fairgrounds.
Gates open 5 p.m. tonight and 3 p.m. Saturday.

As if nearly two years of marriage haven’t taught me who calls the shots in our household, my wife, Sherri, was recently promoted at HomeBanc.
Can you say, "Madam vice-president?"


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

School project to spruce up Adams cemetery

If you see a lot of youngsters at the Major Adams Cemetery in Bradenton Saturday morning, take heart.

It's Steve Marshall’s Florida History class from the Manatee School of the Arts.

Starting at 10 a.m., students will start taking steps to clean up and record the historic cemetery.

Students and staff will map locations of grave plots and begin transcribing names and information of the people been buried there.

It's the upshot of a letter MSA student Krissy Pizzo sent Manatee County Commissioner Carol Whitmore, seeking input on the cemetery maintenance plan. Pizzo wanted to know what they could do to help preserve the historic cemetery.

Whitmore sent the letter to the City of Bradenton and got the ball rolling.

With assistance from public works department staffers Gary Kinder and Ricardo Ramos, Jeff Moates of the Florida Public Archaeology Network and Cathy Slusser, deputy director for historical resources for the Manatee County Clerk of Circuit Court’s Office, a cemetery documentation and community service project was formed. Parks and recreation staff will help direct the cleaning of headstones and markers using a cleaning agent designed for use in cemeteries.

It will be only the first of a series of visits to the cemetery to conduct the work necessary to document the several hundred headstones and markers.

New or Dew Cemetery was established in 1883 in what was the outskirts of the town of Manatee for the second generation of Manatee’s pioneer families. In 1892, additional land was purchased from Major Alden Adams resulting in the cemetery’s name change. At one time, Adams was the largest landowner in Manatee County possessing 300,000 acres.

Interested in more information about this worthwhile project?

Go to cathy.slusser@manateeclerk.com. Or jmoates@usf.edu

Football's gone. Bring on baseball

Neighbors probably wondered late Sunday night what was I doing?

If they were still up.

The Super Bowl had been over maybe 15 minutes.

I went outside, sat in my driveway in front of my pickup truck and pulled out a screwdriver.

Off came my Philadelphia Eagles vanity plate.

On went my Phillies vanity plate.

Most of my other NFL stuff -- i.e., T-shirts, jerseys, ballcaps -- were shelved away over the last few weeks since the end of the regular season.

Only the vanity plate stayed.

Until Sunday night.

It's baseball season for me.

Yes, pitchers and catchers don't report officially until Feb. 15, but I'm ready.

Grabbed a Pirates spring training schedule at the recent national anthem auditions.

Cut out the Grapefruit League schedule from the Herald's Sunday sports section.

Got my baseball T-shirt collection all set.

Going to take off a week in March to catch some games.

Yeaaah, I'm ready for baseball.

Bucs fans should treasure Super Bowl win

Ever been to a Super Bowl?
If so, good for you.
Especially if your team played in it and won.
Like Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ fans.
Seems like half of Bradenton flew to San Diego a decade ago when the Bucs stomped the Oakland Raiders, 48-21, in Super Bowl XXVII.
So what if Sports Illustrated ranked it as the worst Super Bowl.
It was a beautiful thing to watch around here.
I can still see R.J. Santarlas jumping for joy around the party room at Beef ‘O’ Brady’s on Manatee Avenue late that epic Sunday night.
And he’s only got one leg!
Worst ever Super Bowl?
Pffft!

Read more Sunday in Mannix About Manatee on Bradenton.com.

A Star-Spangled Banner strikeout

One of the 72 talented folks at the national anthem auditions at McKechnie Field was Kelli Kennedy, a grant administrator for the Manatee County School District.
A gifted singer, she has performed the Star Spangled Banner flawlessly on numerous occasions in various venues.
Aaah, but midway through her rendition last Saturday Kelli suddenly drew a blank, stopped, then resumed singing.
“I will never make fun of anybody ever again for forgetting the words,” she said.

Speaking of McKechnie, don't forget tonight’s Manatee Hurricanes Baseball Steakout & Reunion 5-9 p.m. at the ol' ballpark.
Call head coach Dwayne Strong at 725-2293. Or Bruce Braithwaite at 720-9224.

And remember today’s annual Southeast Beast Feast, 2:30-8 p.m. at the school cafeteria to benefit Seminoles baseball.
Call head coach Dan Durrance at 741-3366, ext. 2217. Or email dadurrance@gmail.com.

Big ups to Deb Krowe, husband Bob, Team Shake Pit and the cast of characters who helped put on Monday night’s boffo celebration of the Manatee Hurricanes 2011 Class 7A state championship Hawkins Stadium’s Joe Kinnan Field.
Among those folks were Big John, Gary Kortzendorf, Pat Mowry, Mike Parrott, Tracey Vita, Mike Burnett and Jeff Hillcrest and groups like Affairs in the Air, Bradenton Fire Department, Gulf Coast Corvette Club, Manatee High’s culinary department, custodians, drum line and student council, Seafood Shack and U.S. Tent.

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

Great journey awaits these young men

One's supposed to be a cinch starter next fall.

Others got the full rides, but will have to compete for playing time.

Then there are the preferred walk-0ns. They face the biggest challenge.

No scholarship. No playing time, at least for awhile.

They'll be scout-teamers, the guys who run the opponent's plays against the varsity every week in practice.

Those are our community's young men, high school football stars, the majority of whom Wednesday got what will probably be their last moment in the spotlight for a long time on national signing day.

That's not a bad thing.

It's what they do out of the spotlight that will help or hinder them on their journey.

Whether that translates into playing time depends on several factors -- i.e., injury, maturation, coaching -- and it will be fascinating to follow over the next few years.

What's more important, though, is these young men complete their education.

A quaint notion, yes, but it's still the objective.

Sure, these kids harbor dreams of playing in the NFL one day.

Odds are that won't ever happen for them.

Getting a degree? Much more realistic.

We wish them luck.

Especially on fall Saturdays.

Big cat makes a scene at Coquina Beach

There's going to be a retirement bash Wednesday night for Jay Moyles, the affable chief of Manatee County Marine Rescue.

The stories? There will be many, collected over a 31-year career.

Like this one.

Jay was in a lifeguard stand at the south end of Coquina Beach when there was screaming.

Not an unusual sound to his ears, which were always attuned to someone in distress.

Except it wasn't one person.

There were lots of people screaming --- and running.

Running right toward Jay's lifeguard stand.

"I get down to see what the heck was going on --- and there's a guy walking a tiger!" he said. "It was a circus guy with bleach blond hair and this tiger was huge."

Keeping a safe distance from the feline, Jay asked the gent what exactly did he think he was doing?

The man said he loved the beach and the water and so did his big cat.

"Can he go for a swim?" the fellow asked.

Uhhhhh, no.

"I told the guy we don't allow dogs on the beach, never mind a tiger."