What To Watch For This Week In Florida Sports (March 3-9)

WATCH FOR the second of four PGA Tour stops in Florida during the month of March.  The WGC-Cadillac Championship begins Thursday at the TPC Blue Monster at Trump National Doral. Doral’s signature course has undergone a $200 million upgrade to improve the layout that had shown signs of age. The course gets its Blue Monster name from its famed 18th hole, where water along the entire left side torments golfers on both the tee and the approach shot. Despite equipment advances, No.18 still ranked as last year’s sixth-toughest hole outside the majors.

Tiger Woods is scheduled to defend his title, but his status is currently unknown after he withdrew from last week’s Honda Classic, citing back spasms. The WGC-Cadillac Championship boasts the strongest field yet of 2014, a lineup that includes the entire top 50 in the world rankings and top money-winners from various world tours. Barring any late withdrawals, this will mark the first time everyone in the world’s top 50 has teed up at the same event since the 2012 PGA Championship.

The First Tee is the primary beneficiary of World Golf Championships events. Other recipients include the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Southern Florida, Miami Children’s Hospital and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County.

The Valspar Championship follows at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, March 13-16 and the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard rounds out the month, March 20-23, at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge, in Orlando.

WATCH FOR the University of Florida Gators to play as the Number One college basketball team in the nation for the second week in a row.

The Gators (27-2, 16-0) received one less first-place vote than last week in the Associated Press poll but still had a commanding 46-14 lead over unbeaten Wichita State (31-0).

While Wichita State has completed its regular season, the Gators have two games left. They go on the road Tuesday against South Carolina (11-18, 4-12) at the Colonial Life Arena, with a five-game winning streak over the Gamecocks.

Florida, currently riding a 21-game win streak, then closes the regular season at home at noon Saturday against the Kentucky Wildcats. It will be the final home game for seniors Patric Young, Scottie Wilbekin, Casey Prather and Will Yeugete.

WATCH FOR the Tampa Bay Bucs new look in 2014, from the coaches on the sidelines to the uniform the players will be wearing.

Teaming up with Nike, the Bucs unveiled their new unis Monday, one that links the past of the franchise to the bold new future. It is the team’s first redesign since 1997.

The uniform will have a richer pewter and a brighter Buccaneer Red. It will also have the orange trim (remember the Cremesicles) on the pants and jersey. The Bucs become the first franchise to have a reflective chrome border around the numbers on the front, back and shoulders.

The white jerseys will have pewter sleeves and shoulders with red numbers, while the red jerseys will have pewter sleeves and shoulders and white numbers on the body and red numbers on the shoulders.

The pirate ship will be on the right shoulder of the uniforms, while BUCS will be on the left. The team’s flag will be on the the right and left hips of the pants.

The new jerseys will go on sale April 1 at Buccaneers.com, Nike.com and NFLShop.com.

WATCH FOR more Sunshine State Games event information to be released as Florida’s only Olympic Style Sports Festival celebrates its 35th year of amateur sports in 2014.  Competition information and online registration for the Sunshine State Games Figure Skating Championships and the Polk County Festival is currently posted.

Other Sunshine State Games events information will be posted soon. Be a part of a Florida tradition that is now in its fourth decade of competition.

WATCH FOR even more stories in the news about the wonderful month of March featuring spring training baseball in Florida. For 29 glorious days during the month of March stories like this one, “Traditions and spring training baseball go hand in hand.”

Follow the 2014 Florida Grapefruit League season at www.floridagrapefruitleague.com and on Twitter @FlaSpringTrain.  The Florida Sports Foundation is also offering a new Mobile App for Apple and Android Smartphones.  Links to download the app can be found at the Florida Grapefruit League webiste.  It features schedules, stadium information and fans will receive notifications during the season about daily gameday promotions and weather updates if necessary during the 33 days of Florida Spring Training.

The Weekly “What to Watch For in Florida Sports,” is compiled by the Florida Sports Foundation, the state’s lead sports promotion and development organization. Follow the Florida Sports Foundation on Facebook and on Twitter #fla_sports. Visit www.flasports.com for more information about the Florida Sports Foundation and the vibrant sports industry in the Sunshine State. Florida is Where The World Comes to Play.

What To Watch For This Week In Florida Sports (March 11-17)

Spring Training Baseball in March and Florida are a Perfect Pair

Today, March 12, marks approximately the midway point in the 2013 Florida Spring Training season.  The 36 days of Grapefruit League Baseball began with a full slate of games on Saturday, February 23 and concludes on Saturday, March 30.  Today being  day number 18.

A few things that have happened so far in the 14 Florida locations include….

A total of 128 games have been played with only one game rained out.  It came on Tuesday, February 26 in Bradenton. Through games of March 12 at total of 732,755 fans attended the 123 games played for an average of just under 6,000 fans per game.

The crowd of 11,022 to watch the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, March 9 in Clearwater was a Bright House Field record.

The Tampa Bay Rays lead the Grapefruit League with 11 wins, as of Tuesday, March 12.  The Baltimore Orioles have a 10-4 record for the best winning percentage in the Grapefruit League.

The renovated McKechnie Field in Bradenton has been met with rave reviews.  “You’re in for a pleasant surprise after you pass through the main gate at our grand ol’ ballyard on Ninth Street West. The venerable 90-year-old ballpark is fresh off its most audacious overhaul yet, a $10 million renovation that includes 2,000 more seats, a fan plaza, larger restrooms, new concession stands and a host of other amenities.”

Florida Governor Rick Scott participated in the 16th “Let’s Get to Work Day” at Joker Marchant Stadium, Wednesday, February 27, and announced that he will work to provide $5 million annually to be used only for spring training facilities. During the workday, the Governor participated in daily operations for the Detroit Tigers Baseball team, including working at the concession stands, managing equipment and working with the grounds crew.

While current law provides some ability for local governments to incentivize spring training baseball, there is no predictability or a regular funding stream for spring training in Florida. That means if teams need renovations to their facilities, they must begin at square-one to secure funding and planning from the state and from local governments. Currently, 15 teams use Florida facilities for spring training, three teams’ leases come up for renewal in 2016, and two come up for renewal in 2017.

Under the initiative, local governments will be required to match at least 50 percent of project costs. State contributions for each project would be capped at $20 million and the Department of Economic Opportunity would review and approve the match to ensure it provides a return on investment for taxpayers.

Florida Basketball teams look to “The Big Dance”
The ninth-ranked Miami Hurricanes, who finished the regular season 24-6, won the Atlantic Coast Conference Regular Season Championship and enter the ACC tournament this weekend, as the top seed with a first round bye.

The Hurricanes are scheduled to play Friday at noon against the winner of Thursday’s matchup between No. 9 Georgia Tech and No. 8 Boston College.

The 11th-ranked University of Florida Gators, the 2012-13 SEC regular season champions, heads into postseason play as the top seed of the SEC Tournament.  Florida has a bye until the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. The team will take on either Georgia or LSU on Friday, March 15 in Nashville, Tenn.

Miami coach Jim Larranaga and Florida coach Billy Donovan each earned Conference Coach of the Year honors for their 2012-13 efforts.

The Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles were the first team in this year’s NCAA Tournament field of 68 to clinch a berth thanks to a conference automatic bid.  The Eagles defeated top-seeded Mercer 88-75 in the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship Game in Macon, Georgia.

The NCAA Men’s Tournament selection will be announced on Sunday, March 17 with the Women’s Tournament announced on Monday, March 18.

In anticipation of their tournament seed and destination, the 25th -ranked Florida State Seminoles women’s basketball team will host an NCAA Selection Show party at the President’s Box inside Doak Campbell Stadium. The doors will open to all fans at 6:30 p.m.

And if all of that college basketball news wasn’t enough… How about the Miami Heat? They’ve won 18 straight games, are sitting atop the league standings and have a very real chance of wrapping up the No. 1 seed in the East playoffs by the end of the month. They go for win number 19 tonight at home against the Atlanta Hawks and then travel to play the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night.

Indian River State College Swim Team Extends Championship Streak

Indian River State College’s men’s swim team, from Fort Pierce, didn’t simply claim its 39th consecutive national championship; it did so in perfect fashion.

The men won all six races in the NJCAA Swimming and Diving Championships capping a meet in which they won all 18 races. IRSC scored 1,832 points, while runner-up Daytona State College had 1,319.

“That was one for the books,” said IRSC coach Ryan Mallam, who just wrapped up his fourth year. “That’s a really hard thing to do because the level of competition has really been going up over the last few years.”

IRSC’s women were crowned as national champions for the 31st consecutive time and 35th overall. The women, which won four races Saturday, finished the championships with 1,648 points; second-place Daytona State had 951. The men’s streak is the longest in the nation at any collegiate level.

Could the Next U.S. Open Tennis Champion be from Florida?

If you’ve ever dreamed of playing in one of tennis’ Grand Slams, then the road to the 2013 US Open starts for Florida players in Tallahassee this May.

Entries will open on March 15 for the 2013 US Open National Playoffs, with the Florida event to be held on the campus of Florida State University in Tallahassee, starting on Saturday, May 25, through May 28.

The US Open remains the only of the four Grand Slams to open its qualifying to all players age 14 or over in men’s singles, women’s singles, and mixed doubles. The Florida winners in all three categories will advance to the national tournament featuring the USTA section winners.

The US Open National Playoffs men’s and women’s national singles champions earn a wildcard into the US Open Qualifying Tournament, held the week prior to the US Open. The US Open National Playoffs mixed doubles champions receive a wildcard into the main draw of the 2013 US Open Mixed Doubles.

“Anyone who dreams of playing in the US Open — top junior players, collegians, teaching professionals, ‘weekend warriors,’ or recreational players — can make that dream a reality through the US Open National Playoffs,” said Dave Haggerty, USTA chairman, CEO, and president.

Registration and additional information can be found at www.USOpen.org/NationalPlayoffs. More than 1,200 players competed in the 2012 US Open National Playoffs, ranging from experienced professionals who were once ranked in the Top 50, to upcoming junior players, to current and former college standouts, to recreational players of all playing abilities and walks of life. Participants included those competing for charities as well as pastors, musicians, lawyers, reporters and stay-at-home mothers. Former notable participants include Olympic skier Bode Miller and ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, who teamed with six-time US Open champion Chris Evert in mixed doubles.

Two Florida PGA Tour Stops in the books with three remaining

So far this month the PGA Tour has stopped at the PGA National Championship Course in Palm Beach Gardens and the Blue Monster at Doral, in Miami.  Stop number three of the month is coming up this weekend at Innisbruck Resort in Palm Harbor. 

Future stops include the Bay Hill Club and Lodge and the Isleworth Golf & Country Club in the Orlando area.

Tiger Woods won the World Golf Championship last week in Miami and is the defending champion at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge which begins on March 21.  If the defending champion and seven-time Bay Hill Champion were to add one more victory, he would tie Sam Snead with the most wins in a PGA TOUR event. Snead won the Greensboro tournament, now called the Wyndham Championship, eight times from1938 to 1965.

Last year’s Bay Hill win marked Woods’s 72nd PGA TOUR title, and he has since added three more as he moved past Jack Nicklaus into second place on the all-time victory list behind only Snead’s 82 wins. Only two players have ever successfully defended a title in the previous 34 years at Bay Hill. Loren Roberts won back-to-back in 1994- 95, while Woods won four in a row from 2000-03 and pulled off consecutive wins in 2008-09.

The State of Florida has seen the world’s best golfers in action the first weeks of March and has three more weekends to see the PGA Tour at its finest.

March 14 – 17 – Tampa Bay Championship Innisbrook Resort
Copperhead, Palm Harbor
Purse: $5,500,000 – 2012 Champion, Luke Donald

March 21 – 24 – Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard
Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando
Purse: $6,200,000 – 2012 Champion, Tiger Woods

Mar 25 – 26 – Tavistock Cup
Isleworth Golf & Country Club, Windermere
Purse: $2,170,000 – 2012 Champion, Ben Curtis

The Weekly “What to Watch For in Florida Sports,” is compiled by Florida Sports Foundation Director of Communications, Nick Gandy. Follow the Florida Sports Foundation on Facebook and on Twitter #fla_sports. Visit http://www.flasports.com for more information about the Florida Sports Foundation and the vibrant sports industry in the Sunshine State. Florida is Where The World Comes to Play.