Florida Sentinel Bulletin

BY LEON B. CREWS
Sentinel Staff Writer

On April 23, 2011, the Young Lions Youth Organization and the Police Athletic League will host their 8th annual Basketball and Life Skills Camp.

The camp will be held at the Bob Martinez Sports Center on North Boulevard. Dexter Bryant, Sr., along with George Kimble, will be camp directors.

This year’s camp will have some of the county’s best coaches in Adrian Johnson (head basketball coach at Tampa Bay Vo-Tech), Andre Lewis (head boys coach at Strawberry Crest), Curtis Folsom (Middleton Girl’s basketball coach), Coach Debbie Wilburn of Girls In Motion, and the Young Lions coaching staff, headed by Zethro Monts and Nathalee Monts.

“This year, for the first time we will have camp honorees,” said Bryant.

“Our honorees will be Zethro Months, Nathalee Months, and Henry Boone. The Monts have been serving the kids of Young Lions for over 13 years. They have given so much of their time to the Young Lions and we want everyone to know how much they mean to this organization.”

Also, Henry Boone will be present. Boone is at Florida A&M University, but comes back to help at the camp every year.

Abe Brown Ministries will be there to do the life skills, and Bryant said they are looking for a great time at this year’s camp.

The camp is free to ages 5 to 18 years old.

To reach Dexter Bryant, call (813) 368-9640.

BY IRIS B. HOLTON
Sentinel City Editor

When Reginald Burke, Sr. (pictured, right), moved to Tampa, he took stock of his new surroundings. And, one of the first things he discovered was, that there was not much attention focused on young African American students wishing to play basketball.

“I was shocked. The kids are not getting the looks they should from scouts and we have some very talented kids in Hillsborough County. I noticed there were no gyms in certain areas where the kids could practice and many of the parents can’t afford to pay recreation fees. I felt there were a lot of things that could be changed,” Burke said.

He met Armwood High School Coach Benjamin Bromley (pictured, left), and the two set about creating an atmosphere to encourage youngsters interested in the sport.

That was the beginning of the Bay Area Hurricanes. Formed in 2006, Bromley is the Head Coach and Burke is an Assistant Coach. The goal of the organization is to produce student athletes to play on a college level.

“We are very concerned why this county is looked over for its basketball talent. We currently have 6 All-County or All-Conference players that have also produced in the classroom. These students are from various high schools and have no other help besides the AAU Coaches and a few high school coaches to help get them to college on scholarships,” Bromley said.

Burke, who has prior experience with the AAU for the D. C. Ballers team, is a native of Buffalo, New York. He said that while they have found some sponsors in the community, (such as the owner of Beef O’Brady’s in Seffner) the organization is largely non-funded. They hold  fundraisers to help supply the needs of the team.

The Bay Area Hurricanes are currently working with high school boys, ages 14-17. They are currently working on a 13-year-old and under group, as well as an 11-year-old and under group.

Burke stated that they hope to have a girls’ league in the future, but it’s difficult to find girl leagues.

“I’m not focused on basketball. I’m focused on life experience. I want them to enjoy college, get a degree, and then if everything falls into place that’s great.”

The Bay Area Hurricanes currently have 6 seniors who are eligible for college. Those seniors are: Chris Smith, Matt Dennis, Ryan Bethony, Jamal Evans, Zak Bradley, and Reggie Burke, Jr.

Last week, Reggie Burke, Jr., became the first Strawberry Crest High School basketball player to sign a national letter of intent with the College of Coastal Georgia, in Brunswick, Georgia.

BY LEON B. CREWS
Sentinel Staff Writer

Emin Perry grew up in Tampa, and was a pretty good football player at King High school. As a matter of fact, he was so good, he got a chance to take his game to college, attending Virginia Union University and later Concord University in West Virginia.

But, it wouldn’t be football that would define Perry’s future. It would be martial arts and boxing. Perry said he’s always loved the way boxers moved in the ring.

“I really loved watching Muhammad Ali, because he was so graceful the way he moved. That’s when I thought about getting into boxing, but I didn’t like the idea of being hit, so I took a step back for a minute. I started training in Mu Thai and that got me in shape for boxing.”

Last year at the age of 26, Perry decided to get more serious about boxing. The father of two started doing a lot of running, lifting, and other conditioning exercises.

Perry signed up with USA Boxing, and had five amateur fights, winning them all, and scoring one knockout.

Perry entered the state Golden Gloves Tournament in the heavyweight division, and won three fights in three days to become the Florida Super-Heavyweight Golden Gloves Champion. The tournament was held in Port Charlotte.

Perry, now 27, said he’s anticipating turning pro in boxing and Mu Thai.

“I wish I had the experience to get into the Olympics. I’d love to represent my country, but I just haven’t had enough fights as an amateur.”

Perry has a Mu Thai fight scheduled for May 28th and says after that, he’ll get his corner-man, Ricky Tomlinson, and the rest of his people to decide when to turn professional.

It seems like the apple doesn’t fall far from the Woods’ family tree.

Cheyenne Woods, the niece of golf superstar Tiger Woods, won the ACC women’s individual title on Sunday.

Following her win, the 20-year-old junior at Wake Forest University said, “Today, I really felt confident all day and knew I could hit the shots that I wanted to.”

“My niece, Cheyenne, just won the ACC golf title by 7 shots! That’s awesome, I’m so proud of her,” Tiger Woods tweeted to congratulate his niece.

Cheyenne Woods is the daughter of Tiger Woods’ half-brother, Earl Woods Jr.

If anyone has the right to offer advice to troubled celebrities like Chris Brown and Charlie Sheen, NFL player Michael Vick does.

In a recent interview, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback discussed a range of topics from rebuilding his public image to the struggles he faced after serving 18-months in prison on dogfighting and conspiracy charges.

As words of encourage for R&B singer Chris Brown, Vick said, “Just put your faith in God. Don’t worry about what people say about you.”

“Words will never hurt you. The things that people can say out of their mouth can cut you deep. And sometimes a tongue can be sharper than a knife. But at the same time, you should never allow that to push you over the edge. You should have more self-control. You control your own destiny. You’re still admired by so many people.”

In 2010, Vick earned Pro Bowl honors and was named the Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year.

BOSTON — Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai won the Boston Marathon in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 2 seconds — the fastest anyone has ever run the 26.2 mile distance.

The previous best of 2:03:59 was by Haile Gebrselassie in Berlin 2008. But because Monday’s race had a strong tailwind on a downhill course, Mutai’s run is not recognized by track’s international governing body as a record.

But Mutai was almost three minutes better than the course record set just last year by Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot.

Caroline Kilel won the women’s race to complete the Kenyan sweep, outsprinting American Desiree Davila to win by two seconds, in 2:22:36.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will return to “Monday Night Football” this year, against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 4 of the regular season.

The Oct. 3 game at Raymond James Stadium will be televised on ESPN, with former Bucs coach Jon Gruden in the role of analyst for the network’s “MNF” announcing team

The latest embarrassment for the former No. 1 overall pick: JaMarcus Russell’s “life coach” John Lucas told Russell he would no longer work with him and asked Russell to leave Houston.

A man who is getting paid to help Russell, a man who makes a career out of rehabilitating athletes, gave up on the kid.

Russell reportedly worked hard after starting to work with Lucas last Sept-ember, but he quickly lost focus.  He showed up to NFL workouts last November and December out of shape, and his work habits “continued to deteriorate.” Lucas grew tired of trying to get Russell to care.

LOS ANGELES — Lakers forward Lamar Odom won the Sixth Man of the Year Award as the league’s top reserve Tuesday.

“This has been a long time coming,” said the 31-year-old Odom. “I just kept at it.

“At the end of the day, I’m blessed. Some people call it luck, I call it blessed.”

Odom averaged 14.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and three assists per game while shooting 53 percent from the field, the highest shooting mark of his 12-year career