SPORTS

BRADENTON − Being a varsity head basketball coach was not on Shed Cooper’s “radar.”. Three years ago, after coaching on the PAL and AAU scene, Terrence Houston reached out to Cooper to serve as a volunteer for the Southeast High junior varsity boys basketball team. “I looked...

The Lakewood Ranch area is great place for a sports fan. Premier Sports Campus hosts all sorts of soccer events, and even the occasional special event like the Ultimate Long Drive Championships. Nathan Benderson Park holds the best events that rowing and dragon boat have to offer, plus things like triathlons. UMR Sports has state-of-the-art beach volleyball and pickleball courts. There are plenty of great places to hold baseball and softball tournaments, like Lakewood Ranch Park. There are two race tracks.

An Auburn teenager is in Sarasota, Florida, this week competing with Capital Crew in the USRowing Youth National Championships. Megan Sands, 16, is on Capital Crew's competitive rowing program that qualified five boats for the championships, which began Tuesday and run through June 11. Sands is one of 34 elite student-athletes plus one alternate competing.

The Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte High School Sports Awards Show returned as a live show again Wednesday night as it presented 31 total awards to athletes and coaches in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune coverage area. Award nominees, family and friends, filled the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center in Sarasota. Player of the Year winners were...

In the Lakewood Ranch Manatees' first two games in the National Ball Hockey League, the team suffered back-to-back losses, a 7-0 defeat to the Tampa Bay Thunder and an 8-1 loss to the Orlando Mutiny. The Manatees, made up of players from the Manatee Ball Hockey League, which hosts games...

They are headed to opposite ends of the country.

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Space Coast Crew will be sending 27 athletes in four boats to the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida. The Youth Nationals Championships are held over four days from June 8 through June 11, with around 3,000 athletes from...

The Manatee County Tourist Development Council recommended the county commission contribute $5 million over three years for the project.

BRADENTON, Fla. – The Manatee High School (Bradenton, Fla.) football program has a lot of fantastic player developments in the works. On both sides of the ball, the Hurricanes’ coaching staff are preparing their players for next level success. One of the players college scouts are watching is 2025 receiver Ramsey Cole.

BRADENTON, Fla. – During the 2022 season, Andrew Heidel split snaps in Manatee High School’s pocket but the upcoming schedule is set to be his to fully guide. The 2025 prospect (6-2, 195) showed flashes of big things to come with his arm strength and dual threat abilities. Scouts are keying in on Heidel ready to see a full season of action-packed plays. Ahead of taking Manatee into the playoffs, offensive coordinators and quarterback coaches will get to see Heidel on a busy collegiate camp circuit.

BRADENTON, Fla. – The stat sheet says it all, Daron Jean gets after it on Friday nights. The Class of 2024 corner took on Florida competition with Manatee High School (Bradenton) last fall stopping 20 plays with four picks and 12 passes broken up. College coaches are now learning what Jean (5-10, 165) can do on the field with his first four offers dropped in late spring.

The PBRT Florida Open wrapped up Monday, June 5 at IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL. The event features a 15U and 17U division, with USA Prime Scout 2026 winning the 15U division and Florida Panthers winning 17U. Today, we will highlight a few standout players from yesterday's action with notes and video.

BRADENTON, Fla. – There is no beating speed on the gridiron. Out of Bradenton’s (Fla.) Manatee High School, Bonshavior Bean Jr. has all sorts of speed. The 2024 prospect was part of a 4×1 relay team that placed third in state and Bean posted one of the track season’s top times in the 400. All of this transpired after Bean led the Hurricanes in receiving yards last fall.

Big ups to Parrish Community High’s softball state champions!. Led by head coach Erin Spivey, the Class 5A champion Bulls are Alex Call, Grace Crestani, Karsyn France, Julia Girk, Lily Grimes, Carsyn Kull, Jade Kruse, Hannah Lewis, Rylee Little, Sophia Mandarine, Allie Messina, Ella Romano, Brooke Strickland, Ella Torres, Isabella Vega, Lindsey Watson, Grace Woodring and Bella Yazzetti.

Dean Matt of Sarasota, Fla. has a passion for pickleball. The former Chicago-area resident has been a regular player for more than a year and has met a bunch of people in the process. “I play three to four times a week at a local park,” Matt said. An...

Here's what to know about the 2023 Sarasota, Manatee, and Charlotte Area High School Sports Awards. The show is produced with the support of Sarasota Ford and Lakewood Ranch. WHEN: Wednesday, June 7. Doors open at 6 p.m. with the show beginning at 7 p.m. ...

Class of 2025 running back prospect Anthony Rogers committed to Alabama on Friday. The four-star running back, an Alabama native,

Moorestown Rowing Club (MRC) has received bids for three 8-boats to compete in U.S. Rowing Youth Nationals in Sarasota, Florida from June 7-11. Moorestown Rowing Club took the national rowing community by surprise last year as the smallest and only high school club to place in the nation’s top 12 crews. This year, the club will send 27 athletes to Sarasota, Florida to compete for top seeds. Moorestown will compete in U16 Men’s Youth 1V 8’s, in U16 Women’s Youth 1V 8’s and in U19 Women’s Youth 1V 8’s.

SARASOTA — In Kalamazoo, Michigan, he swapped hits with a 97-year-old woman. At the University Park Country Club, the last stop on his top-of-the-bucket-list adventure, his opponent was 93-year-old Vince Golden. He played a teenager in Mobile, Alabama; Special Olympic athletes in Jonesboro, Arkansas; low-income, inner-city kids in Memphis, Tennessee; and even the...

A month ago, Notre Dame received its first 2024 recruiting class commit in shooting guard Cole Certa. He was recruited out of Bloomington Central Catholic in Illinois. But he has decided that that school is no longer sufficient to continue his athletic growth. He has announced that his final year before joining the Irish will be sent at IMG Academy, the famous sports prep school in Bradenton, Florida: