Key West High School’s girls soccer team begins District 16-4A tournament play on Thursday, Jan. 27, and, like everything else this sports year, the state playoffs will be a little different.
For starters, teams aren’t required to play each other during the regular season. So, Miami Sunset, one of five teams in the district, won’t have played Key West (or vice versa). “Some teams don’t like to come down here,” Lady Conch coach Justin Martin said when we talked soccer a few days ago. “If we go up there, we expect to get a return trip and so do they when they come here.”
Key West also won’t have played MAST Academy because the game had to be canceled. Key West tied St. Brendan and lost to Gulliver Prep. Miami Sunset, actually, wasn’t scheduled to face any of its district mates in the regular season.
The Lady Conchs started late and slowly, with no practice games, Martin pointed out, and had 5 wins, 7 losses and 2 ties earlier this week. “We had growing pains in November, then we got going,” he said.
Martin told me that senior forward Addison Sessoms had been the main scorer with eight goals, while senior Carissa Haughey (pronounced Hoy) and sophomore Kathryn Smith each had four goals with only one of the three forwards on the field at one time. Junior Nicky Tomita, playing wing, had four assists.
In goal, sophomore Teagan Lavin had 59 saves and 5.5 saves per game, while senior Kayla Kirkpatrick, who lost some playing time to illness, stopped 25 shots on goal for a 3.5 average. Martin said he tried to play each of the goalies a half of each game.
As the teams head into the tournament, Max Preps lists St. Brendan with 9 wins, 3 losses and a tie with Key West, and is ranked 11th in the state 4A; MAST Academy at 6-3-1 and 13th; Gulliver Prep 6-9-2 (including a 4-1 victory over Key West) and 20th; Key West 25th and Miami Sunset 2-6-1 (2-0 and 5-0 victories coming over South Miami and the tie against winless Norland) and 71st.
The boys tournament is Jan. 26-Feb. 2.
The Key West girls weightlifting team begins its district play Friday, Jan. 21.
IN HIS OTHER ROLE as Key West’s athletic director, Martin said he has possibly lined up a cross country coach for next fall so Dave Perkins, who filled in this past season, can focus on being an assistant principal and head track coach.
Martin also is looking for a JV volleyball coach to replace Jill Burnham, who has said she won’t be returning.
CLEARLY, NFL TEAMS, particularly the Dallas Cowboys’ offense, need to learn time management. Coach Mike McCarthy had some explaining to do after the Cowboys ran out of time in their 23-17 Wild Card loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
The Cowboys, favored by 3 points and playing at home, were rallying from a 23-7 deficit to begin the fourth quarter. They had scored 10 points in the quarter and had the ball on their own 20-yard line with 32 seconds left. Out of timeouts, Dallas methodically moved the ball to the 49ers’ 41. With 14 seconds left, McCarthy and his offensive coordinator chose to have quarterback Dak Prescott run the ball, which he did to the San Francisco 21.
Quickly, the Cowboys tried to line up and get the ball to the official for placement, which is required. They fumbled the handoff to the official, but completed the deed. However, as Prescott tried to ground the ball, which would have stopped the clock, the game ended and the Dallas coaches were caught with egg on their faces. Owner Jerry Jones had said the only acceptable result was a Super Bowl championship. Instead the 49ers move on to play at Green Bay Sunday night. The Cowboys go home and McCarthy finds his employment in jeopardy.
