Sports
Shorecrest Prep's Boys Basketball Team Delays Razing of Crisp Gym by Winning District
Monday, Crisp Gym at Shorecrest Prep was to be torn down to make room for a state-of-the-art athletic center. Instead, the gym will have to remain open for the time being as the Chargers basketball team stuns the school with a district crown.
ST. PETERSBURG - Construction of the new gymnasium complex at Shorecrest Prep is going to have to wait a few days. But no one at the school is complaining.
School officials are in the process of replacing Crisp Gym with a new facility. The old gym was to be cleaned out. Prep work for the new site was to have begun Monday.
But the Chargers' boys basketball program got in the way. More to the point, their sudden, unexpected success.
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Shorecrest beat Admiral Farragut, 52-51, to win the Class A District 11 crown. It marks the first time in school history the boys basketball team has won district titles in consecutive years.
Trying to nurse the clock to take a final, winning shot, Admiral Farragut's plans blew up when their final shot was missed. Luke Nunnelly grabbed the rebound for Shorecrest and was fouled with 0.5 seconds left.
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He sank his first free throw to give the Chargers the district title.
Before the season, Shorecrest basketball coach Daryl Blume made no secret of the first goal of the Chargers' basketball team: Win another district title.
By the end of 2010, injuries began mounting. Then some players were lost for a period of time for discipline issues.
Just a few short weeks ago, when Blume was asked how his team was doing, he'd sigh and shake his head a little.
"It wasn't that we lost hope," Blume said. "It was just that the team wasn't playing as well as the coaches knew it could. The boys weren't playing together as a team."
They are now.
After surviving a crazy game in which their final regular season game ended in a win with just three players on the court (the ranks were thinned due to the aforementioned reasons, as well as a few players fouling out) Shorecrest seems to be playing in overdrive.
"We finally got the players to play as a team, just at the right time," Blume said. "The team finally came together. Hopefully we can keep it going."
Long enough to delay the demolition of Crisp Gym by two weeks, Blume hopes.
