ALAN DELL COMMENTARY: Hadley can wait for any awards; Did Palmetto's Tre Clark get snubbed?
The honors are starting to pour in for Tina Hadley, but no one could blame her for wanting to put everything on hold.
The Lakewood Ranch girls basketball head coach was selected as the Florida Athletic Coaches Association Coach of the Year for District 16, which encompasses all the schools in Manatee and Sarasota counties.
Nice, deserving honor, but Hadley will not be slapping herself on the back anytime soon. There is the Mustangs' region final Friday night with a trip to the State Final Four at stake.
She comes off the John Harder tree, having played for him at Southeast. Harder was not selected the 5A Coach of The Year. That honor went to Hollie Nelson of Booker.
She did a nice job and should be commended in what is a tough call.
Unfortunately, this was one of Harder's best coaching jobs in his storied coaching career. He took a team that did not have one big player and brought it to the cusp of the region final, missing by one point.
As expected Lakewood Ranch's LaDazhia Williams was the Class 7A District 16 Player of The Year and Southeast senior Breyonna Reed earned the 5A honor.
Both are deserving, but drawing a lot of raves from coaches is Southeast's Shauntavia Green, who was simply magnificent in so many ways, particularly with her defense and clutch play down the stretch of most games.
The boys District 16 players of the year from Manatee County were Damien Gordon (Lakewood Ranch, 7A), Ron Taylor (Southeast, 5A), Jacoby Westberry (Saint Stephens, 3A) and Ryan Leunk (Bradenton Christian, 2A).
The biggest mystery is
why Palmetto High's Tre Clark was slighted in 7A.
The county's most heavily recruited public school player, Clark had coaches from Louisville and Bowling Green watch him, and he has been offered by Division I Navy, Rider, Youngstown State and South Alabama. The 6-4 Clark is averaging 24.6 points per game to lead Manatee County.
Gordon is an up-and-coming player and one of the best underclassman in the area who has the potential to be an upper level Division I player. Next season he could vie for top honors in the area.
Clark is a senior who carried Palmetto on his back often fighting off double teams and defenses focused on stopping him. No one in the area had a tougher job while leading his team's offense, and he is the area's top college prospect.
The only Manatee County representatives at the selection meeting were from Lakewood Ranch, Southeast and Bradenton Christian; maybe therein lies the answer.
District 16 coaches of year include Jeremy Schiller (Lakewood Ranch, 7A), Floyd Watkins (Southeast, 5A), Stefan Gates (Cardinal Mooney, 4A), Marcus Liberty (Out-of-Door Academy, 3A) and Scott Townsend (Bradenton Christian, 2A).
There has to be a better way to do this.
An interesting candidate for the head football job at Southeast and Bayshore is John Davis III, son of the former highly successful coach at Clearwater Countryside and Clearwater Central Catholic, John Davis Jr..
The younger Davis played quarterback at N.C. State, coached there for a year and went to Grambling as the quarterbacks coach. For the last seven years he has been offensive coordinator at Truman State University, a Division II school in Missouri. His dad said his son wants to get out of recruiting and go back to high school.
Southeast is a little different than most of the available high school football jobs because it is a program that is not far away from being successful. The majority of the others are struggling programs that will take time and resiliency to fix.
The Seminoles need to find someone who will stay for the long haul. The new Bayshore coach should be someone who is not afraid of challenges, and it wouldn't hurt if he is familiar with the culture at the school, though that is not a necessity.
Alan Dell, Herald sports columnist/writer, can be reached at 941-745-7056. Follow him on Twitter @ADellSports
This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "ALAN DELL COMMENTARY: Hadley can wait for any awards; Did Palmetto's Tre Clark get snubbed?."