Basketball and baseball begin

The Anna Maria Island Community Center will launch all of its spring sports this week. A record number of five different sports will be taking place this season.

Youth basketball and baseball will begin this week as well as adult co-ed kickball. Adult co-ed soccer and basketball began the previous weeks for the Center.

The sports action will be jammed packed for children, families and young adult enthusiasts. Games will be played Mondays through Saturdays. For more information, check the Center’s website at IslandCommunityCenter.com or see the schedules every week in the Island Sun.

Adult Co-Ed Basketball Results

Bowes Imaging Center 60
Southern Greens  46
Brandon Kern led the way in scoring with 22 points and 8 rebounds. Matt Ray had a double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds, and Jason Mickan also had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds in the Bowes Imaging Center win. Jordan Demers had a double-double with 25 points and 13 rebounds. Jonathan Moss scored 11 points with 5 rebounds, and Scott Eason chipped in with 7 points and 6 rebounds for the Southern Greens team.

Island Sun newspaper  58
Duncan Real Estate  42
Andrew Terman led the way with 26 points and 4 rebounds. Sean Hubbard had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds, and Eric Gledhill added 10 points and 2 rebounds for the Island Sun victory. Evan Wolf scored 21 points and had 6 rebounds. Philip Slack added 10 points and 7 rebounds, and Todd Keiser chipped in with 7 points and 7 rebounds for the Duncan Real Estate team.

Island Real Estate  42
Gator Man Pools  34
Dylan Bower had a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Teagan Purtill had 12 points and 5 rebounds, and Bobby Daws added 6 points and 7 rebounds in the Island Real Estate win. Aaron Dudukes had 17 points and 6 rebounds. Joe Combs had 8 points and 3 rebounds, and Matt Dwyer had 6 points and 7 rebounds for the Gator Man Pools team.

Adult Basketball Schedule

April 23, Tuesday, 7 p.m., Island Real Estate vs. Bowes Imaging Center
April 23, Tuesday, 8 p.m., Island Sun Newspaper vs. Southern Greens
April 23, Tuesday, 9 p.m., Gator Man Pools vs. Duncan Real Estate

Adult Co-Ed Soccer Results

Sato Real Estate  4
Slim’s Place  0
Josh Petitt scored 2 goals, and Lexi Braxton and Paul Hayward each added 1 goal. Hayward also had an assist and Jason Sato had 8 saves in goal in the Sato Real estate victory. Ryan Moss had 13 saves in goal for the Slim’s Place teams.

Beach to Bay Construction  3
Discount Signs & Wraps  2
Julius Gomes, Brent Moss and Blair Schlossberg each had one goal, and Don Purvis had 16 saves in goal in the Beach to Bay Construction win. Paulo Fonseca and Damir Glavan each scored a goal, and Troy Shonk had 12 saves in goal for the Discount Signs and Wraps team.

1st USA Plumbing  5
Pink & Navy Boutique 2
Rico Beissert scored 3 goals, Matt Kretzman added two goals and Pedro Gonzalez had 8 saves in goal for the 1st USA Plumbing victory. Matt Plummer and Anthony Rasulo each had a goal, and Scott Rudacille had 10 saves in goal for the Pink & Navy Boutique team.

Island Pest Control  4
Wash Family Construction 1
Lindsey Weaver scored 2 goals and Danny Anderson and Sean Sanders each added on goal. Anderson also had an assist and Max Gazzo had 3 saves in goal for the Island Pest Control victory. Scott Hertrick had one goal and Kris Yavalar had 7 saves in goal for the Wash Family Construction team.

Adult Soccer Schedule

April 25, Thursday, 6 p.m., Pink & Navy Boutique vs. Beach to Bay Construction
April 25, Thursday, 7 p.m., Sato Real Estate vs. Discount Signs & Wraps
April 25, Thursday, 8 p.m., 1st USA Plumbing vs. Wash Family Construction
April 25, Thursday, 9 p.m., Island Pest Control vs. Slim’s Place

Adult Co-Ed Kickball Schedule

April 24, Wednesday, 7 p.m., Tyler’s Ice Cream vs. Lobstah’s
April 24, Wednesday, 8 p.m., Agnelli Pools & Spa vs. Tyler’s Ice Cream
April 24, Wednesday, 9 p.m., Agnelli Pools & Spa vs. Beach to Bay Construction

Youth Baseball Schedule

April 26, Friday, 6 p.m., Miller Electric vs. Air & Energy
April 26, Friday, 7:15 p.m., Beach to Bay Construction vs. Paradise Beagles, Café & Catering

Youth Basketball Schedule
8-10 Year Olds

April 24, Wednesday, 6 p.m., Beach Bums vs. Manatee Cancer Center
April 25, Thursday, 6 p.m., Manatee Cancer Center vs. Beach Bistro
April 25, Thursday, 7 p.m., Beach Bums vs. Beach Bistro
April 27, Saturday, 11 a.m., Manatee Cancer Center vs. Beach Bistro

11-13 Year Olds

April 26, Friday, 6 p.m., Ross Built Construction vs. Walter & Associates
April 26, Friday, 7 p.m., Southern Greens vs. Sand Dollar
April 27, Saturday, 12 p.m., Sand Dollar vs. Ross Built Construction
April 27, Saturday, 1 p.m., Walter & Associates vs. Duncan Real Estate
April 29, Monday, 6 p.m., Sand Dollar vs. Duncan Real Estate
April 29, Monday, 7 p.m., Southern Greens vs. Ross Built Construction

14-17 Year Olds:

April 25, Thursday, 8 p.m., Heritage Paper Company vs. The Feast
April 26, Friday, 8 p.m., The Feast vs. Walter & Associates
April 29, Monday, 8 p.m., Eat Here vs. The Feast
April 30, Tuesday, 8 p.m., Eat Here vs. Heritage Paper Company

 

Thoughts on the Boston Marathon

I intended to write this week about how to choose an ideal part of the beach that is easy to run on. After the insanity of the past week, that is a column for another time.

I’ve tried but can't make sense of crazy people blowing up innocent victims at the end of a marathon. A friend who ran the marathon finished before the bombing. I’ve digested many bloggers, coaches and pundits offering their reactions to a week that has put our country on par with places around the world, where, on some days, fear grips our hearts, and life as we knew it is forever changed.

One thing is clear. I have never been so glad to live on the Island. This week has reminded me of everything I don’t like about living in big cities. I grew up in one. I worked many years in several. On book tours the past two years, I have been fortunate to have visited the largest cities in the US and Canada.

Great places to visit, but the events of the past week remind me why I adore it here. To fear going outside your own front door due to a terrorist act is almost incomprehensible. “Shelter in place, stay indoors,” law enforcement repeated as the day-long effort to capture the second Boston Marathon terrorist continued.

Maybe it’s foolish to believe our Island is immune from insanely criminal behavior. Yet it is hard not to feel deliriously safe here. When I was a kid, our home was broken into and vandalized. Not that AMI is immune to crime. But one only has to read the police blotter printed in our papers and you realize how comforting it is that the worst crimes generally are stolen bikes, bounced checks and an occasional rowdy drunk.

So much has been written about the victims of the marathon bombing and related incidents. Maybe it seems trivial to write about how the runners must feel. But I haven’t read anything about how a runner, who worked all his or her life just to qualify to even begin to compete in the Boston Marathon must feel.

Maybe all of the runners just felt glad to finish with their lives. But to have put out all that effort and then to reach the end of the grueling 26.2 miles only to realize they couldn’t finish or that their time wouldn’t really count is devastating. I’ve seen runners go nearly berserk at small 3-mile races if their finish times didn’t seem accurate.

Several years ago, when I was training to do my first marathon, I studied what it would take for me to qualify to run Boston. It is the only race of its kind that requires you have to have a fast enough time just to run it. If I kept up the same finishing time, I would qualify for Boston maybe when I was 80.

That gives you an idea how tough it is just to be able to run in that race. To be able to qualify, you have to run many hours a week. It’s not just enough to run fast, but you have to have the endurance to stay the course of 26.2 miles.

Sports enthusiasts must identify goals and decide how to achieve them. It took me a year and a half to feel trained enough to do my first marathon. After I finished it, I had no desire to continue to train for more marathons. Personally, I felt that running more than 30 miles a week on concrete, a relatively new invention evolutionarily speaking, would not be in my best interest.

I discovered my fast twitch genes and muscles (most people have more of one or the other) and realized I would probably never run a five-hour marathon. My goal became to keep running till I’m 100. To do that, I traded in long-distance runs for shorter sprint distances.

But if I had chosen to continue marathon training, I can’t imagine working so hard to qualify for Boston, run the entire marathon and not be able to finish the race because of a terrorist. Runners nationwide are vowing that next year’s marathon will be bigger and better. Runners have avowed to dedicate themselves to the sport with even more passion. Count me in.

You can follow Island resident Ellen Jaffe Jones on her Facebook page and keep up with her just released book:,"Eat Vegan on $4 a Day," or her website: www.vegcoach.com. She is also a nationally certified personal trainer and running coach. For training in a gym or private hire, contact Ellen at ejones@vegcoach.com or 941-704-1025.