Home Team

Meet and greet with new Wesley Chapel football coach

Wesley Chapel parents can meet the school’s new head football coach Thursday.

Tampa Bay trio on Tom Lemming's top 100 of 2014

Three Tampa Bay prospects cracked recruiting guru Tom Lemming’s list of the top 100 recruits for the class of 2014:

Is this the best dunk of the year?

Boca Ciega's Michael Clark throwing down Dwyane Wade-to-Lebron James (and vice versa) style.

What should you do in a blowout game?

 I’ve read plenty of stories about massive blowouts in high school sports, including this week’s hot-button girls basketball game, where Bloomington (Ind.) South destroyed Arlington 107-2. I’ve never been able to figure out proper protocol for a game like this.

It's The People's All-Tampa Bay Football team

We hit up Twitter and Facebook, and of course the blog, to see what you people, The People as we call you in the office, had to say. We had some knowledgable local football fans -- the folks who do our chats and comment and know their stuff -- vote, and saw a few players and coaches jump in there too. That's exactly what we were looking for. We tossed out a few votes (those that were obviously stuffing the ballot box), and made this as fair as possible, and here's what YOU, the 60 of you who graciously took the time to vote, came up, the first-ever The People's All-Tampa Bay Football Team:

Texas Tech ditches recruits at dinner

Today's reminder of the recruiting craziness spun by the coaching carousel comes from Texas Tech, courtesy of 247Sports.com.

More evidence that 2012 was a down year for Tampa Bay football

I knew 2012 was a down year for Tampa Bay high school football, but I don’t know if I expected this.

Meet your first HomeTeam Pick-Em co-champs: Larry Thompson and Ron Mitchell.

RON MITCHELL                              LARRY THOMPSON

TAMPA -- What?

No Mary Krause? No Tom Ketchum?

No way! And no "K"!

Indeed, the two favorites, whose popularity have spawned fan clubs, t-shirts and even a set of collectible action figures -- my favorite is the Mary Krause standing over a defeated and fallen Matt Baker; it's on my desk -- could not overcome the efforts of Mitchell and Thompson.

Mitchell defeated Krause handily 9-6, while Thompson stunned Ketchum, the highest remaining seed, 7-6.

Thompson can thank Robinson kicker Cody Hodgens, who gave the CCC parent TWO correct answers that Ketchum fumbled: one for "Will there be a score in the first six minutes" and "Will Hodgens catch a pass and kick a FG?". Hodgens kicked a FG three minutes into the game, and caught three passes for 78 yards to lead his team. …

Gulf baseball hosting alumni game

Gulf is asking its former baseball players to return for an alumni game this season.

The People's Team: Pick the All-Tampa Bay football team

Since you love to pick apart the teams chosen by coaches and media, here's your chance to pick the best player at each position.

Fill out the form below, and we will compile and run the results of The People's Team later. 

Jon Gruden, Tennessee football coaching search and...Gulf's Tom Carter?

The No. 1 story on HomeTeam this morning is week-old news about Tom Carter leaving his job as head football coach at Gulf High School.

Former Tampa Prep star Devontae Morgan goes Boom Shakalaka!

Devontae Morgan, part of Tampa Prep's state championship team last year and now at Butler, did something crazy with just one hand, and it was the SportsCenter Play of the Night.

So fresh.

So clean.

Must see.

What do you get when you cross Infinite Skillz with Leon McQuay III? Awesomeness is what.

We've known about this for months, but mum was the word.

However, Wednesday night, cat was let out of bag. Or maybe that should be two of the coolest cats I know got let out of the bag.

Infinite Skillz, who has been doing our Friday Night Rewind theme song since the show's inception back in 2006 as well as a host of other terrific stuff, and Armwood All-American safety Leon McQuay teamed up for a song that Under Armour and ESPN are using to promote the upcoming UA All-Star game at Tropicana Field Jan. 4.

That's the unmistakable vocal stylings of Skills in this video clip from ESPN last night, over a beat laid down by McQuay III. And props to ESPN's Corey Long for putting the two together.

I suggest you click on the play button below to hear the whole song (and give Headband Game a listen too; both guys rock the look):

Infinite Skillz, by the way, was voted Creative Loafing's Best Of The Bay choice (picked by readers) for Best Local Hip Hop Act this year, and will play a 8 p.m. show at The Orpheum the night of the UA game, so get over there after watching the football game, which kicks off at 5.) …

HomeTeam Pick-Em: The Final 1? All aboard people.

This is clearly the wackiest, most prop-bettiest Pick-Ems in long and storied history of the HomeTeam Pick-Em. But hey, one team left calls for desperate measures.

Okay, semifinalists, remember:

If Robinson wins, the two Pick-Em winners advance to next week's title game.

If Robinson loses, highest score amongst the four remaining playoff teams wins the whole thing.

Check with Vegas, and Ketchum is a 9-2 favorite over Thompson, and Krause is 10-1 over Mitchell.

And for the rest of you, just try to the get the highest score, and I'll get the winner one of our fine HomeTeam Hot Shot t-shirts!

Florida's best high school football rivalry is...

The people have spoken. Florida’s best high school football rivalry is…Manatee-Southeast.