About Joe Williams

Joe Williams is the dean of sports in Lake County. In November, he’ll celebrate his 30th anniversary at the paper, and all those years were spent writing about athletes, coaches and sports in Lake. A native of Long Island, N.Y., Williams delivered papers as a boy for Newsday and the Long Island Press. He moved the New Port Richey, where he became a sports writer at the New Port Richey Press the summer he graduated from high school. In his prime, Williams was a feared (and beloved) softball player. Today he’s a proud father of four and still breaking stories for us.

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Tiebreaker time for The Villages

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Written by Joe Williams   

 Although The Villages lost out on an opportunity to win the school's second district championship since 2005 with its 42-35 loss to Wildwood on Friday, the loss doesn't knock the Buffalo out of a chance to earn a playoff spot.

The Villages loss, combined with Crescent City's 32-20 victory over Pierson Taylor on Friday night means there is a three-way tie for the district's runnerup spot between the Buffalo (5-4 overall, 2-2 in district), Crescent City (4-5, 2-2) and Trinity Prep (6-3, 2-2), which won a non-district game over Pine Castle Christian. The tirbreaker will be played Monday night at 7 at Trinity Prep. The Villages will play Crescent City first and the winner will play Trinity Prep. The team that survives the three team tiebreaker is the district runnerup.

 

"This was a tough loss, but now we have to get ready for Monday night," The Villages Coach Richard Pettus said. "We still have some football to play. We have to concentrate on beating Crescent City and then seeing what we can do against Trinity Prep. The main thing for us is that even though we lost tonight, we are not out of it."

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Buddy's Breaking News 

Buddy Collings is a senior sports writer for the Orlando Sentinel. He has covered high school sports since the 1970s, when you had to get fouled to manage a 3-point play in basketball. Collings graduated from Melbourne High and the University of Florida, then worked for the Gainesville Sun for 12 years before coming to the Sentinel in 1998. In college he began tracking Florida high school sports record and later  published record books. For more than 20 years he has been a clearing house for state records. He is married with three children. You can e-mail Buddy by clicking here.

The Lyon's Den

Austin Lyon began covering high school sports at the age of 15 as a correspondent for the Orlando Sentinel. He has also worked in radio and television, including handling play-by-play for numerous football and basketball state championship broadcasts. He was teh play-by-play voice for Friday Night Football, a weekly high school game of the week in Central Florida. He has lived in Orlando since he was 8 and is a graduate of Bishop Moore and UCF.

Cup of Joe

Joe Williams is the dean of sports in Lake County. In November, he’ll celebrate his 30th anniversary at the paper, and all those years were spent writing about athletes, coaches and sports in Lake. A native of Long Island, N.Y., Williams delivered papers as a boy for Newsday and the Long Island Press. He moved the New Port Richey, where he became a sports writer at the New Port Richey Press the summer he graduated from high school. In his prime, Williams was a feared softball player. He’s a proud father of four and still breaking stories for us. You can e-mail Joe by clicking here.

Gridiron Guru

Ty Ensor hasn't been a football coach all his life. It just seems that way. Ensor, a former football and baseball player at Baker High School (Class of '91), was a high school football coach in Central Florida from 1999-2007. Most of his experience is on the offensive side of the ball, and he served as a position coach Cypress Creek and Apopka, as co-offensive coordinator at Dr. Phillips, as offensive coordinator and Osceola. He was also Apopka's head coach from 2003-05. He is married with twin sons.

The Stat King

Charles King is the producer of the weekly Orlando Sentinel Varsity Sports television show. Before that, he created and ran his own high school football Web site, FridayNightFootball.net, from 2002-07. He also developed, produced and co-hosted Friday Night Football, a radio show that broadcast a high school game every week and followed up with a post-game show. The show broadcast more than 90 games, including six state championships. In 2004 he created and produced FNF-TV, a half-hour weekly TV show dedicated to high school football in Central Florida. You can e-mail Charles by clicking here.

Chip's Recruiting Tips

Chip Humble has more than 15 years of experience connecting athletes with coaches and colleges. He is director of scouting for Collegiate Sports of America PrepStar and co-founder of Next Level, a non-profit group that assists athletes in securing scholarships to college. He is also chairman of the Central Florida All-Star Game. Humble was born in Ohio, is a graduate of Florida Southern and lives in Lake Mary. He can be reached at chumble@csaprepstar.com