GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In the spring of 1987, I was a general assignment reporter at The Tampa Tribune when my boss called me into his office to give me a story.

Go to Daytona this weekend, he said, and do a feature story on some crazy indoor football league that is starting up this year with a six-game jamboree at the Ocean Center.

“Excuse me?”

The Arena Football League was born. In the years to come, it definitely found its niche audience, and this year is celebrating its 25^th birthday. As part of the season-long Silver Anniversary party, the AFL is counting down the “25 Greatest Players in AFL History” and the most recent to be honored is former Gators wide receiver Dwayne Dixon, who checked in at No. 15.

Worth noting: No. 16 was quarterback from the Iowa Barnstormers name Kurt Warner.

Dixon, a first-team All-Southeastern Conference wideout at Florida in 1983 and UF Hall of Fame inductee in 1987, only played five AFL seasons – and caught just 188 passes – but for that short time in the league Dixon was a dominant force on both sides of the ball, helping lead the Detroit Drive to three championships.

Worth noting, Part 2: His last two seasons came while doubling as UF’s wide receivers coach under Steve Spurrier.  

As a rookie in 1987, Dixon caught 20 passes in a 64-60 loss to the Chicago Bruisers, a single-game record that still stands a quarter-century later. He led the league with 79 receptions for 1,007 and 20 touchdowns in ’88. In the Arena Bowl title game that year, Dixon caught five balls for 63 yards, recovered a fumble, defended a pass and made two tackles to earn “Ironman of the Game” honors, as the Drive beat Chicago 24-13.

Dixon was a member of UF’s coaching staff during all 12 of Spurrier’s seasons, coaching a handful of All-Americans, including Jack Jackson, Ike Hilliard, Reidel Anthony and Jacquez Green, to name a few, and route to winning six SEC championships in that time. Dixon went to coach wideouts for two seasons at North Carolina State, and currently is receivers coach at Ohio University.  

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Welcome back, Brittany Schutte. Your timing could not be better.   

Schutte, who set a single-season Florida record with 22 homers in 2011, will return to the UF lineup for tonight’s opening-round play of the NCAA softball regional after missing more than two months with a broken jaw. The junior from Fountain Valley, Calif., will start in right field for the fifth-seeded and host Gators (46-11) when they face Florida Gulf Coast (37-22) Friday at 6 p.m. at Pressly Stadium.

The survivor of the Gainesville regional bracket this weekend, which also includes South Florida and Central Florida, advances to the NCAA super-regional round next week.

“My team is important to me, and I wouldn’t do anything that would mess up our chemistry,” UF coach Tim Walton told GatorZone. “But Brittany Schutte is a gamer and a game-changer.”

And a big-time threat at the plate, which Florida could use after scoring just 18 runs its previous 10 games. The Gators went 4-6 during that stretch, including a 10-1 loss to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Tournament title game Sunday.

Schutte, the starting catcher, was hitting .417 through 17 games, with three homers and 23 RBI, when she was struck in the face by an infielder’s throw while running to first base in March 2 game against Gardner-Webb. Schutte, who was not wearing a face mask, had surgery on her jaw March 5.

That was 75 days and 40 games ago. Florida was 16-1 at the time.

The Gators are 31-10 since.

“She’s an All-American, a great leader and a great person. We need her in the lineup,” said Kelsey Horton, who’s done the majority of catching since Schutte was forced from the lineup. “You never want to see anyone you’re close to go through something like that. But we can all be happy now [that] she can get back to doing what she loves.”

Schutte is a career .351 hitter, with 44 homers, 137 runs scored and 151 RBI. Last summer, she played for the USA National Team that won the gold medal in the World Cup of Softball at Oklahoma City.

“There’s going to be some nervousness and anxiety, and she’ll probably feel a little bit of pressure to carry this offense to perform like it hasn’t performed since she’s been gone, fair or unfair,” said Walton, who has been working extra with Schutte all week. “About the only thing she hasn’t done for us is run the bases and dive ... but hopefully she’s just hitting the ball over the fence and jogging around the bases.”

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Joakim Noah? Al Horford? Corey Brewer? Mike Miller? Even Jason Williams?

Those are the former Gator greats now in the NBA that one might think a zealous fan would embrace with perhaps a little extra passion. But San Antonio middle-schooler Patrick Gonzalez loves Spurs workmanlike backup forward Matt Bonner.

“We’re both redheads,” Gonzalez said.

Now Gonzalez is a skinhead.

The 12-year-old had to shave his dome after being threatened with a suspension by officials from Woodlake Hills Middle School for showing up in class with a haircut in the image of Bonner’s face. School officials deemed the $75 Bonner cut -- trimmed to a remarkable likeness (that's the real Bonner below) -- a “distraction” and sent the kid home.

The Bonner brouhaha (make that doohaha) got a lot of media attention in the Texas town (and beyond), where the Spurs are facing the Los Angeles Clippers (there’s some irony, by the way) in the Western Conference semifinals. The Spurs, in turn, reached out to the Gonzalez family after the story hit the local news, providing tickets to Thursday night’s Game 1.

Bonner encouraged the the boy to “keep supporting us redheads in the NBA.”

Good thing the kid didn’t go with a Bonner tattoo.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- So Mark Simoneau is a College Football Hall-of-Famer ... and Danny Wuerffel is not.

Seriously?

Disclaimer: The following rant is not to disparage Simoneau. He was an outstanding linebacker at Kansas State and part of the foundation of one of college football’s all-time reclamation projects. He’s worthy of the honor.

But let’s get real, shall we?

Wuerffel, a University of Florida icon on and off the field, was one of the most dominant players in the history of the game -- and we can now say he’s one of the most overlooked and underappreciated, too.

We’re talking about Hall-of-Fame voting here, so there’s going to be some elements of subjectivity and regional bias. There’s no perfect way to go about the selection process.

But any process that deems the accomplishments of Simoneau -- or Southern Cal end Hal Bedsole, Colorado State defensive back Greg Myers, Air Force safety Scott Thomas or Colorado guard John Wooton -- as trump cards to Wuerffel’s is a flawed process.

And a farce.

Wuerffel was not among the 17 members of the Class of 2012 inductees announced Tuesday. The fact that Wuerffel became eligible for Hall consideration in 2006 and just this year made the ballot is even more confounding -- and an altogether different argument. But it’s unfathomable when considering Simoneau finished his collegiate career three years after Wuerffel won the 1996 Heisman Trophy as a senior and led Florida to the first national championship in school history.

That last sentence, obviously, bears repeating for the unenlightened officials running the College Football Hall of Fame.

For a good chuckle, check out the Hall’s criteria here. Wuerffel defines the qualification standards, which also take post-career citizenship and community service into consideration.

Memo to voters: You might want to Google “Desire Street Ministries.”

For now, let’s just get back to what Wuerffel did, you know, on an actual football field.

Again, Wuerffel won the Heisman AND led the Gators to the national title his final season. He threw for 306 yards, three touchdowns against Florida State, the nation’s third-ranked defense, in the Sugar Bowl national-championship game and was voted MVP.

That was how Wuerffel exited his college career, so let’s work backward from there.

He remains the only player in history to win both the Heisman Trophy (college football’s best player) and Draddy Award, considered the academic Heisman, given annually to the game’s best scholar-athlete.

A week before the Heisman ceremony, Wuerffel passed for -- get this -- 401 yards and six touchdowns against the nation’s No. 1-ranked defense in a 45-30 bombing of Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game. Wuerffel remains the only quarterback in league history to win three SEC title games. It might have been four were in not for a season-ending knee injury suffered against FSU as a freshman in 1993, when Wuerffel started nine games for the first of Steve Spurrier’s four straight conference championship squads.

He left UF having amassed 10,875 passing yards and 114 career touchdown passes, both SEC records. At the time, his TDs were the second-most in college history, behind only Ty Detmer’s (116). Note: Detmer, who won a Heisman at BYU but never sniffed a national title, is in the Hall.

So to the folks making these decisions of immortality, I ask, name another player who during his career won four league titles in a major conference, shattered records, won a national championship, a Heisman and distinguished himself as the consummate student-athlete.

I’m waiting.

Still waiting.

Hopefully, Danny Wuerffel won’t have to wait much longer for the Hall to call.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Three years in a row now, South Carolina State has lived its own version of that deju vu movie “Groundhog Day.”

Horror flick-style.

The Lady Bulldogs just finished the best women’s tennis season in school history, finishing 19-0 with two players going undefeated in singles, yet for the third straight year the team drew national power -- and in this case, defending national champion -- Florida in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

SCSU coach Suzanna Mansour was hoping the program’s historic season would have warranted a different postseason fate.

“This time, I was just like, ‘Damn! You’ve got to be kidding me,’ " Mansour said. “Story of my life.”

Literally.

Mansour played at Florida State two years, then transferred to play her final two seasons at South Carolina. She saw Gators in her sleep then; probably will again tonight.

Florida, the tournament’s No. 2 overall seed, routed South Carolina State 4-0 in Friday’s match at Linder Stadium, winning the doubles point in 31 minutes, then making quick work to clear the singles courts in three matches. It was the third straight year -- and fourth time since 2005 -- the Gators had shutout the Bulldogs 4-0 in the first round.

The win moved the Gators (22-1) into second-round play to face Washington State (19-6) Saturday at 3 p.m. The loss sent the Bulldogs (19-1) back to Orangeburg, S.C.

Not that it was unexpected.

Mansour checked her players out of the team hotel before the match.

If they had won?

“I’d have checked ‘em back in -- and paid for it myself,” she said. “Then taken ‘em out for filet mignon.”

Senior Joanna Mather (pictured left), playing her final weekend of home matches, was the first to dispatch of her opponent, defeating Laura Bosneag 6-0, 6-0, at No. 3 singles. Junior Caroline Hitimana, at No. 5, and sophomore Sofie Oyen, at No. 4 were quick to follow in putting an end to UF’s first match since winning the Southeastern Conference Tournament finals 19 days ago at Oxford, Miss.

See you in 2013, Bulldogs.

Bring blindfolds and cigarettes.

“I’m sure it’s difficult for them because they have a good team,” Florida coach Roland Thornqvist (pictured top right) said of SCSU’s annual Gator gathering. “At the same time, our job is to take care of our business. If we had lost today, our players would have been devastated.”

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Add Brad Culpepper, one of the most decorated student-athletes in University of Florida football history, to the snowballing number of former NFL players suing the league over residual effects from head injuries.

Culpepper, who played for three teams over nine NFL seasons, including six with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was the lead plaintiff in a concussion lawsuit filed Monday in Philadelphia that involves 25 other players.  

"It's a matter of what knowledge the NFL had and maybe knowledge they should've had,” Culpepper, now 43, told The Tampa Bay Times, “and the protocol in which they used to help the players when a head injury was diagnosed.”

According to the NFL Players Association, 70 lawsuits against the league have now been filed involving more than 1,800 former players. While the NFL has implemented guidelines the last several years that require more thorough tests for head injuries during games, those tests weren’t available to former players.

Or as Culpepper put it, “It wasn't like they sat a player down and said, 'Look, if you get a concussion or you get numerous concussions, this could scramble your brain for good.’ “

Now a personal injury attorney in Tampa, Culpepper recalled the a game during the 1993 season, as a member of the Minnesota Vikings, when he collided with a San Diego Charger during a kickoff return. Then 6-foot-1 and 275 pounds, Culpepper had his face mask bent on the hit and was unconscious for 15 seconds.

Culpepper could not remember what happened, so he was taken to the hospital after the game, stayed overnight and was released the next day.

That morning, he went straight to team headquarters to lift weights, practiced all week and played in the game the following weekend.

Culpepper chose not to give details of his long-term health issues.

"Did I know it's going to potentially cause life-ending problems or dementia? Not like I do now. Would that have changed how I feel about playing? I don't know. I can't put myself in that situation. Quite frankly, I probably would not have,” Culpepper said. “But it's like a cigarette. You know they're bad for you. There's warning labels all over the cigarettes. Yet you may choose to do it.”

Culpepper, who starred at Tallahassee Leon High, was a first-team All-America defensive tackle in 1991 and co-captain of the program’s first Southeastern Conference championship team. He also received the 1991 Draddy Award, considered the academic version of the Heisman Trophy, as college football’s outstanding student-athlete and served as UF student body vice president during his senior year.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Back-to-back losses in the final two games -- with a league title on the line, no less -- was a tough way to close out the regular season, but Florida softball coach Tim Walton found an orange-and-blue silver lining in it all.

“We wouldn’t have had a chance to be so disappointed if we hadn’t played the way we did Friday,” Walton said. “We were great Friday.”

Needing to win two of three in their series at No. 3 Alabama to claim a share of the Southeastern Conference title, the seventh-ranked Gators jumped on the Crimson Tide early in the series opener and went on to a 4-1 victory, handing ‘Bama ace Jackie Traina just her second loss in 31 decisions.

UF starter Hannah Rogers was sensational, holding the Tide to just three hits and striking out seven in running her record to 26-4. She was so good, Walton and his staff decided to send Rogers out again for Game 2 Saturday.

“It didn’t work,” Walton said.

Alabama 9, Florida 1.

That left the SEC on the line in Sunday's rubber game. Again, Walton went with Rogers, who the Tide got to for three runs in the second inning the day before. This time, it was four runs in the first -- Rogers did not record an out -- and Alabama rolled to clinch a tie with Tennessee for the league crown with a 5-3 win.

The way Walton prefers to see it, the Gators gave themselves a chance. And that's how he framed things heading into a postseason that started in the very same place the regular season ended.

Instead of leaving that series behind them and returning home to prepare for the SEC Tournament, Walton and his players remained in Alabama this week because the conference tournament is in Tuscaloosa. The Gators (44-10)  open play Friday LSU (34-21) at noon at Rhoads Stadium.

UF and LSU split an April 24 double-header in Gainesville. The Tigers’ win in the second game was the start of current seven-game span during which the Gators have lost five times.

Now comes the postseason and its win-or-go-home stakes.

“I didn’t get overly excited when we rattled off 10, 11, 12 [wins], whatever it was, so I’m not going to be overly disappointed about this,” Walton said Wednesday night. “I don’t think we’ve played any differently. The pitching staffs have been a lot better. We’ve kicked it around some. But I don’t think we’re a bad team ... and I don’t think we’re a great team right now, either.”

The Gators may do some things differently, given the do-or-die format of the postseason, but there’s not any wholesale changes the team can make. It’s the same team that’s had to persevere since losing its best player, junior catcher Brittany Schutte, to a broken jaw more than two months ago and has struggled at times late in the season to take advantage of situational hitting opportunities.

It’s a team that will lean heavily on senior center fielder and lead-off hitter Michelle Moultrie, who Wednesday was named SEC Player of the Year after leading the SEC in batting average (.395) and fielding percentage (1.000).

Moultrie, by the way, had an extra-inning double and game-winning RBI in UF's first game against LSU last month.

“Take Michelle Moultrie off our team, where would we be? Where would we have finished? What position would we be in?” Walton asked. “She’s just a phenomenal player and, I’m serious, if you took her off our team I don’t think we’d be feeling too great about ourselves right now.”

We'll see how the Gators feel after today, but regardless of the outcome there will be more softball. The NCAA will announce its tournament bracket Sunday night. Florida, which has remained near the top of the standings most of the season, is expected to host a regional.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- With the announcement Tuesday that Florida basketball season tickets had now gone on sale, it’s worth taking a look at what that $315 (plus booster contribution) is buying Gators fans these days, especially compared to just a few years ago.

It’s the reason the 2012-13 schedule, in the words of UF Senior Associate Athletic Director Mike Hill, will be the most difficult the program has ever played.

“Hands down,” Hill said Tuesday. “And I’m sure Billy Donovan and his staff will agree.”

To understand why Wisconsin, a to-be-determined Big East team (don't bet against Louisville) and in-state foe UCF are coming to the O’Connell Center next season -- and why road games at Florida State and Arizona, plus neutral-sight showdowns against Kansas State, Middle Tennessee State, a road game at Yale (a reward for senior Erik Murphy), plus a soon-to-be-named date with a juggernaut foe, are too -- rewind to March 2009.

[Worth Noting: If that last line piqued your interest, good. That was the intent, but I digress.]

Everybody associated with the Florida basketball program recalls the disappointment that year after the Gators went 24-10, including 9-7 in the Southeastern Conference, yet were left out of the NCAA Tournament.

But not only was that team undeserving a bid, circumstances were such that UF made the selection committee’s decision a slam dunk by presenting a resume complete with a schedule that was -- How should I put this? -- conspicuous in its lack of competitiveness.

Even the basketball blue bloods face their share of lightweights, but when your bell-cow game is a home date against North Carolina State and the rest of the slate is dotted with the likes of Southern Utah, FAMU, Florida Gulf Coast, Stetson, Longwood and Missouri-Kansas City, the committee is going to take notice; and not in a good way.

[Worth Noting, Part 2: The Gators participated in the CBE Classic in Kansas City that year, losing to Syracuse, then beating Washington in the consolation game, which turned out to be the best non-league win on the schedule. The Orange Bowl Classic in Sunrise, where UF is now a regular in December, was against -- get this -- Winthrop.]

So it was an easy decision for the NCAA to bypass Florida.

The Gators, in turn, made an easy decision by bulking up the schedule, big time.

“Philosophically, Billy had to be on board, which he was,” said Hill (pictured right). “If we were going to be on the [NCAA] bubble, we weren't going to give the committee a reason to leave us out.”

The next year, Florida went 21-12 with the same 9-7 record in the SEC.

But those Gators won a neutral-site game against No. 2 Michigan State, while losing neutrals to both Syracuse and Richmond to go with a home defeat against a solid Xavier squad. UF also beat NC State on the road.

With those high-profile losses, Florida got its NCAA bid.

Hill remembers getting a call from then Senior Associate AD Greg McGarity the night the bracket was revealed.

“Your tail was on the line, buddy,” McGarity said.

For Hill, it was worth it.

Nothing impresses the selection committee like the willingness of a program to step out and, well, put its team’s tail on the line (like Hill did). That’s why the Gators scheduled a home-and-home with Arizona last season. Yes, the Wildcats had a down year, but UF’s heart was in the right place (plus the Gators looked good on ESPN in December). Same with going to Ohio State and Syracuse for true road games (also on ESPN), while bringing Texas A&M to the Orange Bowl Classic.

Combined with the SEC schedule (and three dates against No. 1 Kentucky), the Gators sent the NCAA a resume packet of 22 wins, a top-20 RPI and no drama.

“What we had before was not acceptable and we understood that,” said Hill, who added the program already has committed to playing in the 2013 Jimmy V Classic in New York to go with a return road game with Wisconsin first of back-to-back home dates against Richmond, a contract that recently was pushed back a year to accomodate a significant last-minute change. “This is the way we’re going to go. Not only does it serve the selection committee, but as we saw this year, when you play a challenging schedule, you’re more prepared when it comes to playing a Virginia or Marquette in the NCAA Tournament.”

No doubt, the people buying the tickets agree.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Amanda Butler is growing a coaching tree.

It may be a sapling, but it’s a tree, all right. And now it has its first real branch.

The announcement Monday that Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick, assistant at Florida the last six seasons, had been named head coach of the women’s team at North Carolina-Asheville means Butler has launched the career for protege to be a first-time head coach.

Not that Kirkpatrick didn’t do her part.

“My first boss and head coach used to tell me you always want to go someplace and leave things better than you found them,” Butler said. “Brenda’s fingerprints are all over this program. From Day 1, she helped us take things from a level that was not acceptable in Gator Nation to the place we are now; a place we feel good about.”

She obviously caught the eye of the folks in Asheville.

The school reached out to Kirkpatrick, whose family still lives 40 minutes away in her hometown of Waynesville, N.C., after seeing how she helped a UF women’s program that was a wreck before Butler arrived via UNC-Charlotte in 2006.

Alongside Butler, Kirkpatrick did her part in building a program that reached the NCAA Tournament for a second time on their watch this season and upset Ohio State in first-round play before falling to eventual national champion Baylor in the tournament in the second.

“That’s what was especially rewarding,” Kirkpatrick said of her time at UF. “Seeing the fruits of our labor.”

She’ll be rolling up her sleeves in taking over the Bulldogs, inheriting a program from the Big South Conference that went 7-23 last season, including defeats in the last 12 games, and has had four straight losing seasons.

The Bulldogs, however, won their league in 2007 and advance to the NCAA Tournament, losing to LSU in the first round, so there are possibilities.

There’s just a big difference between UF and UNCA.

“Being a smaller school does present some challenges. We’re not going to be chartering flights and staying at the Marriott,” Kirkpatrick said. “That being said, you can recruit there probably within a 4-hour radius. You’ve got Charlotte.You’ve got East Tennessee. There’s talent there that can help you win in the Big South.”

It’ll be up to Kirkpatrick, 33, to mine that talent and groom it.

Butler, meanwhile, will press on minus the assistant and close friend who has been at her side both seasons at UNCC and all five in Gainesville.

“I’ve never coached a game without Brenda as my assistant,” Butler said. “She’s outstanding and is so ready for this opportunity. I’m so proud of her that it’s hard to linger on the negative of her leaving for too long. She’s not only fulling part of her dream of being a head coach, but she gets to do it in her own backyard. That’s super cool.”

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Maybe 15 minutes after attacker Cara Facchina zipped the ball into the net with just 11.7 seconds left in overtime, our blogging friends @BourbonMeyer threw this photo out on Twitter, saying “here we go again.”

For sure, Florida and Ohio State have had their share of high-stakes showdowns the last few years, so we’ll see tonight where a meeting in the semifinals of the American Lacrosse Conference Tournament at Dizney Stadium stacks up in what has become a fairly frequent non-conference rivalry.

“They’re a very, very good team,” Gators coach Amanda O’Leary said.

UF (15-2) earned the No. 1 seed in the tournament by going unbeaten in five regular-season ALC matches, capped with an 8-7 upset of reigning national champion Northwestern. O’Leary and her players watched Thursday night as the fourth-seeded Buckeyes (11-5) rallied against fifth-seeded Vanderbilt from two goals down in the second half to force overtime, then won it with Facchina’s free-position goal in the closing seconds of the extra period.

“We call it ‘earn position’ [because] you work so hard to put yourself in those spots,” OSU coach Alexis Venechanos said. “Their like foul shots. They’re not really free. And athletes have to step up.”

The Buckeyes did when it mattered and thus forced a rematch of a tough game played between the two back on March 24. The Gators won that one 10-8 at home.

Venechanos didn’t get too philosophical about all the intangible factors of the next meeting -- and no, the 2006 BCS game, 2007 Final Four or 2012 Gator Bowl didn't come up -- choosing to appreciate the the win and situation.

“We have momentum and we know Florida is a very strong team that plays very strong here,” she said. “We’re excited just to move on. We’re going to be in the moment.”

O’Leary, no doubt appreciative of the bye into the semis and being at home for the tournament, said all the right things, too.

“As you can see, they’re a very, very good team,” said O’Leary, whose team ranks second in the nation in scoring (16.7 goals per game) and first in defense (6.65). “Offensively, they have a lot of different scorers. Defensively, they play a high pressure defense. I think it’s going to be a challenge to move the ball around very quickly and look to hit cutters. They also are good [one-on-one] drivers. We have our work cut out for us.”

And fans have another Florida-Ohio State date to talk about it.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- An Iowa high school girl who adores Tim Tebow dreamed of being escorted by the New York Jets quarterback to her senior prom. One of her classmates said he’d shell out $50 if she made it happen.

[Note: You’d think one of the world’s biggest sports figures showing up at a prom in cornfield country might be worth more than a 50 spot, but I digress.]

When Rachel Bird’s Twitter requests to Tebow, his agent and the Jets went unanswered, she decided to take matters into her own hands -- and with a pair of scissors. She found a photo of a spiffy Tebow, donned in a vest and tie, and had Staples blow it up to a life-size likeness that Bird turned into a cut-out version of the former Gator. Just like that, she had a partner for the April 28 Kingsley-Pierson High affair.

Bird and her date were the hit of the night’s grand march entrance.

“Rachel Bird escorted by ... Tim Tebow!” the announcer crooned.

Her classmates cheered.

“It was awkward, but people asked me to stop for photos," Bird told The Sioux City Journal. "Believe me, this isn't something I ever thought I'd be doing.”

Bird said the faux Tebow was a great sport who smiled all night, even when some of the boys in her class dragged him onto the dance floor.

“He was a cheap date, and he didn’t talk much,” she said. “And when I asked him to stand in a corner, he did. I don’t think it hurt his feelings.”

Neither did calling it an early night.

“The after-prom [stuff] would have been too much,” Bird said. “He was tired.”

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – You may have seen reports on this week profiling the arrival of new wide receiver Randy Moss to his first mini-camp as a member of the San Francisco 49ers.

Well, we’re only a few months from the arrival of Moss’ daughter to Gainesville.

Turns out Sydney Moss, a 5-foot-11 forward out of Boone County (Ky.) High ranked as the country’s 50^th-best prospect by ESPN, has been in the news in her home state recently, too. The younger Moss pulled a clean sweep of all the major girls prep basketball awards in the Bluegrass State, including Gatorade Player of the Year and Kentucky’s “Miss Basketball.”

All Moss, part of an incoming freshman class ranked 20th in the nation, did during the 2011-12 season was average 22.8 points, 10.1 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 4.2 steals in leading her team to a 30-4 record and berth the Sweet 16 round of the state tournament. Boone County lost 72-70 in overtime of her playoff game, but Moss finished with 41 points.

Here’s some video of Amanda Butler’s soon-to-be freshman in action.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – She was too young to join a family member’s friends at a gymnastics birthday party, so an undeterred 2-year-old Kytra Hunter scooted off  – father close behind – and jumped, rolled and tumbled all by herself.

It wasn’t long before the living room couch became little Kytra’s favorite flipping station.

“That’s sort of how it got started,” she said.

Every athlete has a start to their story, but few have endings like Hunter’s; not that she’s anywhere near the conclusion of a University of Florida career that after just one season is chock full of achievement and accolades.

Another big one rolled in this week.  

Hunter was announced Wednesday as the 2012 Honda Sports Award recipient for gymnastics, an honor given annually to the nation’s top female in each of 12 sports. Word of the prize came Thursday, less than a week after the freshman became the first UF gymnast to capture two individual titles at the NCAA Championships last weekend at Duluth, Ga. Hunter won the all-around crown (also a Florida first) last Friday, then took the vault competition Sunday, becoming just the fifth competitor in the event’s 31-year history to claim multiple titles as a freshman.

She competed again as an all-around in the next day's Super Six final, helping the Gators finish with .010 points from capturing the program’s first team championship.

And now comes, basically, the Heisman Trophy for gymnasts.

“I’m just so honored and humbled by it all,” Hunter said Friday. “I never even thought about something like this.”

Her coach might have.

Rhonda Faehn gushes about the meeting she had with Hunter last fall, where she went one-on-one – like Faehn does with all her athletes – with the rookie from Frederick, Md., and talked about goals heading toward the season.

“I want to score 10s on every event,” Hunter stated bluntly.

Faehn could not have been more impressed. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so surprised.

Hunter, after all, came to UF by way of the Hills Club Gaithersburg, Md., the same gym that produced U.S. Olympic champion Dominique Dawes, Hunter’s hero and role model – not to the mention the athlete she’d been compared to – same grace, power and athleticism -- for nearly a decade.

She came to the Gators aiming high.

“It’s never more disappointing to me, as a coach, than to hear them, when asked about their goals, say, ‘I’d like to make [the competing] lineup,’ “ Faehn said. “Too many athletes are afraid to set their expectations so high because they’re afraid of disappointment. There’s always going to be disappointment and loss here, failure there. But you can’t get where you want to go without the goals.”

And you can’t set them as Hunter did – and use them as motivation – without the skill and mental fortitude it takes to be a champion; or in Hunter’s case, a two-time champ.

[Note: She didn't nail any 10s, but had bunches of 9.9s -- and three 9.975s] 

She exhibited that star power right away by winning the all-around title in her very first meet as a freshman; on the road at North Carolina State, no less.

“That was her launching pad to a long season,” Faehn said.

A long way from launches over the living room couches.

But with the same humility, despite the growing collection of hardware.

Hunter swears that part of her won’t change.

“I’m a firm believer in God. In the Bible, Peter said you have to humble yourself under the hand of God and at the right time He will bless you. I’ve lived by that,” Hunter said. “Coach has been on me to kind of open up and be happy with myself, but the fact is I am happy … I just keep it inside.”

She smiled.

“Besides, I have three more years and we want to make history,” Hunter said. “We want to win the Super Six [national championship], and I’m going to stay humble until we do.”

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The life of former University of Florida center Dwayne Schintzius was remembered during funeral services Saturday morning in Brandon, the hometown of the Gators basketball star who died April 15 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

His father, Ken Schintzius, spoke of the difficulty his family – wife Linda and younger son Travis – has had since Dwayne,  who underwent two bone marrow transplants since 2009 before succumbing to his fight with Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia, passed at the age of 43.

Ken Schintzius wore a blue tie dotted with the UF logo Saturday.

"You don't normally wear blue with a gray suit,” he said. "But I wanted to wear the tie because it was his."

Among the former Gators in attendance were a handful of Schintzius’ teammates, including Livingston Chatman and Clifford Lett, who started alongside the 7-foot-2 center during UF’s 1989 run to the first Southeastern Conference in school history.

Schintzius, who ranks sixth on Florida’s all-time scoring list with 1,624 points, is the only player in SEC history to total at least 1,500 points, 800 rebounds, 250 assists and 200 blocked shots. He was a first-round draft pick of the San Antonio Spurs in 1990 – the second Gator ever taken in Round 1 – and played in the NBA nine seasons.

“It was a life cut too short,” said former Gators point guard Renaldo Garcia. “But it was quite a life.”

Both Tampa Bay area newspapers covered the funeral. Here are links to read Joey Johnston’s story in The Tampa Tribune and Antonya English’s in The Tampa Bay Times.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The bottom of the fifth and Kentucky led Florida 1-0. The Gators, though, had the bases loaded with no outs and Lauren Haeger, the Gators’ No. 3 hitter and RBI leader, coming to the plate.

The loud crowd on hand for second-ranked UF’s regular-season home finale was jacked for a big inning.

Haeger, the freshman from Peoria, Ariz., crushed a ball down the left field line that just barely went outside the foul pole. Two pitches later, she bombed one to the warning track in dead centerfield, allowing Jess Damico to tag from third with the tying run.

“I was ecstatic,” Haeger said. “It was five feet from going out, but we got the run across. That’s what matters.”

Yes and no.

The next two batters, clean-up hitter Bailey Castro and Cheyenne Coyle, struck out and popped, respectively, leaving two Gators stranded. The seventh and eight UF runners left on for the game.

Kentucky answered with four runs in the sixth, including the kind of clutch bases-clearing double the home team could have used a half-inning before. UK went on to a 5-1 victory that gave the Wildcats (26-27, 12-13) their second win in the series while handing the Gators (43-8, 21-5) their third loss in the last four games.

Florida had its chances against pitcher Chanda Bell, but struggled to capitalize in situational-hitting opportunities.

Coach Tim Walton (pictured upper right) put it more bluntly.

“We were awful,” he said.

Walton was quick to credit Bell, who allowed just four hits in shutting out the Gators 2-0 Friday, but that doesn’t mean he was any less frustrated with his team’s lack of opportunistic bats.

[Worth noting: UF's 3-4-5 hitters went 3-for-26 with three RBI during the Kentucky series, including 1-for-9 Sunday]

“We had a runner on first base and no outs twice,” he said. “Had a runner on second base and no outs. We had bases loaded, no outs. We had runner on second and third, no outs.. Yeah, again, their pitcher took it to another gear, but our kids went up there and really took some bad swings.”

Bad timing.

With the loss, UF fell back into a tie for first place with No. 4 Alabama, with the Gators headed to Tuscaloosa next week for a series that could decide the regular-season SEC champion -- No. 7 Tennessee also is smack in the hunt, too -- and be key in setting the seeds for the conference tournament, the following weekend -- also in Tuscaloosa.

After that, the Gators hope to be back home for an NCAA regional. Home and hitting, preferably.

Oh, and scoring.  

“It can definitely be contagious,” catcher Kelsey Horton, the lone Gator with two hits Sunday, said of the team’s lack for timely knocks of late. “We have to prepare for those situations better in practice -- getting those runners home -- and we have to just get mentally tougher. When you’re up there, you can’t chase bad pitches. We have to stick the plan and execute it.”

The Gators also may be dealing with some bad luck, too. Take Haeger’s at-bat.

She crushed the ball twice. A couple feet here or there -- on either the towering foul or the drive to the deepest part of Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium -- and this blog likely has a very different tone.

“Changes the whole complexion,” Walton said. “But we still had first and second -- and one out.”

And got nothing after that.

“We had some momentum going,” said Haeger (pictured above left). “We just have to make contact. I’m having trouble making contact with the ball. We have to put it in play, hit it hard, and good things will happen. I don’t know why we can’t make those adjustments quicker, but it’ll come around for us.”

When it does, the runners will finally come around; around third base, that is.

I’m sure you’ve heard about  the newest chum tossed into the water for the Tebow-hating sharks.

Get ready, folks, for the "Most Influential Special Teams Player in the World."

The news Tuesday out of New York that quarterback Tim Tebow, the UF icon and former Heisman Trophy winner, has been told he’ll play the fullback position next season for the Jets’ punt team – the “protector” or “upback” spot -- surely was welcomed news for the Merril Hoges of the Tebow-dissing world.

[Note: Hoge might even take bigger shots at the former Florida great now when he realizes Tebow can be a better fullback than he ever was, but I digress. ]

While the Big Apple media (and the national, too) work to whip up a rivalry between incumbent starter Mark Sanchez and his newest teammate, the idea that Tebow, acquired by the Jets from the Denver Broncos last month for a fourth-round pick, would be relegated to special teams is clearly – transparently and crystal clearly -- part of the team’s plan to plant thoughts about the quarterback/football player package No. 15 presents into the collective minds of the competition.

I mean, seriously, why else would be hearing about this now – when the world as we know it stops for NFL draft week -- via the Twitter account of NFL reporter/leak extraordinaire Adam Schefter? In the ever-paranoid coaching world of the NFL, teams the Jets face next season immediately had to write down "Come up with scheme to use against Tebow punt formation” on their offseason to-do list.

That said, there will be times next season, assuming Tebow is in that upback position from Week 1, the Jets will use his ability to run (which is very good) and pass (average, at best) out of that punt formation.

He’s actually perfect for that.

Even Merril “3.8 per carry for his just-a-guy career” Hoge would have to agree.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Not sure which of these number is more incredible -- 1 or 38?

Remarkably, both now apply to Lisa Raymond, one of the most dominant athletes in University of Florida history, who this week ascended to the No. 1 WTA Doubles ranking, along with partner Liezel Huber.

At 38, Raymond (left) is the oldest player ever to hold the world’s top ranking in either singles or doubles.

Raymond, who won back-to-back NCAA singles titles in 1992-93 and led the Gators to their first team champioship as a freshman, last shared a WTA No. 1 ranking with a doubles partner on July 7, 2007.

All told, it’s Raymond’s fifth time atop the doubles rankings. The first was June 12, 2000, the same year she teammed to win her first Grand Slam event at the Australian Open.

“[The ranking] is definitely a lot more special this time than ever before," Raymond told WTAtennis.com as she started a week atop the doubles rankings for the 118th time. “I'm the fittest I've ever been in my career, and I found the right partner too.”

Raymond and Huber (pictured right after winning the 2011 U.S. Open) joined forces a year ago and have won eight titles together, including four consecutive events this year.  

“Liezel and I always say, it's about the team. You win together and you lose together, and you work hard together,” she said. “This is gratifying for both of us -- and for me at 38, to be back to No. 1 after such a long road, it feels amazing.”

Raymond, out of Norristown, Pa., signed with UF in 1991 and instantly became the best player in the country. She was the first player in NCAA history to win three collegiate Grand Slam championships in a season, capturing the singles titles at the ITCA National Clay Championships, the Rolex National Indoor and the NCAA Championship, finishing her freshman year with a 35-4 mark.

Her sophomore record was a perfect 34-0, including a second straight NCAA singles title, and made her 69-4 (.945) for her Gators career.

Since turning pro in 1993, Raymond has won more than $9 million in tournament earnings and become one of the best doubles players in the world. She has 78 doubles titles with 10 different partners during her 19-year career, the sixth-most all time behind only Martina Navratilova (177), Rosemary Casals (112), Pam Shriver (106), Billie Jean King (101) and Natasha Zvereva (80).

Scattered in those titles are trophies from each of the four Grand Slam events, but Raymond and Huber hope to add a new piece of hardware to their collection this year -- at the Summer Olympics in London.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Take another look at the number. The one that needs three decimal points to put in the proper perspective.

0.075

That was the margin by which Alabama edged Florida to capture the 2012 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics championship Saturday night in Duluth, Ga. The win for the Crimson Tide – by a score of 197.85 to 197.775 – gave ‘Bama its second straight team title, but also equaled UF’s highest finish in program history, joining the 1998 runner-up team.

Perspective: The differential of .075 was the third narrowest in the meet's history, ranking behind the .005 set in the 1989 and '94 championships.

Coach Rhonda Faehn, with a day to decompress from a whirlwind weekend, found only positives in her Gators coming oh so close to winning it all.  

“This is the best, gymnastically, the University of Florida has ever done,” Faehn said Monday. “I know we finished second in ‘98, but this one was a nail-biter. Just a really incredible accomplishment for this program and this team, and to really use as a launching pad for next season.”

Make that seven advances to the Super Six in Faehn’s 10 seasons.

“It’s been an incredible journey in the last 10 years at Florida,” she said. “The first five years were trying to establish putting Florida on the map. There was no reason this team could not win an SEC championship or challenge to win the national championship and be in there every single time.”

Maybe the 2012 meet will be the one the Gators are talking of in years to come. The one that started it all.

The UF star, of course, was freshman Kytra Hunter, who won the vault competition Sunday two days after becoming the first Gator gymnast to win the NCAA all-around event. In doing so, Hunter became just the fifth gymnast in NCAA history to capture multiple titles as a freshman.

Hunter was part of a recruiting class ranked No. 1 in the nation, the third straight year the Gators have hauled the country’s top crop of freshman. The incoming class will make a case for a fourth straight and be led by Bridget Sloan, a 2008 U.S. Olympian and winner of the all-around event at the 2009 World Championships. Sloan will become the first World all-around gold-medalist ever to compete at the NCAA level.

To think, the view of Florida gymnastics has never looked better – and things are only looking up.

“Each year, you have a different team, a different group of core athletes. And each year, we’ve been building, been just chipping away, little by little,” Faehn said. “Florida is a powerhouse. We have joined the elite ranks. Our time will come. We just have to keep focused and doing what we’re doing. The key is to keep bringing in the tremendous athletes who are willing to get better, willing to work hard and continue to be a team player that represents Florida.”

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – It’s probably worth repeating that Florida’s 4x100 relay team Saturday clocked the second-fastest time in the NCAAs this season –and the third-fastest time in the world, by the way.

But it’s also worth mentioning that Coach Mike Holloway didn’t long- high- or triple-jump for joy over the his sprinters’ performance in the Tom Jones Memorial Classic at Percy Beard Track.

“Actually, I wasn’t as pleased with the 4x1,” Holloway said Monday.

The team of Jeff Demps, Tony McQuay, Leonardo Seymore (pictured left) and Dedric Dukes finished in a time of 38.67, a number bested on the planet only by Racers TC of Jamaica (37.82), featuring some dude named Usain Bolt, and SEC rival Auburn, which ran a 38.30 in the Texas Relays three weekends ago.

Holloway, whose UF men’s program is ranked No. 1 in the nation, singled out McQuay and Seymour for a poor exchange, otherwise – who knows? -- maybe this blog would be about the world’s fastest time in 2012.

He also took the heat.

This time.

“We could have prepared better and [as a result] left some time out there as far as our exchanges go. That’s my fault. I told our guys I’d take the blame, but the next time they’ll have to do better,” Holloway said. “Our goal is to be the best team in the country by the end of the year. If we’re going to be that team, we have to do a better job of moving the stick. The other two exchanges did well. I didn’t think that group was as focused as it needed to be.”

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Amanda Butler had no problem putting Pat Summitt’s legacy into words.

The Florida basketball coach didn’t need many words, either.

“The simplest thing I can tell you is that she’s just the best in the history of ever,” Butler said.

Butler, like some of the biggest names in sports, weighed in Wednesday on the Summitt situation after the University of Tennessee announced its iconic women’s basketball coach of the last 38 years would step aside and assume the title of “Head Coach Emeritus.”

The move came nearly eight months after the 59-year-old Summitt, winner of eight national championships, announced she had been diagnosed with early onset dementia, a precursor to Alzeimer’s Disease.

Longtime assistant Holly Warlick, who has worked alongside Summitt on the bench for 27 years and three years before that as an All-America guard for the Lady Vols, was promoted to take over for the coach who went 1,098-207, with 16 regular season Southeastern Conference titles and 18 Final Four appearances.

Summitt, meanwhile, will report to the UT athletic director and vowed to work toward ensuring stability in the juggernaut program she built.

“I think they’re treating a unique situation in a very unique way,” Butler said. “And I’m really happy Holly is officially taking the reigns. There is no better choice, no better person, to lead that program.”

The news out of Knoxville hit particularly close for Butler -- and not just because of the SEC affiliations the Gators and Lady Vols share.

Butler was born in Mount Juliet, Tenn., where she scored more than 1,400 points and dreamed of playing for the coach credited with putting women’s college basketball on the map.

“I think any girl in the nation, and especially someone in my age group, if you wanted to play basketball you wanted to go to the University of Tennessee and play for Coach Summitt,” Butler said. “You were like, ‘How do I impress her?’ She was the standard of success and there is nothing else that is even close to that sort of greatness.”

Particularly gratifying for the UF coach was the time Summitt donated to advise the young, up-and-coming Butler during her ascension -- and even after her arrival -- to becoming a rival SEC coach.

And Butler wasn’t the only one. Summitt not only loved the game, but the people in it and was there to nurture their growth.

“The statistical things, like the number of wins and championships are there for everyone to see,” Butler said. “But there are things that can’t be measured, such as the impact she had on her players -- and will continue to have -- as well as her willingness to help people like me who are younger coaches trying to figure out how to be good coaches. She advised and mentored throughout her career. That's why I say she’s the best. Not just because she won more games than everybody. She was so much more.”