FOUR BLOOMINGDALE WRESTLERS PLACE AT STATES

The Bloomingdale High School boys’ wrestling team placed seventh overall and had four athletes place in the state championships with the leadership of their firstyear head coach this spring.

Coach Mark Church took over after serving as an assistant with the Bulls’ team for five years. After the departure of their previous head coach at the beginning of the year, he knew he had to step up to preserve the wrestling team at Bloomingdale.

“I just felt like I couldn’t just leave [the athletes], so I stepped up as head coach this year,” said Church, who wrestled for Brandon High School when he was a student.

In his first year as head coach, Church coached around 30 boys and won district duels and the district championships. After the district championships, 10 wrestlers qualified to compete in the ‘Region of Doom,’ where the Bulls placed second overall.

Six of Church’s athletes advanced to states in Kissimmee at the beginning of March where Anthony Cubero placed sixth, Nathaniel Overman placed second, Jose Milord placed third and James Singer placed seventh. Overman narrowly lost in the state finals after a decisive 2-point call went against the Bulls’ senior to force them into overtime.

By Lily Belcher

While the season officially started in December 2022, the preparation, Church emphasized, started long before. His athletes train throughout the summer and into the fall, working on fundamentals and conditioning to prepare them for each match.

“These kids work year-round, and it basically showed this year,” said Church. “I’m just big on basics and making sure they’re conditioned well to wrestle a complete match.”

Church and his team are also responsible for fundraising and other administrative behind-the-scenes functions. Church leaned on fellow faculty and parents to support him and allow him to focus purely on coaching his athletes on the mat.

Heading into the next season, Church is looking to recruit younger athletes, even appealing to middle schoolers to set them up for a wrestling career in high school.

“It’s a great sport,” he said about wrestling. “… It’s good personal growth, it teaches a lot of life lessons in a short amount of time.”

For more information on Bloomingdale High School’s wrestling team, please contact Church at mark. church@hcps.net.

Legendary Brandon High School Wrestling Coach Russ Cozart Retires

By Nick Nahas

have gone on to the next level — and he remembers each one.

Russ has been a teacher and coach for 47 years, 43 of those at Brandon High School.

Russ Cozart is arguably the best high school wrestling coach in the country. The legendary eight-time Florida Coach of the Year is walking away from the mat, at least for now.

The Brandon High School coach gave way to his youngest son, Joe Cozart, five years ago and has been an assistant for the program since. He also was in charge of the new girls’ team this past season. The Brandon gym, known as ‘The Nest,’ where countless victories took place for the Eagles, will be renamed after Russ in May.

The coach’s legacy has been set in stone for some time. For 34 years, the Eagles obliterated the competition, setting the record for the longest winning streak in American sports history with an astounding 459 wins in a row. The Streak, an ESPN documentary that came out in 2008, chronicled the winning streak that started way back in 1974 under head coach Jim Graves and continued up until 2008 under Russ. The streak came to an end in 2008 when South Dade defeated Brandon 32-28; however, the dynasty didn’t end there, as the Eagles won 17 state championships in a row after the streak ended, and 27 state championships overall. Cozart also coached 119 individual state champions, and over 60 of his players

The coach entered the Florida Retirement System’s DROP program five years ago and has reached the end of the DROP period, which means he can volunteer with the wrestling team, but he can’t be reemployed for a whole year.

“I’m a pretty energetic guy. I’d like to keep going. I am getting old, I look old,” joked Russ. “I still want to be involved just for my own personal sake. This is a big moment in all teachers’ and coaches’ lives when they get at the end of the Florida Retirement System DROP program. It is a big game-changer. Maybe I’m a little bit like Tom Brady; I may come back, I may not. This is the type of milestone that’s kind of happening at the moment.”

Russ, who conducted thousands of workouts in his time, will miss teaching the sport to all age levels. One of his many proud accomplishments is starting the Youth Club at Brandon, which still runs to this day.

“My gift is wrestling. I was a youth wrestler and I’ve always wanted to give that part of my life back,” said Russ. “When I get too old and I can’t teach half nelsons and double legs and about the great aspects of being part of a sport, I’ll miss that the most.”

The program is in good hands with his son leading the ship. The younger Cozart was a four-time state champion at Brandon, a USA national champion and a two-time national collegiate champion.

Raptor Center Of Tampa Bay Aims For Rescue And Conservation

The Raptor Center of Tampa Bay (RCTB) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the creation and maintenance of a wildlife facility designed for the care, treatment and rehabilitation of birds of prey and other wildlife. While there is not a physical facility yet, there are plans to develop one — and that has not stopped founder Nancy Murrah and the Raptor Center team from doing what they can until that facility comes to fruition.

RCTB was born out of another organization with a mission of helping wildlife known as Tampa Bay Raptor Rescue. The Raptor Center was created in 2018 to serve a greater purpose than rescue, as there is a focus on education about these animals, their habitats and some of the obstacles they face in modern times.

“Our message is simple: We plan to educate people of all ages, what they can do to help turn this extinction around and, in a short and simple way, explain how all of our ecosystems and the food web are tied together,” Murrah said.

RCTB is very efective in its work, as there are roughly 1,000 animals that receive care through the organization, and there are even a few resident animal ‘ambassadors’ for the facility. While the primary focus is on raptors and other birds of prey, it is capable of handling many reptiles and mammals as well for short periods of time before get-

By Jonathan Hurst

ting in contact with specialists for those animals. Unfortunately, as things currently stand, the demand for the services of the Raptor Center outweighs what its resources allow, as birds are turned away every day due to the lack of resources and space, which is why the future rehabilitation facility is so important. These creatures are in need of assistance, and that is the void that those involved with RCTB are determined to fill.

“As a lifelong conservationist, I have watched our wildlife battle habitat destruction, polluting our waterways, plastic pollution, deforestation and many other terrible things that have resulted in a 27 percent reduction of birds worldwide during my lifetime. … I want to do my part so the young people on the planet today have hope,” Murrah said.

RCTB recently acquired and is in the process of refurbishing a donated prison bus that will be transformed into a traveling education center. This center will be used for a variety of educational purposes, such as the “We Can Stop It” show and housing RCTB’s educational ambassadors.

If you would like to help, donate or simply get more information, check out RCTB’s Facebook page @RaptorCenterofTampaBay or its website, www.raptorcenteroftampabay.org.

Employment Opportunities Available

By Makenzie Atkins Noel

One of the community’s staple jewelry and repair shops has purchased a new storefront right in the heart of Brandon.

McAuley Fine Jewelry is now located at 201 S. Kings Ave. in Brandon and is excited to host a new grand opening event this summer.

Fine Jewelry had spent the month of March moving and organizing while getting ready to open the new storefront.

Though McAuley Fine Jewelry is still waiting on some final touches before it opens the new doors, the team is eager to share the new store with customers.

“We’re really excited to have had the opportunity to buy a building in the heart of Brandon. It’s literally the building directly behind ours,” said Jennifer McAuley, co-owner of McAuley Fine Jewelry.

The grand opening event will be Saturday, May 20 from 4 p.m.-6 p.m. and will include free jewelry checks and cleanings, rafes, custom jewelry design, watch and jewelry repairs along with a “previously loved” jewelry sale.

Through the move, two tenants remain in the building, Divine Glow Aesthetics and Carmen’s Tailoring, while Audibel Hearing Center has moved by Bill’s Prescription Center.

McAuley Fine Jewelry ofers experienced team members to aid with jewelry and watch repairs, custom design work as well as purchasing your gold. The shop has a tight group of employees, many of whom stayed with McAuley Fine Jewelry after Martin’s Jewelers closed. The team members at McAuley Fine Jewelry have a wide skill set to assist customers. When designing a piece, the experts at the shop suggest doing research online to find images of jewelry you like. This will give inspiration and direction for the team to help create the perfect piece at your consultation. If there is a specific item you are looking for that McAuley Fine Jewelry does not have, many times the team will be able to order from one of McAuley Fine Jewelry’s U.S. vendors with next-day delivery.

When the owners of Martin’s Jewelers retired in 2017, the McAuley family took over the storefront to continue serving the area as the previous owners had. McAuley Fine Jewelry is now moving into a new building near the old location in order to continue growing and help more customers with their jewelry needs. And while it may not be Martin’s Jewelers anymore, the beloved owner of Martin’s Jewelers, Joe Martin, still works for the shop, claiming he failed retirement.