Stoudemire is Israeli MVP; McDonald, 95, remembered
Cypress Creek High School alum Amar’e Stoudemire is 37 and stands four years removed from the NBA. But he’s still is a formidable force in professional basketball.
The 6-foot-10 power forward was named MVP of last week’s Israeli League final four after leading Maccabi Tel Aviv to the championship. Stoudemire scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds in an 86-81 victory vs. Maccabi Rishon in a title game that was played without spectators in Tel Aviv due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Stoudemire’s teammates included former Florida Gators guard Scottie Wilbekin and 19-year-old Israeli sensation Deni Avdija, a potential lottery pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Avdija was the Israeli League regular-season MVP.
Just after completing his 14-year NBA career Stoudemire played for another Israeli title team, Hapoel Jerusalem, in 2017. He was NBA Rookie of the Year in 2002-03, a six-time All-Star, and All-NBA in the 2006-07 season alongside Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki and Phoenix Suns teammate Steve Nash.
Stoudemire was a Polk County product who played only one high school season in Orlando. But his NBA credentials are easily the most illustrious among area alums.
Fourth-year pro Ben Simmons, the 2017 NBA Rookie of the Year, could challenge for that distinction. The Montverde Academy
VARSITY
product is already a two-time All-Star for Philadelphia.
The most successful homegrown NBA player from the Orlando area would be 1970’s Evans High great Darryl Dawkins. He, like Stoudemire, played 14 seasons at the highest level.
Coaching icon dies: Carey McDonald, a founding father for Florida’s high school coaches association and a similar national organization, died last week at age 95 in Ocala.
McDonald served as executive director of the Florida Athletic Coaches Association from 1956 to 1977 and made it a model for numerous states. He was one of the founders of the National High School Athletic Coaches Association, which was assembled in 1965. McDonald served as that association’s director from 1973-88 in an era that saw the NHSACA grow exponentially in membership while forging ties with, among others, the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball.
Yes, he somehow piloted both organizations simultaneously for five years in a time frame that saw him work part-time out of an
Orlando office for several years and set up NHSACA headquarters in Maitland before shifting the operation closer to his longtime home base of Ocala. While doing so he forged personal relationships with the likes of NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, NCAA director Walter Byers, and legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.
“Carey was just ahead of his time on sports administration,” said John Hemmer, the renowned former Oak Ridge track and field coach who was inducted into the NHSACA Hall of Fame in 1998. “He touched so many levels, from the NFL down. He was tied in with CEOs of major corporations. He brought those connections to the high school realm and that made a tremendous difference. He was one of a kind.”
Hemmer served as president of the NHSACA in 1990-91.
McDonald’s family is holding a viewing on Friday and a service and burial on Saturday morning in Ocala with limited attendance under CDC coronavirus guidelines.
AAU aftermath: Lyman High volleyball standout Alanys Viera earned MVP honors while leading her Orlando Tampa Volleyball Academy team to a championship in last month’s AAU Junior National Volleyball Championships at the Orange County Convention Center.
The event was much smaller than in past years but was big enough to be one of the first major sports gatherings in the country following the coronavirus outbreak. It included some 330 teams from 32 states. So far, it has been judged as a success by many in the volleyball community.
“I’m really glad we pushed forward with this and ran it,” AAU president Roger Goudy said in an interview with Sports TravelMagazine.com. “In my opinion it went off without a hitch and the kids and parents seemed extremely happy.”
AAU partnered with the convention center and Orlando Health to craft safety protocols that included minimal spectators (chaperones), nightly electrostatic cleanings of the facility, and mandatory masking for all except players on the court.
A number of area high school coaches have said the AAU proved volleyball, which is listed as a “highrisk” sport according to NCAA COVID-19 guidelines, can be safely played at the high school level this fall.
The OTVA Felix 17 team, including Viera and Lyman teammate Valeria Rosado, went 10-0 in the tournament.
Open Division all-tourney picks from OTVA teams included Viera, Rosado and Raynya Mehta in the 17s age group; Nyah Molina, Ana Julia Bleeker, Nina Moorer and Laura Caro in 16s; Zeta Washington for 15s; and Alyssa Phegley for 14s.