Alice Mary Herden

Article and Photography by ALICE MARY HERDEN

Family and friends delightfully occupied the Shark’s gym during the Fall preseason two-day volleyball event at Nature Coast Tech on August 18 and 19. 

Preseason is usually geared towards finding where your players fit best on the court, preparation, and fine-tuning positions to face opponents across the net. 

For the next couple of weeks, student-athletes will be focused on the upcoming fall sports preseason events. For Hernando High’s head Coach Earl Garcia moving into his second season with the Leopards, it’s about keeping things simple. 

“We haven’t changed the way we implement plays,” Garcia said. “It’s blocking, tackling, and some kicking, so we try to make the complex simple, not the other way around.” 

Interview and Photography by Alice Herden, Hernando Sun

Q: For how long have you been Athletic Director (AD) for Springstead High?

A: Well, since I started in April I am actually already into my 6th year as AD at Springstead.

Q: Over the years have you seen changes in the way you adapted to your role and what would be some of those changes and how have they become instrumental in your position?

Summer is for summer camps, and as fall sports are less than a month away, the opportunity to build athletic skills in coordination and defining fundamental structure is essential for the growth of any athlete at any age. Nature Coast Tech and Springstead opened their gyms over the summer to offer volleyball camps for middle school students.

The Withlacoochee State Forest is 164,073 acres of pure Florida nature. Sandhill habitats to luscious swamps deep within the heart of the forest which spreads through sections of Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Pasco, and Sumter counties. This forest is home to thousands of wildlife and plant species as well as opportunities for recreational adventures and land stewardship.

Since the second week of June, Hernando Youth League (HYL) baseball traveled from Jacksonville to Alabama to seek championship titles. 

HYL coach Tim Sims and Timothy Whatley gave these young men an outlet during the most challenging and complex time the nation is facing- to nab a World Series championship title as they traveled to Alabama over the July 24 weekend. 

Brooksville- As mentioned in my previous article, there are a variety of responsibilities surrounding the Withlacoochee State Forest, one of those duties is to keep the public informed.

Judi Tear, Wildfire Mitigation Specialist & Information Officer at the Withlacoochee Forestry Center, is the one who keeps the public informed by providing essential information.

Brooksville, Fla.-- The Withlacoochee Forestry Center has many positions. One facet of any job is the ability to rely on each other. Gerri Velazquez, Facility Maintenance Administrator, and Cherie Plourde, Road Crew Staff, are great examples. 

In our previous article, Bev and I hiked the trails in the Withlacoochee State Forest seeking out woodland birds, and now it is time to explore a different type of habitat. For this adventure, we met up with Hernando Audubon member Claudia Amsler at a rookery on private property in southeast Brooksville.

The weekly series ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ with Lilly Browning was popular for local wildflower enthusiasts, and now I will take you on another journey: ‘Wild Skies’ Birding with Bev Hansen of the Hernando Audubon Society.

The Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail is a network of 510 premier wildlife viewing sites across the state, and eight of those locations can be found in Hernando County.