bserver O
PLANT CITY
You. Your neighbors. Your neighborhood.
FREE • thursday, OCTOBER 18, 2012
sports
IN FOCUS
spotlight
Durant softball team ‘rings’ in the new year.
Durant High students celebrate homecoming week.
Students take ‘advantage’ of fall festivities.
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Fame Game
OUR TOWN
fundraiser
By Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
by Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
Youth Alliance plans first gala
+ Optimist Club preps for tourney The Plant City Optimist Club and the Plant City Recreation & Parks Department are still looking for players for the annual Golf Classic. The tournament will begin with a shotgun start at 1 p.m. Nov. 3, at Walden Lake Golf & Country Club, 2001 Clubhouse Drive. The format will be a four-person scramble. The tournament also will include a special putting contest and awards for closest to the pin and longest drive. The cost is $60 per player; various sponsorships are available. Registration and payment must be received by Oct. 31. For more information, visit plantcityoptimistclub.org or call Walt Arnold, (813) 7521602; Jeb Hicks, (813) 6591052; Paul Woods, (813) 752-0356 or Pat Stottlemyer, (813) 759-1019.
+ Theater hosts awards banquet Plant City Entertainment honored many of its brightest stars during the community theater’s 27th annual Applause Awards Banquet Sept. 29, at the theater, 101 N. Thomas St. Awards included: • Brad Behan, Friend of the Theater Award: Bailey Family Foundation: • Best Production: “The Red Velvet Cake War” • Best Director: Dodie White, “Don’t Tell Mother” • President’s Award: Domin Pazo • Hall-of-Fame Award: Judy Barta • Best Actor: John Harrer, “The Red Velvet Cake War” • Best Actress: Jennifer Fenner Jackson, “The Red Velvet Cake War” • Technical Contribution: Paul Hetrick, “Don’t Tell Mother” • Best Supporting Actor: Tyler Hollis, “Don't Tell Mother” • Best Supporting Actress: Mollie Anderson, “The Red Velvet Cake War”
The Jeans and Jacket Gala will feature several celebrity guests.
Courtesy photo
Reece Smith, third from left, will take the field again for the coin toss at Plant City’s homecoming game.
HALL OF FAME HOMECOMING William Reece Smith Jr. will be inducted into the Plant City High School Hall of Fame Thursday, Oct. 18.
Four football players crouch low to the ground, hands out in front ready to receive the ball, ready to play, ready to attack. The boys appear young, handsome and ready to take on the world in the old black-and-white photograph from 1942. But one player stands out from the others. He is poised in the foreground, making direct eye contact with the camera, showing confidence, raw athleticism and tenacity. He is William Reece Smith Jr., a 1943 graduate of Plant City High School, accomplished scholar, talented athlete and a successful lawyer. Little did Smith expect a phone call 70 years later from the date of that picture from his alma mater.
Sherrie Mueller, college and career counselor, contacted Smith in August to notify him he was selected to be part of the Plant City High School Hall of Fame. “I’m proud and very pleased that my friends in Plant City remember me,” Smith said. “It’s nice to be remembered.” Although Smith was born in east Tennessee, he grew up in Plant City on West Reynolds Street. Smith liked hunting, fishing and flirting with the pretty girls while he was in school. Smith and his friends used to sneak down to the pool hall on weekend nights, careful not to tell his parents because the pool hall sold beer. His father knew, however, because the owner would call and tell him that Smith was
there and that he would keep an eye on him. “It was a good place to grow up,” Smith said. “It was a small town where almost everybody looked after you.” At Plant City High School, Smith played football with some of his closest friends, Jack Bender, Joe Brown and Shorty Brown. The highlight of Smith’s Plant City High School football career was when his team played Plant High School in 1942. As one of the smaller schools in the Big Ten Conference, Plant City High School still managed to beat Plant High School, a football giant in Tampa. After Smith graduated high
SEE FAME / PAGE 8
INDEX Crossword.......... 19
You can’t be overdressed at this gala. The first Jeans and Jacket Gala is taking place Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Strawberry Festival Expo Hall. The gala is hosted by The Youth Alliance, an organization geared toward helping children reach their potential and inspiring them to become leaders in their homes, schools and community. “It’s really bringing a lot of awareness to The Youth Alliance,” organizer Peggy Nelson said. “It gives us an opportunity for us to share with people about The Youth Alliance. This organization really makes a difference.” The Youth Alliance coordinates speakers to travel to different schools in Plant City and Tampa. Speakers talk to students who are having problems. One speaker tries to inspire students to focus on the future, no matter what their past is, by sharing a story about his childhood. He came from a broken home after his mother gave him to her 10th-grade teacher because she could not take care of him. “The impact that these presenters make — you can hear a pin drop in an auditorium of 1,000 kids,” Nelson said. “A lot of the students just don’t have anyone whether they’re bullied or feel like they’re not pretty enough. They need someone to know they care.” Nelson and her husband, Mike, got involved in The Youth Alliance at an event, after the founder talked with Mike. “Something connected there,” Nelson said. Students have written letters to The Youth Alliance about the impact the assemblies have had on them, some even admitting they wanted to commit suicide before
SEE GALA / PAGE 8 Vol. 1, No. 16 | One section
Obituaries.......... 13
Opinion.................8
Sports................ 15
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