Part III of Carpe Diem 2007

The disappointment of losing in the state Final Four for the third straight year was replaced by a determination to end the frustration with a state championship. The Lake Howell Silver Hawks would have never won that Class 5A championship in 2007 without the bond and camaraderie of teammates that really loved and cared about each other. Part III of Carpe Diem 2007 focuses in on the team, the boys behind the championship.

(Publisher’s note—this series will be free to give you an idea of the kind of unparalleled and exclusive coverage Gator Country subscribers receive daily!)

John Calathes, who produced this exceptional documentary of one team’s season, made sure he caught the personalities of the kids which you will really see in this segment. You only think you’ve seen a rap video before. Watch the Lake Howell version of the rap video and you’ll start to understand kids from different backgrounds that blended into a band of brothers.

There is also a segment that features Al Pacino’s pre-game speech from the movie “Any Given Sunday” which seems to define one team’s determination to reach for and grab that final rung on a four-year ladder.

So from Gator Country, here is Part III of “Carpe Diem 2007”, again with thanks to John Calathes for sharing this extraordinary work with us.

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Franz Beard
Back in January of 1969, the late, great Jack Hairston, then the sports editor of the Jacksonville Journal, called me on the phone one night and asked me if I wanted to work for him. I said yes. The entire interview took 30 seconds. It's my experience that whenever the interview lasts 30 seconds or less, I get the job. In the 48 years that I've been writing and getting paid for it, I've covered Super Bowls, World Series, NCAA basketball championships, BCS championship games, heavyweight title fights and what seems like thousands of college football, baseball and basketball games. I'm a columnist and special assignments editor for Gator Country once again, writing about the only team that ever mattered to me, the Florida Gators.