The University of Florida fired its new soccer coach Wednesday after only one season amid unprecedented numbers of players leaving the program after his hiring and complaints by athletes who said he pressured them about eating habits and their bodies. Florida’s athletic director, Scott Stricklin, notified players of the decision …
Read More »Ocala natives headline U.S. Long Track Olympic Trials for Beijing Games
Ocala is the unlikely hometown of three Winter Olympians vying for another chance to compete on the world’s biggest stage, this time at the 2022 Games in Beijing next month. Each is the No. 1 ranked skater in their respective events – 1,500 meters for Joey Mantia, 35; 1,000 meters …
Read More »Meet Joyce Nieves, the Ocala businesswoman behind 12 Rounds Boxing Inc.
12 Rounds is the only woman-owned boxing gym in the city. People who train there say Nieves offers local young people something to look forward to regardless of their history or finances.
Read More »Ocala’s Faith ‘Golden Girl’ Mendez competes in Junior Pan American Games
When she was 7 years old, well before moving with her family to Ocala two years ago, Faith Mendez wanted to become a boxer. No, her father told her. Carlos Mendez tried to put her in any other sport: basketball, swimming, tennis. She never quit asking. So one day five …
Read More »UF subpoenaed for student athlete records in an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA
The University of Florida must release financial aid records and related documents pertaining to all of its current student athletes – as well as all Gators from between 2016 and 2020 – as part of a potential class-action lawsuit against the NCAA and its Power Five conferences. All of the …
Read More »‘History we don’t want to lose’: What you should know about Sarah McKnight and her Gainesville establishments
The acts McKnight, a musician herself, brought to town attracted folks from all backgrounds, including white students from the University of Florida. Like much of Gainesville’s Black history, however, her story has become lost to the passage of time as well as urban development.
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