The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • D2

COLORSTRIP: D2 Orlando Sentinel FRIDAY, 00 1 65 1 90 1 DAVE WEEKEND WATCHDOG LIVE ON THE AIR Each Sunday at 11:35 p.m., WFTV-Ch. 9 presents Sports Night on 9 with host Jenny Dunn. Sunday Showdown is a segment on the program involving Dunn and Sentinel writers talking about the hot topics and weekly picks: Bucs at Texans Dolphins at Bills Panthers at Jaguars Steelers at Patriots Heisman winner Bucs Bills Jaguars Patriots Tebow Bucs Bills Jaguars Patriots McFadden Bucs Dolphins Panthers Patriots Tebow JENNY DUNN JERRY GREENE BRIAN SCHMITZ THE PICKS SUNDAY SHOWDOWN Whit Watson has been a busy man this week. And not because been doing his holiday shopping, decorating and baking. Watson has been preparing for one of the most challenging assignments of his 17-year career: the play-by-play for eight state high school football championship games being played during the next two weekends.

16 schools from across Florida totaling 350-odd starters that Watson and game analyst Brady Ackerman will trackduring the championships at the Florida Citrus Bowl. a daunting challenge, but we have a lot of good people working on not out there on an Watson said this week. This is the first time all eight games of the finals are being broadcasted live. Sun Florida will have a crew of 25 on site, including sideline reporter Terry Norvelle The regional sports networks will use six cameras, and coaches will wearmicrophones during games. treat it like a college football Watson said.

lot of these players will be playing in their first and perhaps last televised game, and we want to make sure we get their names Watson said heisspending the better part of four days each week preparing for the games. an intense process that includes creating cheat sheets of the rosters, reading newspapers from around the state to find nuggets on players, checking Web sites such as Scout.com to see who isbeing recruitedand holding conference calls with coaches. of the things that makes it such a challenge is that we only have a few days to get ready, because the finals decided until a week he said. not like we can look at a schedule at the beginning of the season and know who we will be covering. The fact is, we have familiarity with a lot of these But as pro and college football fans, why would we be interested in this event? Easy, said Ackerman: if not a fan of high school is a great chance to see players who will be playing on Saturday, either next fall or down the road.

There will be more top recruits here next weekend the bigger classes are in but there will be some good talent on the field this weekend that enjoy Ackerman said that talent will include: Pahokee seniorwide receiver Martavious Odoms and senior cornerback JanorisJenkins recruits who are always making plays. Everyone in the country wants these two Newberry junior running back Antwan Ivey Brandon James -type back who can make big plays. He can go over 2,000 yards in the season with a good North Florida Christian junior linebacker CodyLedford played in last game and is going to be a top The first game is at 1p.m. todayon Sun Sports. Check our weekend television schedule for details.

WHITHER740 THE TEAM? Iwas disappointed when I heard 740AM (WQTM) is changing to a Spanish format. We still willbe able to hear Dan Sileo and The Finish Line on 540AM(WFLA), but that station be offering a 24-hour sports-talk format, which means be able to hear entertaining national personalitiessuch as Jim Rome Dan Patrick and J.T. The Brick And it leaves the market with just one sports-talk format: 1080AM(WHOO), an ESPN channel with a weaker signal. syndicated morning show has done well in Florida, especially in he is among the top-rated shows in the window, and he is negotiating a new contract with Clear Channel Communications. This comes at a time when the company has been slicing and dicing staff faster than a Veg-O- Matic, including longtime producer David Luke who was let go this week.

a personal standpoint, this is good for Sileo said. not a good thing for sports Dave Darling can be reached at Announcer gears up for state football finals up: Starting with Bulls- Pistons game on ESPN, NBA coaches will be required to wear a microphone during national games and will doin- game interviews with announcers. This is SportsCenter The Worldwide Leader in Self-Promotion airs a special at 8p.m. Tuesday, marking the 300th edition of its in-house ad campaign. Yes, many of these commercials have been downright stupid, but enough have been entertaining to fill an hour.

Upon further review: My apologies to the fine folks at Florida Atlantic, who scolded me with e-mails last weekend after I lopped the Owls into the same category as Florida International. FAU has been playing football for sevenyears and has made great strides under Coach Howard Schnellen- berger quietly putting together a 7-5record this season, including a victory againstTroylast weekend to sharethe Sun Belt Conference championship. Oh, and we meant no disrespect to Miami Northwestern Highfor mentioning its fine program in the same breath as FIU. Web line of the week, courtesy of DeadSpin.com: Yankees will play a spring training game at Virginia Tech against the Hokies, begging the obvious question: these people suffered BLAST FROM THE PAST here are thrilled to be hosting this event. In fact, Disney World is so excited about having this that they have installed a special Bob Costas during an interview with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show on June7, 1995, before Game1 of the NBA Finals between Orlando and Houston (the show re-aired last week) REMOTE PATROL JACOB LANGSTON SENTINEL (NOVEMBER 2006) Whit Watson has been busy preparing for 2 worth of live football broadcasts.

SCHNELLENBERGER Today SPORT EVENT TIME RADIO TV COL FB NCAA Division I FCS Semifinal GOLF Merrill Lynch Shootout NBA Bulls at NBA Pacers at NBA Jazz at PREP FB 1B title: FAMU vs. Jupiter Christian 1:001080 AMSUN PREP FB 1A title: N. Fla. Christian vs. American Heritage 7:001080 AMSUN SOCCER College Saturday SPORT EVENT TIME RADIO TV COL FB Richmond vs.

Appalachian COL FB Heisman Trophy COL FB NCAA Division II GOLF Merrill Lynch MBK Arizona at IllinoisNoonESPN MBK Dayton at MBK Michigan at Duke MBK Wake Forest at MBK Iowa at Iowa MBK Pittsburgh at MBK Kentucky at MBK Purdue at MBK Marquette at MBK Michigan St. at NBA Celtics at Chicago PREPS Sentinel Varsity PREP FB 2B title: Newberry vs. Pahokee 1:001080 PREP FB 2A title: Madison County vs. Tampa Catholic 7:001080 NHL Islanders at SOCCER EPL: Sunderland at Sunday SPORT EVENT TIME RADIO TV GOLF Merrill Lynch MBK George Washington at Virginia MBK Ole Miss at AM MBK Maine at AM MBK Boston College at NFL Panthers at AM NFL Dolphins at FM WKMG-6 NFL Buccaneers at AMWOFL-35 NFL Steelers at NFL Colts at NOTE: All times p.m., except where noted by FSN Florida is available locally on DirecTV, DISH and Comcast Orlando. UFFSUUCFMiamiBCUFAMU Michigan Capital One Bowl Jan.

1, 1 WFTV-9 Kentucky Music City Bowl Dec. 31, 4 ESPN Miss. State Liberty Bowl Dec. 29, 4:30 ESPN Season Over Season Over Season Over USFFAUFIUBucsDolphinsJags Oregon Sun Bowl Dec. 31, 2 WKMG-6 Memphis New Orleans Bowl Dec.

21, 8 ESPN2 Season Over Texans 1 WOFL-35 Bills 1 WKMG-6 Panthers 1 ALL TIMES P.M.HOME GAMES SHADED FOOTBALL PLANNER TO REPORT SCORES OR NEWS: LOCAL PHONE 407-420-5474 TOLL FREE 1-800-347-6868 BY E-MAIL If you have a comment or compliment, contact Associate Managing Editor for Sports Lynn Hoppes at nel.com or 407-420-5122. If you have a comment on high school coverage, contact High School Sports Editor Stephen Ruiz at 407-420-5008 or orlandosentinel.com. If you want to write a letter to the sports editor for publication, send it to sentinel.com or to Sports Editor, Orlando Sentinel, 633 N. Orange Orlando, 32801. Please include your name, hometown and a phone number (not for publication).

CONTACT US FHSAA football finals at the Citrus Bowl 407-839-3900 Champs Sports Bowl (Boston College vs. Mich. State) 407-839-3900 Orlando Magic 407-89-MAGIC or orlandomagic.com TICKET PLANNER Product: OSBS PubDate: 12-07-2007 Zone: FLA Edition: ROP Page: User: lknabel Time: Color: CMYK.