The Ol' Ball Coach

Milliken prepares to finish career

By Steve Dorsey, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 10, 2007

After 23 years of coaching high school baseball, Russ Milliken has decided it's time to move on. He said Monday this will be his final season coaching at Forest Hill High in West Palm Beach.

Milliken has coached the Falcons the past 12 years, enduring a few seizures as a result of a near-fatal bout with encephalitis after a mosquito bite in 1991. After he came out of a coma that year, a Miami doctor told him there was a good chance he might die. Milliken overcame memory loss and the seizures, though, and has continued to teach and coach at Forest Hill, a storied baseball program.

"If ever anyone was given a second chance at life," Milliken said a few years ago, "the good Lord gave Russ Milliken a second chance. ... The doctor said I was just too stubborn to die."

With two weeks left in the regular season, Forest Hill appears to have a solid chance at making the regional playoffs, as long as it can make it to the championship game of the District 14-4A tournament in Fort Pierce. The Falcons enter tonight's home game against a strong Park Vista team with a 13-7 record.

Milliken said he actually contemplated stepping down after last season, but decided to coach one more year for the Falcons' six seniors. Three of them - Patrick Roedel, Ethan Root and Mike Wunderlich - have grown under Milliken's tutelage since they were 8 and attended his annual summer baseball camp.

Milliken is not calling it quits completely, however. He said he will continue to coach, but it will be at the Little League level at Phipps Park, where his two sons, Madison and Kyle, play. He said he's looking forward to that experience, but he knows it will be an emotional moment when he coaches his final high school game sometime in the next few weeks.

"I really, really enjoy high school baseball, and I don't want to go to the point where I don't enjoy it any more," Milliken said. "My two favorite times of the day are going to baseball practice and going home to my family."

Milliken said the only thing he regrets is that his father, who died in 1982, never had the chance to see him coach. Otherwise, he said it's been a wonderful experience.

"I've had great assistant coaches in Tony Morales and Scott Friday, and I've met a lot of great people," Milliken said. "And getting to know all of the great coaches around here, guys like Jack Kokinda (at Cardinal Newman) and Dave Manzo (at Lake Worth), has been great."

As he took a break from Monday's practice, Milliken stared toward the center-field fence at Forest Hill's Jim Heaton Field, and then in his typical comical manner, gave another reason for stepping down after this season.

"There's only one guy who has been here longer, Jim Heaton, and they named the field after him," Milliken said. "I told my wife I don't want anything named after me because that usually means you've died. ... When I die, I just want them to spread half of my ashes over the baseball field at Forest Hill and the other half over a fishing ground in the Keys."

Copyright © 2007, The Palm Beach Post.

Holy Shit, Brad!

Family reunion the greatest gift for soldier

By Mitra Malek, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Barmore returned to his hometown Monday after a six-month tour of duty in Baghdad, arriving at Palm Beach International Airport five minutes behind schedule. His mother, Dawn, fidgeted with the green, curling ribbon hanging from a "Welcome Back!" balloon as she waited. Also eager for a hug: dad, sister, nephew, aunt and a half-dozen family friends.

Each got one shortly after Barmore, 36, entered the building. Well-wishers applauded the man in sand-colored fatigues.

"The temperature is the same as in Baghdad," Barmore said. "Everything else is wonderfully different."

Barmore will be spending the next two weeks at his parents' home in Wellington, along with his wife, two sons and newborn daughter. They arrived later Monday, after heavy snow in the Northeast slowed the drive from Utica, N.Y., where his wife's family lives.

"She's sleeping and beautiful," he said after getting the first glimpse of his daughter.

Barmore's brother will arrive Thursday from Gainesville. Once everyone is together, his mother will lay out the holiday buffet, turn on the Christmas lights and offer presents to the children.

"The stockings are hung by the chimney with care," Dawn Barmore said. Five to be exact - one each for her son, his wife and their three children.

As luck would have it, Barmore's wife was due to give birth three months after he headed to Iraq with the 163rd Military Intelligence Battalion. He knew it would be a girl, and that she'd probably be named Ashley because his wife, Jan, has always been fond of the name.

Ashley was due Nov. 14, but she didn't arrive that day. So Brad called home every day after that; usually the couple e-mails or sends instant messages. On the morning of Nov. 21, he got an e-mail from his wife's sister announcing the birth of a black-haired, blue-eyed girl.

Missing the birth wasn't terrible, said Barmore, who helped deliver his 21/2-year-old son, Gregory.

Barmore, a graduate of Forest Hill High School and the University of Florida, specializes in Korean. He said he's mainly monitoring computer equipment during his first tour of duty since joining the military in 2003. It's a departure from his expertise, but an area where he was needed, he said.

He'll head back again for at least six more months. Meanwhile, he'll enjoy Chinese food, Russo's original submarines and a concentrated dose of family life.

Copyright © 2007, The Palm Beach Post.

FHHS in the News

Palm Beach County teacher's place in geography bee: No. 1

High school educator goes far with knowledge

By Rhonda J. Miller
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The champion of the National Geography Bee for adults is a Palm Beach County teacher with nine college degrees and an attitude.

"I'm just an old country hick school teacher," said Jerry Holt, 57, who won the National Geographic Society competition by knowing tidbits such as the capital city at the junction of the Pilcomayo and Paraguay Rivers.

The answer: Asuncion.

Blame his attitudes about teaching and learning on his mother, Odell Holt, a teacher who made sure family life in Panama City carved out major chunks of time for the library.

He's taught almost every subject in 36 years and is now an English and International Baccalaureate instructor and wrestling coach at Forest Hill High School in West Palm Beach.

Although Holt holds vast geographical informationthat led to his title, such as that the gulf that forms the southwestern coast of Spain and the southern border of Portugal is the Gulf of Cadiz, he hasn't been to most places he named to win the Dec. 1 contest in Washington, D.C., hosted by Alex Trebek of Jeopardy!

Holt traveled to several Caribbean countries and briefly crossed the borders into Mexico and Canada.

He travels a lot in the United States, almost always for education.

He spent several summers in Moscow. Not Moscow, Russia. Moscow, Idaho. That's the home of the University of Idaho, where he earned a doctorate. He received his other doctorate in education at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

Holt attended Dartmouth College in New Hampshire to earn a master's degree in African studies.

"I would love to travel to Africa, but it's prohibitively expensive," Holt said.

The expenses are covered for Holt's prize in the geography bee, a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands.

No doubt he knows they are off the coast of Ecuador.

Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Whatever Happened to Robby Thompson?

An All-star love of the game

By Andrew Abramson, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 07, 2006

TEQUESTA — Forget the money, All-Star selections, National League pennant, records and fame.

Just turn back the clock a quarter-century to a baseball diamond at Forest Hill High.

That's where a shaggy-haired kid tried to emulate Pete Rose, winked at his high school sweetheart, Brenda, and played for school pride.

"When you're younger, going through high school, everyone wants high school to finish up so you can move on and get out in the real world," Robby Thompson, 44, said. "But I think as we all sit here we'd like to all go back and do it again - youth, being out and free in the sports that we're involved in. I'd love to go back and play high school baseball again."

Unlike many high school stars, Thompson's days on the diamond were just beginning at Forest Hill.

The second baseman and basketball star for the Falcons graduated in 1980, grabbed a spot on the then-Palm Beach Junior College team, worked his way to the Florida Gators roster and within six years of leaving Forest Hill, was facing Nolan Ryan, baseball's all-time strikeout king, in the Astrodome on opening day 1986.

"I got in (Ryan's) book quickly. I struck out," Thompson said. "My next at-bat I doubled off the left-center wall.

"I was just thinking, 'This is great. I'm in the big leagues and I'm facing Nolan Ryan. How much better can it get?' Those are the thoughts that go through your head. There was no fear, just excitement."

During the next 10 seasons, he broke nearly every Giants record for second basemen in the San Francisco era.

He led the National League with 11 triples in 1989, the same year the Giants lost to Oakland in the earthquake-delayed World Series.

He was a 1988 and 1993 All-Star, but was injured both times and couldn't play. He won a Gold Glove in 1993.

Thompson and his wife, Brenda, met as students at then-Conniston Junior High. She played volleyball at Forest Hill and PBCC and was with Thompson during his minor-league stops in Fresno, Calif., and Shreveport, La.

"We were the only married couple with a kid in the minors," Brenda Thompson said.

Their son, Drew, 20, a former batboy for the Giants, is now a minor-league player in the Twins organization.

Twin sons Tyler and Logan, 17, play for Jupiter High and their daughter, Kristeena, 24, lives in the area.

Thompson signed with the Cleveland Indians in 1997, the same year the Indians lost to the Marlins in the World Series, but retired before the season began.

Today, Thompson is a special assistant to the general manager of the Cleveland Indians, evaluating minor-leaguers in the organization.

He has spent time as a major-league bench coach and might pursue coaching and eventually managing after his sons head to college.

Copyright © 2006, The Palm Beach Post

In with the New School

Atlantic High sees other schools embrace its academy model

By Christina DeNardo, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 28, 2006

With 2,400 students, Atlantic High can seem more like a small town than a high school.

Students run across a campus spread over 44 acres trying to make it to class before the bell rings, passing hundreds of others along the way.

For freshmen accustomed to smaller classes, fewer teachers and a smaller workload, today's mammoth high schools can shake even the toughest. Add the stresses of adolescence and greater independence, and it's no wonder that some students lose their way in ninth grade.

But when Atlantic opened its new school in August 2005, it welcomed back more than 500 black Delray Beach students previously bused to schools in Boca Raton, including many who struggled academically. To meet the challenge of bringing all its incoming freshmen up to grade level, Atlantic created a smaller atmosphere for its freshmen.

Rather than taking classes with hundreds of different students throughout the day, they would attend many of their classes with the same core group of classmates and have many of the same teachers throughout high school.

For years, students in the school's International Baccalaureate program have attended classes in a different part of campus and with only IB students. Administrators wanted to create a similar model, although they could not create pure freshman academies because of differences in students' schedules. Instead, they separated freshmen from upperclassmen for major courses — English, math, social studies and science — and put as many familiar faces in those classes as they could.

Though the academies are not always pure — students say they don't see all the same students in their classes — the results were astonishing, officials said. Absentee rates, suspensions and retentions went down and student engagement and achievement went up. Despite the district's prediction the school would drop to a D, Atlantic maintained its B.

Now, several other high schools are using the model to engage students in their first year of high school and cut the drop-out rate. Palm Beach Lakes, Royal Palm Beach, Forest Hill, Boynton Beach and Glades Central high schools have created their own version of the academies. Atlantic High has even expanded its academies to include 10th-graders.

"The whole point is to break the school down and make it more personal," said Forest Hill High Principal Mayra Stafford, who is putting students in all grades into academies. "Some kids rise to the top and everyone knows who they, but there is a vast majority of kids we are completely losing and nobody knows who they are."

All teachers in the academies share a common planning period to discuss concerns about specific students. If Jimmy is falling behind in social studies, his math teacher will know. By talking to other teachers who share the same students, teachers get to know students better. And that rapport is crucial, educators say.

Thousands of new schools or schools-within-schools — 400 or fewer students — have been launched nationwide during the past few years. Many are stand-alone schools created from scratch. Others were formed by dividing big schools into several small learning communities or academies. The idea is to have as many eyes looking at students, to catch them when they fall.

In Palm Beach County, the graduation rate has increased slightly during the past five years as the district has added career academies to give students vocational skills, but 30 percent of students still don't graduate. High schools are banking on the academies to bolster achievement and keep students in schools.

It worked at Atlantic High in the 2005-2006 school year: 3.7 percent of students failed ninth grade, compared with the district average of 10 percent. Absences also went down, with freshmen missing 3.15 days, two days fewer than the district average.

Though research shows that smaller learning communities can improve academic achievement for most students and decrease dropout rates, critics say that implementing those that can yield substantial progress is difficult. Like Atlantic High, many schools struggled to schedule students in the same classes. Teachers also require a lot of professional development to work together and coordinate lessons.

When academies are not pure, some students don't know the difference. Those that do say they make a huge difference, although they are not sure they like getting the same teachers again.

Freshman Michelle Singer likes not having upperclassmen in her classes and said it helps with the transition from Carver Middle. Many of her classes are also in the same area of the school, helping her get comfortable with the large campus.

"It's kind of the same as middle school," she said. "We're not stuck with all the older kids.

Copyright © 2006, The Palm Beach Post

0 and 1

John I. Leonard 60, Forest Hill 7

By Argenis Fradique
Special to the Palm Beach Post

Saturday, August 26, 2006

WEST PALM BEACH — John I. Leonard scored 12 seconds into its season as Melvin Stewart returned the opening kickoff for an 80-yard touchdown and the Lancers routed Forest Hill 60-7 Friday night.

Things just got worse for the Falcons as a fumbled exchange on their first offensive play led to Israel Roberson's 9-yard touchdown run to make it 13-0 Leonard with 10: 45 left in the first quarter.

Forest Hill (0-1) scored on its next drive as tailback Cesar Williams had a 46-yard touchdown run but again the Falcons special teams failed them as Jerrod Timmons took the ensuing kickoff for a 92-yard touchdown return that made it 21-7.

Leonard (1-0) got its fourth, first-quarter touchdown more conventionally after a quick three-play 55-yard drive was capped off by quarterback Jake Boyd's 1-yard plunge. Boyd also threw two touchdowns to tight end Nick Provo, who scored a third touchdown reception, on a 62-yard pass in the fourth quarter from backup quarterback Jeff Cross.

Forest Hill turned over the ball over six times including five fumbles in a steady rain throughout the game; Falcons running back Cesar Williams rushed for 130 yards on 25 carries.

Keith Dawkins led the Lancers with 103 yards rushing on six carries and Roberson added 81 yards.

STATS

Copyright © 2006, The Palm Beach Post.

Alumns on MySpace

Some guy named Sid
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Brian Farrell (sp?)
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Andy Fine
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John Bolinger

Anitra Andrews' Mom

Polo Park's new principal says middle schoolers have special appeal

By Laura Ammerman, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, July 26, 2006

For Marcia Andrews, there's just something special about working with middle schoolers.

"I am a middle school person ... I think that when you can make a difference at the middle school level, you can really make a difference for high school," she said. "It's a time when the children are changing ... they need a lot of counseling, support, assistance and caring."

Andrews, a 33-year veteran of the Palm Beach County School district, is the new principal at Polo Park Middle School. She replaced former principal Connie Gregory. Andrews, 56, earned a bachelors degree in education at Florida Atlantic University and a masters degree in administration and supervision at Nova Southeastern University. Her career in education began in 1973 when she taught sixth-grade language arts at Jefferson Davis Middle School (now Palm Springs Middle) in Palm Springs. Since then, Andrews has worked as an assistant principal at Jefferson Davis and as principal at Bear Lakes Middle in West Palm Beach. For the past three years, she's worked as administrative director for recruitment and program planning, a job that she says helped her develop a specialty in teacher recruitment.

"I can bring experience from all of my 33 years," Andrews said, "from being a teacher and a former principal as well as a district level administrator to enhance the wonderful qualities that the school has in place."

Though she said she's always loved working for the school district, the job at Polo Park Middle School gives Andrews the chance to do something she's never done before: Serve the community where she lives.

The 20-year Wellington resident remembers the days before the area had its own schools. Students in the western communities rode buses to schools in the eastern part of the county. Her daughter, now a teacher at Royal Palm Beach High School, took the bus to Forest Hill High School and graduated just a year or two before Wellington High School opened.

"I've never had an opportunity to work in my community," she said. "This is big. I'm pretty excited about that, having been here for 20 years and seeing all the schools open, but I was usually working at the district office or doing something else."

Andrews said she's pleased with the staff at Polo Park Middle School and the school's A-rated ranking.

"I'm joining an 'A' team, very outstanding from the academic side," she said. "This is a school where people love to come and work. It's very well organized, very well run. It's a winning team."

This year the school will have 97 teachers and about 1,700 students, she said. Next school year, the number of students should decrease to about 1,100 kids because a new middle school will open east of State Road 7 between Forest Hill Boulevard and Lake Worth Road.

To maintain the focus and energy she needs to manage about 1,700 middle school students and almost 100 teachers, Andrews balances her work with the rest of her life. In her free time she jogs, plays tennis and spends time with her daughter and son-in-law and four grandchildren, which include 4-year-old triplets. She and her husband Robert have been married for 35 years.

She said she encourages teachers and other workers at the school to strive for balance in their lives.

"[I want] all of our support people - the whole 'village' - to be balanced in their lives so that when they come (to school) every day, they'll be excited about making the difference in the lives of students."

Copyright © 2006, The Palm Beach Post.

R.I.P. Coach Jacobs

Longtime Forest Hill AD, football coach dies

By Marcus Nelson, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Jerry Jacobs, the longtime Forest Hill coach and athletic director, died Monday after being diagnosed recently with cancer.

He was 71.

Mr. Jacobs spent 33 years working for the Palm Beach County school system — including 30 years at Forest Hill High School, where he was the AD from 1967 until he retired in 1991.

Mr. Jacobs also served as the Falcons' football coach and track and field coach.

"He was just terrific," said track and field coach Dick Melear, who coached against Mr. Jacobs for years at Palm Beach High, Twin Lakes and Palm Beach Lakes. "He was very tough, but people just loved him."

Mr. Jacobs was the football coach of Forest Hill from 1965-74, during which the Falcons were 50-46-4.

Among the athletes Mr. Jacobs coached were former NFL players Ottis Anderson and Ken Stone.

Mr. Jacobs also coached Harry Winkler, the most decorated athlete in Forest Hill history. Winkler, who graduated in 1963, was an all-state basketball player, state champion in shot put and decathlon, and played both sports at Florida.

An accomplished athlete himself, Mr. Jacobs was a four-year starter on the Florida State football team and also lettered in track and field for four years for FSU.

Before his educational career, Mr. Jacons served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Japan.

After he retired, Jacobs was a substitute teacher at Forest Hill, current Athletic Director Patricia Jozayt said.

Jozayt started her career in 1974 at Forest Hill under Jacobs as a girls volleyball and basketball coach.

"He was stern, but fair," Jozayt said.

Mr. Jacobs was inducted into the Palm Beach County Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 and received the Palm Beach County Sports Commission Service Award in 1995.

"He left an imprint on a lot of people," said former Forest Hill Athletic Director George Wood, who played for Jacobs from 1965-67 and also was an assistant coach on Mr. Jacobs' staff — the start of a 32-year career at Forest Hill. "There's not a player who didn't respect him because he treated everybody the same."

Mr. Jacobs is survived by his wife, Beverly, of West Palm Beach, and two sons, Greg, of Tampa, and, Scott, of West Palm Beach.

Visitation is set for 5 p.m. Friday at Quattlebaum Funeral Home with a 6:30 p.m. scripture service.

A memorial Mass is set for 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Juliana Catholic Church.

Copyright © 2006, The Palm Beach Post.

An Alum, Who Does Us Proud

Wild Video Shows Shady Side Of Clematis

POSTED: 11:44 am EDT May 25, 2006
UPDATED: 11:58 am EDT May 25, 2006

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A locally produced video is causing a stir in West Palm Beach.

WPBF-TV News reported that "Clematis After Dark" is a "girls gone wild" type of video that portrays people doing lewd things for the camera on the popular Clematis Street.

Forest Hill High School graduate David Fitzgerald directed the movie with a friend. He said it took years to shoot and edit, but getting the raw footage was easy.

"Just turn the camera on and the light and point," Fitzgerald said. "Girls just do stuff. They like being on camera, I guess."

Mayor Lois Frankel said the bars where most of the video was shot have closed.

"Our police have seen the video. They believe most of the footage is old," Frankel said. "We're really having a real revitalization, a real turnover of venues there. And if any of this is still going on, I assure you we're going to be cracking down on it."

Fitzgerald said he thinks the women who became barely clothed on the video did so because they have low self-esteem.

"I think that's something that happens because they don't feel that beautiful, and they feel like that if they do that, people will look at them and make them feel beautiful," he said.

The brother of five sisters, Fitzgerald has some ironic advice for people who encounter a video camera.

"If you see somebody with a camera, don't take your clothes off," he said.

Copyright 2006 by WPBF.com.

FHHS and the FCAT

-----Original Message-----
From: Andy
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2002 11:22 AM
To: Me
Subject: Our esteemed Alma Mater, FHHS

Got an "F" this year as a result of its staggeringly low FCAT scores. FHHS, Glades Central, Pahokee, and West Tech were the only other schools to get F's in Palm Beach County.

Also, there was a funny article in the paper this weekend by the valedictorian of FHHS about being an A student there. Basically, he said when he told people he went to Forest Hill, they reacted as if he had some sort of disease...

If anyone ever asks why you did something wrong or stupid, you can now use FHHS as the scapegoat.