Those who knew Jalen Smith remember him as a caring young man who donated to help the homeless, excelled in sports and academics, and would be the first to remind friends to finish schoolwork or wear a seatbelt.
The 18-year-old died in a drowning at Nathan Benderson Park last week after Smith and a friend took a paddleboat out into the lake past closing hours, and the boat malfunctioned.
Friends, family and acquaintances said Smith was a great kid with a bright future. A recent leader of the Sarasota High School varsity football team, who graduated just months ago, he was influential both on and off the field, Coach Brody Wisemen said.
For a person of my age, Tuesday brought Earth-shattering news from the sports and video game industries: EA Sports is getting back into the college football scene.
The company announced Tuesday that its beloved NCAA Football series would return, albeit with the new name of EA Sports College Football. There has not been a new release in the series since NCAA Football 14 was released in 2013. (The series name was always a year ahead.)
For me and many other college football obsessives, this game was my adolescence. I have strong memories of lugging NCAA 05 around on road trips and firing it up on my GameCube. I have even stronger memories of NCAA 06, the first game in the series to feature the Road to Glory mode, where you create a high school player, prove yourself to colleges, sign with a school and play out your Heisman-winning career, if you were good enough. In later games, the Dynasty mode became my main hub, as I put all my brain cells into recruiting five-star ta