Jacksonville Nabs Pair

New Jacksonville head coach Cliff Warren got going with the Class of 2006 when he scored a pair of in-staters on Monday.

Monday was a big day for Jacksonville coach Cliff Warren. The former Georgia Tech assistant scored big with a pair of commitments.

Warren went in-state for both players, although one actually hails from Poland. Szymon Lukasiak is a 6-foot-8, 235-pound senior center who came to Montverde Academy (Fla.) from Poland about a year ago.

Jacksonville also received a pledge from West Orange (Fla.) 6-foot-6 ½ forward Tyrone Curnell, who scored the game-winning basket against Oviedo last season to give the Warriors their first-ever Class 6A Final 4 berth.

Lukasiak has made remarkable improvement over the past year after seeing limited action on a Montverde team that boasted a plethora of talent. He’s still learning the game, has tremendous upside and also considered Stetson and Longwood.

``He’s a power player in every sense of the word,” Montverde coach Kevin Sutton said. “He’s an outstanding rebounder who plays hard on both ends. His forte is setting great screens and rebounding.”

``He really enjoyed his visit to Jacksonville and liked the players on the team and the coaching staff – especially Cliff Warren,” added Sutton. “They did a terrific job recruiting him and he feels like he can be a part of something special.”

``Syzmon didn’t play a lot last year, but in my 20 years coaching, I’ve never seen anything improve as much as he has in this short a period of time,” continued Sutton.

Curnell is a long, combo forward who is athletic and can get to the basket with his penetration. He took an unofficial visit to Jacksonville about a month ago and also looked at Liberty, Gardner-Webb and Appalachian State.

Curnell averaged 19 points per game as a junior and played last spring and summer with the Tallahassee Wildcats Blue squad.

``I loved the whole campus,” Curnell said. “The small classrooms, the coaches and the atmosphere. I wanted to stay close to home and have a chance to come in right away and play.”