Sports | Features - The Independent Florida Alligator

Shahmir Memon, a 21-year-old business administration junior, receives a fresh cut on the Plaza of the Americas lawn on Friday, Jan. 14. From bathroom stalls to street corners, Ju-Ray Kuo, a 24-year-old applied physiology and kinesiology master's student at UF, has been giving free cuts throughout Gainesville for the past six years.

SPORTS | FEATURES

Ju-Ray Kuo: The basketball barber of Gainesville

By Elena Barrera | Jan. 28, 2022

As the cheers of 10,000 Florida men’s basketball fans crescendo into a deafening roar, the quiet insight from their team manager rings loudest through the players’ heads. From the locker room bathrooms, Ju-Ray Kuo, an applied physiology and kinesiology masters student at UF, has become the unofficial barber of the Florida Gators men's basketball team — every returning player on the 15-player team has received a haircut from Kuo at least once.

The Gator Collective, pioneered by former Florida pitcher Eddie Rojas, has grown into a prominent NIL force in Gainesville.

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The story behind Florida’s NIL leader

By Noah Ram | Dec. 31, 2021

Eddie Rojas never intended to venture into the world of NIL, but he saw a open opportunity, and now, he’s a force in the Gainesville market

Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin, photographed during Florida’s football game against Alabama on Sept. 18, received several emails from a player’s mother further detailing the abuse of women’s basketball coach Cameron Newbauer early in 2019.

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Emails show Stricklin acknowledged Newbauer abuse

By Zachary Huber | Nov. 15, 2021

“I don’t know what it is going to take for you to truly consider this something as real and dangerous,” B.B. Staples, the mother of former women’s basketball player Corey Staples wrote to Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin.

Former Florida coach Cam Newbauer in the huddle with his team in a game against Alabama on Feb. 18, 2021.

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Former Florida women’s basketball players detail abuse under Coach Newbauer

By Zachary Huber | Sep. 27, 2021

The head coach is accused of making racist remarks, throwing basketballs at players during practices, and verbally abusing the team, assistant coaches and trainers.

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Florida name, image and likeness legislation set to change college athletics landscape

By Ryan Haley | May 17, 2021

When the name, image and likeness legislation goes into effect July 1, 2021, it could serve as the most monumental change college athletics has ever seen, but what exactly is going to change?

Kadarius Toney holds his Joker-themed mouth guard in his right hand as he waves at the camera during Florida's game against Vanderbilt on Nov. 9, 2019.

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Why so serious?: How Kadarius Toney and Yung Joka coexist

By Payton Titus | Apr. 28, 2021

Off the field, though, Toney is a poet and a musician. As “Yung Joka,” his rap alias, he allows his creativity and emotions to run as wild and free as he does between the endzones. While questions circulate around his loyalty to the game, it’s clear Toney’s football fidelity is undeniable.

Adam Conybear, a 21-year-old junior studying computer science, runs up the stairs at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on March 9.

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Running off a year of COVID-19

By Faith Buckley | Mar. 15, 2021

Many students took up running to get a break during the pandemic.

Kadzban holds the Rapa Nui flag. The flag depicts a Reimiro, a moon-shaped ornament worn by Easter Island natives, and two heads at each end of it.

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Easter Island to Gainesville: Documenting Izzy Kadzban’s journey to international soccer

By Declan Walsh | Nov. 29, 2020

UF soccer player Izzy Kadzban's Rapa Nui roots paved the way for a decorated international soccer career prior to her college play.

Joe Pagdin drains a putt for Trinity Prep in 2015, where he was the No. 1 player on the varsity team in eighth grade.

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Joe Pagdin begins Florida career five years in the making

By Michael Hull | Nov. 1, 2020

Nervous. That’s how I felt the first time I interviewed Joe Pagdin.

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Walk-on: The Clifford Taylor IV story

By Christian Ortega | Oct. 11, 2020

When people are asked to describe a close friend in a word, it’s common to find them gazing at the distance as their brain scrambles to find the appropriate response. The momentary lapse for thought, varying from Joy from Inside Out-like efficiency or workers in SpongeBob’s brain office scrambling through burning ruins, leads to mixed responses.

Quarterback Kyle Trask drops back in front of a packed crowd against Tennessee last season. This year, most SEC schools will cap their stadium capacities at about 20 to 25 percent.

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Silent Saturdays: A town without football

By Payton Titus | Aug. 30, 2020

“When the football team’s doing well, the entire town just kind of explodes,” Chandler Small, a Gainesville resident, said on The Ringer’s Cam Chronicles podcast in July.

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Life after football: From All-American offensive lineman to certified pitmaster

By Zachary Huber | May 31, 2020

Shannon Snell used to make pancakes on the gridiron, but now, he does a different kind of cooking: barbecuing.

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Football may be gone, but the pain remains for NFL retirees

By Christian Ortega | Apr. 19, 2020

In 1989, 7-year-old Ben Troupe donned his helmet and pads for the first time and ran onto the field for practice at the Swainsboro Recreation Department's football league in Swainsboro, Georgia.

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The Best Game I Ever…

Mar. 26, 2020

It’s been two weeks without sports and they haven’t gone by easily. Naturally, this hiatus has prompted us to reminisce to a time where you could turn on the TV late at night and find an NBA game on the West coast still going on in earnest. What a luxury that was.

Hartley Georges is introduced with the UF softball team during its game against Arkansas on April 7. Georges has been an honorary member of the team since November.

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More than Softball: How one Hartley brought the whole diamond together

By Mark Stine | May 29, 2019

The UF softball team will have more than luck on its side when it takes the field in Oklahoma City.

Florida football will host its Senior Day when it takes on Idaho at noon on Saturday.

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Their Final Bow: Every senior has a story to tell before their curtain call

By Jake Dreilinger | Nov. 15, 2018

End of an Era: Muschamp’s last players graduating

Florida goalkeeper Kaylan Marckese decided to play soccer in college rather than volleyball.

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NET MINDER: Marckese decided which net was right

By River Wells | Nov. 14, 2018

The University of Florida will not forget Kaylan Marckese.

Edge rusher Jachai Polite's Twitter handle is @RetireMoms. He wants to make sure his mother is financially secure for the rest of her life.

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Jachai’s the limit: Jachai Polite wants to give his mother an early retirement

By Mark Stine | Nov. 9, 2018

The buzz around Florida football is that a first-round pick lives on its defensive front, and he wears No. 99.

Junior Johannes Ingildsen is from Copenhage, Denmark, and he's developed into and All-American athlete for the Florida Gators.

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The All-American Dane: Johannes Ingildsen tackles change

By Kyle Wood | Nov. 2, 2018

Johannes Ingildsen shows up to practice with sunscreen on his face not rubbed all the way in and his freshly bleached blonde hair poking through his Gators hat.

UF has a super hero in its football team: wide receiver Kadarius Toney.

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The Toney Express: Is he Batman? Is he Superman? Either way, Kadarius Toney plays like a superhero

By Morgan McMullen | Oct. 25, 2018

Superman is near-invincible. Batman is crafty.