Photo Gallery: Wiregrass Ranch Senior Car Parade
Everyone can come to graduation in Pasco County
Pasco County is opening the doors wide open to graduation.
Pasco County Schools announced on Wednesday that high school graduates will be allowed to invite additional guests and family members to outdoor graduations, and social distancing at the events will no longer be required. The decision was made after reviewing COVID-19 data in schools and in the community.
Masks are still required for indoor graduations, however.
Cypress Creek (June 2, 7 p.m.), Wesley Chapel (June 4, 7 p.m.) and Wiregrass Ranch (June 3, 7 p.m.) are all holding graduation ceremonies in their football stadiums.
Prior to Wednesday’s announcement, high school graduates in Pasco County had been limited to four guests each. Now, graduates can have two guests join them seated on the field, with additional guests seated in the bleachers. Availability of seating will vary due to the size of the venue.
After reviewing data from the Pasco Department of Health and in light of the CDCâs recent relaxing of mask guidance, Superintendent Kurt Browning determined that the potential for harm has been greatly reduced in recent weeks as the county’s seven-day positivity rate recently declined to 4.6 percent, the lowest rate in nearly six months.
âIt was our goal all along to make the graduation ceremonies as normal as possible, while recognizing our responsibility to protect the health and safety of all the graduates and guests,â said Superintendent Browning. âA lot has changed in recent weeks, and at this time we are confident that it is safe to remove those restrictions for our outdoor graduations.â
Wiregrass Ranch Valedictorian: Timothy Kovacs
WRHâs Kovacs Takes A Well-Rounded Approach To School
Timothy Kovacs says he hasnât begun preparing the speech he will give to the Class of 2021 at graduation, but the Wiregrass Ranch High valedictorian isnât too worried. After all, he took a public speaking class as a requirement for his Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree from Pasco Hernando State College (PHSC) and passed his toughest test â singing the âBaby Sharkâ song while dancing in front of a class of 30 students.
He says it was terrible, and he lost coordination midway through the dance, but he is no longer leery of public speaking.
And he got an A, for effort.
âSo, if I can do that,â he says, âI hope I can present a speech in front of my classmates.â
Getting As is no problem for Kovacs, so it would be a surprise if he didnât nail his speech. The Bullsâ senior finished his high school career with a 4.71 weighted grade point average, and picked the University of Central Florida in Orlando over the University of Florida in Gainesville and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill for college.
It wasnât easy, he says. He moved to Wesley Chapel from Orlando, where he attended Hagerty High as a freshman. There, he was No. 14 in a school of 4,000 students, and when he got to the smaller Wiregrass Ranch, he started his sophomore year in the top 3. While he says it hadnât crossed his mind before, it was at that point Kovacs decided to try to become his class valedictorian.
âIâve always found competition among my classmates ever since I was in the third grade,â Kovacs says. âI always wanted to get the highest grade, and when I didnât, I just studied harder.â
At Wiregrass Ranch, that entailed giving up every class (other than those that were graduation requirements) that wasnât an honors or AP course.
Last semester, he took nine classes, most of those at PHSC, sprinting across the academic finish line. His toughest challenge was the havoc caused by Covid.
âIt really mucked up my AP exams,â he says, especially in classes like AP Chemistry that arenât best suited for online study. Reviewing for exams was more difficult, and chemistry was not one of his better subjects.
âWhen chemistry went virtual…that put me in a more precarious spot than Iâve been in,â he added.
However, Kovacs, also a National Merit Scholarship Finalist, says it was just a matter of finding a way through the new challenges, and finding the positive in Covidâs disruptions by âturning lead into gold.â
Kovacs, who says his favorite class was AP computer science and whose hardest were chemistry and biology, is happy to be valedictorian, although he says it doesnât make him any smarter than anyone else. In fact, he says there are plenty of students who easily could have become valedictorian, but they chose to pursue music, sports or technology and didnât have as much time to put into school as he did.
Not that Kovacs is a one-dimensional bookworm. In fact, heâs something of a Renaissance man, who has dabbled in fencing, loves playing the guitar, is a devoted writer and published author who works for two magazines and has a deep interest in politics.
When he wants to relax, he plays his favorite songs from his childhood on his guitar â although he really wishes he had learned the piano as well â and had a story about the pandemic published in the literary magazine Unlimited Literature last summer.
Politics, though, is his passion.
âI love to read about how countries interact with each other, and why the world is the way that is,â he says. âItâs always such an interesting field to see how the decisions of government officials affect us in daily life. And, the results of diplomacy are fascinating. Itâs incredibly cool and I always have a blast learning about it.â
Now that the âBaby Sharkâ song has prepped Kovacs for his speech, he will tell his fellow classmates at graduation that after years of traveling the same road together, a million different paths now await them. Itâs a brave new world, and it doesnât matter where you are going as long as you are doing what you want to be doing.
Kovacs will be doing just that in college, where he will double major in computer science and political science at UCF. Where that leads him he doesnât know. He has multiple dreams â becoming a politician, an author or a software engineer are all among them â and is eager to see where his road takes him.
âMy goal right now is to go with the flow,â he says, âand make the most of whatever opportunities come my way.â
The Wiregrass Ranch High graduation ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, June 3, 7 p.m., at the schoolâs football stadium.
Wesley Chapel Valedictorian: Olivia March
Olivia March has always been able to successfully balance work, friends, sports and academics, so the fact that she is the Wesley Chapel High Class of 2021 valedictorian isnât a big surprise.
But Oliviaâs greatest skill, other than managing her time, might be surrounding herself with the right friends, according to her mom Trish.
While she may not have been thinking about her daughter being her schoolâs valedictorian, it was in middle school that Trish says that she realized Olivia would definitely be near the top of her class.
âThe kids she hung around with were always taking the toughest classes,â Trish says. âWe knew that they were the kids who were going to succeed in high school.â
She was right. Olivia took the toughest classes, but still compiled a 4.71 weighted grade point average while at Wesley Chapel, tops in her class, and also earned an Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree from Pasco Hernando State College.
Next year, she will follow in her father Ronâs footsteps when she attends the University of Florida in Gainesville, choosing to be a Gator over schools like the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Clemson University in Clemson, SC, and Florida State University in Tallahassee. âI always knew I kind of wanted to go there,â she says of U-F.
Olivia edged out her friend Michelle Joo, the salutatorian who will attend Yale University in New Haven, CT. To Trishâs point, Olivia and Michelle were friends and study partners at Wesley Chapel. They were sitting together at lunch when it was announced that Olivia was the valedictorian.
âThey came out with cake and flowers,â Olivia says. âIt was exciting. We werenât really thinking about it, so it was a surprise. Weâve had classes together since freshman year and have been friends throughout high school, and it was a healthy competition. I think we were both happy for each other.â
It was during a field trip in the seventh grade at Weightman Middle School that Trish says she was struck by her daughterâs ability to surround herself with the right friends. She now holds that ability, an under-appreciated quality, in the highest regard.
âOlivia was a Montessori kid, and we were a little nervous about bringing her into the traditional school setting,â Trish says. âIt was funny, on that field trip, I just thought âshe is good at choosing friends.â I saw all the kids she had to pick from, and who she chose, and I thought, âO.K., those are good choices.â I had never thought about that before that day.â
Olivia found out she was in the mix for valedictorian prior to her junior year, which would end up being disrupted by Covid.
When she knew she had a chance to be No. 1 in her class, it was the first time she started thinking about it. But, since she had already registered for four dual enrollment classes â which helped boost her GPA â before finding out she was in the top 4, there wasnât much she could change when it came to her course load.
âSo, I just kept doing what I was doing,â she says. âI just followed the steps I was already planning to follow.â
However, Covid threw a wrench in those steps. Taking classes online, especially math, required a lot more time and were more difficult to schedule. Because she also works as a lifeguard at the Epperson Ranch lagoon, her time management skills were put to the test.
She had honed those skills her first three years at Wesley Chapel while competing in athletics, which only seemed normal in a family where mom (a court reporter) trains at Crossfit and dad (a Pasco County Sheriffâs Office deputy) is one of the better local tennis players in the area.
While she was challenging herself academically, Olivia competed for the Wildcats in volleyball, track, cross country, weightlifting and tennis. She was named as one of Wesley Chapelâs Athletes of the Year her freshman and sophomore years.
Olivia is looking forward to her speech to her classmates at graduation. So is Trish, who expects to burst with pride, and Ron, who Trish is predicting will shed a few tears.
While Olivia hasnât written it yet, she say the speech will focus on what the future holds for the 2021 graduates.
For Olivia, that is enrolling at Florida and finding her way to a career. She isnât sure what she wants to do just yet â nothing science or medical related, however â but will minor in business, because she thinks itâs good to have.
âOther than that,â she says, âIâm wide open, and looking forward to it.â
The Wesley Chapel High graduation is scheduled for Friday, June 4, 7 p.m. at the schoolâs football stadium.
Cypress Creek Valedictorian: Ashleigh Lacey
Ashleigh Lacey had a lofty goal when she entered Cypress Creek High as part of its first freshman class â she didnât want to get anything lower than an âAââ in any class she took. Ever.
It wasnât that far-fetched of an idea. The only âBââ she had ever received was in third grade at Denham Oaks Elementary. The subject was reading, which is actually something she loves to do. Like any good student, she analyzed why she didnât get an A and made sure she never made that mistake again.
âBack then, I thought you could only get As if you were a nice person,ââ Ashleigh says. âI just thought I needed to be nicer. But, that isnât how it works.ââ
It helps to be nice, and Ashleigh certainly is. But, the hard work is the most important thing.
After four years of budgeting her time between classes, extracurricular activities and a part-time job, Ashleigh has accomplished her goal.
She will finish her high school career with a weighted grade point average of 4.6. She earned only As in every class she took, which included her favorite classes (history and psychology) and her not so favorite classes (anything to do with math).
On June 2, Ashleigh will graduate as Cypress Creekâs valedictorian. She will be the first valedictorian to attend all four years at the school, which opened in 2017.
âI guess Iâm in the school history books,ââ Ashleigh (photo) says.
She already has taken enough college-level classes to earn her Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree, which means she will enter college needing only two years to graduate with a Bachelorâs degree. She will attend the University of South Florida in Tampa on an academic scholarship.
âIâm kind of a perfectionist, so when I entered high school I told myself that I want to get all As,ââ Ashleigh says. âI didnât even know what a valedictorian was.ââ
It was certainly not an easy path to graduation for any student over the past year and a half. Covid-19 restrictions reduced half of the 2020 school year to on-line learning only. Students were given a choice of on-line or in-person learning this school year. Ashleigh did both.
Whatâs also impressive is that Ashleigh didnât just spend her high school days in classrooms and libraries or behind a computer screen. She has been part of the schoolâs art club for three years. And, she is an important member of the Coyotesâ track team. She won the District long jump championship last month and advanced to the Regional meet. She also competes in the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles and is part of the schoolâs 4x100m relay team.
In short, she is one of those student athletes who excels at whatever she decides to try.
âI would say thatâs right,ââ her father Robert says. âYou could see signs of it as a child, just in the way she organized and lined up certain toys in a perfect row. She always did very well in school. Sheâs just always done well in everything sheâs done. Sheâs competed in speech contests and done well. She played the flute for a while and became an All-County flute player. Sheâs a very talented artist. She excels at anything she picks up.ââ
The next step is college. Ashleighâs goal is to attend medical school at USF and eventually become a psychiatrist. Early on, she thought maybe she might like to be a lawyer, but after taking advanced classes in biology and psychology, she decided to change her goals.
âI would read books on those subjects just for fun,ââ she says. âSometimes Iâm kind of a nerd.ââ
Just because she is off to college doesnât Ashleighâs goals will change. She still doesnât want to get a B. And, she says she would like the chance to walk on to USFâs track team.
She wonât be far away from the Wesley Chapel home where she grew up. Sheâll be able to visit her younger brother Luke and parents, Robert and mom Michelle, often. As expected, Ashleigh credits her parents as having been a key to her success.
âTheyâve been very encouraging,ââ Ashleigh says. âTheyâve never pressured me. They put a lot of trust in me.ââ
Well-earned trust.
âWeâre lucky that sheâs been so driven,ââ Robert says. âWe havenât had to push her. Sheâs taken care of her academics. Sheâs really taken control of her life. Sheâs made our jobs as parents a lot easier.ââ
The Cypress Creek High graduation is scheduled for Wednesday, June 2, 7 p.m. at the schoolâs football stadium.