Category: Sports

Notes: Ehrhard Named Tops In County

Wharton High shortstop Zach Ehrhard received the Wade Boggs Athletic Achievement Award May 19 in a ceremony at the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners meeting.

It is the second time in four years the award has been given to a Wharton player, with Zach’s brother Drew winning it in 2017. Drew went on to win a Division II national championship with the University of Tampa in 2019, and currently stars for the No. 14-ranked Spartans.

Zach, who will attend 21st-ranked (in Div. I) Oklahoma State University in Stillwater in the fall, led the Wildcats to a 21-5 record and a District 7A-7 title this season, batting .438 with 29 runs scored, 12 doubles, 3 home runs and 21 RBI. He finished his Wharton career with a .417 average.

The Wade Boggs Athletic Achievement Award, which was started in 2006, is named for Boggs, a Hall of Famer who also assists coach Scott Hoffman with the Wharton baseball team. The most notable winner of it is New York Met and last year’s National League Rookie of the Year Pete Alonso, who received the award in 2013 after playing at Plant High.

DOUBLE BRONZE: The spring sports season is officially over, and Wharton cross country and track standout Brooke Reif made sure it ended with a couple of school records.

Running at the Florida High School Athletics Association Class 4A State championships on May 8, the junior set the Wharton High mark in the mile and 2-mile races. finishing third in both.

Reif ran the mile (1600 meters) race in a sterling time of 4 minutes, 57.58 seconds, becoming the first Wildcat girl to run a sub-5:00 mile. While she was seven seconds off the winning time, she was less than one second from finishing second.

In the 2-mile (3200-meter) race, Reif finished in 10:49.47. While eight seconds off the winning pace, she again bettered her school record, which she broke for the third time this season.

Reif also ran on Wharton’s 4×800 relay at state. The team finished 10th in the state by running 9:37.38.

Other top finishers:

• Sophomore Serenity Brazell took 11th in the girls 400m in 58.32 seconds.

• Senior Jared Hammill, who has signed with the University of Tampa, took 5th in the boys mile in 4:16.97, missing breaking Wharton’s school record by less than half a second.

•Senior Tavis Wilson took 9th in the boys 100m in 11.07 seconds

• Senior Illya Jackson took 11th in the boys pole vault, clearing 12’- 9.5”.

SLOW AND STEADY: When coach Tripp Merrell took over the Freedom High baseball team in 2019, he knew a hard job awaited. But after a 6-15 record his first season, the Patriots wrapped up 2021 with a respectable 12-13 record, the most wins since the team went 15-10 in 2012.

Junior infielder Raul Olivera batted .430 and led the team in almost every category, including hits with 34, the most since Dane Moore had 35 in 2010.

The entire pitching staff was underclassmen, as well as the team’s top five hitters. So Merrell’s rebuilding job appears to be headed in the right direction.

wharton high school zach ehrhard

Wildcats Put Last Season In Rearview Mirror

When it comes to all of the 18 baseball teams coach Scott Hoffman has had at Wharton High, last year’s version had the potential to be one of the best.

The Wildcats started out 8-1, with every win but one by four runs or more, outscoring their opponents 73-19. It was a great start.

But then, Covid took hold, and the season, as well as the Wildcats’ hopes for a State championship, faded away.

“When you look back, we thought last year might have been our year,” Hoffman says.

However, thanks to this year’s team, the coach hasn’t had to do much lamenting. The Wildcats picked up right where they left off in 2020 and are 20-4 this season following a 6-2 win over Alonso to send them to the Class 7A, District 7 district championship game this Friday at 7 p.m. against Sickles.

The Wildcats, who win or lose in the 7A-7 final have already clinched a spot in the regional baseball playoffs, will see if they have a deep playoff run in them. They returned most of the starters from last year’s team, the pitching has been better than expected and three of their four losses — including a 6-5 loss to nationally-ranked Jesuit — have only been by a single run.

Hoffman says his squad still hasn’t put together the perfect game — although it does have two no-hitters — and thinks the 2021 Wildcats may be due. He has high hopes for this postseason.

“When we’re trying to think of the teams (we’ve had) that have gone on and done something in the postseason, I’d say we’re right about there (with them),” he says.

Pitching has been a major key. Junior starters Ryan Fry and Evan Chrest are a combined 13-2 with an ERA under 2.00, while senior Jackson Perkins is 5-0 with a 0.89 ERA.

Last month, Fry, a University of Miami commitment, threw what is believed to be the first seven-inning no-hitter in Wharton history, which also happened to be the second of back-to-back 15-strikeout games for the hard-throwing righty. Fry threw a complete game 3-hitter with nine strikeouts against Alonso in the district semifinal.

“Pitching has been the key,” says Hoffman, joking that every Wharton team he thinks will pitch well ends up hitting well, and vice versa. This year is no different, as he thought the hitting would be the team’s primary strength.

And, it hasn’t been bad. Hoffman said one hole to fill this year was developing a swing guy who could play multiple positions, and that turned out to be junior David Limbach, a backup catcher who showed more athleticism than Hoffman originally thought he had. In his utility role, Limbach has played in both the infield and outfield and is fourth on the team with a .343 batting average and tied for third-best with 20 RBI.

*Dylan McDonald leads the Wildcats in a handful of offensive categories and thinks this team could be a State championship contender.*

That puts him right behind Wharton’s formidable 1-2 punch at the top of the lineup — senior centerfielder and Saint Leo University signee Dylan McDonald and senior shortstop Zach Ehrhard, who is bound for Oklahoma State.

McDonald, who bats leadoff, leads the team with a .410 average, 10 doubles, three home runs, 33 hits and 22 RBI, while Ehrhard is hitting .440 with 12 doubles, three homers and a team-high 24 steals. Ehrhard has gotten hot at the right time the past two weeks, going 10-for-18 with two homers, three doubles and eight RBI.

“I feel like we are definitely a pretty good 1-2 combo,” McDonald says. “When I get on, I know the 2-3-4 guys tend to get me in. And, when we start out quick, we seem to do pretty well.”

In fact, the Wildcats are 15-1 when they score first, with the only loss coming to Jesuit.

The Wildcats also have flexed their muscles this season, with seven different players combining to blast a school record 17 home runs in 24 games.

In the previous five seasons combined, Wharton hit 16 homers in 111 games.

Although the Wildcats have hit well in spurts, Hoffman is still looking for that stretch of offensive consistency — they are averaging nearly nine runs a game during their current 5-game win streak — that will elevate the team to a true playoff contender. If that happens, last year could become even more of a distant memory.

“We had a really good team last year, but is this team better?,” asks McDonald. “I think we kind of flip-flop on that every day. We could have won State last year, can we win State this year? We have a lot of chemistry this year, so it’s possible. Either way, these have been two of the best years Wharton has ever had.”

baseball wharton high school

Campbell To Coach PHSC & WPSL Teams At The Sports Campus

Congratulations, mate! Stuart Campbell, the director of soccer at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, has added some new highlights to his already-impressive resumé.

First of all, Campbell (photo), the Wesley Chapel resident who also is a former Tampa Bay Rowdies player and head coach, will be the first-ever head coach of the new women’s soccer program Pasco-Hernando State College (PHSC).

PHSC, which already competes in basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball and cross country at its main campus in New Port Richey, is adding girls soccer to its athletic program beginning in August.

The twist is that PHSC’s women’s soccer side won’t play in New Port Richey, but instead will call the PHSC Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch home. That also means the women will play their home matches at the new Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus off S.R. 56.

But wait, there’s more! Campbell also will also head up Wesley Chapel’s entry in the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL), which will be called RADD FC and also will play its home games at the Sports Campus for this upcoming season.

The WPSL is the longest active women’s pro soccer league in the U.S. It was created in 1998 and is an affiliate of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), the ruling body of soccer in this country. Most of RADD FC’s players are current student-athletes.

There are 141 WPSL teams nationwide, in 32 different states, as well as teams in Vancouver, British Columbia.

RADD FC will compete in the Northern Division of the Sunshine Conference, along with the Clermont Kicks FC, Florida Krush (Winter Park) and Tampa teams Florida Premier FC and Tampa Bay United.

“I can’t wait to be part of RADD FC’s WPSL team,” Campbell said.“This will take women’s soccer to another level, as well as grow within our community.”

Campbell, 43, was born to Scottish parents in England, played professionally from 1996-13, including a stint with Leicester City of the renowned English Premier League. He signed with the Tampa Bay Rowdies in 2013, playing one season, and then served as an assistant coach from 2014-15 and as the team’s head coach from 2015-18.

Both RADD FC and the PHSC women’s team are expected to elevate the footprint of women’s soccer in the Tampa Bay area.

Go, Bobcats!

The PHSC Bobcats will be a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) at the Division II level, as well as the Florida College System Activities Association (FCSAA).

PHSC athletic director Steve Winterling thinks the idea of providing another opportunity for women athletes is great timing, considering that many colleges are dropping athletic programs to save money in the wake of Covid-19, while also offering an extra year for the athletes already at their schools, creating a potential backlog. It also helps PHSC meet Title IX requirements.

“The college was looking to expand its athletic program, and you’re always dealing with gender equity so it helped balanced us out in several areas,” Winterling says. “Also, financial times are tough, and we were looking at also giving women an opportunity to participate (in what is a relatively inexpensive sport).”

As for playing at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, Winterling says he has been thinking about ways to bring PHSC athletics to the east side of the county for years. While the school considered playing at other sites on the west side of the county, he says RADD Sports CEO Richard Blalock, who manages the private side of the Sports Campus in the public-private partnership with Pasco County, expressed interest in a relationship, especially with soccer.

“It’s a great opportunity for us,” Winterling says.

Campbell was chosen to lead the program from a pool of 13 applicants.

PHSC has a lot of work ahead of it before it opens the season in August against Polk State College. One of the first issues to solve after finding players will be finding teams to play. Winterling says there are only three other NJCAA Division II women’s soccer teams in the state — Daytona State College, Eastern Florida State and Polk State College. PHSC has already scheduled Polk State four times this upcoming season.

“We’ll have to scramble a little and maybe travel out of state to find some competition,” he says. “We have a few questions to iron out, but we’re really excited to get this going.”

Time To Go Camping!

Meanwhile, Campbell also will be part of the Nike US Sports Camps at the Sports Campus, which will include basketball, soccer, volleyball and cheerleading camps for boys and girls, ages 8-18.

phsc Stuart Campbell WPSL

Coyotes Packing A Punch

Mandy Schwartz digs the long ball.

Through the first 15 games this season, the Cypress Creek High (CCH) junior third baseman has launched 10 pitches over the softball fences at various high schools, from Zephyrhills (twice) to Wiregrass Ranch to Berkeley Prep, where home run No. 10 in the sixth inning lifted the Coyotes to a 1-0 district win.

Her eighth home run, which came in the sixth inning against Class 5A, No. 3-ranked River Ridge, tied a game the Coyotes eventually lost 5-4, but it also set a school record for a season, breaking Neely Peterson’s previous mark of seven set in 2019.

Schwartz’s ninth homer, three days later, tied her for the state lead with two other players.

Her 10th, April 8 against the Bucs, is merely putting the record further out of reach for the coming classes of Coyote softball players — and there’s still three games to play.

She’s not just a player who can crush a lot. In fact, Schwartz doesn’t see herself as a home run hitter, just someone who hits the ball hard.

“I definitely think I am a power hitter, but not necessarily a home run hitter,” she says.

Schwartz combines her power with contact, and is hitting .608 with only three strikeouts in 48 plate appearances this season. It is one of the primary reasons the Coyotes got off to a surprising 12-3 start in 2021, including 6-0 in the District.

And, there have been other bright spots. Senior centerfielder Emma Coons is hitting over .300 with 12 stolen bases, junior Jillian Hudson is batting .382 with a team-high five doubles, and senior Hailey Vazquez has given Cypress Creek a legitimate ace in the circle for the first time in its four years of existence.

Vazquez boasts a 0.74 ERA, and has struck out 112 batters in 66 innings while posting a 9-2 record.

“I can’t ask more of Hailey,” says first-year Coyotes’ head coach Jennelle Day. “She’s a great leader on and off the field and has a confidence the girls follow. She’s done a lot of big things for us.”

Schwartz has been a starter since her freshman year, when she batted .467 with three homers, eight doubles and 25 RBI. That team won a District title, a Regional playoff game and came within a run of making it to the Regional championship game.

She credits her offensive numbers to Tommy Santiago, who was her private hitting coach before rejoining the staff of the University of South Florida softball team last year. Santiago changed Schwartz’s swing a few years back, and after struggling a few months to get the mechanics just right, she has been on a tear.

Last season, she didn’t get a chance to follow up her impressive freshman season due to Covid-19, which cut the season short (but not before she was able to hit a home run in the Coyotes’ season opener against Mitchell).

Schwartz was unsure what to expect in 2021, and has been a little surprised by CCH’s hot start.

“Honestly, I really didn’t expect this because we lost a majority of our players (the past two seasons),” Schwartz says. “We currently have eight freshmen on our roster, so I thought it might be a little rocky. But, everything just clicked early on.”

Even with Schwartz’s big bat and Vazquez’s stalwart arm filling two important areas, the CCH defense may deserve just as much credit for the team’s success. Through 15 games, the Coyotes had committed just nine errors.

“The bats can be shaky, but the defense has really stepped up,” Schwartz says.

As a result, she thinks this year’s version of the Coyotes can match what the 2019 team did, and maybe even advance in the State playoffs.

“I think as long as we stay focused we can definitely do that again,” Schwartz says.

cypress creek softball

Brooke Reif Laying The Groundwork For More School Records

*Brooke Reif has already set one Wharton High record this track season, but two others are within her reach.*

Brooke Reif is in her third year as a member of Wharton’s track & field team. During her first two seasons, she established herself as a formidable runner in the 800-meter (metric half-mile) and 1600m (metric mile) races.

Then she decided to step out of her comfort zone.

Reif, who also runs cross country in the fall, added the 3200m (two-mile) race in a preseason meet prior to the 2021 season. She ran it in 11 minutes, 19 seconds, which was just tenths of a second better than the school record. It wasn’t official but, just a few weeks later, that changed.

At the Ram Invitational in Sarasota on Feb. 27, Reif ran the 3200m race in 11:09.82. That broke the previous Wharton record, set by Katrina Skinner in 2008, by 10 seconds. It was Reif’s first official 3200m race at Wharton, and it put her in the school’s record book. Then, on Mar. 19, she lowered that mark to 11:01.

“I thought I could maybe do it next year,’’ Reif said. “I knew I was getting closer but I didn’t think I was going to be getting that soon.’’

That’s because Reif doesn’t run the 3200m very often. In fact, she will likely run it only once or twice during the regular season and not at all in the postseason. She will focus on the 800 and 1600m races as well as the school’s 4x800m relay team.

Adding the two-mile race this season has made Reif a better overall runner, according to Wharton track & field coach Kyle LoJacono.

“She’s not just trying to run as fast as she can and outrun people,’’ LoJacono said. “She’s racing people now. She’s following the race plan. She’s being smart. She’s using her mind as much as she’s using her physical gifts. Take the (3200m) race at the Ram Invitational. She was literally only in first place for about the last 10 meters. She was probably about 50 meters behind. But, she has a kick because she is a middle distance runner.’’

Reif had a sort of epiphany prior to her junior year. She said she found out that running is about 80% mental. She knows she has the physical talent, but that crossing the finish line ahead of everybody else takes brains as well.

“I mostly liked the 800 when I was a freshman and a sophomore because they were two-lap races,’’ Reif said. “But, we’ve been doing a lot more miles lately and I just figured out that the 3200 is actually an easier race. You can strategize while you’re still running. It’s not something that you have to go all out in. You can plan it out as you are running and fix any mistakes you make.’’

The state record in the 3200m is 10:10.39, set earlier this month by Winter Springs junior Carolina Wells, so Reif will have to improve her personal best by more than 50 seconds to break that mark.

For Reif, running is in the family. Both of her parents were runners in college. Her mother Dena also was an assistant track coach and cross country head coach at the University of South Florida.

Reif said her parents never forced her into any sport, including running. But, by the time she got to middle school and tried out for cross country, she knew that’s where her talent was.

“It wasn’t something I was forced into,’’ Reif said. “By sixth grade, I joined the cross country team and went out on a time trial and finished in second behind an eighth grader. So, I knew it was something I was interested in. The reason I came to Wharton was so that I could join this team.’’

She has certainly made an impact in her time with the ‘Cats. Her sophomore track season was cut short due to Covid-19. However, she continued to train during the quarantine and stayed in shape for the cross country season. She finished 31st in the Class 4A State meet in Tallahassee with a time of 20:04.2 in the 5-kilometer (3.1 mile) race.

With no seniors on the cross country team, it is Reif’s hope that the whole Wharton squad qualifies for the cross country state meet next season. But, for now, her focus is on qualifying in what will likely be her three events — the 800m, 1600m and 4x800m relay — for the State track & field championship meet, which will be held May 14-15.

She also has her sights set on yet another school record, as she is just three seconds off of Skinner’s mile/1600m record of 5:00.63.

“I’m hoping I can get that one pretty soon,’’ Reif said. “If not this year then I’ll definitely try for it next year.’’

The 800m record — which is 2:10.51, set by Bryanna Rivers in 2017 — could also be within Reif’s reach. Her best time is seven seconds off that pace, so she is shooting for it next season.

While Reif will almost certainly qualify for the State track meet as an individual, she said it would be more special if her 4×800 relay team — which also includes sophomores Serenity Brazell and Olivia Hammill and junior Alex Frye — could join her.

While the relay team hasn’t run together this season, based on their individual times, it could be the Wildcats’ best shot at a Class 4A State championship.

That would be especially satisfying for Reif. One of her favorite things about cross country is the team atmosphere. She said that track can be a bit lonely sometimes, focusing mainly on individual races. The relay team allows her to feel like a team player.

“I like it because you get to work with your team, it’s not just you on your own,’’ she said. “You’re able to cheer on everyone else. I like when you’re running for your team.’’

Brooke reif Wharton