Notebook: Bulls Rule The SAC With Boys & Girls Titles In Tennis & Track

The WRH track teams celebrate their SAC sweeps.

The Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) spring sports program had a big day last week, when the boys and girls tennis and track teams all took home Sunshine Athletic Conference (SAC)  championships.

The boys tennis team, coached by Dave Wilson, has long been the class of Pasco County, and their SAC title was the seventh straight for the Bulls. In fact, the team hasn’t lost a match to a Pasco County school in that span, going 83-0.

The Bulls have been led this season by senior Noah Makarome, who won the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA)’s Boys 14 Singles National Clay Court Championship in 2013 but has never played high school tennis, and Destiny Okungbowa.

The girls tennis team won the conference title by beating Pasco 4-3.

In track, the host Bulls swept the boys and girls team titles at the SAC East meet for the second straight year.

The girls outscored Sunlake 143-134, pulling past the Seahawks with their dominance in the 800 meters.

The Bulls trailed Sunlake by 24 points heading into the 800. However, Kerry Reilly, Brenna Moran and Kate Moore finished 1-2-3, and Abbie Dodge came in fifth, as the Bulls picked up 26 points and surged to the lead.

Kyra Swain won the next race, the 200 meters, to give WRH some cushion, and then Reis Ehman (fourth), Julia Blankenbaker (fifth) and Lauren Payne (sixth) scored seven points in the 3,200 meters to help offset Land O’Lakes’ 18 points in the race, thanks to a 1-2 finish.

The WRH boys built a big lead in the field events, thanks to long jump champ Rashaun Wiliams and discus winner Dillion Teets, but the Bulls put the meet away with their work in the hurdles races, scoring 36 points.

In the 110m hurdles, Dylan Ridolph and Josia Gadeen finished 1-2, and in the 330m hurdles, Ridolph, Gadeen and T.J. Ridgel finished 2-3-4. The Bulls boys literally ran away with the title with 166 points, followed by Land O’Lakes (80) and Wesley Chapel (79).

WILDCATS SPRINTERS SHINE IN SAC, TOO: Wesley Chapel High (WCH) speedster Isaiah Bolden won the 100- and 200- meter races at the SAC meet, and also teamed up with Dexter Leverett, Nick Merilan and Deion Watkins to capture the 4×100 relay to lead the third-place Wildcats.

Dominic Moreno also was a triple winner, capturing titles in the 800m, 1,600m and 4x400m relay (with Cameron Boger, Raymund Reddick and Leverett).

For the WCH girls, who finished fourth with 77 points, Sydney Parker was a winner in the 100m, and Faith Mercer took the title in the 400. Cache Simmons added a third first-place finish to the Wildcats’ haul in the triple jump.

FOOTBALL COMMITMENT: Evan Hogan, a 6-foot-3, 305-pound offensive lineman and long snapper for Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH), orally committed to Keiser University in West Palm Beach.

Hogan was a starter for the Bulls last season and part of an offensive line that helped the team rush for 2,282 yards (228.2 yards a game) and 29 touchdowns.

As a long snapper, Hogan has been ranked among the top 50 in the nation by the Kornblue Kicking/Snapping Academy.

The son of Florida International University sports information director Mike Hogan, Evan will get a unique opportunity at Keiser, which is starting football in the fall of 2018.

Keiser competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Association (NAIA) and plays in the Sun Conference against three colleges in Polk County and one near Naples.

Hogan will play for head coach Doug Socha, who was an offensive assistant for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills last season.

Jr. Bulls Hockey Win State Title

The Jr. Bulls Midget U16A ice hockey team, based at the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon, won the State Championship at the Statewide Amateur Hockey of Florida (SAHOF) in Palm Beach on March 5.

Three teens from our New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News coverage area competed on the team.

Goaltender Matthew Garneau and forward Owen Barno from New Tampa (see story on page 34), as well as defenseman Alex Carr from Wesley Chapel, played for the Jr. Bulls.

The Jr. Bulls, coached by Dave Collins and Joe Canfield, were seeded last among the six teams competing for the state championship.

But, the Bulls proved to be the top team, winning four times (against just one loss) and posting a pair of shutouts over the weekend, including a 2-0 whitewash of the Space Coast Rockets in the finale.

Freedom Falls A Little Short Of A State Hockey Title At FHCI

The Freedom ice hockey team, comprised mostly of players from Freedom High in Tampa Palms and Wharton High on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.,  advanced to the Statewide Amateur Hockey of Florida (SAHOF) State championship tournament, where the Patriots fell in the semifinals.

Teams from all over the state converged for the two tiers of the State tournament, which was held for the first time ever at Florida Hospital Center Ice on S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel the weekend of Feb. 25-26.

Wiregrass, Freedom, Mitchell and West Boca (Spanish River) competed in the Tier 2 high school division. Tier 2 teams can draw from up to four schools, typically in the same general area, like Freedom.

The Tier 1 championships were also held at the same time. Those teams have rosters comprised entirely of athletes that attend a particular school.

For the tournament, Tier 2 teams had to limit the number of schools they could draw their athletes from to four. While the Freedom team is comprised mostly of athletes from Freedom and Wharton, they still had to make some painful cuts to the roster.

“It’s tough to compete with a limited roster,” Freedom head coach Dave Spataro said. “These kids played really hard and sort of made up for it. It would have been easy to lay down because we didn’t have this or that player but that attitude did not emerge in the locker room.”

In pool play, the Patriots fell to eventual champion Mitchell 4-2 and then beat West Boca. In their final pool game Feb. 26, they faced off against Wiregrass, a team that draws primarily from Wesley Chapel and Wiregrass Ranch high schools, in what proved to be a tough, physical game.

Wiregrass put on the early pressure, getting three shots on goal in just the first 10 minutes, but they were all saved by Freedom goalkeeper Dominik Rini, who attends high school at Tampa Chamberlain.

Freedom was able to run counters on fast breaks to get some pressure off their goalie, and with 4:29 left in the first period, forward Gianni Grieco got on the end of a 2-on-1 fast break and notched the game’s first goal.

Wiregrass charged right back and tied it 1-1, cleaning up a puck that ricocheted off of Rini. Freedom nearly took the lead in the waning moments of the first but entered the second period in a 1-1 tie.

The second period was dominated by Wiregrass, which took the lead just over a minute in on a shot by Joseph Davis. Two-and-a-half minutes later, Wiregrass made it 3-1 after a long flip shot found Zachary Parker deep in the opposite end. A minute later, it was 4-1 in the Ice Hawks favor.

Freedom’s Owen Barno scored to make it 4-2 in the second period, but Wiregrass scored again to lead 5-2 heading into the third.

The teams traded goals until penalties sent players from both teams into the penalty box. It would be counters to the teams’ power plays that would push the last bit of scoring through, with Freedom’s leading scorer Colton Sipperley cutting the lead to 6-4, followed by Wiregrass getting another goal by Davis with 1:05 remaining.

Final score: 7-4, Wiregrass.

“These are life lessons,” Spataro said. “You work with what you have to be successful in life and they did that. We’re proud of ourselves, we rose above it to play to our full potential.”

Spataro was particularly proud of the way his team held on in the close 4-2 pool play loss to Mitchell, the defending state and national champions. The Mustangs, who beat Wiregrass to win the Lightning Cup (the championship for the Tampa Bay Lightning High School League, or TBLHSL), beat the Ice Hawks again 5-0 to win the SAHOF Tier 2 title.

“That was a hell of a team to compete against,” Spataro said of Mitchell.

North Broward Preparatory won the Tier 1 championship. It was the fourth consecutive year the Coconut Creek-based school captured the Tier 1 title.

For Freedom, its run to the state championships capped a solid season that included a 14-5-3 record in the TBLHSL, good for third-place in the Andreychuk Division, behind Jesuit and Wiregrass, which both finished 16-6.

Sophomore Colton Sipperly and senior Hunter Sipperly, both forwards, led the Patriots in goals, with 25 and 23, respectively, during the regular season. Hunter scored six in a 12-3 win over River Ridge and Cotton netted  five goals in a 6-3 win over Newsome last November.

Cotton added 24 assists for a team-high 49 points, while senior defenseman Brian Seybold was second with 33 points on 18 goals and 15 assists. Forward Tyler Young, another senior, scored 13 goals with 17 assists.

Wiregrass Ice Hawks Fall Just Short Of A State Title At FHCI

 The Wiregrass Ice Hawks receive their medals for finishing second at the SAHOF High School Tier 2 finals, the first major championship event held at Florida Hospital Center Ice off S.R. 56.

The Wiregrass Ice Hawks, a high school team comprised of players from Wiregrass Ranch (WRH), Wesley Chapel (WCH), Zephyrhills and Pasco high schools, won their division in the Tampa Bay Lightning High School League.

The Hawks beat two teams to make the league’s championship, the Lightning Cup.

They beat two more teams a week later to make the high school state championship.

The only thing the Ice Hawks couldn’t beat? Mitchell High from New Port Richey.

Playing in the Statewide Amateur Hockey of Florida (SAHOF) final for the first time, Wiregrass ran out of gas and fell to the Mustangs 5-0 on Feb. 26, in front of a packed, boisterous crowd at Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI) off S.R. 56.

It was the Hawks’ third loss to Mitchell in eight days.

“We had a tougher semifinal game (than Mitchell did) this morning (Note-both finalists played other teams in the State semifinals earlier the same day; see below) and that took it out of us,” said Gordie Zimmermann, the team’s head coach and the managing partner at FHCI. “Still, to meet and compete in the state title game, you can’t ask for a better season than that.”

The loss capped a great postseason for the Ice Hawks, who won the Andreychuk Division of the Tampa Bay Lightning High School Hockey League with a 16-6 record. They beat Bradenton Manatee and Tampa Jesuit high schools in the playoffs of that league, before coming up short in the Lightning Cup finale, held  at Amalie Arena on Feb. 18, losing 7-4, also to Mitchell.

Wiregrass forward Adam Zimmermann moves the puck against Freedom.

In the State playoffs at FHCI a week later, the Hawks lost a pool match against Mitchell, 5-4 in overtime, but fought back from that loss to earn a third chance at the Mustangs. in the State title game.

Unfortunately for Wiregrass, after the overtime loss to Mitchell Saturday night, the team had to survive a physically tough 7-4 Sunday morning victory over New Tampa’s Freedom High.

Complicating the matter, one of the Ice Hawks’ top players, forward Gehrig Oppenheimer, was ejected from the win against the Patriots and suspended for the championship game. “Missing one of our front line guys really changed our dynamics,” Zimmermann said.

Fatigue and the loss of Oppenheimer showed, as Mitchell scored in the first four minutes and led 4-0 before the end of the first period.

The Mustangs kept up the pace in the second period, outshooting the Ice Hawks 23-11, but were unable to find the back of the net with any of them.

Still, Zimmermann said his players were able to relish the moment in the third period, playing in what will be their new home in front of an appreciative home crowd. He recalled during a timeout in the final, some of his players told him they were having the best time of their lives.

“Guys like Alex Carr and Alejandro Rivera got a couple of shifts in there (in the final),” Zimmermann said. “There were guys that just wanted to be a part of it.”

In its win over Freedom Sunday morning, Wiregrass fell behind 1-0 before cleaning up a puck that ricocheted off Freedom goalie Dominik Rini to tie things headed to the second period.

Physical play was the theme at the State tournament, especially whenever Wiregrass played Mitchell.

Wiregrass took the lead just over a minute into the second period on a shot by Joseph Davis who would earn a hat trick with his three goals against Freedom. Davis also scored two slapshot goals from the point in the Saturday night game against Mitchell to give the Hawks a late 4-3 lead.

Teams from all over the state converged for the two tiers of the State tournament, which was held for the first time ever in our area. As the champion, Mitchell is now headed to the national tournament.

Wiregrass, Freedom, Mitchell and West Boca (Spanish River) competed in the Tier 2 high school division. Tier 2 teams can draw from up to four schools, typically in the same general area (e.g., Freedom‘s team was made up of players from both Freedom and Wharton high schools).

The Tier 1 championships were also held at the same time. Those teams have rosters comprised entirely of athletes that attend a particular school.

North Broward Preparatory won the Tier 1 championship. It was the fourth consecutive year the Coconut Creek-based school captured the Tier 1 title. 

Local Prep Sports Notebook — High School Teams Excelling In Softball & Track

National Signing Day was Wednesday, Feb. 1. Signing to play college ball from Wharton were (l.-r.) volleyball player Allie Schneider (Florida College), softball player MacKenzie Allen (University of Tampa), and all-time volleyball kills leader Kathryn Attar.

Freedom coach Autum Hernandez knew coming into the 2017 softball season she was going to have to lean on her incoming freshmen this year, but she didn’t know the youngsters would come through so quickly.

Thanks to some clutch pitching and hitting from freshman Niyah Pope, the Patriots opened what should be an interesting season with a 6-5 win on Feb. 14 over traditional Tampa Bay power Riverview.

Pope pitched the last four innings, allowing just one hit and striking out four, to earn the win, and also contributed a base hit and two RBI for Freedom.

“If she keeps working hard, she is going to be very good,’’ said Hernandez, who guided the Patriots to the State championship game in 2013.

Hernandez has never started a season with so many young players. She only has 11 players on her roster, and five of them are freshman. She says once they adapt to the speed of the high school game, however, the Patriots could be contenders in Class 8A, District 4, which includes Wharton, Wiregrass Ranch and defending champion Strawberry Crest.

“We’re small, so we have to stay healthy,’’ she said.

The season-opening win was a confidence boost for her young players. The Patriots fell behind in the top of the second inning when the Sharks scored all five of their runs, but settled down and started coming back. They scored a run in the bottom of the second, and then added four in the bottom of the third to tie it up.

In the bottom of the seventh, Freedom loaded the bases and senior Gracie Seidel scored the winning run on an error, the ninth miscue of the game for the Sharks.

“We just put the ball in play and took advantage of their mistakes,’’ Hernandez said.

The Patriots may be young, but they do return a few key components, like Seidel, the senior centerfielder who batted .259 last season with five extra base hits, junior middle infielder Dallas O’Clair (.296 with a team-high 16 RBI) and infielder and leading hitter Lauren Hall, who batted .436 in 2016.

The Patriots will host rival Wharton on Thursday, March 9, 7 p.m.

Speaking of the Wildcats — who were 11-10 last season but advanced to the District championship game before falling in extra innings in a Regional quarterfinal loss to Ocala Forest — they return the bulk of their roster and opened their season in impressive fashion.

The Wildcats pounced on the Panthers of Plant for a 10-0 victory shortened after five innings due to the mercy rule.

Signing from Freedom were (l.-r.) football player Kalijahe Spann (Warner University), girls basketball player Megan Clark (Tennessee Tech) and golfer Tyler Bray (Maryville College).

TRACK OFF & RUNNING: Hillsborough High may have won the team titles at the New Tampa Preseason Classic on Feb. 9, but the tracksters from Wharton and Freedom both came away with some notable performances.

Wharton sophmore Nehemiah Rivers and his senior sister Bryanna both captured first-place in the 1,600-meter run. Nehemiah won his race in 4 minutes, 44 seconds, while Bryanna covered the four laps in 5:20.

Rivers was followed in her race by six of her teammates, as the Wildcats swept the top seven spots in the race. Senior Rania Samhouri was second in 5:24, and was followed by junior Rachel Lettiero, freshman Nia Rivers, sophomores Kayla McCullough and Amanda Blake, and senior Marin James.

Freshman Casey Pleune was second in the boys’ race behind Nehemiah Rivers in 4:46.

Wharton senior Aria Tate won the 100m hurdles in 14.70, more than two seconds ahead of the next closest finisher, and Lettiero won the 3200m race, with sophomores Amanda Brake and Nicolina Otero finishing in second and third, respectively. The Wharton boys picked up first-place finishes from senior Ryan Russell, who won the 400 hurdles in 50.50 seconds; Eric Jurgensmeyer, who won the 800 meters; and senior high jumper Justin Brown, who soared 5 feet, 8 inches.

Freedom junior Alejandro Michel won the 3,200-meter race in 10:36, 19 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, and Bryant Young tossed the discus 102 feet and 10.25 inches to win his event. Young’s throw was almost 16 feet further than anyone else.

Freedom’s Trent Burnett was a double winner, winning the 200m in 24.10 and with a long jump of 20 feet, 9 inches.