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 CDC’s 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.
“It 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,” said Superintendent Browning. “A 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.”
Wiregrass Ranch Valedictorian: Timothy Kovacs
WRH’s Kovacs Takes A Well-Rounded Approach To School
Timothy Kovacs says he hasn’t begun preparing the speech he will give to the Class of 2021 at graduation, but the Wiregrass Ranch High valedictorian isn’t 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 — singing the “Baby Shark” 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.
“So, if I can do that,” he says, “I hope I can present a speech in front of my classmates.”
Getting As is no problem for Kovacs, so it would be a surprise if he didn’t nail his speech. The Bulls’ 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 wasn’t 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 hadn’t crossed his mind before, it was at that point Kovacs decided to try to become his class valedictorian.
“I’ve always found competition among my classmates ever since I was in the third grade,” Kovacs says. “I always wanted to get the highest grade, and when I didn’t, I just studied harder.”
At Wiregrass Ranch, that entailed giving up every class (other than those that were graduation requirements) that wasn’t 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.
“It really mucked up my AP exams,” he says, especially in classes like AP Chemistry that aren’t best suited for online study. Reviewing for exams was more difficult, and chemistry was not one of his better subjects.
“When chemistry went virtual…that put me in a more precarious spot than I’ve been in,” 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 Covid’s disruptions by “turning lead into gold.”
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 doesn’t 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 didn’t have as much time to put into school as he did.
Not that Kovacs is a one-dimensional bookworm. In fact, he’s 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 — although he really wishes he had learned the piano as well — and had a story about the pandemic published in the literary magazine Unlimited Literature last summer.
Politics, though, is his passion.
“I love to read about how countries interact with each other, and why the world is the way that is,” he says. “It’s 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. It’s incredibly cool and I always have a blast learning about it.”
Now that the “Baby Shark” 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. It’s a brave new world, and it doesn’t 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 doesn’t know. He has multiple dreams — becoming a politician, an author or a software engineer are all among them — and is eager to see where his road takes him.
“My goal right now is to go with the flow,” he says, “and make the most of whatever opportunities come my way.”
The Wiregrass Ranch High graduation ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, June 3, 7 p.m., at the school’s 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 isn’t a big surprise.
But Olivia’s 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 school’s valedictorian, it was in middle school that Trish says that she realized Olivia would definitely be near the top of her class.
“The kids she hung around with were always taking the toughest classes,” Trish says. “We knew that they were the kids who were going to succeed in high school.”
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 Ron’s 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. “I always knew I kind of wanted to go there,” she says of U-F.
Olivia edged out her friend Michelle Joo, the salutatorian who will attend Yale University in New Haven, CT. To Trish’s 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.
“They came out with cake and flowers,” Olivia says. “It was exciting. We weren’t really thinking about it, so it was a surprise. We’ve 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.”
It was during a field trip in the seventh grade at Weightman Middle School that Trish says she was struck by her daughter’s ability to surround herself with the right friends. She now holds that ability, an under-appreciated quality, in the highest regard.
“Olivia was a Montessori kid, and we were a little nervous about bringing her into the traditional school setting,” Trish says. “It was funny, on that field trip, I just thought ‘she is good at choosing friends.’ I saw all the kids she had to pick from, and who she chose, and I thought, ‘O.K., those are good choices.’ I had never thought about that before that day.”
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 — which helped boost her GPA — before finding out she was in the top 4, there wasn’t much she could change when it came to her course load.
“So, I just kept doing what I was doing,” she says. “I just followed the steps I was already planning to follow.”
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 Sheriff’s 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 Chapel’s 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 hasn’t 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 isn’t sure what she wants to do just yet — nothing science or medical related, however — but will minor in business, because she thinks it’s good to have.
“Other than that,” she says, “I’m wide open, and looking forward to it.”
The Wesley Chapel High graduation is scheduled for Friday, June 4, 7 p.m. at the school’s 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 — she didn’t want to get anything lower than an “A’’ in any class she took. Ever.
It wasn’t that far-fetched of an idea. The only “B’’ 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 didn’t get an A and made sure she never made that mistake again.
“Back then, I thought you could only get As if you were a nice person,’’ Ashleigh says. “I just thought I needed to be nicer. But, that isn’t how it works.’’
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 Creek’s valedictorian. She will be the first valedictorian to attend all four years at the school, which opened in 2017.
“I guess I’m in the school history books,’’ 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 Bachelor’s degree. She will attend the University of South Florida in Tampa on an academic scholarship.
“I’m kind of a perfectionist, so when I entered high school I told myself that I want to get all As,’’ Ashleigh says. “I didn’t even know what a valedictorian was.’’
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.
What’s also impressive is that Ashleigh didn’t just spend her high school days in classrooms and libraries or behind a computer screen. She has been part of the school’s art club for three years. And, she is an important member of the Coyotes’ 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 school’s 4x100m relay team.
In short, she is one of those student athletes who excels at whatever she decides to try.
“I would say that’s right,’’ her father Robert says. “You 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. She’s just always done well in everything she’s done. She’s competed in speech contests and done well. She played the flute for a while and became an All-County flute player. She’s a very talented artist. She excels at anything she picks up.’’
The next step is college. Ashleigh’s 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.
“I would read books on those subjects just for fun,’’ she says. “Sometimes I’m kind of a nerd.’’
Just because she is off to college doesn’t Ashleigh’s goals will change. She still doesn’t want to get a B. And, she says she would like the chance to walk on to USF’s track team.
She won’t be far away from the Wesley Chapel home where she grew up. She’ll 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.
“They’ve been very encouraging,’’ Ashleigh says. “They’ve never pressured me. They put a lot of trust in me.’’
Well-earned trust.
“We’re lucky that she’s been so driven,’’ Robert says. “We haven’t had to push her. She’s taken care of her academics. She’s really taken control of her life. She’s made our jobs as parents a lot easier.’’
The Cypress Creek High graduation is scheduled for Wednesday, June 2, 7 p.m. at the school’s football stadium.