By: J. Daniel Pearson for Positively Osceola
Post-season playoff action begins this week in boys’ and girls’ basketball with district tournaments; while Osceola County is sending two district champions and two at-large squads into the FHSAA soccer regionals that begin with quarterfinal games on Feb. 13.
In basketball, a district championship is necessary to advance to regionals, although four at-large bids – based on state rankings – will also available.
Locally, five of the eight county teams are located in the same district – which will give both Class 7A, District 6 tournaments (boys and girls) a local flavor as Celebration, Harmony, Osceola, Tohopekaliga, and Poinciana will be joined by Lake Nona for the week-long tournament.
The girls’ tournament begins on Monday. Tohopekaliga (15-3) and Harmony (8-9) are seeded number one and two and will receive first round byes; while number 4 Poinciana hosts #5 Lake Nona and #7 Osceola (4-17) travels to number 3 Celebration (6-13). The Poinciana/Lake Nona winner will travel to Tohopekaliga on Wednesday; while the Osceola/Celebration victor goes to Harmony. The championship game will be held Friday at the highest ranked remaining team.
In 7A, District 6 on the boys’ side, it figures to be a highly competitive tournament with top-seeded Harmony, second-seeded Poinciana and third seeded Osceola all considered title contenders. Harmony, the defending district champion, is 20-5 this season and is 5-1 against district competition this year. Poinciana is 15-6 and finished second in the OBC Tournament this year; while Osceola is just 11-11 this season, they do have a victory over Poinciana and lost twice to Harmony by a combined total of just three points.
Both the Longhorns and Eagles receive first-round byes when the tournament opens on Tuesday, with Osceola hosting Celebration (6 p.m.) and Tohopekaliga (7-14) traveling to #4 Lake Nona (6-19). The winner of Osceola-Celebration plays at Poinciana and the Toho-Lake Nona winner travels to Harmony for Thursday’s semifinals; the championship game is set for Saturday with the highest seeded team remaining hosting.
“We are a really battered team right now, we’ve been without Frans Richardson for several games, Cory Sylus has missed the last couple of games and Jeremy Penner has been really banged up,” Harmony coach Duke Leonardo said. “Hopefully the first round bye will allow us to get some of those guys back, but the tournament is not going to be easy even if we are full strength. Poinciana is an outstanding, athletic team, Osceola has played a tough schedule and gave us two hard games this season and even Lake Nona, despite their record, has been in almost every game this year and they beat us earlier. It should be an exciting, highly competitive tournament.”
“Our starting five consists of three sophomores and two juniors and we have put them through the ringer this year,” Kowboys coach Steve Mason said. “Our hope was that playing that hard schedule has now prepared them for the post-season.” Osceola’s strength of schedule was one of the hardest in the state this year and their 11 losses came against nine teams that are a combined 117 games over .500.
St. Cloud and Liberty share the same district with Polk County teams Lakeland, Bartow, Kathleen.
Last year, top-seeded St. Cloud lost in both in the districts and regionals to Lake Gibson, a school that would also have been in the district had they not made a last minute decision to drop the sport for the 2023-24 season when the coach resigned just before the start of the season and they did not have enough players to field a team.
That leaves the Lady Bulldogs (19-6) as the top seed and a first round bye. St. Cloud will host the winner of Monday’s Liberty (2-12) at Bartow (4-17) on Wednesday; while Kathleen (17-7) will host Lakeland (5-19) in the other semifinal.
In the boys’ 6A, District 7 Tournament, St. Cloud (19-5) hopes to continue its magical season after winning the Orange Belt Conference Tournament two weeks ago and securing their first winning season since the 2004-05 school year. Tommy Billiteri’s team will go into district play as the number two seed behind Lakeland (16-5) and will receive a first round bye. That means St. Cloud will host the winner of Tuesday’s Bartow (16-9)-Kathleen (3-19) game; while Lakeland will host the winner of the Liberty (6-16)-Lake Gibson (12-13) game. The championship game will be held Saturday at the school of the highest remaining seed.
Gateway, 16-6 and winners of five straight, will be the number one seed in the girls’ 5A, District 7 Tournament. Justin Marino’s team reached the FHSAA Final Four last year and will start its post-season on Wednesday night when its hosts the winner of the Jones-Lake Region quarterfinal. Lake Wales (14-9) is number two seed and will play the Auburndale at Davenport winner in the other semifinal. Gateway did not face a district opponent this year.
The Panther boys’ team (9-11) is the number three team in the 5A, D7 tournament and will host Lake Buena Vista Tuesday night. A win would put them in Thursday’s semifinal against Lake Wales-Lake Region quarterfinal game. Jones (10-13) is the top seed and will take on the Davenport-Auburndale winner in the other semifinal.
In soccer, the Celebration boys’ team (9-2-2) earned a number two regional seed after defeating Osceola (2-1) in the 7A, District 9 championship game. Senior Angelo Castellano and sophomore Luca DeTorres netted goals for the Storm. The win was a repeat of Celebration’s close win over Osceola in last week’s OBC title game (read about it here: https://www.positivelyosceola.com/celebration-storm-triumphs-in-double-overtime-to-win-orange-belt-conference-boys-soccer-championship/ ).
As the second seed, Celebration will host #7 Palm Beach Gardens (7-1-4) in Regional 3 opening round (2/13). With a victory they would host a regional semifinal against the winner of #3 Jupiter (11-2-2) and #6 Olympia (11-7-4).
Despite a 3-1 loss to Horizon in the 5A, District 6 championship game, Gateway (13-5-2) not only was granted an at-large regional berth but also earned a #4 seed, which means they will open up state tournament play at home – hosting #5 Cypress Creek (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) at 7 p.m. (2/13). They would face the winner of #8 Lake Buena Vista/#1 Tampa Jesuit in the Region 2 semifinals.
Both 7A, District 9 champion Harmony (13-3-0) and runner-up Celebration (12-3-0) are headed to regionals on the girls’ side. Harmony comes in as a #3 seed and will host a quarterfinal match with Treasure Coast (11-6-1) at 7 p.m. (2/13); while Celebration grabbed the fourth and final at-large spot and will open the tournament at #1 seed Boca Raton (14-2-2).
Harmony earned its seed with a 1-0 win over Celebration in the district final (read about it here:
https://www.positivelyosceola.com/longhorns-clinch-fhsaa-class-7a-district-9-girls-soccer-championship-in-1-0-showdown-with-celebration/ ) and will be making its second straight regional appearance.
In Girls’ Weightlifting, St. Cloud hosted the Class 3A, Region 3 Championships this past weekend and the event saw three county competitors automatically advance to the FHSAA State Championships on Feb. 16-17 at the Lakeland Civic Center.
Lady Bulldog lifter Ashley Aun advances in both the Traditional (bench/clean and jerk) and Olympic (clean and jerk/snatch) by winning the 110-lb. class in both events; as does Tohopekaliga’s Alexa Woodman, who won both disciplines at the 139-lb. class. St. Cloud’s Reese Butler also grabbed an automatic berth by winning the 199-lb. class in the Olympic event.
Overall, the Bulldogs will sent seven competitors to the state championship meet as Sophia Recio, Kaylee Milien, Belen Gonzalez, Jaylonie Mejia and Morgan Van Auken all earned at large bids. Other county lifters getting through to the state championship via wild card “top 16” finishes included Tohopekaliga’s Jayleen Sanchez, Osceola’s Damaia Cummings and Aykhia Williams and Celebration’s Lujain Alshaafei. Harmony sends four through to the state championship including Nya Flores, Morgan Pascual, Natalie DeJesus, and Kaytlyn Sampson.
