District Soccer, OBC Wrestling Highlight Busy Week in Osceola County High School Sports

By: J. Daniel Pearson for Positively Osceola

District championships will be on the line in both boys’ and girls’ soccer this week, while the Orange Belt Conference Wrestling Championship will be held at Celebration High on Saturday. Add in the final week of regular season in basketball as teams jockey for district seeding and the girls weightlifting regional tournaments and it amounts to a busy week of action for local high school athletes.

Here is a rundown on county sports action this week:

SOCCER

District soccer tournaments began last week for all eligible schools for both boys and girls teams and after preliminary rounds five county teams are still in contention for district titles.

In Class 6A, District 7 boys action, St. Cloud (12-5-2) was the number two seed behind state power Viera (18-1-0). Weylan Craig’s team opened district play last week with a 2-1 win over East River but saw its season come to a possible end with a loss to powerful #3 Melbourne, 5-0. The Dogs will have to wait until district tournaments are concluded to see if their record merits an at-large regional bid.

OBC champion Celebration (8-2-2), the top seed in 7A, District 9 got by Harmony by a 3-0 score in the district semifinals and will host upstart Osceola (7-4-2) in a 6 p.m. Wednesday championship game. The teams met in last week’s OBC Tournament semifinal, with the Storm winning a 1-0 overtime thriller. Osceola reached the district finals with a 3-0 win over Tohopekaliga – a team that took Celebration to overtime in the OBC Finals last week.

Gateway (12-3-1) blasted Liberty by an 8-0 score on Friday and will host Lake Buena Vista at 6 p.m. Tuesday. A victory most likely would put them in a Thursday championship game at regional power Horizon, a team that is 9-3-4 on the season and seeded first in the district.

On the girls’ side, only Celebration (12-2-0) and Harmony (12-3-0) remain alive and they will meet 6 p.m. on Tuesday night on the Storm’s home field for the Class 7A, District 9 championship. The teams met once earlier this year, with Harmony taking a 3-2 decision in the OBC Tournament Final.

WRESTLING

Osceola participated in the Colby Singletary Memorial Invitational this past weekend. When one considers the overall talent at the event, it would rival the state tournament in terms of toughness as 3A state champion South Dade, #3 Osceola and number 5 Palmetto Ridge were joined by 2A state champion Lake Gibson, #3 Charlotte, #6 Mariner and 1A state champion Jensen Beach and 1A runner-up Somerset in a 39-team IBT tournament hosted by Palmetto Ridge (Naples, Fl).

At the end of the day, Osceola finished tied for sixth in the event with 160.0 points. Defending 3A state champion South Dade (297) was first, followed by Charlotte (249) and Lake Gibson (240).

Individually, the Kowboys joined South Dade as the only two teams to post multiple champions in the event. Winning individual titles for Osceola were freshman Adaias Ortiz (113), Anderson Heap (157) and Gunner Holland (175). Heap’s win was special as he defeated defending 2A state champion Gianni Maldonaldo, 8-6, in overtime. Holland’s second period pin over South Dade’s Kevin Olavarria in the finals was sweet revenge after Olavarria defeated Holland 7-5 in last week’s State Dual meet championship.

In addition to their three champions, Nathan Cabrera (150-3^rd place) and Deacon DeLong (165-6^th place) reached the podium for Osceola.

“I’m really incredibly proud of our whole team. This was a big time event as the Singletary family has meant so much to high school wrestling in this state,” Osceola coach Rick Tribit said. “Anderson stepped up to beat a defending state champion that defeated him earlier this season in a national tournament. Gunner was down a little after he lost in state duals and to come back and pin that kid who beat him will do a lot for his confidence if the meet again in the state tournament. Ten schools sent wrestlers to the top of the podium but only South Dade (3) and Osceola (3 each) had multiple champions.”

In other tournaments, Harmony (155.5) finished fourth but was just three points out of second (host Flager Palm Coach -158) in the 38^th Annual Flager Rotary Club Tournament won by Winter Springs (181.5). The Longhorns posted one champion in the 28-team event with Shawn McCallister winning at 157. But seven other Harmony wrestlers reached the podium including Tristan Horn (3^rd-113), Max Butler (3^rd– 120), Gabriel Nascimento (5^th-126), Carson Estrada 4^th-138), Jeremiah Gomez (2^nd-150), John Fernandez (4^th-175), and Case Roberts (6^th-215).

St. Cloud (184) finished fourth at the 18-team Wolfpack IBT Tournament behind host Timber Creek (293.0), Gainesville Bucholz (251) and Freedom (203). Mike Short’s team put six wrestlers in the top six with Carter Rivera (3^rd-106), Luc Beaulieu (6^th-113), Nate Huron (6^th-132), Blake Carter (6^th-144), Terrance Griffin (6^th-157) and Aiden Johnson (5^th-215).

Those tournaments set the stage for next week’s OBC Championships that will be contested at Celebration High on Saturday (Feb. 3), beginning at 10 a.m. Osceola won the OBC team championship eight times in a row from 2012-2019, before Harmony won three straight (2020-22).

Last year, the Kowboys won nine of 14 weight classes to recapture the team title from the Longhorns (231.5-201) . “We have some athletes nursing some injuries right now and we weren’t able to take a full team to the Singletary Memorial,” Tribit added. “Hopefully we will get some guys back, but regardless we’ll strap it on and get ready to compete.”

GIRLS WEIGHTLIFTING

In what was essentially a repeat of last week’s Orange Belt Conference championship meet, six of the eight Osceola public schools (along with Lake Nona and Cypress Creek) met at Harmony High School last Friday for Class 3A, District 9 Championships. St. Cloud won the Olympic team event, but in a bit of a surprise – host Harmony won the Traditional – beating the Bulldogs for the first time in a half dozen meetings this year.

Harmony won the traditional (clean and jerk / bench press disciplines) by a scant two points over the Bulldogs (63-61) to claim the district crown. The Bulldogs took the district title in the Olympic (clean and jerk / snatch) by a comfortable 70-54 margin.

Although a team score is kept at all levels, individual lifters must qualify to advance from districts to regionals. Each district champion in the four regions automatically qualify for the next level with 16 wild cards also advancing based on best lift totals from each region.

Earning automatic qualifying bids from Osceola County were St. Cloud lifters Haley Wright (101 class-Olympic), Ashley Aun (110-Olympic and Traditional), Sophia Recio (129-Olympic and Traditional), Morgan Van Auken (183-Olympic), Reese Butler (199-Olympic and Traditional), Belen Gonzalez (154-Olympic and Traditional) and Jeylonie Mejia (183-Traditional). In all, seven St. Cloud lifters won a total of 12 district titles.

From Harmony, Longhorn individual champions Abriana Nunez (119-Olympic and Traditional) Kassandra Ramirez (101-Traditional) won titles. Although they won just two weight classes compared to five by St. Cloud, it was the performance of the non-champions that gave the Longhorns the team title in the Traditional as Harmony picked up valuable points with six second place finishes and three third place finishes.

Tohopekaliga claimed district champions by Alexa Woodman (139-Olympic and Traditional) and Kassandra Ramirez (101 Traditional).

The other county district champion came from Celebration where Lujain Alshafei won both the Olympic and Traditional titles. In addition to these 12 lifters, coaches from all three schools expect more lifters to get through when the at-large qualifiers are announced on Monday.

“Unfortunately we had a girl who did not make weight and that hurts us in team score as we felt she would have won both the Traditional and Olympic,” St. Cloud coach Cory Aun said. “Still Coach Lippert and his team deserve a lot of credit for winning the traditional title. They did a great job. At this point, however, the only real goal for every school is to advance as many lifters as possible to the next level. We have some kids that might be on the bubble but I think we feel pretty good about where we stand.”

BASKETBALL

The regular season comes to an end this week for both boys and girls and several county teams will be jockeying for district playoff positioning. More than half of the county boys’ teams (Osceola, Tohopekaliga, Celebration, Harmony and Poinciana will be participating in the Class 6A, District 7 tournament. With only the winner guaranteed a trip to regionals, a strong second place finish may be necessary for any other team to advance.

Harmony (17-4) and Poinciana (13-5) will most likely battle to top seed in the tournament; while Osceola (8-10) could be a force.

At 16-5, St. Cloud—surprise winners of the 2024 Orange Belt Conference county championship tournament (read about it here: https://www.positivelyosceola.com/st-cloud-bulldogs-upset-poinciana-eagles-to-take-take-first-orange-belt-conference-title-in-boys-basketball/ ) – will look for a high seeding in 6A, District 7; which also includes Liberty. Gateway will face Polk County schools in 5A-District 7 play.

On the girls’ side, OBC champion St. Cloud and Gateway – a 5A Final Four team—have dominated county basketball for the last couple of years. The Bulldogs hammered Winter Springs (73-33 on Saturday) and will look for their 19^th win in the season finale against Eau Gallie on Friday night. Gateway (13-6) easily defeated Cypress Creek on Saturday (58-18) and concludes its regular season with a good Timber Creek (14-8) on Tuesday before taking on Oviedo on Thursday.

Look for district previews next Monday at Positivelyosceola.com.

FOOTBALL

After a large number of Orange County schools elected to go independent and several appeals were heard, the FHSAA released its final district alignments for the 2024-25 football seasons. Under this new alignment, the FHSAA has decided eliminate the suburban-metro model and go back to Class 1A-7A with a Rural Division. Celebration, Harmony, and Tohopekaliga will compete in the 7A (based on enrollment); while Osceola and St. Cloud will be in 6A. Gateway has elected to join Liberty and Poinciana as independents for at least the next two seasons.

The new districts will find the Kowboys and Bulldogs in same district with Viera and Melbourne. Tohopekaliga and the Longhorns will be in a three-team district with Lake Nona. Celebration will be in a four-team district with state-power Dr. Phillips, East Ridge and Olympia.

By electing the independent classification, the other three county schools will not be eligible for the FHSAA Playoffs but will now be able to put together a more competitive schedule—a decision that an additional 10 Orange County schools made this year.

In other football news, Tohopekaliga junior defensive tackle Andrew Hines (6-4, 260) was offered and verbally committed to University of South Florida. Hines registered 112 total tackles (17 solo) with 23 tackles-for-loss and a team-leading 12 quarterback sacks in helping the Tigers to a 6-5 record and a bowl win last season.

According to sources, Hines had 15 offers before committing to the Bulls. Offers and commitments are non-binding and colleges can begin officially signing players in early signing period in December.

THIS WEEK’S CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Monday, Jan, 29