Osceola High School will be the heavy favorites as the first Orange Belt Conference (OBC) champions of the 2024-25 school year will be crowned this week in the sport of volleyball.
The OBC consists of the eight public schools in Osceola County and points are earned 1-8 for the coveted year-end All-Sports Trophy. The volleyball tournament takes place this week with quarterfinal games today, semifinals on Tuesday and championship and placement games on Thursday.
Osceola and Harmony, the top two seeds in the tournament, will host the first two rounds. Seeding was determined by FHSAA State rankings as of last week. In the opening round at Osceola tonight, #4 seed St. Cloud (8-7) will take on #5 seed Gateway (6-8) at 5:30 p.m. and Osceola (15-4) will play #8 Liberty (1-4) in the 6:30 p.m. nightcap. Over at Harmony, #3 Tohopekaliga (8-9) will face Celebration (6-7) in the 5:30 match; while #2 Harmony (9-1) will take on #7-seeded Poinciana (4-6) at 6:30 p.m.
Consolation (5 p.m.) and semifinal rounds (6:30 p.m.) will be played at the same sites on Tuesday. The championship and third place games will be played at Tohopekaliga at 5 and 6:30 p.m. on Thursday; while fifth and seventh place games will be contested at the home court of the highest seeds.
Osceola has played an incredibly difficult schedule this season, including top 20 state teams Deland, Hagerty, and Winter Park (#2). They also participated in the top level of the NIKE Tournament of Champions, where they faced both another top 20 state ranked team in Lake Highland Prep and a national power in Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas). Osceola is 5-0 this season against county opposition has not dropped a set in those matches against Celebration, Tohopekaliga (twice), Harmony and Gateway.
The Lady Kowboys come into the tournament ranked 10th overall in the state and #4 in Class 4A. They defeated Tohopekaliga last week, before dropping a close 15-25, 23-25, 24-26 decision to Winter Park last Wednesday, in a game that was played at 3 p.m. in the afternoon in advance of the arrival of Hurricane Helene. The loss snapped an eight-match winning streak.
“Everything being equal, I wasn’t too upset with the loss,” Osceola coach Carrie Palmi said. “Ranking wise, they (Winter Park) are one of the top teams in the state and we simply did not play our best. A lot of that had to do with having to move the game from Thursday to Wednesday and then having change the start to 3 p.m. We were expecting a huge crowd and the changes kept a lot of those fans away and with it– the anticipated energy in the building also went away. Still the final two sets were extremely close and could have gone eitidoher way. Losing is never fun, but it is something we can build on.”
Although Osceola should breeze through the first two rounds at home, Palmi said her team will still be excited. “Monday night is senior niatyght and that is always a special time for our players,” the veteran coach said. “We’re planning on giving our reserves playing time this week. Winning the OBC Championships is always one of our stated goals, so I don’t think we will have any issue keeping our focus this week.”
Harmony’s only loss this season was a 19-25, 14-25, 11-25 loss to Osceola on Sept. 10. Led by outside hitters sophomore Sam Vickers (86 kills) and senior Kiera Alexander (55 kills), Harmony will take a five-match winning streak into the tournament. The Longhorns are 5-1 against county opposition.
Tohopekaliga is the last team (2021) not named Osceola to win an OBC volleyball championship. Although they come in to tournament with sub .500 record, they have some talent and could challenge Harmony on that side of the bracket.
District play in football opened last week, with Osceola and Tohopekaliga picking up big wins.
Week 7 of the high school football schedule finds six of the eight county teams in action, as Harmony and Osceola hit their “bye” week. No county teams are involved in district action this week, but there are some interesting games, highlighted by St. Cloud at Gateway and Celebration at Liberty.
The Panthers (3-3) are coming off a 24-0 shutout of Liberty and will be looking to score an upset against St. Cloud. The Bulldogs self-destructed in the second half against Lake Nona last week, falling to 2-4 on the season with a 23-10 district loss to Lake Nona.
The second oldest in county rivalry, the Gateway – St. Cloud series was competitive until recently as the Bulldogs have won five in a row by an average margin of 31 points.
But St. Cloud has struggled defensively this season and although Gateway still lacks some depth they have some playmakers on offense and have recorded three defensive shutouts in their last four games.
“No question, it is still going to be a big challenge for us,” Gateway coach Marlin Roberts said. “I’ve known Mike (St. Coach Mike Short) a long time and I know he likes to throw the ball all over the place. They are well-coached and this is really rivalry game for both teams. We will need to play soundly on defense, score some points, and avoid turnovers.”
“Regardless of the scores the last couple of year, we’re not in a position to take anyone lightly,” Short said of the Gateway game. “Coach Roberts has done a fantastic job this season and they have had some success. I am anticipating a close, hard-fought game.”
The Celebration (1-4) at Liberty (2-4) is interesting for a different reason.
Both programs are under new coaches that are trying to rebuild programs and both are showing significant progress despite their overall records.
The Storm, under first year coach Chris Blanton, have lost two one-score games this season and strongly believe they could just as easily be 4-1 this year. Second-year coach Dee Hart took over the Chargers after the 2023 training camp had begun and has done a solid job in restoring pride and discipline in the program. With a few breaks, the Chargers could also have had a couple of more wins this season.
“Both teams are playing a lot of young players and both teams are still learning how to win,” Storm coach Chris Blanton said. “We know Coach Hart will have his team ready to play, so we have to come out with the right mindset and know it’s going to be a battle. Despite the loss last Friday (13-16 to East Ridge), our kids continue to fight hard.”
Tohopekaliga (3-2, 1-0 District) is coming off a hard-fought 14-9 district win over Harmony and will host Lake Brantley (2-4) in a non-district contest at 7 p.m. A once powerful program, the Patriots have fell on hard time lately – winning just eight of their last 28 games.
Despite having record-setting junior quarterback Sabby Meassick (8100 career passing yards, 82 passing touchdowns), the Tigers – with several new receivers, running backs and lineman – have struggled to score points this year, averaging just over 14 per game. Still the Tigers win over Harmony kept them in position to grab their first playoff spot in the school’s six-year history. They are currently tied (1-0) with Lake Nona for first place in the district.
Coming off its “bye” week, Poinciana (3-2) will have an opportunity to get back on the winning side when they host winless Lake Region (0-4) at 7 p.m. Friday night. First-year head coach Taron Mallard said his team will be anxious to get back on the field after dropping a 20-6 mistake-filled decision to Haines City two weeks ago.
“Life is 10 percent what happened to you and 90 percent how you respond to it,” Mallard said. “We need to respond as champions this week and I think we are on our way to doing that. We healed some bumps and bruises this week, but we also practiced hard and got better as a team. We are blessed to have an opportunity to try to win our fourth game of the year on Friday and move forward from there.”
The Lady Bulldogs Golf Invitational took place last weekend under an interesting format. Teams played a scramble tournament on Friday and those team scores carried over to Saturday’s 18-hold stroke play event.
On Friday, St. Cloud and Viera tied for first place shooting matching seven under par 65s; while Dr. Phillips was third (-4) and Winter Park 4th (+2). In Saturday’s stroke play event, St. Cloud and Viera both started at -7 but both shot identical scores of 313 for a net two-day score of 306. Because of wet conditions and a late afternoon downpour, it was decided Viera and St. Cloud would share the team title.
Three of St. Cloud’s four players broke 80, led by sophomore Maddie Burda (73), freshman Abigail Murphy (76) and junior Karolyna Adams (77). Senior Nadia Burda (87) shot the other counting score for St. Cloud. Hannah Hall (70) and MikaylaArold (71) led Viera by finishing first and second overall.
The St. Cloud boys played in the two-day, highly competitive Windermere Invitational that featured some of the top teams in the state. The Bulldogs finished 10th with a team score of 628. Notre Dame Prep (597), Circle Christian (602) and First Academy (604) finished in the top three.
Ethan Parrish, Dominick Velazquez, and Arnold Pouncy led the Dogs with matching two-day totals of seven-over 151. The Orange Belt Conference Golf Championships are slated for Oct. 21 (Girls) and Oct. 22 (Boys) at Royal St. Cloud Golf Course.
