By:  J. Daniel Pearson
Positively Osceola
Published 4-30-2026

In the middle of the current season, Harmony boys’ volleyball coach Ryan Kading started handing each of his players a poker chip after a win.  The players would keep the chips until the next match, when they would give them back to Kading.  If they won, the chips were returned to the players.

“It was a symbolic thing we started to remind our players they needed to “Go All In” on every match, Kading said.  “We wanted our guys to understand the need to go for it on every game and every point.”

After Thursday’s playoff game, not only to the Longhorns still have a seat at the table, but they are continuing to build “their stack” after Thursday’s a five-set win over Celebration (29-27, 21-25, 25-18, 23-25, 15-8).

For Harmony (21-3), it was their first FHSAA Playoff State Series win in school history.  It also was the fourth time this season that beat the Storm (9-8), a team that has a long reputation for earning state playoff bids.

Although Celebration took Harmony to five sets back in March, the Longhorns won convincingly during both the OBC Championships (3-0) and last week’s district tournament (3-1).

It would not be that easy Thursday.

The Longhorns built a decent-sized lead early in Set 1, only to see Celebration claw back in the game.  The Storm would fight off four set-points before a Cason Heath kill and a Storm net violation gave the Horns a 29-27 overtime victory.

The second set saw Celebration use runs of 4-0 and 5-1 early to build a 12-4 lead.  Although the Longhorns were able to cut the deficit to three on several occasions, strong play in the set by Thiago Amorim (3 kills, block and an ace) and Roman Velez (3 kills) leveled the match at a set each.

Harmony would take control in the third set.  A 7-1 run capped by a thunderous kill by Oliver Benken gave the Longhorns a 18-13 lead and they would cruise to the seven-point set win.

Still Celebration would not fade away.

The fourth set stayed close for the entire game with neither team being able to pull ahead by more than three points.  A Harmony ball-handling error followed by a long spike attempt out-of-bounds would give Celebration a 24-22 lead and one point later Marius Petrikas threw down a spike to send the match to a “Race to 15” final set.

In that final frame, Harmony would dominate.  Jameson Benken would have four kills, Oliver Benken added two and the Longhorns took advantage of several Celebration errors to cruise to the 15-8 win.

“Getting in a final set is always a little nerve-racking because the set is so short,” Kading said.  “We try to divide those ‘Race to 15’ sets up in five-point increments with the goal of winning three of those points.  We were able to do that tonight but give Celebration a lot of credit, they are a good team that pushed us to our limits tonight.”

Celebration lost five points in the match on illegal rotation alignment calls.  “They were not using the same rotations they used against us in our first three matches.  They were trying to change it up in order to keep a taller player in the front to negate our overall height advantage,” Kading said.  “While the strategy made sense, I just think there was some confusion on their execution and it cost them some points.”

For the match, Jameson Benken led Celebration with 17 kills, Oliver Benken added 14 and Brayden Buehler had 12 and a block.   The Storm were led by Petrikas, who had 21 kills and two blocks.  Amorim had eight kills, two blocks and an ace.

Harmony moves on to play at Horizon (24-3) next Tuesday in a Regional Semifinal.  “They are top five team in the entire state,” Kading said.  “But right now it feels like we’re playing with ‘House Money’ and we are willing push all of our chips in the middle.”

In other state playoff action, Osceola saw its first season of outdoor girls beach volleyball come to an end with a 5-0 loss to #1 seed Venice in a regional semifinal on Thursday.  Osceola finishes its season with a 10-3 record.

In baseball, Harmony opens a best of three 7A, Region 3 semifinal against Vero Beach on Friday.  Game 2 is 11 a.m. Saturday and an “if necessary” game 3 will follow.