Athletes are talented and smart

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Athletes are talented and smart

Sports

Friday, 27 May 2011 11:46

Rick Pedone
Sports Editor
It’s been an extraordinarily successful year for local high school athletics.
Osceola County athletes won individual state championships in wrestling, weightlifting and track. Three teams reached the state soccer and softball finals. The Harmony softball team played for the state championship.

Here’s what’s more impressive: These teams know their ABC’s as well as their X’s and O’s.
The Florida High School Athletic Association just released its Academic Team Championship standings, and three county schools – Gateway, Osceola and Harmony – placed among the top six of their respective classifications.
Here’s another jaw-dropping observation. Among the spring sports played in Osceola County – track, water polo, tennis, softball, baseball and boys weightlifting – 42 of 64 teams attained an unweighted GPA of 3.0 or better. In other words, two thirds of the local teams participating this spring had a ‘B’ average.
Harmony had the best team GPA (3.837) among all Class 3A FHSAA girls tennis teams.
Every girls track team at the county’s seven large public high schools scored a GPA of 3.0 or better. Six of the seven flag football teams did the same thing.
Osceola County schools accounted for about 8.5 percent of all teams statewide earning spots in the FHSAA’s Spring Academic standings.
Can you blame Ryan Adams, the county athletic director, for taking satisfaction in these results?
“It was a great performance by our student-athletes,” he said. “It’s something that they should be proud of.”
Adams said the cumulative GPA of all Osceola County high school sports teams for the 2010-11 school year is 3.117. Harmony, with a 3.299 GPA, is Osceola County’s overall academic champion.
Considering that high school athletes maintain very busy schedules that often leave little time for homework, you have to wonder, how did this happen?
Coaches deserve credit for making sure their athletes get their work turned in on time and for steering them toward study halls. Years ago, some coaches worried about grades only until their athletes were eligible. The minimum requirement for eligibility, Adams said, is a GPA of 2.0.
Now some coaches, like Osceola softball coach George Coffey, won’t let a player on the field unless she maintains a GPA of 3.0.
The administrators and faculty members at each high school deserve credit for the role they played in seeing their athletes excel. It is difficult to imagine any county in Florida with a greater percentage of its athletes soaring over the 3.0 GPA hurdle.
The School District this week honored its Spring Academic champions: Osceola (baseball, boys and girls water polo), Harmony (softball, girls tennis, girls track), Celebration (flag football, boys track, boys weightlifting) and Gateway (boys tennis).
Smart and talented. That’s a good reputation for Osceola County athletes to carry forward.
ooo
Kissimmee’s Jonathan Summerton is at Indianapolis this weekend pursuing a seat in the IndyCar series.
Summerton, 23, an Osceola High graduate, has found it difficult to land sponsors in the wake of the Great Recession despite being regarded as one of the top young drivers in the world. He twice was on the cusp of realizing his goal of driving in the F1 series, but both times the teams couldn’t raise enough cash.
Summerton tied for first in the driver’s standings for the Atlantic Championship series in 2009 competing for the Newman-Wachs Racing team. One of his Newman-Wachs teammates was Simona De Silvestro, one of four females in the Indy 500 field Sunday.
Despite the setbacks, Summerton continues to train and pursue racing opportunities. You can follow his progress on Twitter (@JSummerton), Facebook and on his website, www.jonathansummerton.com.