Orange Belt Conference championship tournaments are making a comeback for most team sports for the coming school year, Osceola County Athletics Director Ryan Adams announced this week.
The OBC, which conducts championships for the eight public county schools in Osceola County, saw many of its tournaments interrupted the past three years because of COVID-19. Team championship points for most of those sports were awarded based on round-robin competition in the regular season during that time.
The tournament concept started in fall 2019 with scintillating volleyball and soccer tournaments before the pandemic shutdown in the spring.
Now bracket style tournaments will be held for nine different sports; while individual tournaments will be held in golf, weightlifting, track, wrestling, cheer and cross country.
“From a volleyball standpoint, I am really happy to see the tournament come back,” Osceola girls’ volleyball coach Carrie Palmi said. “Tournaments create excitement for the kids and when it is for a county championship it means something. Also, because strength of schedule is so important for playoff seeding, not having to play every team in the county opens up some playing dates where we can play stronger non-county teams to build a resume for the post-season.”
During the coming school year, team sport tournaments will be held in girls volleyball (hosted by St. Cloud, Oct. 3-6), girls soccer (Harmony, Dec. 5-9), boys soccer (Gateway, Jan. 17-20), girls basketball (St. Cloud, Jan. 17-20), boys basketball (Tohopekaliga, Jan. 23-27), flag football (Harmony, Mar. 27-31), boys volleyball (Celebration, April 10-13), softball (St. Cloud, April 10-14) and baseball (Poinciana, TBA).
Tournament play did return this spring with the first-ever baseball tournament, won by Osceola.
“Absolutely loved the tournament and the format,” Kowboys coach Scott Birchler said. “It is essentially the same format as a district tournament which gives us an opportunity to figure out rotations, pitch counts and other things. We always just played a round robin with the county schools, but this is certainly a more intense format and a lot more fun for the players.”
All tournaments will be bracket style wit h consolation brackets, ensuring teams all get multiple tournament games.
In addition announcing the return of team tournaments, Day announced the dates and sites for the individual sports championships.
Swimming and diving will be the first OBC Championship and it is slated for Bob Makinson Aquatic Center on Oct. 6-7. Boys and girls golf will be take place at Oct. 17-18 at Royal St. Cloud Golf Club. Other championships to be held on school campuses include boys and girls cross country (St. Cloud, Oct. 19), girls weightlifting (Harmony, Jan. 13), competitive cheer (St. Cloud, Jan. 18), wrestling (St. Cloud, Feb. 4) and track (St. Cloud, April 12).
With the return of team tournaments, Adams noted that there are currently no restrictions on attendance at either indoor or outdoor events. Tickets, when required, can be purchased at the gate but fans can skip the lines by pre-purchasing all Osceola public school sports tickets online at www.ticketspicket.com.
