Osceola wrestlers named Athletes of the Year
For the third consecutive year and 11th time in school’s 19-year history, Harmony has won the Orange Belt Conference’s All-Sports Trophy as the top athletic program in Osceola County.
The announcement was made at Wednesday’s annual OBC Awards Dinner at Osceola Heritage Park.
Harmony found itself locked in a close battle for the team title with Celebration and St. Cloud through the winter sports season but came on strong in the spring – capturing team championships in baseball, boys track, girls track, and flag football -- tallying 59 total points in the spring to capture the overall title with 152 points. St. Cloud (128) edged Celebration (127) for second; while Tohopekaliga was fourth (104).
“We have a tremendous coaching staff here that works extremely hard in building overall programs, and not just focused on single year successes. When we graduate a great senior class, we always seem to have underclassmen ready to step in, compete and fill the void,” Harmony Athletics Director Dan Kerr said. “We may not win the most team championships every year, but we are rarely at the bottom of the standings in any sport. It’s that consistency that has been the most important part of our overall success. We put a lot of emphasis on the importance of trying to win the All-Sports Award every year.”
Osceola wrestlers Cooper Haase and Kealoni Vega were named the OBC Male and Female Athletes of the Year. Haase, who was selected as the Osceola News Gazette’s Wrestler of the Year and is a candidate for the paper’s Male Athlete of the Year, capped off his senior campaign earlier with a 49-1 record and won the FHSAA Class 3A 152-pound championship to claim his fourth consecutive state title. His list of accomplishments included winning Orange Belt Conference, district and regional titles as well as the prestigious Knockout Christmas Classic – which featured numerous nationally ranked wrestlers and state champions from the southeast. His only loss of the season came in the Powerade Holiday Tournament in Cannonsburg, Pa., where he lost a close decision to the No. 2 ranked wrestler in the nation.
He joins legendary fellow OHS alumnus and all-time national wins leader Fox Baldwin, as only the second wrestler in county history to win four consecutive state championships. Haase received both the Florida David Schultz Wrestling and the Florida Dairy Farmers High School Wrestler of the Year awards this year. He will attend United State Military Academy at West Point on a wrestling scholarship this fall.
Vega (39-1) breezed through the field with four straight pins to become the county’s first official state champion with a win in the 100-pound class. Vega, considered one best in the country, most likely would have won a state championship last year but missed the season with an ACL injury.
“She is an incredible athlete and a fierce competitor,” Osceola coach and athletics director Rick Tribit said. “When she got hurt last year, she was devastated that she did not get to compete in the first officially sanctioned FHSAA Girls Tournament. She came back on a mission this year and dominated the competition all year.”
Wednesday, Osceola County Athletic Director Ryan Adams also recognized other state champions: Mike Ziss of St. Cloud, who won double gold medals and state championships in both the Olympic and Traditional competitions; Harmony wrester Nelson Toro who won the heavyweight title in Class 3A in wrestling; St. Cloud weightlifter Abby Davis, who won a state title; and Osceola’s Anderson Heap, who won the Class 3A 145-pound wrestling championship – his second title. Adams also noted that 78 county athletes have signed to continue their athletic careers at the collegiate level.
Tohopekaliga baseball coach Nikko Martell was selected for the Mike Fields Distinguished Leadership Award. Named after St. Cloud and Harmony baseball coaching legend Mike Fields, the award recognizes athletic achievement, sportsmanship and community service.
“Coach Martell’s mission is to help our athletes on and off the field. He works hard to hold his athletes accountable for both their grades and their character in a world that it would be easy to just work for wins,” Tohopekaliga Athletics Director Travis Foster said. “Nikko and his team continually stepped up to help out other teams by working events or covering parking and interacting with the families. For the past couple of years he has run the XT Preseason Classic, an honorary baseball tournament to remember his friend Xavier Torres; he also works closely with the Latinos in Action, helping create a Roberto Clemente Community Service Award for high school athletes who do volunteer work inside the community.”
Harmony boys basketball coach Dustin “Duke” Leonardo was presented the Dean Cherry Memorial Coach of the Year Award. Leonardo led Harmony to its first district basketball championship in school history. The 22-6 season also set a school record for wins in a season and capped a remarkable turnaround in Harmony’s basketball fortunes. In the four years prior to Leonardo’s arrival, the Longhorns had four consecutive losing seasons and were 32-61 overall. After a 6-12 initial season, Leonardo has put together back-to-back records of 16-10 and 22-6 and he is now 44-28 overall.
Dean Cherry Coach of the Year honor was determined by a vote of athletics directors from the list of OBC Coach of the Years selected at each school. Those honorees were also recognized, including David Rains (Celebration girls cross country), Carrie Palmi (Osceola volleyball), Justin Marino (Gateway girls basketball), Jim Endicott (St. Cloud golf), Matt Arnold (Liberty boys cross county and girls weightlifting), Rob Weilert (Tohopekaliga lacrosse and weightlifting) and Jordan Creel (Poinciana boys and Girls weightlifting).
Poinciana’s Tiffany King was named Athletic Director of the Year.
As usual, academics played a key role in Wednesday’s program. For a record ninth time in 14 years, the Harmony Longhorns won the prestigious OBC Academic Championship. All Longhorn athletes had a cumulative GPA of 3.412 – edging out St. Cloud (3.357) and Celebration (3.3354) for the title. The Bulldogs and Celebration tied for the team championship last year. Overall, county high school athletes had a cumulative GPA of 3.20.
In addition to the overall academic title, St. Cloud’s girls’ golf (3.761) and Harmony’s boys’ volleyball (3.726) were named the top individual teams for academic achievement. Individually, Gateway’s Felipe Abreu was named Male Academic Athlete of the Year and Liberty’s Jennifer Baez earned Female Academic Athlete of the Year. Abreu has a 4.0 GPA and a weighted 4.63 GPA and will attend UCF, while Abreu posted a 4.0 GPA and a 4.75 weighted GPA and will attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both participated in three sports.
Two new awards were added to the program. Retiring Osceola County School Superintendent Debra Pace was honored with the OBC Lifetime Achievement Award, and Celebration edged St. Cloud as the first recipient of the AdventHealth Community Service Award. Adams noted that Storm athletes and coaches donated close to 3,500 hours towards community projects this year.
