Defending champion Osceola will be the favorite to win a second consecutive team title, but could face a stern challenge from Harmony at Saturday’s Orange Belt Conference boys wrestling tournament at Celebration High School, starting 10:30 a.m.
“Coach (Rick) Tribit always does a great job of getting his kids ready and they had three of the top kids in the state supplemented by a pretty stout group around them. There’s no question they are the team to beat,” Harmony coach Vic Lorenzano said. “We have had recent setbacks with injuries and while Nathan Lyttle should be back in time for OBCs, we will be without two of our top guys in Carlos Rodriguez and Mike Shanabrook. Matchups will play a big role in scoring tournament points, but I also know this isn’t just a battle between Osceola and Harmony. Poinciana, St. Cloud, Gateway and Tohopekaliga are all well coached and have individuals that could compete in their weight classes.”
Osceola is also fighting the injury bug and did not take several of their top guys to the Colby Singletary Memorial last week. Still, the Kowboys put three wrestlers at the top of the podium in the ultra-tough tournament that featured all three defending state team champions (3A South Dade, 2A Lake Gibson and 1A Jensen Beach), as well as another half dozen other teams that finished in the top five at least year’s FHSAA IBT State Championship.
Freshman Adaias Ortiz (113), Anderson Heap (157) and Gunner Holland (175) were Kowboy winners. Heap defeated defending 2A state champion Gianni Maldonaldo, 8-6, in overtime. Holland’s second period pin over South Dade’s Kevin Olavarria in the finals was sweet revenge after Olavarria defeated Holland (7-5) in last week’s duals state championship. Nathan Cabrera (150-3rd place) and Deacon DeLong (165-6th place) reached the podium. Only Osceola and South Dade had multiple champions.
“I thought we had a really good showing at the Singletary, given the level of competition. To have three individual champions was a great success,” Tribit said. “Hopefully we can now refocus, get healthy and get ready for OBC’s. Because of injury and some illness, I’m not sure what our lineup will look like but I am confident we will come in focused and ready to wrestle.”
Osceola and Harmony have dominated the OBC Tournament for more than a decade. The Kowboys won eight straight from 2012-19, and Harmony took the next three. Osceola came back with nine champions last year to take it back.
In soccer, five Osceola County teams were left in contention for district championships this week. Top-seeded Celebration (8-2-2) will meet surprising Osceola (7-4-2) in Wednesday’s District 7A-9 championship game. The Kowboys lost to Celebration in overtime in the quarterfinals of the OBC tournament two weeks ago but came back to dominate Tohopekaliga (3-0) in the district semifinals – a team that took the Storm to overtime in the OBC championship.
Celebration won six straight matches with goaltender Chris Vargas registering a shutout in each of those games coming into the final.
Gateway (12-3-1) is the other boys’ team still alive. They will play Lake Buena Vista Tuesday night in the 5A-6 semifinal. Seeded second in the district, a win by the Panthers will put them in the district championship – most likely against top seeded Horizon. They would be a rematch of last year’s district title game – won by Horizon, 2-1 in overtime.
On the girls’ side, Celebration hosts Harmony Tuesday night to determine their 7A-9 championship. Celebration earned the top seed with a 12-2 record, but the Longhorns (12-3) already own a 3-2 victory over the Storm in December’s OBC championship game.
The FHSAA finalized its football districts for the 2024 and ’25 seasons. Tentative districts were released Dec. 22, but after numerous Orange County schools chose to go independent, new districts were setup and those changes affected almost all of the Osceola County schools.
Osceola and St. Cloud, the latter mentioned stepping up to Class 7A, remain in District 6A-10 with Melbourne and Viera.
Harmony, Tohopekaliga and Lake Nona will be just a three-team District 7A-10, as Cypress Creek went independent, and Celebration was moved to 7A-9 with Dr. Phillips, Olympia and East Ridge after Windermere vacated it.
Poinciana, Liberty and Gateway will play as independents.
In other football news, Tohopekaliga junior defensive tackle Andrew Hines (6-4, 260) has verbally committed to University of South Florida. Hines registered 112 total tackles with 23 tackles-for-loss and a team-leading 12 quarterback sacks in helping the Tigers to a 6-5 record and a bowl win last season.
According to sources, Hines had 15 offers before committing to the Bulls. Offers and commitments are non-binding and colleges can begin officially signing players in December.
