A pair of St. Cloud weightlifters earned Male and Female Athletes of the Year, Harmony High School continued its dominance as Osceola County’s best overall athletic program and a pair of outgoing coaches was recognized among the honorees at Wednesday’s Orange Belt Conference Honors Dinner.
Bulldogs junior Mikey Ziss and senior Ashley Aun won state weightlifting championships. They were selected as Athletes of the Year on a vote of the county’s Athletic Directors.
Ziss’ season, in which he won both the Traditional (clean and Jerk / bench press) and Olympic (clean and jerk / snatch) state championships in the 119-pound weight class for the second year in a row, was capped Tuesday when he was named the 2024 Florida Dairy Farmers Mr. Weightlifter, signifying the best Florida athlete in his sports across all weight classifications. A global competitor, Ziss will represent the Team USA in August at the Youth Pan Am Games and is the nation’s No. 1 ranked junior lifter at 55 kilograms.
Aun was a Traditional competition and barely missed double gold and now has six state medals – more than any other athlete in school history. Aun has won AAU Florida and Florida Weightlifting Federation state titles and also lettered in flag football. Her nomination form stated that Ashley has “Unselfishly moved up and down weight classes during the season to help the team score points in competitions. She spends countless hours helping coach her teammates, while volunteering as a scorekeeper, set-up, loader, and clean-up after and before meets. She does all this, while maintaining academic excellence and doing volunteer work in the community without seeking recognition for doing so.”
It was also a year of outstanding coaching performances. Poinciana boys basketball coach Craig Walls was named 2023-24 recipient of the M. Dean Memorial County Coach of the Year Award, named for the long-time educator, administrator and teacher. Walls guided the Eagles to a 15-7 record, a place in the in the OBC tournament championship game and a win in the Osceola Christmas Klassic.
“And then, at the end of the season, I had to accept his resignation,” said PHS Athletic Director Tiffany Kelly, who accepted the award on behalf of Walls, who could not attend the event.
Other Coach of the Year nominees where Vic Lorenzano (Harmony wrestling), Tommy Billiteri (St. Cloud boys basketball), Jeremiah Swartz (Gateway tennis), Mike Nelson (Celebration weightlifting), Justin Jusino (Liberty flag football), Justin Lesniewski (Osceola cross country) and Jennifer Farrell (Tohopekaliga girls basketball).
Named for legendary coach, educator, athletic director and community leader, the Mike Fields Distinguished Leadership Award went to Tohopekaliga lacrosse and girls weightlifting coach Rob Weilert, who is leaving to take a position at the University of Notre Dame.
Weilert, a lifelong Fighting Irish sports fan, built winning girls weightlifting and lacrosse programs while teaching credit recovery classes. He has championed Breast Cancer awareness, raising funds for that cause will animatedly hosting every pep rally at the school since 2020.
“Rob has built winners and has shown exceptional leadership in two vastly different sports,” Tohopekaliga Athletics Director Don Simon said “As an athletic director, you always envision the type of coach you want to lead a program and Rob is the first example that comes to mind.”
Harmony narrowly won its fourth consecutive OBC Team Championship Award, ahead of St. Cloud and Celebration. The Longhorns were team champions in boys and girls swimming, competitive cheer, girls soccer, baseball, flag football, softball and boys track and field. It’s Harmony’s 12th win in the school’s 20-year history.
“We may not win in every sport, but we are consistently near the top in all sports,” Harmony Athletics Director Dan Kerr said. “It is a true testament to the hard work our coaches and athletes put in. It’s also a blessing to work for a program where we not only have great coaches, but at a place where our coaches want to stay.”
Harmony also won the OBC Academic Award as its athletes from all the sports had a cumulative GPA of 3.426. St. Cloud was second with a 3.397; Celebration was third (3.334)
“While I am extremely proud of our student athletes and coaches for winning the All-Sports Award, I am equally proud that we won the award for Academic achievement,” Kerr added.
The top team academic awards went to Harmony girls cross country with a 3.80 team GPA and the St. Cloud Boys Tennis (3.729 GPA). Nine of the county’s athletic teams, including five from Harmony, three from St. Cloud and one from Celebration placed in the top five on their classification in the state for academic excellence.
Osceola’s Edith Rivera Lopez (swimming, weight lifting, flag football) and Celebration’s Noah Fermin (boys volleyball, swimming) were named female and male Student Athlete of the Year recipients. Lopez-Rivera carries a 3.956 GPA and a weighted 4.61 GPA and completed college courses at Valencia in both her junior and senior years. She scored an 1110 on her SATs and is the Osceola Class of ’24 Valedictorian. She will pursue a biology degree after high school.
Fermin will attend the University of Florida after compiling a perfect 4.0 GPA and 4.657 weighted GPA at Celebration. He completed 15 IB and AP courses and compiled a 1450 SAT score.
St. Cloud’s Bryan Smart, who oversaw a program that included seven OBC team champions, and oversaw installation of the school’s new football field, was named county Athletic Director of the Year.
“It’s an honor I have to share with my coaches,” Smart job. “When you surround yourself with the right people it makes the job a lot easier. We have great head coaches and assistant coaches at St. Cloud and to tell the truth I just try to provide them with resources and just stay out of their way.”
The Advent Health Community Service Award went to Celebration High School for a second consecutive year. Storm athletes donated more than 4,000 hours to various charities, schools, and community events in programs that included athletes reading to elementary students, fundraisers and working the Celebration Marathon.
County Athletics Director Ryan Adams also recognized Osceola athletes that won state championships this year, including Ziss, Aun, St. Cloud weightlifter Reese Butler (two-time champion in Traditional and Olympic), Osceola wrestlers Anderson Heap and Isfandier Sharipov, Harmony wrestler Shawn McCallister and Liberty weightlifter Kevin Hill. He also noted that 74 senior county athletes would continue their athletic careers at the collegiate level.
