After excelling on our high school fields in recent years, many former Osceola County high school athletes have gone on to bigger and better things at the next level.
Here is an update:
Former Harmony Longhorn Caden Scarborough is rocketing up the Texas Rangers prospect chart. After a second professional season where the 20-year-old struck out 114 batters in just 88 innings and posted a 2.45 ERA for two teams, Scarborough jumped to High-A ball and finds himself rated as the 65th best overall prospect among the 5,500 minor league players by Baseball America magazine as he continues his march to the big leagues.
If there is any doubt that former Osceola Kowboys football players are in demand, check out this year’s transfer portal. Former UCF defensive tackle John Walker is moving on to Ohio State, defensive back Bo Mascoe goes from Rutgers to Texas, offensive lineman Jamarion McCrimon was signed by NC State after spending last year at East Carolina, where he started and earned first team American Athletic Conference All-Conference honors. Safety Jalen Bell will play at Delaware this season; while linebacker Robert Lee moves on to Austin Peay and Thomas Gearity transfers from UCF to Colgate. Meanwhile, Kowboys coach Eric Pinellas said Taevion Swint is fully recovered from a knee injury that kept him out his freshman season at UCF and he is expected to battle for a starting running back spot during the Knights spring drills.
After playing two years at Syracuse, one at Houston and last year for Florida State, former Kowboys defensive back Jeremiah Wilson is currently in Ft. Lauderdale where he is training for his Pro Day as he awaits the NFL Draft. Wilson was a starter at all three schools.
Former St. Cloud football and basketball standout Alex Springs earned a championship ring as a member of the Division II national champion Ferris State football. He had earned a starting spot in the defensive backfield but missed the second half of the season and playoffs with a shoulder injury. Springs said he expects to be fully healthy for spring football.
Four-time County Girls Golfer of the Year and former Tohopekaliga and St. Cloud High standout Morgan Beaulieu is in her fourth year as a starter at Arkansas State, where she led her team last year with a 74.95 scoring average and three top 25 tournament finishes.
Osceola alum Nick Palmi is tearing it up on the diamond as the starting shortstop and third baseman for Hillsborough Community College in Tampa. Through last weekend’s games, the redshirt freshman has a slash line of .429/.516/.755 (batting, on-base percentage, slugging) to go with a team-leading six home runs and 39 RBI and an impressive 1.271 OPS. Word is Division I state schools South Florida, Florida Atlantic and Florida Gulf Coast and numerous out-of-state schools have expressed heavy interest in Palmi. Older brother Chris Palmi is an assistant baseball coach at Seminole Community College and older sister Allison Palmi Montalvo has joined the Appalachian State volleyball staff as an Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator.
Former Osceola standout Eimy Negron is a libero at Valdosta State, where she received five consecutive Defensive Player of the Week awards and made 2nd team All-Gulf Coast Conference honors.
Three Osceola High wrestlers—labeled “Triple-H” from their high school careers— are enjoying collegiate success. Anderson Heap, a three-time state champion competing for Davidson, recently won the Southern Conference Tournament. Four-time state champion Cooper Haase, a sophomore wrestling in the 174-pound class, leads the U.S. Military Academy (Army) in matches wrestled (36) and wins (22). Gunner Holland, another former state champion, finished second at the PAC-10 Championships for Arkansas-Little Rock. Heap will compete in next week’s NCAA National Championships as an automatic qualifier, the six former Kowboy to qualify for NCAAs. Haase and Holland each came up one match short of qualifying.
Panther Pathways: Former Gateway standout Dennis Briggs Jr., who went to camp with the Tennessee Titans last summer, is expected to sign with the Ottawa RedBlacks of the Canadian Football League next month. He started college games at Florida State and Illinois. Kinzie James, the Orange Belt Conference Female Athlete of the Year last spring, is the starting safety and a back-up wide receiver on the Florida Gator flag football team that won the Club National Championship in Houston this past year. Malayna Stevenson, who spent a year at University of Tampa, transferred to Hillsborough Community College and had a huge year, averaging 17.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per season. She had 10, 20+ point games—including a career-high 36 in a win over Miami-Dade CC on Feb. 4.
