The first look at 2025 Osceola football
At 12:01 a.m. next Wednesday, approximately 70 players will hit the field at St. Cloud for the first day of football practice for the 2025 season. The event will be the fourth time that Michael Short has opened fall camp with “Midnight Madness.”
More significantly, it will mark the beginning of another year of football as the county’s eight programs prepare for the upcoming season. And has been the case almost every year, most coaches know they are facing more questions than answers.
Those questions include whether Osceola, long the “Mercedes Benz” of high school football programs in both the county and region, will continue to be the dominant team in the area. A pretty good guess would be yes, but coach Eric Pinellas has plenty of holes to fill in this year’s lineup.
Nineteen starters or significant contributors graduated or transferred from last year’s 12-3 Class 6A State runner-up team including Division-I signees Taevion Swint (UCF) and Elijah Melendez (Auburn).
“There’s no way you plug in replacements for those two and expect the same production,” Pinellas said. “Taevion was 6A offensive player of the year and Elijah (an early enrollee) came out of spring ball as a starter in the SEC. Those two were part of a very special group of seniors that achieved great things last season. We have a lot of work to do.”
Still, the Kowboys have talent, including RB Jeff Sinophat, DT Amier Clarke, and Nathaniel Barnett – an energetic player who can line-up and make plays anywhere on the defensive side of the ball. Add in a solid defensive backfield, the return of OL Marcus Ferrer and Osceola will be formidable once again.
It should be noted that the regular season schedule – which includes eight FHSAA playoff teams including 4A runner-up Jones and 7A runner-up Lake Mary – will require Pinellas to find answers early.
At Harmony, veteran coach Don Simon returns to “The Ranch” after two years as Athletics Director at Tohopekaliga. His immediate concern will be to revitalize the Longhorns offense that averaged just over 11 points per game in the last two seasons.
Nick Lippert, who replaced Simon as head coach, returns to his role as defensive coordinator.
“Nick’s a great defensive coach and part of coming back was tied to convincing him to stay on the coaching staff. Harmony defense played with great effort last year, unfortunately they were on the field way too long and would wear out in the second half. My job is to get the offense going and take some pressure off the defense.”
Although St. Cloud graduated a ton of offensive talent, including record-setting quarterback Logan King, running back T.J. Griffin and wideout Alex Springs, Coach Short is extremely optimistic after a strong spring and summer.
Rising sophomore quarterback Jeremiah Lattier is big transfer from Lake Minneola who according to Short, “checks all the boxes and can make all the throws.”
RB Michael Cuyler and TE Owen Sullivan will pick up some of the slack left by the departure of Griffin and Springs.
After back-to-back 6-5 seasons that included the young school’s first earned playoff berth, Coach Anthony Paradiso is facing a significant rebuild at Tohopkaliga.
“We had two great senior classes in 2023 and 2024 and now we are a really young team again,” he said. “On the other hand, we had a good spring and frankly some of our units were way ahead of where I thought they would be. It’s still going to be a work in progress.”
One area where Paradiso probably does not have to worry about is quarterback, where Sabby Meassick returns for his senior season. A starter since his freshman year, Meassick enters this season as the county record holder in passing yards and touchdowns.
Celebration coach Chris Blanton continues building momentum. He directed the Storm to four wins in 2024, with several other losses coming by one score.
“The next step is to start winning those close games,” Blanton said. “We have a lot of top players back this season and I believe we are headed in the right direction.” The district will not be an easy one for the Storm, as they play in District 7A-9 with perennial state power Dr. Phillips.
Gateway, Liberty and Poinciana will join 60 others Florida schools and play once again as non-district Independents. After they were stuck in loaded districts for years, the move allowed more flexibility in scheduling a more competitive slate of games.
Eagles coach Taron Mallard led Poinciana to an 8-3 mark last season – beating Harmony, St. Cloud and Celebration. He says his goal is to get Poinciana back in a district in the near future.
“We did not play a soft schedule last year and were successful,” Mallard said. “Although it was a good season, we want to compete for district and regional championships and that only comes when you are in a district. We will have those conversations at an appropriate time, but we’re excited about the coming season.”
That excitement is due impart to transfer quarterback Kamari Lewis, who turned in an electrifying performance against Tohopekaliga in the Eagles’ spring game.
Gateway was a competitive 4-6 and losing several other close games. Marlin Roberts, the dean of Osceola head coaches, had three outstanding freshmen that led the way including Ari Spann (QB), Nydrell Thigpen (RB) and Johnny Reyes (WR). With all three back, Roberts hopes the program will continue its upward trajectory.
Liberty has turned to Jonas Beras to turnaround its football fortunes. Last year’s defensive coordinator, Beras took over on an interim basis when Dee Hart resigned during the 2024 campaign. AD Chad Springer removed the “interim” tag in the spring and is hopeful that Beras can move the Chargers back to a competitive level.
