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sports
Athletic Signings
County athletes in winter and spring sports continue to decide where they will continue their athletic careers at the next level. Markevious Jackson from Osceola High School will run college track at North Carolina A&T. An outstanding sprinter and long jumper, Jackson concentrated almost solely on his best event, the 400-meter run. The senior won a district, regional and FHSAA Class 4A state championship in the event this year and ran several of the fastest times in the nation for a high school athlete. Poinciana’s Guy Bond, the other state champion from Osceola County (3A high jump), is still exploring his options.
Celebration high school announced Meredith Richemond would be signing with Lake Sumter State College, where she will compete in both track and cross country. Diego Bentancourt will be playing volleyball at Edward Waters College; Brian Kiernan will play basketball at Converse College; Kendall Matoska will compete in Division 1 Track and Field for the University of South Florida; and Oscar Newman signed with Williams College, also for track and field.
“We are so proud of these athletes and congratulate them on both their academic and athletic achievements,” Athletic Director Rick Tribit said. “We wish them well as they move up to the next level in their careers.”
St. Cloud girls basketball standout Angie Rodriguez signed with North Greenville University.
Football
An outstanding Ocoee team defeated Harmony, 35-3, in the Longhorns’ spring game last Thursday at Austin Tindall Park. Coach Don Simon noted that “Ocoee is a pretty good team with a lot of veteran players.” Still he said he saw a lot of positives in the game. “Our running backs, Tyler Emans and Cooper Richards, both did a great job as well as our offensive line. We still have a very young team made up of rising sophomores and juniors and we will use this game as a teaching moment.”
Osceola’s first game under new head coach Eric Pinellas ended in an 18-13 win over Edgewater, the Class 7A state runner-up which recorded one of the three wins over the Kowboys last year. As expected, Osceola’s defense put on a dominating performance. Despite missing DE John Walker (injury), the Kowboys came up with several quarterback sacks and picked off Edgewater quarterback Chad Duke three times. Two of those picks came from Kaylon Walters, who returned one for a touchdown. Offensively, Pinellas cited the play of quarterback Chad Mascoe and running back Ja’Randy Swint.
“For the most part, Chad did a nice job throwing on rhythm and getting the ball out quickly, and Ja’Randy has looked really comfortable this spring at running back,” Pinellas said. “Our offensive line was a little shaky but that is going to happen when you have four new starters. It’s definitely going to be a work in progress.”
St. Cloud, which is replacing 22 full- and part-time starters lost to graduation, pulled out a surprising 16-14 road win over Leesburg in the Bulldogs’ spring game. The victory did come with a heavy price as quarterback Gabe Slutsky went down with a broken collarbone in the first quarter. Even more disconcerting was a first-quarter knee injury to running back Hayden Taylor. “We basically lost our starting backfield in the first quarter,” Coach Bryan Smart said. “The injury to Taylor will be evaluated this week and we’re hopeful he will not need surgery but it is going to be a wait and see thing.”
Smart said he was extremely pleased with the play of linebackers Noah Carr and Gio Bryan. “We had some turnovers on offense, especially after losing Hayden and Gabe, but our defense came up big, time and time again, led by the play of our linebackers,” Smart added.
In other spring games, Celebration defeated Discovery, 35-27; Poinciana lost to Colonial, 20-0; and Sebastian River defeated Gateway, 42-7.
Wrestling
Several members of the Osceola High School wrestling team are competing for the Attack Wrestling Club during the offseason and won titles two weekends ago at the Florida Amateur Wrestling Association State Championships. Anderson Heap took three titles in freestyle, Greco-Roman and Folkstyle (high school) divisions; while Cooper Haase won titles in free and folkstyle. Raymond Martinez and Kamond Manning also won folkstyle championships. State runner-ups included Kealonie Vega (folk), Haase (Greco), Melvin Ewen (folk) and Landon Trigueros (folk). Haase was an FHSAA state champion last March and Heap finished second in his weight class. They, along with Gunner Holland — another state champion — will form the basis of next year’s Osceola team. Heap and Anderson went on to win Southeast Region championships in Greco last weekend.
