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Three Osceola County teams are separated by 1 point after the fall season of the Orange Belt Conference All-Sports race. -
The celebration girls' cross country victory at the OBC meet helped put the Storm in a second-place tie in the standings, one point behind defending champion Harmony. PHOTO/DAN PEARSON
A huge colorful banner at the entrance to Harmony High School lets visitors know under no uncertain terms that the Longhorns were the 2022-23 Orange Belt Conference all-sports champions.
And they want another one. But it won’t be easy.
With fall sports championship season concluding last week, Harmony (45 points) finds itself in a familiar place on top of the standings – but just barely over St. Cloud and Celebration (44 each).
Gateway (35), Tohopekaliga (32), Osceola (16), Poinciana (7) and Liberty (2) are next in the standings.
The Longhorns won OBC boys and girls swimming titles. St. Cloud, won the girls golf championship and came in second in boys golf and boys and girls cross country. Celebration, seeking a firstever All-Sports trophy, won boys golf and took their second consecutive girls cross country championship. They also finished no lower than third in six of the seven counting sports.
Sports sponsored by at least five of the schools count. Football is excluded from OBC results because there is no tournament or round robin play.
Winter sports begin in the next few weeks with OBC points available in wrestling, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer and girls weightlifting. Spring counting sports include tennis, baseball, softball, flag football, boys weightlifting, track and fishing.
St. Cloud Athletics Director Bryan Smart makes no bones about wanting to win the OBC All-Sports Trophy.
“It is a tremendous source of pride to St. Cloud and I am sure Harmony and the others feel the same way. We won it three times in a row a few years ago and now Harmony has had it the last three years. When had the August meeting with our head coaches, I can promise you the subject of bringing that trophy back to St. Cloud – and keeping it here – was a big topic of conversation. We have put together a good coaching staff here and we are showing promise in some sports that we have not been particularly strong in the past couple of years. We had a great fall season and now we want to keep it going this winter.”
With 11 titles, Harmony, which opened in 2004, is tied with St. Cloud for secondmost All-OBC Sports trophies behind Osceola (14). The Longhorns and Bulldogs have accounted for the last 12 winners. As with St. Cloud, the Longhorns place a lot of emphasis on the award.
“We have a tremendous coaching staff here that works extremely hard in building overall programs, and not just focused on single year successes. When we graduate a great senior class, we always seem to have underclassmen ready to step in, compete and fill the void,” Harmony Athletics Director Dan Kerr said. “We may not win the most team championships every year, but we are rarely at the bottom of the standings in any sport. It’s that consistency that has been the most important part of our overall success. We put a lot of emphasis on the importance of trying to win the All-Sports Award every year.”
Finishing just points behind Harmony for the 2022 title, Celebration finished third in 2023. Traditionally a county power in soccer and tennis; while fielding strong track teams – the Storm could factor in to the team race before the end of the year.
