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Receiver Julian Nasco caught 12 touchdown passes, and is one of Tohopekaliga's offensive threats set to return. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON
Spring football practices have begun, and it will be a jumping off point for many Osceola County programs as new faces and new stars emerge.
Spring games begin May 10, when Tohopekaliga visits Hagerty, and go through May 25, when Liberty hosts a three-team jamboree.
Starting at Harmony, Coach Don Simon made a surprise retirement announcement late last month, and his long-time assistant Nick Lippert is the team’s interim coach.
His task won’t be easy. Harmony graduates about 90% of its offense—recordsetting running back Tyler Means, backfield mate Cooper Richards, quarterback Ayden Parks and kicker Alex Tuyo. The Longhorns also lost much of its starting defense to graduation.
The defensive rebuild will start with linebacker Dalton Phelan, a rising junior who led the team in tackles (102) and tacklesfor loss (15) last year, as well as defensive tackle Clayton Williams and defensive backs Chase Adams and Alex Nash.
Quarterback will be a wide-open competition as find the heir apparent to Parks. Jeremy Hilliard will be the featured running back but several others will compete for carries.
“We’re Harmony and we’ll run the ball but I think we will be looking to throw a little more this season,” Lippert said.
Osceola made it to the state but was also hit hard by graduation; 15 seniors departed including Division-I signees Bo Mascoe (Rutgers), Ja’keem Jackson (Florida), Jamarion McCrimon (East Carolina), John Walker (UCF) and Derrick Leblanc (Oklahoma).
Despite the drain of talent and the fact Osceola may be facing the hardest schedule in the state next fall, the Kowboys are a football factory that always manages to reload rather than rebuild and that will most likely be the case this year. With most of its starting offensive line returning, including Thomas Garrity and Cameron Delke, the Kowboys should be able to easily open holes for star running back Taevion Swint (UCF commit), who has compiled 2,200 rushing yards and 40 career touchdowns in his first two years.
Osceola also returns explosive wide receivers Alijah Jenkins and Notorious Reynolds. All-state wrestler Elijah Vansickle could be a force on the defensive line and possibly at tight end.
Add in a defense that includes linebackers Jalen Bell, Robert Lee, Elijah Melendez and defensive back Jeff Banks – along with a whole crop of promising young players – and Osceola could be tops in their district once again.
St. Cloud Coach Mike Short will have a little rebuilding to do off a 7-3 season as talented seniors Noah Carr, Isaac Nieves and Joseph Clukey depart. But much of the young Bulldogs talent is returning.
Lineman Conner Howse is a 6-6, 310-pound rising junior that Short describes as a “D-1 prospect that keeps getting better and better.” The offense will be led by two-year starter Logan King, who passed for almost 2,000 yards and 18 touchdowns. Leading rusher TJ Griffin (496 returns, as does leading receiver Owen Conner (43 receptions, 865 yards, 6 TDs). Defensively, Landon Millman (37 tackles, 6 TFL, 5 QS) is back, as are safeties Tyler Green and Bryce Williams.
“We were a young team last year, so we don’t have a ton of holes to fill this spring and heading into August,” Short said. “We have a lot of talented freshmen from last year and developing them for the future will be an important part of our spring drills.”
Coach Anthony Paradiso turned Tohopekaliga into a winner with a 6-4 mark, but still admitted his team “had a long way to go” and it would take some time “to build a sustainable program.” That progress began in the offseason, where Paradiso noted his players had “a really good offseason in the weight room and conditioning drills.”
After a 5-0 start, the Tigers struggled against better teams. Still, there were many positives, including freshman quarterback Sabby Meassick, who threw for more than 3,000 yards and 38 touchdown passes, both near tops in the state. Productive receiver Julian Nasco (873 yards, 12 TDs) and running back Churandy Duval (741 rushing yards, 550 receiving yards, 10 TDs) return.
“We threw a young kid into the fire and he made the freshman mistakes we expected him to make,” Paradiso said about Meassick. “Sabby is a tremendously talented athletic kid with a high football IQ. He has three years left and is only going to get bigger and better.”
Celebration’s new coach Jeremy Palmer got a late start in taking over, and the Storm fell to 1-9. Still, Palmer saw optimistic signs and believes the Storm will improve, since the Storm started mostly sophomores on its offensive line.
“We are going to be super young this year, as we only have five seniors and a huge freshman and sophomore class. It’s going to be important those young players up to speed on the intensity of varsity football,” Palmer said.
Perhaps no program or coach has been as snake bit as Gateway and veteran head man Marlin Roberts. The Panthers have lost some of their best players to Tohopekaliga’s opening and to serious injuries. Gateway has some talented athletes returning, including Chris Charity, Aiden Morillo and Josh Fuller but depth will be an issue again. With health, Gateway can improve on their two-win total.
Two years ago, Poinciana chose to become a football independent to create a more competitive schedule; being in a tough district produced just one winning record in the school’s history. The strategy paid off as the Eagles went a school-record 8-2 and defeated arch-rival Liberty for the first time ever.
“We tried to schedule with a third-third-third strategy: a third of our games where we felt we would be the better team, a third with the same talent and a third where we would have to play really well to win, and I thought it worked out that way last year,” Coach Randy Beeken said. “We’ll play mostly the same schedule and then evaluate whether we want to go back into a district.”
Although the Eagles lose a ton of talent to graduation, (QB De’Kwan Bradly, WR/RB Perry Garrett, WR Donald Cummings), talent remains including WR Ernest Nunn, RB Wil Nezius and edge rushers Jason Batista and Taurence Boland. Akeem Knox, a talented running back from Osceola, has announced his transfer to the Eagles.
“Figuring out the quarterback situation is going to be a big key to the spring, other than that we feel good about what our squad will look like in August,” Beeken said.
After a tough 0-10 season, Liberty turns over its program to former record-setting running back at Dr. Phillips and Alabama and Colorado State standout Dee Hart, 30.
“We definitely have a lot of work to do,” Hart said. “I’ve always wanted to be that person who can offer the younger generation a chance to take a different path and look forward to this opportunity.”
Hart will most likely try to build the program around the Chargers’ best returning athlete, quarterback Jeremiah Pierre-Louis.
