Wildcats athletics scores big across the board
By Kyle LoJacono
Academy at the Lakes is still a relative newcomer to interscholastic athletics, but the Wildcats are showing they are ready for district championships and deep postseason runs.
The academy became a member of the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) five years ago, according to Wildcats athletic director Tom Haslam.
“From the beginning, we wanted to be competitive in every sport we have,” said Haslam, who became the academy’s athletic director two years ago. “We’ve worked to get the right coaches in place and build the interest for the kids so they want to go out and represent their school on the field.”
The Wildcats fielded their first girls golf team in the 2010-11 school year. The new squad set the tone for all other academy teams by winning the first district championship in school history.
Senior-to-be Ellen Crowley, who made the All-Laker/All-Lutz News girls golf team, shot a team-low 86 at the Class 1A-District 9 tournament.
“It was really fun to have a team,” Crowley said. “I’d been playing on the boys team since I was in sixth-grade because there weren’t enough girls to have a girls team. We kept getting better and better each week and ended up on top of the district.”
Also doing new things for the Wildcats this year was graduating senior Mike Davidson. He became the first boys golfer at the academy to advance individually to regionals by shooting a 98 in districts.
The six-man football team also had a season to remember in 2010, the first for Pasco County coaching veteran John Castelamare at the academy.
Castelamare has coached for 38 years in Pasco public schools, including 10 seasons at Wesley Chapel.
“It’s a little different from where I was, but the kids worked really hard all season,” Castelamare said. “They just had to get used to a new system and the workouts. They’ve come a long way from last spring.”
The football team lost only two seniors from the 2010 squad that went 7-5 and reached the Florida Christian Association of Private and Parochial Schools (FCAPPS) playoffs. Castelamare said the ranks have swelled from eight players last spring to 21 now.
The football program also had a spring game for the first time; an intrasquad contest in May.
“There were a lot of people there,” Castelamare said. “It was like a regular season game. The support is pretty good. Everybody supports everybody. The basketball program supports football, and we go to the soccer games. It’s a nice family atmosphere here. Most of the athletes play a lot of sports. Our quarterback plays four sports, so the camaraderie is good at the school.”
The Wildcats girls basketball program picked up where the fall sports left off, going 19-5 en route to winning the 1A-9 district championship and reaching the first regional finals in school history.
Academy first-year coach Karim Nohra took over a team that was 0-15 the season before and got them believing they could play with anyone.
“We had to start from the very bottom,” Nohra said. “They put in the work and became a very good team, especially defensively. Not a great team, but good and we’re hoping for more improving this year.”
The program returns most of its players for 2011-12, including junior-to-be forward Andrea Mauger.
Mauger averaged 20 points per game last year and was named to the All-Laker/All-Lutz News second team for her efforts. She also qualified for the regional track and field event in the shot put by placing third in the 1A-9 district meet with a toss of 29-11.75.
The Wildcats softball team made the regional tournament in 2011, but it wasn’t the program’s first appearance. The academy has made the postseason every season since 2008, including winning the first playoff game in school history in 2010.
“We exceeded my expectations,” said second-year Wildcats softball coach Jack Shirling. “The first few weeks was touch and go with the number of kids. We had a lot of players in the basketball program, so we made general announcements to get people to come and play. It’s such a small school, but we exceeded all expectations to get into regionals.”
Shirling said he was most impressed with how the student-athletes manage to juggle their schedules.
“The kids themselves have shown they are good athletes,” Shirling said. “You have some kids playing two and three sports, and to do that and hold their academics up, which is far more important than sports, just says an awful lot about the students here. I give those kids a ton of kudos because they’re doing everything and anything to help that school.”
–All stats a recorded to Maxpreps.com by coaches. All playoff results as recorded by the FHSAA.
