Athletic competition typically is marked by athletes and teams with lofty goals for the upcoming year. Many times, however, they fall short of those goals despite a great deal of determination and hard work.
But there also are cases where that hard work really pays off, and both individuals and teams meet their goals.
Here are a few sports stories that had successful endings across a variety of athletic contests.
Missions accomplished
Before the season started, the Sunlake Seahawks wanted something that had eluded them throughout their history: A district championship.
“That’s one of our goals, to win the district title,” Sunlake head coach Bill Browning said last August. “It’s missing right now, but it really just provides more motivation for us.”
Middle linebacker and tight end Austin Yeloushan felt the same way.
“We’re planning on doing that this year,” he said. “We’ve been working hard in the weight room.”
Whether it was the weights or the program’s history of success, Sunlake had another strong year, finishing the regular season at 8-2. They also survived a three-way tiebreaker with Mitchell and Springstead high schools to claim their first-ever championship in Class 6A-District 6.
At Zephyrhills High School, Head Coach Reggie Roberts knew people would be focused on the Bulldogs’ rivalry with Pasco High School. But Roberts was concerned about something else: The postseason.
“Contrary to what people believe, I’m not worried about Pasco,” Roberts said ahead of the season last August. “We have a lot of games. If we lose all our games and win the Pasco game, we’re still not in the playoffs.”
Instead, things turned out almost the exact opposite of Roberts’ hypothesis: The Bulldogs lost to Pasco again, this time a tough 35-34 loss. But they won nearly all of their other games, finishing the regular season 8-2 and earning a playoff spot through Class 5A-District 6 in another tiebreaker.
As a result, an eight-year playoff drought was snapped, and Roberts took his team to the postseason for the first time in his tenure as coach at Zephyrhills.
Getting gold, again
As a freshman in 2013, Abbey Duncan was a state champion for Wesley Chapel High School’s swim team, and was even profiled by The Laker/Lutz News in March.
But things change from year to year, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the outcome was a little bit different in 2014.
Not the part about being a state champion. Duncan did that again. But this time it was for a different school.
Duncan transferred to Academy at the Lakes and helped that program achieve success in her sophomore year. Her state championship also was a little different, claiming the 100-yard backstroke in 2014.
Duncan took the championship in a freestyle event last year.
She enters 2015 as a two-time state champion, and she’ll only be a junior.
New coach, similar success
On the baseball diamond, the Wiregrass Ranch Bulls had a few question marks as they tried to follow up on their 2013 campaign, which included their first-ever playoff berth and a spot in the regional final.
A big one was their coach.
Marshall McDougal was not only a new coach at the high school, he had never coached high school baseball before. But as a recently retired professional baseball player, he brought a lot of experience and optimism to the Bulls’ job.
“As a whole, our team is pretty solid all the way through,” McDougall said last April during his inaugural season as coach. “It’s a matter of keep pushing the kids, keep improving, and keep playing hard, and I think our kids can go a long way.”
McDougal turned out to be right, taking Wiregrass Ranch right back to the playoffs. This time they fell in the regional semifinals, but proved that the program was ready to continue its success streak, even with a new coach at the helm.
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