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PHSC baseball stops just shy of World Series

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Last year, the Pasco-Hernando State College baseball team reached the World Series for the first time in the program’s 23-year existence.

This year, the team fell just short of making back-to-back trips.

When Pasco-Hernando State College’s baseball team takes to the field next season, Jordan Feist will be expected to continue the strong defensive play that defined this year's team. (Courtesy of Steve Winterling and Pasco-Hernando State College)
When Pasco-Hernando State College’s baseball team takes to the field next season, Jordan Feist will be expected to continue the strong defensive play that defined this year’s team.
(Courtesy of Steve Winterling and Pasco-Hernando State College)

PHSC reached the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II Southeast District championship game last month at its tournament in Martinsville, Virginia.

The third-ranked Conquistadors faced off against the top-ranked Catawba Valley Community College Red Hawks.

A win would have meant a tie-breaking rematch with the same team, with the winner earning a berth in the NJCAA DII World Series.

PHSC battled back from an early 5-0 deficit to cut the lead to 5-3, but couldn’t keep up with Catawba Valley and fell, 13-3.

They had lost to the same team by a 3-2 margin earlier in the tournament.

The Red Hawks would go on to finish third in the World Series, in Enid, Oklahoma, while PHSC went home.

But barely missing another World Series trip, while disappointing, doesn’t diminish what the team accomplished in coach Steve Winterling’s eyes.

“Besides just falling short of the World Series, I couldn’t have been happier with the way the guys played and fought all year,” he said.

They fought with defensive skills more than anything else, Winterling explained.

In some years, hot bats that compensate for average pitching define a team.

This season, the Conquistadors weren’t knocking everything out of the park, but their pitching and defense were strong and kept them in many games.

Some statistics tell the story: PHSC recorded a school-record .972 fielding percentage, and committed just 51 errors all season. Some years they’ve had twice as many errors, and the fielding percentage is normally a good 18 points lower or more.

While they didn’t have their strongest offensive year, Winterling said there’s no question which type of team he’d rather have.

“I’d definitely take what we had this year. It was a pleasure watching young kids pick it up, throw it over and make plays,” he said. “This club made the routine play, they turned double plays, they ran balls down. It was fun to watch them play and not worry if the ball was hit.”

Even when opponents hit the ball, it usually wasn’t enough to win the game. PHSC finished 32-15 on the year and had little trouble qualifying for the Southeast District Tournament, which required a .500 or better record during the regular season. The team started the year 11-3, and a particularly strong nine-game win streak in March saw PHSC score 75 runs while recording five shutouts.

Their record became just one of a handful of 30-win seasons the team has logged in their 24 years, and is better than last year’s World Series team.

Once the team qualified, the rest of the season was simply a tune-up for the tournament. There was a concern that the players would ease up and not take the games as seriously, Winterling admitted, but they remained focused and played hard despite facing tough competition.

Besides playing far into the tournament, the team also traveled far during the tournament: What began in Kinston, North Carolina was completed more than 160 miles away in Martinsville.

Tropical Storm Ana forced the games to be moved.

The team had to scramble to find lodging, and ended up staying in multiple hotels over the course of the tournament.

“That was an amazing trip,” Winterling said. “Definitely one not to forget.”

Now that they’re back home, Winterling isn’t wasting any time getting ready for next season. He recently signed a catcher from Indianapolis and is working on bolstering the pitching staff.

Those players will be needed, considering PHSC will only have eight returning players plus a red shirt pitcher as holdovers. With around two dozen players making up a typical team, that means a lot of new faces.

Despite losing three of the team’s strongest pitchers, Winterling feels good about next season.

Some of the returning players are part of that stingy defense, and he identified Jordan Ding and Jordan Feist as part of a successful left infield that will be intact next season.

The coach believes they’ll form the nucleus of a team ready to extend the team’s successful streak.

And while he already has his sights set on the school’s 25th baseball season, Winterling is proud of what the team accomplished in Season 24.

“We just had a good group of guys. it was all about winning and playing well,” Winterling said.

Published June 10, 2015

Team Tampa will compete in California

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The Team Tampa U12 travel ball softball team has been around for less than a year. And, while they’re still getting used to playing together as a team in Florida, they’re now planning to compete on a national stage in California.

They are heading to Sacramento at the end of July to compete in the Amateur Softball Association’s national championship tournament for that age group.

Lilly Kiester and her fellow Team Tampa softball players are headed to Sacramento next month for a national softball tournament after winning a qualifier over Memorial Day weekend. (Courtesy of Laura Kiester)
Lilly Kiester and her fellow Team Tampa softball players are headed to Sacramento next month for a national softball tournament after winning a qualifier over Memorial Day weekend.
(Courtesy of Laura Kiester)

The Rebels qualified by winning a tournament over Memorial Day weekend. Only a handful of Florida teams will punch their ticket to Sacramento at the end of July, and around a dozen local players will now take the trip of a lifetime.

Coach Autum Hernandez is impressed with both reaching the national tournament and how quickly the team reached it.

“It’s definitely a huge accomplishment, because it takes teams sometimes two or three years to gel together,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez knows about building team chemistry. She’s been the softball coach at Freedom High School for seven years, and has been a softball coach for 12 years. The challenge in travel ball, according to Hernandez, is that players might move or switch teams from year to year, making it harder to build a consistent identity or benefit from the experience of working together. But Team Tampa didn’t need much time to find a winning rhythm. While some members played together with other teams such as the Lutz Lightning, many didn’t know each other when they formed last September.

The coach, who came on board a couple months later, saw a group of girls with intangibles that made them special.

“The girls work really hard. It’s a good group of young kids who want to learn,” she said. “And they never quit, and that’s one thing that you can’t coach.”

So Hernandez focused on the things she could coach, which is showing players how to use their talent and tenacity to maximize their effectiveness as a team. Good hitters don’t always have to hit home runs, and strong fundamentals and good defense can win close games even if the team isn’t firing on all cylinders.

The coach doesn’t go easy on them in practice, and it’s paying off.

Players, like Lutz resident Lilly Kiester, are happy with the results, even if it means challenging days on the practice field.

“We run, stretch and throw. Some days we’ll do fielding, and some days we’ll do hitting,” Kiester said. “She holds us accountable.”

While Hernandez is quick to spot a mistake and explain how to fix it, Kiester said, she’s also the first one to cheer and offer praise when players get things right.

This team has been getting lots of things right, especially in close contests.

In the Memorial Day weekend tournament, Team Tampa had to come back at the end of games to win, and came out on top in a tiebreaker situation, too. At that level, if nobody has won within a certain time period, the rules put runners in scoring position and give both teams chances to score. In one instance they broke a tie with five runs to seal another victory.

In the championship game against a team from Jacksonville, the Rebels were down 3-1 heading into the final inning and put together four runs to earn their national tournament berth.

While she’s proud of her team, there are things the longtime coach wants to tighten up before they get on a plane this summer.

For instance, she’d like the Rebels to start the games a little hotter, and take less time to get a feel for the opposing pitcher.

There are also two positions that need to be on the same page at all times.

“I’m a former catcher,” Hernandez explained. “I want my pitcher and catcher communication to be a little bit better. That’s really important.”

If they can sharpen their communication skills and stay focused, the coach thinks the trip will be more than a sightseeing adventure. Team Tampa has a chance to do well at the national level, and is bringing the confidence to make that a reality.

Kiester agrees.

“I think if our confidence is high and we keep fighting and have a good attitude, we’ll go far,” she said.

Team Tampa is still in the process of funding the trip, which will cost thousands in travel expenses alone.

The team has set up a GoFundMe page, a crowd-sourcing Internet opportunity where people can make donations to causes in various dollar amounts. For more information and to donate, visit GoFundMe.com/ug28qc.

Published June 3, 2015

 

Saint Leo’s Reidy is top athletics director, again

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Fran Reidy doesn’t play baseball for Saint Leo University. He doesn’t shoot a basketball. He’s not on a swimming relay team. And he’s not a threat running track.

Still, he’s a critical part of the university’s athletic success.

As athletics director, he’s responsible for all of those sports and more. There are 19 in all, and it’s his job to see them grow and prosper.

Clearly, he’s doing something right.

Fran Reidy oversees 19 different sports at Saint Leo University, but that wasn't the case when he took the job 16 years ago. They had just 10 sports back then, and only eight when he was the men's soccer coach 28 years ago. (Courtesy of Saint Leo University)
Fran Reidy oversees 19 different sports at Saint Leo University, but that wasn’t the case when he took the job 16 years ago. They had just 10 sports back then, and only eight when he was the men’s soccer coach 28 years ago.
(Courtesy of Saint Leo University)

Reidy has been named the Under Armour Division II Athletics Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. He will be honored at an awards luncheon next month in Orlando.

This is the second time that Reidy has earned the designation. He also achieved it in 2012.

“I feel good about it,” Reidy said via phone from North Carolina, where he was cheering on the Lions at the NCAA Championship for men’s golf last week. “I think it’s a sign of the great things that Saint Leo has been accomplishing, and I get recognized for what our teams have been doing.”

Saint Leo is currently ninth in the Division II Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings, a competition that measures a school’s overall athletic success across all sports.

The Lions have never finished better than 18th in the competition, and have placed lower than that in many years. But they’re now in the top 10 after the winter season.

Part of that success stems from being involved in more sports. When Reidy first came on board as the men’s soccer coach 28 years ago, the Lions participated in just eight sports. By the time he became athletics director 16 years ago, they inched up to 10. Now they’ve nearly doubled that number, and can claim success in many of those programs.

Doing well on many fields is important to Reidy. He doesn’t want Saint Leo to be known for just one or two sports, with the rest treated as an afterthought.

“A lot of schools to tend to tier their sports and push the majority of the resources toward certain sports, and we have resisted that temptation,” he explained. “We want all of our student-athletes to have a championship experience.”

Reidy and his staff have worked to equip their teams with the resources to provide those quality experiences. That means new facilities for sports like soccer, softball and lacrosse, and more full-time assistants for coaches.

As recently as five years ago, only the baseball program had full-time assistant coaches. To beef that number up, the university has invested around $250,000 in assistant salaries, Reidy said, and now a dozen sports have them.

“That’s been an area of focus. We needed those extra positions to help recruit, to help academically and keep our teams successful,” he said.

The investment appears to be paying off.

In the past three years, Saint Leo has earned three titles in the Sunshine State Conference, which is known to be a competitive collection of schools. That success continues a trend over the past decade, during which time the Lions have won a dozen conference regular season and tournament titles. They’ve also claimed the SSC Mayor’s Cup, which measures overall conference success, in both 2012-13 and 2013-14.

Saint Leo’s athletes are accomplished in the classroom, as well.

The university has approximately 375 athletes, and their grade point average reached an all-time high this past semester with a 3.22 mark. To achieve an academic record at the same time they’re achieving great things on the fields of play is a source of pride for Reidy.

Now that the school has reached new heights, the real challenge is staying at that level. It can be harder to maintain success than it is to achieve it, Reidy said.

To continue progressing, they have specific goals and constantly evaluate how they’re doing and what can be improved, he said.

For now, the near future includes keeping their existing sports operating at a high level. As far as adding sports, Reidy said women’s rowing and wrestling would top his list.

He understands that football would be a popular choice for many fans, but he needs to know more about the long-term effects of concussions, and the legal ramifications of those effects, before giving it serious consideration.

In any case, adding new sports isn’t a near-term priority.

Instead, Reidy would like to see a top-10 finish in the Directors’ Cup and perhaps the university’s first-ever national championship.

And he doesn’t want to accomplish those goals by micro-managing his team. Instead, he’ll rely on five assistant athletics directors and the coaching staffs for each sport to keep the university on track and moving forward in athletics.

“I think from a staff standpoint, you try to do it all on the front end,” Reidy said. “You try to hire the right people, and then just give them the right resources and stay out of the way.”

Published May 27, 2015 

Steinbrenner adds on another district title

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The Steinbrenner High School baseball team had a great season, winning many games and establishing themselves as a force in their district.

But really, that’s not news.

They’ve done that every year since the school opened in 2009.

The Warriors didn't always score a lot, but they usually got what they needed by manufacturing runs and getting smart play from players like Andrew Lindsay. (Courtesy of Evan Abramson)
The Warriors didn’t always score a lot, but they usually got what they needed by manufacturing runs and getting smart play from players like Andrew Lindsay.
(Courtesy of Evan Abramson)

What is news is how the high school team — which loses players every year to graduation and turns over its entire roster every few seasons — continues to operate at a high level of success.

All signs for that achievement point to head coach John Crumbley.

He’s been a constant presence since the Warriors began playing baseball.

But Crumbley isn’t taking the credit for the team’s consistent success.

“We’ve got good kids at our school, and we have coaches who feel we have a formula that works,” Crumbley said.

Still, what has worked at Steinbrenner the past six years also worked at Jesuit High School, where Crumbley coached baseball for 22 years and was athletic director for three years.

The coach’s resume at Jesuit includes 11 trips to the state final four, two runner-up finishes and three championships.

Now, with two district titles in six years, Crumbley wants the Warriors to experience the same kind of success as Jesuit’s team achieved.

“I kind of want these kids to feel that experience of what I’ve been fortunate enough to succeed at in my career,” he said.

At first, it didn’t look like this season would be like the others.

The team struggled when the year began.

The Warriors lost their first two games and were still struggling a quarter of the way through their campaign. But they righted the ship, at one point winning 10 out of 11 games in a row. In one three-game span during that run, they outscored their opponents 56-2.

But most of their games were closer, and Steinbrenner came out on top most of the time with good defense and pitching. They held their opponent to one run or less 15 times, and went 13-2 in those games.

Unfortunately, one of those two low-scoring losses came in the regional semifinals, when Durant High School beat the Warriors 1-0 in extra innings. Steinbrenner finished the year with a 19-7 record, a Class 7A-8 district title and matched the school’s farthest journey into the playoffs to date.

Crumbley credits the team with sticking with the game plan, even when the wins weren’t coming early on, and following the path to success they’ve built at Steinbrenner.

“The kids and teams that buy into our system, our philosophies and our techniques — those teams are able to do a little better,” he said.

According to senior pitcher Ryan Fatzinger, part of those philosophies and techniques involve limiting mistakes and finding ways to manufacture runs.

“We’ve had a lot of success with discipline at the plate. We don’t strike out much, and we minimize the errors on defense,” Fatzinger said.

Knowing that he has a strong defense behind him gives him confidence on the mound, since the pressure isn’t solely on him to perform.

Fatzinger will carry the confidence he gained at Steinbrenner to Pasco-Hernando State College, where he’ll be part of the Conquistadors’ potent baseball program.

He feels prepared to join a successful college program after being a part of a successful program at Steinbrenner, which he attributes in part to Crumbley’s straightforward attitude with his players.

The coach’s successes — at Jesuit and now at Steinbrenner — are widely known, and motivate his players to not let him down, Fatzinger said.

“People don’t want to lose, especially with him as the coach,” he said.

The Warriors haven’t done much losing with Crumbley at the helm, regardless of who’s on the field in any particular year.

Next season will definitely include some new faces: Steinbrenner will lose 10 seniors, although not all of them were starters.

There were effective pitchers, like Fatzinger, that they’ll have to replace, but Crumbley is confident his developmental team has the players necessary to provide a roster that will enable Steinbrenner to continue its pursuit of excellence.

For now, Crumbley can reflect on the year, appreciate the team’s accomplishments and recognize this year’s performance as a successful continuation of Steinbrenner baseball’s already-strong pedigree.

“Winning the district title is huge,” Crumbley said. “and being that we’re six years old, and we’ve got two of them already, that’s pretty quick for a lot of places.”

Published May 20, 2015

Steinbrenner softball claims best season in school history

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When Brenda Leach took over as coach of the Steinbrenner Warriors, everyone was hoping for a good beginning, but they didn’t know exactly what to expect.

Leach is just the second head softball coach in the school’s history, and the team has never had a losing season since they began play in 2009.

So, when Leach led the team to its best season in school history, it certainly was a good start to her tenure.

The Warriors had a lot of youth on their softball team -- just two seniors -- but they came together and had the best season in school history. (Courtesy of Maureen Famiano)
The Warriors had a lot of youth on their softball team — just two seniors — but they came together and had the best season in school history.
(Courtesy of Maureen Famiano)

And while she expected a good year, even Leach wasn’t expecting as much as her team delivered.

“I had no idea that our record and accomplishments would be what they ended up being,” she said.

The numbers ended up being impressive no matter how you analyze them.

The Warriors compiled a 22-8 record, eclipsing 20 wins in one season for the first time in school history.

And while they won some close games, many victories were dominating performances. Steinbrenner recorded eight shutouts and scored 10 or more runs 10 different times. They began their season with 53 runs in their first three games alone.

While it is important to score runs and win games, those aren’t the only measures of a successful year.

If a team falls short in the district tournament, for instance, all that work won’t amount to much.

But Steinbrenner had its most successful year in that regard. The team claimed the Class 7A District 8 title after slipping past Wiregrass Ranch by a 2-1 margin.

The team then went to the regional tournament.

The Warriors have done that before, but after beating East Bay and Plant City, they reached the regional final for the first time. And while it ended that tournament with a 7-1 loss to Bartow, Leach remains very happy with how the year turned out.

“I’m so proud of all the accomplishments, so many successes this year to be proud of, it’s an amazing feeling,” she said.

While it was Leach’s first year at the helm, it wasn’t her first year with the school. She had served as an assistant the two previous seasons, so the players didn’t have to adjust to hearing advice from someone they didn’t know.

Still, Leach wanted to do things her way, and that meant both adding and eliminating some things from the program.

For instance, she added conditioning for six weeks before spring tryouts so the team would be physically ready for the upcoming season.

Before that, she encouraged all players — not just freshmen and sophomores — to participate in Miss Tampa Bay Softball, an unofficial fall league utilized by players who want to get in some year-round work. Playing together earlier helped them work as a team from the beginning, since they were already familiar with each other.

There were eliminations, too. Specifically, the bickering that sometimes occurs in sports teams. Leach wanted everyone to understand that there’s a job to do, and the Warriors weren’t going to waste time fighting with each other when they could be working to defeat their next opponent.

According to sophomore pitcher Emalee Jansen, it worked.

“We had a great bonding relationship, the entire team,” Jansen said. The Warriors would do things together outside of softball as well, like a dolphin tour over spring break. And when they won the district title, Leach invited them to her house to watch the game together.

Part of the team’s synergy came out of respect for their coach, Jansen explained. After playing softball at Gaither High School (where she won a state title in 1996), Leach was a first-team, all-region outfielder at Hillsborough Community College. She then continued her softball career at Ashland University in Ohio. Having an accomplished athlete guiding them gave the team an opportunity to learn from someone who had already achieved success, and gave them confidence in her approach.

“It was easy to relate to her, because she played college ball,” Jansen said. “She’s just a great overall coach.”

Leach will have a chance to repeat the team’s success next year with returning players like Jansen. Overall the team is losing just two seniors, and while they were important to the team, Leach believes they can fill those gaps and compete in the district and region again.

She also believes that the team’s playoff experience, including the loss, will help them going forward.

“These girls did not enjoy the feeling of losing in the regional final, and I think they’re going to come back more determined and more ready to work, and I think they want it bad as well,” Leach said.

Jensen agrees.

“We’re not done yet,” she said. “We’re striving for better achievements.”

Published May 13, 2015

 

Four Sunlake athletes choose college teams

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Four different athletes. Four different sports. Four different colleges.

And one very proud high school.

From left, Jake Roberts, Logan Wolfe, Cobi Shirmohammad and Justin Pipes all signed on with colleges at a ceremony at Sunlake High School on April 30. (Michael Murillo/Staff Photo)
From left, Jake Roberts, Logan Wolfe, Cobi Shirmohammad and Justin Pipes all signed on with colleges at a ceremony at Sunlake High School on April 30.
(Michael Murillo/Staff Photo)

“Seeing them sign to continue their sports career while they’re continuing their education — it’s like the best thing,” said Sunlake High School athletic director Reesa Pledge. Pledge helped moderate a special signing event in the school’s gymnasium on April 30, where four students earned praise from their coaches and cheers from their friends and families.

And then they signed commitments to play their sport of choice at the next level.

Basketball at PHSC
Justin Pipes wasn’t thinking about college basketball when he started playing the game at age 6. But now that it’s his future, he feels grateful for the opportunity.

“I’m just truly blessed,” Pipes said.

He’s blessed with a full scholarship to Pasco-Hernando State College, and blessed with talent at the shooting guard position.

But he’s aware that the competition is tougher at the college level than what he faced during high school.

To prepare for the extra difficulty, he’s already making some changes to prepare for his college career.

For instance, he’s hitting the gym every day to put on 20 pounds or more of muscle as he prepares to face bigger and faster players, and to take advantage of opportunities to score for his new team.

But the opportunities in the classroom are also important to Pipes.

He plans to study business in the classroom even as he studies his opponents on the court. He chose PHSC because they have a strong program, and he’s looking forward to the task of facing college-level players and matching his growing skills against theirs.

“It’s a challenge, but I’m willing to face that challenge and make myself better as a person, and as a player,” he said.

Golf at Trinity Baptist College
Jake Roberts’ golf swing is taking him to the next level. He enjoys the pressure — and the risk — that comes with an individual sport like golf.

“I like it better than team sports, because if you mess up it’s all on yourself. It’s no one else’s fault,” Roberts said.

It’s also on the individual when they succeed, and Roberts’ talents will bring him to Jacksonville’s Trinity Baptist College on a partial scholarship. Now he’ll face longer, harder courses than he tackled in high school. Roberts plans to face them by focusing on his own improvement, spending hours practicing and working with a personal trainer to stay in shape.

He’ll study sports management in college, and would like to consider broadcasting opportunities as well. But he won’t be thinking much about his college competition. The key to his success has been managing his own game rather than his opponents on any given day.

“I just think about myself. I don’t ever think about anybody else. I just think about playing the course every day,” Roberts said.

Football at Southeastern University
Logan Wolfe was a standout fullback and outside linebacker at Sunlake, and he’ll be playing football for Southeast University in Lakeland.

But not at either of those positions. He’ll be playing safety.

“It’s exciting,” Wolfe said about his new job on the gridiron. “Safety’s a position I’ve always wanted to play because my idols like Sean Taylor (the Washington Redskins player who passed away in 2007) and Ed Reed (longtime Baltimore Raven) played safety. So it’s pretty exciting to get a chance to play what they played.”

To play that position, he’s adding some weight in order to match up better with the competition.

His eventual goal is to become a firefighter. But until then, Wolfe will be playing defense at the college level.

That might be intimidating to some incoming freshmen, but he feels like the Seahawks’ football success has prepared him well to tackle the new challenge. The coaches worked him and his teammates hard, he said, and they expect a lot out of each player. He might not have realized it at the time, but it got him ready for the next stage of his career.

“I did not know that it would prepare me to play at this level, but now I realize all the stuff they did, and I’m forever grateful for all my coaches and what they did for me,” Wolfe said.

Soccer at Corning Community College
Cobi Shirmohammad’s first long journey is an important one. He’ll be attending Corning Community College in New York.

“I’ve lived here for 18 years, and I’ve actually never been on a plane before, so it’s going to be a trip,” Shirmohammad said.

Just getting back on the pitch will be a trip for the midfielder/striker, since he’s been out of commission since breaking his collarbone in the state semifinal. He’s already back up to 95 percent movement and was cleared to play a couple of weeks ago, which is just a few months after the injury. The time of the field hurt in terms of not getting in time with the Rangers, his club team. But it did let him focus on studying which college opportunity would be right for him, getting his schoolwork in order and taking care of business away from the game. In college he plans on studying sports medicine.

Now that he’s ready to return, he plans on making sure his stamina and conditioning are up to par, especially since he’ll be dealing with a colder climate. But he’s excited about playing college soccer, and hopes his community college time turns into another opportunity at a four-year school.

“I think it should take me to the next level after this to complete my college career, and hopefully move forward from there,” Shirmohammad said.

Published May 6, 2015

Land O’ Lakes softball completes dominating season

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After going 13-13 in his first year coaching the Land O’ Lakes High School softball team, there was probably an expectation of improvement and becoming more competitive in his second season.

But nobody expected a 24-3 record. Not even the team’s coach.

I knew we’d be a lot better. I didn’t know our record would be this much better,” said Mitch Wilkins.

But the Gators really were that much better.

Softball coach Mitch Wilkins will say farewell to four seniors, but has an undefeated junior varsity team full of talent to find replacements. (Courtesy of Edwin Rodriguez)
Softball coach Mitch Wilkins will say farewell to four seniors, but has an undefeated junior varsity team full of talent to find replacements.
(Courtesy of Edwin Rodriguez)

It took players just 14 games to match last season’s win total, and they capped off the regular season with 10 straight victories. After beating Fivay 15-0 to open the district playoffs, Land O’ Lakes dropped a 2-1 decision to River Ridge. All three of the team’s defeats were by just one run.

The team’s success was no accident.

The coach, a retired police officer who has been coaching for more than 30 years, took his role seriously.

Wilkins — who has coached with the Lutz Lightning and the Lutz Leaguerettes — found out which of his players also played on travel ball softball teams, and he went to watch them play, including the junior varsity players.

He also created a travel ball team for the junior varsity team, so they’d get in extra work over the summer.

As a result, the junior varsity team had one loss and one tie last season, and went undefeated this past season. That provides not only a good foundation for the softball program, but a talented reserve that Wilkins can use to replace graduating seniors on his varsity squad. It also helps to create a true team atmosphere that fosters camaraderie.

“The girls get used to playing with each other. They understand the brand of ball that we play. And they enjoy it, or they wouldn’t still be there,” Wilkins said.

That style of ball doesn’t include a lot of power hitting. Instead, the Gators try to remain unpredictable, combining strong pitching with stealing, bunting and hitting to overwhelm their opponents. And with seven shutouts and eight games where they scored double-digits, that style is working.

It’s also working for junior Gaby Santiago, who has played with the team since her freshman year.

Santiago notices a big difference in the team since Wilkins came on board.

“Since coach got here, team unity has gotten better,” Santiago said. “My freshmen year it was kind of a mess, but coach really brought us together over the past two years.”

Wilkins showed the team that he cared early on, Santiago said. By showing up to their travel ball games, it was clear that he was serious about building a strong program and getting the most out of his players. Team meals have also become a regular part of game day, which has also improved team unity.

Another activity Wilkins introduced to Land O’ Lakes is what he calls “positives.” After each game, the team gathers and gives positive feedback to each other, noting what their teammates did well during the game.

“We always end with positives. After the game we circle up and everybody’s got to say something positive that somebody else did during the game,” Wilkins explained. Allowing players to hear praise from their teammates helps keep things in perspective, softens the blow when things don’t go well and lets the team end each game on a high note, regardless of the score.

With a successful season in the books and a strong foundation in place, the future also looks to be promising for the Gators. They’ll lose four seniors, but have a skilled junior varsity squad to find replacements, and a team mindset to help the new players fit in.

And even though they didn’t go as far as they wanted this season, Wilkins is pleased with their effort and success.

“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Wilkins said.

Published April 29, 2015

Wesley Chapel soccer team wins state title

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Wesley Chapel Soccer Club has always had hard-working, athletic players who enjoy the game and strive to improve. But even with a variety of teams ranging in age from U9 to U18, they’ve never had a state champion.

That is, until now.

Natalie Gonzalez gets past the defense in Wesley Chapel's 4-2 semifinal win. They won the state President's Cup, with a 3-0 victory in the final. (Courtesy of Alex Vilutini)
Natalie Gonzalez gets past the defense in Wesley Chapel’s 4-2 semifinal win. They won the state President’s Cup, with a 3-0 victory in the final.
(Courtesy of Alex Vilutini)

The U15 Girls White Team captured the Region C title — also a first for the club — to participate in the four-team state tournament for the President’s Cup earlier this month. The Flames then got past the Florida Blast (4-2) and Creeks Krush (3-0) in convincing fashion to earn the cup in Auburndale, marking the club’s first state championship since it began more than a decade ago.

“The whole team was thrilled. They were filled with excitement,” said assistant coach Jeff Olsen.

The team was able to execute its team philosophies on its way to the President’s Cup. They utilized a “strike first” mentality, scoring within the first few minutes of both the semifinal and final. But after that they preach a defensive mindset, calling on every player, regardless of position, to be on guard when the other team has the ball. The end result is a quick-strike offense and a challenging defense that was too much for their opponents in the tournament.

They also have a specific plan when it comes to fouls: Don’t do it. Even when the other team plays an overly aggressive style, Olsen said, the players know that the proper response isn’t retaliation. It’s determination.

“We play harder and smarter, but we like to play clean, too,” Olsen said. “We focus on the game.”

That focus allows them to concentrate on scoring and playing sound defense when an opponent might be struggling with a yellow card, which signals a warning, or even a red card, which signals an ejection.

Carrie Greene, a midfielder and team captain, agrees.

“We understand that if we play to the best of our abilities, the rough play won’t matter,” she said.

Playing their best comes easier because the players know each other so well, Greene said. Many have played together for years in the competitive system, as well as the recreational one. That familiarity allows them to predict each other’s movements and play better as a team. As a result, they can set the tone of the game and face challenges with confidence.

The Flames now face a couple of new challenges.

They’ll travel to Lafayette, Louisiana, to represent Florida and to compete in the Region III President’s Cup in June.

And, they have to find a way to pay for it.

The team has less than six weeks to raise around $20,000 for travel, lodging and expenses for 17 players and two coaches.

They plan to reach out to individuals and businesses, as well as host fundraisers, to meet their goal.

Since goals — especially those on the field — seem to come naturally to the team, it is looking forward to its out-of-state competition in June.

Claiming the state regional title, and then the state’s President’s Cup, has already taught players the value of staying focused and playing as a team.

It’s also brought notoriety to the Wesley Chapel Soccer Club, proving that the philosophy of good sportsmanship and enthusiastic-but-clean play can bring results on the scoreboard, too.

“It shows that hard work, dedication, and loyalty to your club and your community pays off in the end,” Olsen said.

The club will have competitive tryouts at the end of May.

For information about the Wesley Chapel Soccer Club, visit WCAASports.org. To help with the U15 team’s fundraising efforts, visit their donation page at gofundme.com.

Published April 22, 2015

Rodriguez pitches into PHSC’s record books

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Pasco-Hernando State College pitcher Danny Rodriguez now has the most wins in school history after pitching PHSC’s first no-hitter last year.

The pitcher is excited to talk about some big accomplishments.

“It was the best thing I’ve ever experienced in baseball,” Rodriguez said.

Danny Rodriguez owns the Pasco-Hernando State College record for most career wins by a pitcher. He helped get the team to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II World Series last year, and is focused on a return trip this season. (Courtesy of Pasco-Hernando State College)
Danny Rodriguez owns the Pasco-Hernando State College record for most career wins by a pitcher. He helped get the team to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II World Series last year, and is focused on a return trip this season.
(Courtesy of Pasco-Hernando State College)

But he’s not describing his personal accomplishments, such as the no-hitter or setting the school wins record. He’s talking about a team accomplishment: The school’s trip to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II World Series last year, where they finished fourth in the nation.

Rodriguez is known as a team player, so that’s his focus.

But when asked about his own personal records, he’s more subdued.

“It’s nice. It doesn’t concern me as much as winning regionals and getting to the World Series,” he said.

While setting the record isn’t that big of a deal to Rodriguez, the Conquistadors have used those victories to full advantage, reaching a spot in last year’s World Series during his 10-win season. His current 8-2 record also has helped the team to qualify for their regional tournament next month.

Steve Winterling, who coaches Rodriguez, said the pitcher doesn’t rely on just one kind of pitch to get out of tough situations.

“Anybody can throw a fastball, but you’ve got to have the other pitches,” Winterling said. “He has those, and he throws them with confidence.”

That confidence didn’t come from his senior season in high school. He was a middle infielder and had just one pitching start, with 10 innings of work, in his final year at Steinbrenner High School. Though he had pitched more the year before, and got in more work with his travel ball team, Rodriguez never took pitching lessons. Instead, he would teach himself pitches, going over them until they felt right. He learned his curveball when he was young and added the slider in high school. He just got his change-up working last year.

That steady progress has made him a versatile weapon for Winterling, and one he used in different situations last year.

He became a regular starter about halfway through that season, yet still racked up 10 victories and developed a reputation for being calm and collected on the mound.

“I never really stress about the outcome. I just try to do my thing each pitch and with each batter,” Rodriguez said.

While he’s serene on the baseball field, he admits that’s not always the case when he’s off it.

He’s more of an animated guy, and lets his enthusiasm show.

On the pitching mound, though, he displays a calm presence, and doesn’t let the pressure of a tough situation rattle him.

“I like being in control and taking the pressure,” he said.

Other schools are taking notice of his control as well.

Rodriguez will have plenty of opportunities to continue his collegiate baseball career, and is already fielding offers from schools both in and out of Florida. He hasn’t made a decision yet, but said that the University of West Florida in Pensacola is a front-runner.

Beyond, there’s the possibility of a professional career.

If Rodriguez keeps the momentum going through his senior season, his numbers will be tough for scouts to ignore, Winterling said. It wouldn’t be much of a risk for a team to take a chance on a proven winner.

“The guy throws strikes and gets outs. What more can you ask for?” Winterling said.

Rodriguez said he’d try his hand at professional baseball “in a heartbeat,” but he’s not counting on that career path.

He’s studying business, and wants to make sure he has a useful degree to continue his winning ways, even if it’s not with a baseball in his hand.

For now, Rodriguez is focused on finishing the season strong and winning the regional tournament to take another crack at World Series play.

The team has fixed some of its weaknesses from last year and should be able to compete in the postseason, he said.

“As a team, we have more pitching, and defensively we’re better,” he said. “That’s really the two that we needed.”

While the coach also puts team goals over individual ones, he’s glad to see the school’s win record go to a deserving player like Rodriguez.

“He’s a team guy,” Winterling said. “You can’t ask for a better person to be a rep (for the team) on the baseball field.”

Published April 15, 2015

Land O’ Lakes girls reach state soccer finals

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The Land O’ Lakes girls soccer team might have surprised some people by reaching the Class 3A state finals. But it didn’t surprise their coach.

“I said at our parent meeting (last October) I have high expectations. I expect to be in the state finals in February,” said coach Vicky King.

The Land O' Lakes girls soccer team reached the state finals with an attacking offense and stifling defense. (Courtesy of Vicky King)
The Land O’ Lakes girls soccer team reached the state finals with an attacking offense and stifling defense.
(Courtesy of Vicky King)

And if King believes something, there’s good reason to take her at her word. After 28 seasons coaching the team, including a state title in 2003, King has established herself as a good judge of talent. And King was right on the money last October, leading the Gators to a perfect 8-0 record in Class 3A-8, a 1-0 victory over Matanzas in the regional final and a close 2-1 victory over Ponte Vedra in the state semifinal that ended with penalty kicks to determine the winner.

Land O’ Lakes eventually fell in a 2-1 overtime loss to defending state champion American Heritage. But they were right where King said they’d be in February and finished with a 24-2 record.

King knew early on she had the talent to go far in the playoffs. In fact, she said this was the most talented Land O’ Lakes team that she’s coached. And they weren’t just dominant in one part of the game.

“It’s a very well-rounded team,” King said. “We’ve always been very good defensively, but we produced a lot more off this year and had a lot of offensive threats.”

There were a few minor setbacks along the way, King said. Late buses, rescheduled games and a late start to pre-season tryouts were just a few obstacles they overcame. But they had some good luck, too, like avoiding major injuries. All 22 players who started the season were available in the state final.

Throughout the season, they played the same attacking style regardless of opponent, and it served them well. Although they were ahead most of the time, they did come from behind in a couple of games during the year. Those comebacks showed perseverance, King said, and an ability to work through difficulties as a team without pointing fingers and blaming each other.

The coach credits the team’s juniors and seniors for keeping expectations high and teaching the program’s philosophy to the younger players. It’s up to them, King said, to be leaders and take ownership in their success on the field.

“I coach them, but it’s their team,” she said.

One of those players is junior Tori Cannata, who has already committed to playing at the next level for the University of Arkansas. She believes that even though the players are the ones on the pitch, the coach is a big part of the team’s success.

“What makes coach King special is the way she runs the program,” Cannata said. “Everyone just respects her completely.”

To show that respect, players give their best effort to prove they belong on the team, and practice hard so as not to let up on the program’s momentum.

This year’s momentum also meant some well-deserved accolades for the coach, as well. King won the 2015 Florida Dairy Farmers Girls’ Soccer Class 3A Coach of the Year award.

While she said it’s an honor to be recognized and appreciates the award, it’s clear she doesn’t like too much attention directed at herself, but instead thinks it should be on the team. She’s won awards before, but when asked for details she preferred not to elaborate on her personal accomplishments.

“If you really need it, I can tell you how many times (she’s won coach of the year awards), but whatever,” King said.

Instead, she likes to focus on the team and maintaining a quality program. She’ll lose four seniors (two of whom are starters), so most of the team should remain intact. And with good depth to help replace the players they’re losing, they should continue to be a competitive team.

While they fell just short of a state title, King can look back on this past season as one of the best.

“We have to consider it one of our most successful seasons as far as level of play, the dominance, going it to the final four, winning the semifinal on (penalty kicks),” she said. “Those were all great deeds.”

Published April 8, 2015