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Ken Akins

Cancellation of spring sports leaves many dejected

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There was at least a glimmer of hope the 2020 Florida high school spring sports season would resume, even amid concerns about coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).

But, optimism vanished when the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) on April 20 announced it would cancel all FHSAA-affiliated events.

The cancellations include the state series and championships events, for spring sports.

Due to the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) on April 20 announced it would cancel all FHSAA-affiliated events, including the state series and championships events, for spring sports. (File)

The statewide sports organization also announced no additional eligibility will be granted for spring sport athletes, including seniors, “under the guidance of the Florida Department of Education regarding grade level retention, and upon review of Florida Statutes and FHSAA Bylaws.”

And, just like that, high school senior athletic careers have come to an end.

It happened months sooner than expected, with no clue for athletes that a game, match or meet around mid-March would officially be their last.

The reality has left many local senior athletes feeling dejected, including Sunlake High’s Gianna Levy.

“It was really hard on me,” said Levy. “I cried. To be honest, I cried a lot.”

The prep track and field season offered Levy a final chance to boost her stats and times, to get on the radar of NCAA Division I college programs, as a heptathlete. She’s still holding out hope of being able to compete on the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) circuit this summer to get those college looks, but even that’s no guarantee.

“It definitely is really taking a really big toll on me,” Levy said. “This was a lot of people’s out ticket (to college) and now we don’t have that out ticket.”

Levy was only able participate in a couple track events before the varsity season came to a screeching halt. She was nursing a hip injury, which arose in February after she won a state title in girls weightlifting.

Though she’d already been a three-time state track and field qualifier and holds the school’s 400-meter dash record, Levy was dogged to put forth a banner senior campaign. “I just had so many goals in mind,” she said.

Other seniors had similar ambitions for their high school swan song.

Land O’ Lakes High senior Courtney Piltaver is a two-time Sunshine Athletic Conference East Girls Tennis Player of the Year. She was poised again to shine in her final high school tennis season, coming off a district title and state finalist.

From left: Wiregrass Ranch High softball seniors Kailey Riddlesworth, Cassidy Eason, Lexi Gaiefsky and Loryn Finn. These athletes only played nine games of a 27-game regular season schedule, due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Courtesy of Tyler Finn)

“I was pretty upset because it was my senior year, and it really sucks that I didn’t get to enjoy the full season with my team and my coaches, and kind of just close out,” said Piltaver, who’s signed with NCAA Division II University of Montevallo in Alabama.

The tennis standout added that not having the typical ceremonial senior night celebration, “was kind of heartbreaking, because that was something I was really looking forward to since my freshman year.”

Senior infielder Loryn Finn was in the midst of her best hitting season on the Wiregrass Ranch High softball team, sporting a .360/.467/.440 slash line through nine games.

The team captain also was chasing the 100 career hit milestone — a possibility with 18 regular season games remaining on the schedule, until athletics activities were scrapped.

Finn won’t be playing college ball. She hasn’t quite come to grips that a March 11 loss to Wesley Chapel High is perhaps the final time she’ll pick up a bat, ball and glove competitively.

“It’s definitely hard. I’m kind of in shock,” Finn said, bluntly.

Aside from game action, Finn still longs for those last few “bus rides to games, and just jamming to music with players and teammates.”

With a tinge of despair in her voice, Finn labeled her four-year softball experience as “just always been fun.”

Wiregrass Ranch assistant softball coach Tyler Finn feels for his senior daughter and the many other players on the team: “It’s really just not the seniors, it’s freshmen, it’s everybody. It’s tough on them, too. It affects every player, all of them; their season was cut short.”

He also observed his daughter’s high school athletics career coming to an abrupt halt.

Besides softball, Finn was a three-time All-Conference golfer: “She’s gotten to the point where she just wants to get into college and get the education going. She had a really good high school softball career and golf career. …She’s going to miss those kids that she played with since she was little — that’s the hard part.”

Though the traditional season is done, the assistant coach is looking for some way to hold a final showcase in the summer that would bring together various senior high school softball players countywide, assuming restrictions on parks and gatherings are lifted.

“The kids deserve it,” he said.

‘I knew it was coming’
Back on March 31, the FHSAA issued a statement that left open the possibility of a spring sports season, saying they could run from as soon as May 3 through June 30.

The FHSAA also had indicated if a spring sports season is canceled altogether, it was working on a solution to create additional athletics eligibility for students who were unable to participate.

FHSAA-sanctioned spring sports include baseball, flag football, lacrosse, softball, tennis, track & field, boys volleyball, water polo and boys weightlifting.

However, as days and weeks pressed on, many saw the writing on the wall that spring sports would not return this year, due to the pandemic.

Sunlake High senior track and field standout Gianna Levy was looking to get on the radar of Division I college athletics programs before the spring season was cut short. (Courtesy of Gianna Levy)

“I knew it was coming. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, I didn’t want to accept it, but I knew it was coming,” said Academy at the Lakes (AATL) varsity baseball coach Ken Akins.

“Once the FHSAA said, ‘OK, we’re thinking about extending it into summer and deep into June,’ there was a little bit of hope there, but once you get into June you start messing with all the travel sports — baseball and softball are huge in the summertime.”

Academy at the Lakes athletic director Tom Haslam offered a similar take on the FHSAA’s decision: “We kind of knew this was coming, but we hated to hear the actual directive.”

He added: “It’s understandable, they have to do it, so we don’t disagree with it, we expected it.”

The directive came at a time when multiple AATL programs were hitting their stride.

The AATL baseball team was on its best start in program history, already matching its win total from 2019  —  thanks to contributions from four seniors.

The school’s boys tennis team, meanwhile, was expected to contend for a state championship, like the prior season.

Of course, the FHSAA’s salvo wiped out the Land O’ Lakes-based private school’s softball, track and field, and boys weightlifting teams.

All told, there were 17 seniors among those five teams.

“It affects everybody’s season,” Haslam said, “but the seniors, you really feel for it.”

He added, “It’s not just athletic seniors, but seniors in anything. You’re talking about proms and special events that just aren’t going to happen. It’s just sad. Sad’s the best word I have for it.”

Though much attention has been brought to how this year’s seniors are affected, and rightly so, the longtime athletic director also believes the canceled spring season could have major ripple effects for juniors looking to get recruited by various college programs.

Haslam put it like this: “It hurts a lot of the juniors, because not only are they putting stats on paper, but they’re also missing workout time, and it’s going to be hard to develop their skills as normal, because they can’t get in the cages and gyms, and there’s no spring ball, and there may not even be travel ball in the summer.

“It’s pretty far-reaching, so it doesn’t just affect seniors on that level. You can’t even go out in a park and shoot hoops,” he said.

Published April 29, 2020

Academy at the Lakes gets a new baseball coach

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Just two months after guiding Carrollwood Day School to the state final four, Ken Akins looks to achieve similar results at another local private school.

Akins is the new head baseball coach at Academy at the Lakes (AATL), replacing John DiBenedetto, who left the Wildcats program after three seasons for an athletic director position at Mother of Teresa Calcutta Catholic School, a kindergarten through eighth grade school in Lutz.

Ken Akins is the new head baseball coach at Academy at the Lakes. This past season he guided Carrollwood Day School to a 24-4 record and state final four appearance. (Courtesy of Academy at the Lakes)

Under DiBenedetto, AATL achieved its first winning season in program history, a 12-10 record and 6-4 district mark in the 2A ranks. He exits as the program’s winningest coach with 29 career wins.

With a solid foundation in place, Akins is tasked with taking the Wildcats program to even greater heights — like he did at his previous stop.

Carrollwood Day went 24-4 and reached the Class 3A state semifinals — its best finish in program history — in Akins’ lone season as head coach. Moreover, all six of his graduating seniors on that squad signed to play college baseball. Prior to that, Akins previously served as an assistant coach at the school for five seasons.

Akins, however, said the AATL position “was one that I just really couldn’t turn down.” He also noted a “tighter community” and “stronger academics” for his two children.

“We did have success at Carrollwood Day, but I love to build programs, and that opportunity on the baseball side was very, very inviting,” Akins said. “The thought process of putting a two-to-four year program together is extremely exciting for me.”

An initial goal is increasing overall participation for the program’s varsity roster, while establishing full-fledged junior varsity and middle school teams, said Tom Haslam, AATL’s athletic director.

The Wildcats had just 13 players on the 2018 varsity roster. Four of those players were middle-schoolers.

“We need that roster right away,” Haslam said, acknowledging that’s usually a challenge for smaller schools like AATL. “Baseball is one of the hardest sports to build because you need a number of players.

“There’s a big difference in having 13 players on your varsity roster and 20 players on your varsity roster,” he said.

Academy at the Lakes baseball celebrated its first-ever winning season with the help of a roster chock-full of young players, including, from left: freshmen Jack Teeter, Andrew Kilfoyl and Spencer Boynton. It will now look to build upon that success with new Wildcats head coach Ken Akins. (File)

To solve this dilemma, Akins said he plans to tap into baseball connections throughout Hillsborough County to find more players and encourage kids already enrolled at AATL to try out for the team.

“There’s no question that we’ve gotta build the numbers at Academy,” Akins said. “It starts with getting the Academy name out there in the community. I think spreading the word inside the hallways is a great way to get it going.”

Another designated goal for Akins is drumming up more support for an on-campus baseball field.

Last season they played their “home” games nearly 45 minutes away from the school campus, at Northwest Little League near Leto High School. They also hold practice at the Land O’ Lakes Recreation Complex.

“There is no question that Academy needs its own home facility,” Akins said. “You build facilities and kids will come. You put a quality facility out there and that just adds to the complete package that Academy can offer.”

Meantime, Akins is focused fielding a quality team come springtime, and, perhaps competing for district crowns in the crowded 11-team District 5-2A.

The Wildcats appear to have talent to do so someday, provided most of the players from last season return, aside from its two graduating seniors.

In 2018, the team batted a collective .347 with a .455 on-base percentage, setting a program record in about every offensive statistical category, from home runs (nine) and doubles (34), to RBIs (144), runs scored (171) and stolen bases (94).

The pitching staff combined to post a 3.94 team ERA and 179 strikeouts in 126 innings pitched that season.

“You’ve gotta buy into the program,” Akins said of building a top-notch contender. “The bottom line is the kids need to, obviously, understand what the goal is and then to be able to buy into the daily routine, which in turn, creates success.”

The school’s athletic director believes Akins is up to the task — citing his overall baseball acumen and dedication to coaching.

“He’s just a grinder,” Haslam said of the new baseball coach. “He’s one of those guys that just works hard all year round and that’s what we needed. It’s one thing to be a good coach in-between the lines, but there’s so much that a small-school high school coach has to do year-round to promote his program and build something, especially if it’s not an already established program.

“We’re not starting from scratch, but we’ve basically been in the middle of our district for the last several years, and we think Ken, with his passion and work ethic year-round, can get us to that next level and vie for district championships, consistently.”

Published July 25, 2018

CDS baseball reaches first state final four, seeks title

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It’s been a season of milestones for the Carrollwood Day School varsity baseball program.

First 20-win season. First district title. First regional win. First regional title. First final four.

And, they’re seeking yet another this week — a state championship.

The Patriots (24-3) will face Tallahassee North Florida Christian (24-3) in the FHSAA (Florida High School Athletic Association) Class 3A state semifinal on May 23.

The winner will play for the Class 3A crown on Thursday against either Fort Myers Canterbury School (25-5) or Fort Pierce John Carroll Catholic High School (19-7), from the other state semifinal matchup.

The Carrollwood Day School Patriots (23-4) will play in its first-ever state semifinal on May 23 against Tallahassee North Florida Christian. If they win, they play for a Class 3A state title on May 24. (Courtesy of Carrollwood Day School Athletics)

All contests are played at Centurylink Sports Complex – Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers.

Following a stellar regular season, the Patriots have cruised through postseason play, most recently beating Lakeland Christian 4-0 in the Class 3A regional final on May 15.

With an eight-day layoff between games, the team has maintained its regular practice schedule in preparation for its biggest tests of the season.

Despite extra time off, Patriots first-year head coach and longtime assistant Ken Akins said, “there’s no concern at all” about rust leading into the state semifinals.

“We had decent time in between the two regional games…so we’re used to it, but to be honest that doesn’t bother me one bit. We will continue to do what we do. We will continue to stay loose,” Akins said.

“The thing that we have really worked on, and I told them at the very beginning of the season, ‘I’m going to teach you kids how to play loose. When you get tight in this game, you fail, and if you can just stay loose, stay relaxed, everything’s going to go our way.’ And, it has to this point, which has been fantastic, so why change it now? We’re going to continue to do the absolute same things that we’ve done in the past.”

The mindset has proven true all season long for Carrollwood Day, winning 11 games by a margin of one or two runs.

The string of narrow victories is a credit to the team’s defense and pitching staff, which has combined 1.30 ERA and a 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio.

Among the Patriots’ top pitchers is a trio of seniors who’ve been reliable all season — Gabriel Partridge (0.64 ERA, 11 wins), Andre Hevesy (1.06 ERA) and Frank Furey (1.96 ERA).

“We have always put pride in our pitching and our defense,” Akins said.

“This entire tournament we’ve played error-free baseball, so it’s what has got us in this position. You look back at the amount of won one-run games that we’ve had, and the key to that is the kids and the trust, and being relaxed and being able to throw strikes — and they have done it all season long.”

Another strong showing on the mound will be imperative against North Florida Christian, which has a .352 team batting average and 18 team home runs.

Its top three sluggers are hitting .450 or better — juniors J.D. Tease (.521 batting average, 37 RBIs) and Carson Neal (.452, five home runs, 33 RBIs) and senior Matthew Dickey (.464, three home runs, 30 RBIs).

The Patriots are ready for the challenge, Partridge, the team’s ace, said.

“We’re looking forward to it, not backing down, and we know it’s going to be a good game…,” Partridge said.

Besides pitching and defense, Carrollwood Day has benefitted from stellar hitting from the likes of Furey (.378, two home runs, 24 RBIs) and Hevesy (.308, six doubles, 16 RBIs), as well as senior Rodrigo Montenegro (.373, 31 runs) and junior Blake Hooker (.337, 23 RBIs).

Team speed (94 stolen bases) is another asset for Carrollwood Day.

However, runs may be hard to come by against an opposing group that sports a 2.34 team ERA and strikes out an average of 1.42 batters per inning.

“We have an idea of what we’re going to go up against, but the bottom line is they’re going to put nine guys on the field, we’re going to put nine guys on the field, and I trust my guys and believe in my guys so much that everything’s going to be left on the field, and hopefully we come out on top,” Akins said.

It’s been a steady progression to the Patriots’ best season in program history.

Last year the team went 17-10 and lost in the first round of the district tournament, under former head coach Nick Rodriguez.

Its next best campaign came in 2015, when the squad went 14-10.

The team mainly hovered around .500 in other seasons.

Partridge said the Patriots are “actually playing together” compared to last year —his first season with the team after transferring from Miami’s Immaculata-LaSalle.

Also a more experienced group, the Patriots have 16 upperclassmen (six seniors, 10 juniors).

“We’re more of a team,” the pitcher said. “We’re treating each other like family, and that’s good. It’s helping us. We play like we know we got each other’s backs and, if we make a mistake or do something wrong, we know that we’ll pick each other up for everything — and that’s the difference between this year and last year.”

And, as one of six seniors, Partridge is relishing every moment of the best season in program history.

“I’m glad to be a part of it. It’s awesome,” Partridge said. “You see how happy guys are, all around the dugout, all around the school, congratulating us and everything. It’s pretty cool to be a part of the first time the team (has reached the state final four).”

Published May 23, 2018