Disney drops football games
A local high school football tradition has been put on hold this fall. Interstate games typically scheduled for Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex were relocated to other venues in the Orlando area.
Disney and KSA Events, an Orlando company that hosts 20 varsity and JV games locally over the next few weeks, did not come to terms on a new agreement.
That means teams from Colorado, California and Florida will instead play games at area high schools.
The 2018 season gets underway today when Windermere Prep hosts California’s Lakewood at 4:30 p.m. and Oak Ridge hosts Colorado state champion Pomona at 8.
Despite the change in venue, Oak Ridge coach said he’s excited about the opportunity for his players.
“We’ve been trying to get some things done over here and bring some notoriety back to Oak Ridge football, and I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to get to play a good team from another part of the country,” he said.
Johnson brought Colonial’s football team to Disney to play a team from Colorado in his only season with the Grenadiers in 2016.
“For the kids it’s kind of like being in college,” he said. “It gives them an early opportunity to know what it’s like to go do your homework and prepare for an opponent you don’t know a whole lot about.”
KSA began alerting schools about the move away from Disney in late July. The company declined to comment on what factored into the change, stating only through email that they “will be back there in the future.”
A Disney representative gave a similarly vague response via text message: “While there aren’t any KSA events scheduled at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex this year, we look forward to potentially working with KSA in the future,” he stated. Lake Howell basketball coach said on Monday that Florida has offered a scholarship to 6-foot-10 Silverhawks forward — the son of former Gators player
Lawrence is on track to be Lake Howell’s 2019 Valedictorian with a 4.64 GPA, according to his coach. With a 1,400 SAT score, he also has offers from UCF, Georgia Tech, Army, Navy, MIT, Dartmouth and Brown, among others.
Pat Lawrence was a three-time SEC AllAcademic Honor Roll player.
Circle Christian’s the area’s reigning boys golf player of the year, opened his junior season with a 7-under-par 65 at Rio Pinar Golf Club to lead the Centurions to first place in Tuesday’s Winter Park Invitational.
Circle Christian, the 2017 Class 1A state title team, shot 294 as a team to top host Winter Park (297) by three shots for first place in the 10-team tournament. Windermere High was third at 301.
Hagerty’s runner-up with a 67. was the individual
Former Trinity Prep and Florida State golfer earned the last PGA Tour membership card Sunday at the Winco Foods Portland Open.
Leiboda, 24, was a member of the 2018 Web.com Tour, where the top 25 earn a promotion to the premier circuit.