Wekiva graduate Reed signs NBA deal
Apopka High alum wins 4th triple jump title
Olympian Donald Scott, an Apopka High alum, captured his fourth USA Track & Field national championship in the triple jump since 2018 last week. A season-best leap of 56 feet, 6 inches punched Scott's ticket to the upcoming World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Aug. 19-27.
Former Boone speedster Marvin Bracy-WIlliams Jr., silver medalist in the World meet last year, ran hurt in the 100-meter dash and failed to advance out of the first round.
Tyler Azcano, whose East Ridge senior season of 2022 was wrecked by injuries to both hamstrings, clocked a spectacular 10.09-second time in the 100 to finish second in the Under-20 portion of the USATF meet in Eugene, Ore.
He was runner-up behind Christian Miller, who was the 4A state champ for St. Johns Creekside in May. Miller ran 10.06, fastest ever for a high school junior.
Azcano, 19, had zero offers coming out of high school. He signed with FAMU last month.
More track talk
Montverde Academy's Issam Asinga, who out-raced world champion Noah Lyles in a 100-meter dash race and then broke Lyles' high school national record in the 200 this spring, won the Gatorade National Boys Track and Field Player of the Year award.
Asinga, also the Gatorade state track athlete of the year, lowered the 200 record to 19.97 seconds in a Corky/Crofoot Shootout college race at Texas Tech on April 29. He twice ran 9.83 in the 100 — best ever by a high schooler — including his April 22 win over Lyle and other professionals in Clermont. Lyle won 2019 and '22 world titles in the 200, his specialty.
Asinga's best 100 marks were wind-aided and not eligible for record status. His wind-legal 10.02 is No. 3 on the high school all-time list.
Asinga, a Missouri 100⁄200 state champ as a junior and Texas A&M signee, did not compete for Florida High School Athletic Association state championships.
The Gatorade awards recognize athletic excellence along with “high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field.”
Another Montverde speedster who bowed out of the FHSAA state series in favor of national competitions, junior Adaejah Hodge, is Gatorade Florida girls track athlete of the year. The 2022 Georgia state champ set a girls high school record for the indoor 200 (22.33) in March. She is top 10 all-time with her outdoor bests of 11.11 in the 100 and 22.60 in the 200 and carries a 4.04 weighted GPA.
Around NBA
Wekiva grad Paul Reed (6-9) secured a three-year contract for $23 million to stay with the Philadelphia 76ers as the prime backup to center Joel Embid, the 2023 NBA MVP. The Sixers retained Reed, who had strong contributions per minutes played last season, by matching a free agency offer sheet he signed with the Utah Jazz.
Reed, a second round draft pick out of DePaul in 2020, enters his third NBA season having surpassed expectations.
Michael Devoe, who excelled for Oak Ridge, Montverde Academy and Georgia Tech but didn't hear his name called in the 2022 NBA Draft, earned some attention as an unrestricted free agent at Las Vegas summer league play on Sunday. The 6-4 lefty guard made 10-of-17 shot attempts (5 of 7 3s) and totaled 29 points, 5 assists and 2 rebounds for Portland in an 85-80 win over San Antonio and No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama.
Wembanyama, the 7-5 prodigy from France, had 27 points and 12 rebounds.
Devoe averaged 20.6 minutes, 6.7 points and 1.9 assists per game last season for the Rip City Remix, a G League affiliate.
Next generation
Cooper Flagg, coming out of his sophomore season at Montverde, confirmed his status as possibly the premiere prospect in high school basketball with ridiculous numbers in the prestigious Nike EYBL Peach Jam showcase.
Flagg, a 6-foot-8 power forward lauded as a game-changing defender, averaged 25.4 points, 13.0 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 6.6 blocks with Maine United which went 6-1. He had games of 38 points, 20 rebounds, 10 blocks and 5 assists; 37 points, 12 boards and 6 assists; and 34 points, 20 rebounds and 10 blocks.
If Flagg isn't the best prospect in the land, that would be rising junior Cameron Boozer (6-9), the top player for a Miamibased Nightrydas Elite 16U team that avenged a pool play loss by topping Maine United 58-50 in Sunday's nationally televised championship game in South Carolina. The son of former NBA all-star Carlos Boozer led Miami Columbus to Class 7A state titles as a freshman and sophomore.
Cam's twin brother, Cayden (6-5), stole the show in the final with 23 points, 5 assists and 3 steals.
Flagg's twin brother, Ace (6-7), who also moved from Maine to play for Montverde as a sophomore, significantly boosted his stock in front of a legion of college coaches.
The Florida Rebels, directed by Oak Ridge coach Steve Reece, reached the elite eight and won 72-67 against a Strive For Greatness team coached by LeBron James with assistance from Rajon Rondo. The team included James' son, Bryce.
The Rebels, with Oak Ridge rising juniors Jalen Reece and Jamier Jones playing key roles, reached the elite eight before losing to NightRyders 72-64.
The Rebels will get national TV time (ESPN2) Monday with its 17U team playing Team Thrill at 5 p.m. and its 16s playing Phenom United at 11 in the Las Vegas Big Time Tournament.
The Showtime Ballers 17s team went 6-0 at an On the Radar Hoops showcase in Atlanta over the weekend.
Osceola wrestler hospitalized
Two-time wrestling state champ Gunner Holland of Kissimmee Osceola suffered bizarre burns during a wrestling camp at Lake Highland Prep last week and was hospitalized.
Orlando Sentinel correspondent J. Daniel Pearson reports that Holland, who is heading into his senior year, was taking a break between workouts and inadvertently sat on a bench where an undiluted cleaning solution had leaked out of a container. He continued to compete for approximately three hours before being taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was admitted to the burn unit.
According to Pearson's report Holland suffered second degree alkaline burns.
“Gunner's a tough kid and when he first noticed the burning sensation, he said he had no idea what was causing it,” his mother Samantha Gunner said. “He just kept going for several hours until the pain became too intense. He's just heartbroken that he is going to miss the opportunity to wrestle at Nationals.”
Holland, who also played quarterback for Osceola's football team last season, was scheduled to compete in a major USA Wrestling tournament that begins Friday in Fargo, N.D.
Rowing report
The Winter Park High School varsity girls crew team made its second appearance in the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta in England in June and reached the final four in the Prince Philip Challenge Trophy competition.
The Wildcats, with three seniors, three juniors and three sophomores teaming together, lost a semifinal to Deerfield Academy of Massachusetts, which was edged by Greenwich of Connecticut in an all-USA final.
The Winter Park girls were runners-up to St. Catherine's School of Melbourne, Australia, in the 2022 final.
This year they claimed a Scholastic Rowing Association of America national title in May.
Tyler Murphy, who is entering his junior year at Olympia, made the U.S. team for the World Rowing 19U Championships, Aug. 2-6, in Paris. He and partner Ian Ballard placed first as a two-man team representing the Orlando Area Rowing Society in the USRowing U19 National Team Trials Regatta on June 14 in Sarasota.
Good sports
Lake Buena Vista was a state runner-up in the Florida High School Athletic Association's Fred E. Rozelle Sportsmanship Award program.
The annual honors go to schools that “demonstrated exemplary sportsmanship during the 2022-2023 regular season as well as FHSAA State Series competition”.
The Vipers were second to Naples Lely in Class 5A.