New challenges
Coach believes a favorable football schedule has fallen into place for newly-built Windermere High School.
A relief school for West Orange, the Wolverines will play every game on the road this fall without a single senior on the roster. The slate includes games against Wekiva, Olympia, Lake Nona and St. Cloud — all playoff teams from a year ago.
But after opening the regular season against Cypress Creek and Wekiva, the Wolverines will play five of their next seven against new coaching staffs. Included in that stretch are Class 7A, District 5 opponents East River, Harmony, Liberty and Celebration. Orlando University is another foe that has a new head coach.
“There’s a great opportunity for us starting off as a first-year program because of all the coaching changes,” Miller said. “There are a bunch of schools that will be installing new offenses and new defenses, and kids will all be learning at the same pace. It’s just a matter of can we do our thing as coaches to get the kids to understand and learn our system and what we want them to do.”
Windermere is the first public school addition to the football coverage area since Lake Minneola debuted at 1-9 in 2011.
The Wolverines hit the field for the first time in the preseason Kickoff Classic at West Orange, a matchup likely to shift to the regular season in future years.
“It’s good for the community and it’s good for the kids who will still have some friends playing at West Orange,” Miller said. “It’ll give us a great indication of where our program stands moving into the season.”
St. Cloud senior weightlifter has his sights set on a state meet record for the 183-pound weight class and he exceeded the standard when he lifted 355 pounds in the clean-and-jerk in Wednesday’s 2A, Region 6 meet.
The USA Weightlifting junior nationals champion just missed an attempt at 375 pounds on the final lift of the night.
The FHSAA weight class record, which can be set only at the state meet, is 350. Piasecki will look to erase that mark at the April 7 state meet at DeLand High School.
Orange junior sped to victories in backto-back boys races when he won the 110-meter hurdles in 14.02 seconds and the 100 dash in 10.71 at Friday’s Five Star Conference track and field meet. He also won the 300 hurdles in an area-leading 37.23. Sumter City and University and of Lake Highland Prep are among the roster additions for today’s Florida Association of Basketball Coaches all-star doubleheader at Villages Charter. Winter Springs is another addition for the girls game, set for 5:30 p.m. New to the boys 7 p.m. lineup are of South Oviedo’s
The Lake and Sumter County boys basketball all star game will be played Tuesday at Mount Dora. Action starts with a 3-point shooting contest at 6 p.m., leading up to game time at 7:15. The 3-pointer finals will be held at halftime and a dunk contest follows the game. Admission is $3.