Mudge, Greene earn top high school player of year awards
The Orlando Sentinel recognized the top players, coaches and teams from the 2018-19 varsity sports school year on Tuesday night at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. These were the overall award winners:
Girls Athlete of the Year
Kaley Mudge, Winter
Springs, Sr.: Mudge combined quickness, power and competitiveness to be one of the best multisport athletes in area history. She was the area softball player of the year for a Winter Springs state championship team that finished 31-0. That wrapped up her three-sport senior year in which she was a volleyball standout for the Bears in the fall and then placed sixth at state in girls weightlifting in the winter.
Mudge shined brightest on the softball field and she is headed to FSU to play college softball. She batted .535 and led off the state semifinal with a home run. She was also a stellar outfielder who handled 33 putouts without an error — including the last out of the state final.
Boys Athlete of the Year
Riley Green, Hagerty, Sr.:
Regarded as the top high school baseball player in the state out of Hagerty High School, Greene was selected by the Detroit Tigers with the 5th overall pick in last week’s Major League Baseball Draft and signed a multi-million dollar pro contract last week. He
was the second high schooler selected.
Greene was a four-year starter in centerfield who has been praised as the nation’s best pure hitter in the Class of 2019. He batted .422 and had 38 runs scored, 8 home runs and 27 RBI as a senior. Greene was named Gatorade Florida Player of the Year and is one of three finalists for the national player of year award.
Girls Team of the Year
Winter Springs softball: Winter Springs capped an unbeaten 31-0 season by winning the Class 8A state championship with a 3-0 win over Bradenton Lakewood Ranch, the No. 1-ranked team in the nation. That victory came after the Bears rallied for a walk-off win against Orange Park Oakleaf in a state semifinal.
That was one of 10 games Winter Springs won by two runs or less in its dream season.
One of the returners will be Aynslie Furbush, who hit 12 home runs and was 16-0 as a pitcher. She had plenty of support on a squad that collectively batted .366.
Boys Team of the Year
Oviedo boys swimming: Ina performance that surprised even its 25-year coach, Charlie Rose, Oviedo became the first area school to win a state swimming championship in 20 years.
It was a true team effort. Oviedo had zero first place finishes in events but got a clutch performances from senior Carlos Cartagena-Diaz and others. The Lions parlayed a deep pool of point scorers to the first place finish ahead of county rivals Seminole and Lake Brantley. It was only the second time in state meet history that three Central Florida teams finished 1-2-3 in the boys standings. The Oviedo girls team, also coached by Rose, placed second.
Girls Breakout Athlete of the Year
Karoline Tuttle, Lake Mary,
Fr., golf: Tuttle arrived at Lake Mary as an accomplished youth standout and quickly made her mark as a ninth grade golf sensation. She was the leading player for Lake Mary’s Class 3A girls golf state championship team. At the state tournament Tuttle shot backto-back rounds of 3-under-par 69 to win the individual state championship and lead the Rams to a 26-shot margin of victory. In the regular season Tuttle tied teammate Izzy Pellot, another freshman, for medalist honors to lead the Rams to victory at the Antigua National Girls Golf Championship in Arizona.
Boys Breakout Athlete of the year
Dawson Joyce, Seminole, Fr.,
swimming: Joyce’s reputation as an elite swimmer preceded his arrival to high school swimming and he more than lived up to the hype. The 15-year-old won all four of his events, including two relays, in an epic state meet performance.
His individual wins were in the 50-yard freestyle and 100 free – both with personal-best times. Joyce set multiple state age group before he hit high school and is now Florida’s No. 1 ranked swimming in three events in the 15-16 age bracket. He is regarded as a top college prospect with Olympic potential.
Girls Coach of the Year
Tommie Butts, Wekiva, girls basketball and flag football:
Butts rallied his girls basketball team from a lopsided loss to rival West Orange in the district final to a comeback that culminated with the Class 9A state championship. It was the second state title in a stellar six-year run by the Mustangs under Butts.
His teams have reached the state tournament four times and averaged 24 wins per season in that span. The Mustangs won 15 of their final 16 games and topped favored Miami High 45-41 in double-overtime for the title.
Butts continued his winning ways as coach of Wekiva’s girls flag football team, which has evolved from 0-11 three years ago to become one of the area’s best.
Boys Coach of the Year
Kenne Brown, Seminole,
baseball: Brown, a veteran, returned to high school coaching to take the Seminole job and led the ‘Noles to the Class 9A state championship in his first year back.
He was a young assistant for Seminole 27 years ago when the school last made a state baseball final four and won a 1992 championship. Brown revived the pride in a program that had not reached region play in 18 years and led the Seminoles to a second title in dramatic fashion. His team won its district semifinal on a perfect game pitching performance by Matt Allan, and then rebounded from a district final loss to advance to state.
The ’Noles won the state final 1-0 over Miami Coral Reef on a solo home run by Mason Mazarredo and a gutsy pitching performance by junior Charlie McDaniel in Fort Myers.
Bill Buchalter Spirit Award
Bailey Trinder of Foundation Academy was severely injured in a car accident in September and his parents were told he had only a 3% chance of surviving. The junior fought for his life through two rounds of CPR and then spent 46 days at Orlando Region Medical Center. He did survive the horrific one-car crash and his will to win is now an inspiration to his football and baseball teammates and many others from his school and church.
Trinder was left paralyzed from the waist down and is in a wheelchair. But he returned to school and rejoined both of the Foundation Academy teams he played for as a student assistant coach this spring.
J.C. Carnahan, Steve Gorches, Zach Lange and Andre Rodriguez contributed to this report.