2009 high school archives

Berkeley Prep standout goalkeeper Bryane Heaberlin has been called up for a U.S. Women’s under-17 team training camp to be held in Argentina in early December. more

VALRICO - Bloomingdale has spent years facing its toughest district competition in the form of Newsome, but a move in class and district this season left the Bulls with a hole to fill. Thursday night that hole was filled by new 6A-8 rival Plant.

The first meeting between Plant and Bloomingdale as district opponents didn't disappoint, with both teams matching up well. The Panthers got the better of the chances in the match and were able to capitalize late with a Connor Zwetsch goal to take a 1-0 win. more

It was one of the most anticipated regular season games this season in North Florida, matching the Sharks' defense against the Bears and goal-scoring juggernaut Sam Scalf.

The result, and the top spot in District 4-4A, was all Ponte Vedra's.

"The one thing about our team is we can be beaten , but you've got to earn it," said Ponte Vedra coach Dave Silverberg, whose team is 3-0 overall and 1-0 in district play.

The lone score of the game followed a missed Bartram corner kick, and the Sharks went coast to coast with the deflection. more

In a time when many high school athletes choose to specialize in one sport, Klassman has excelled in several. We're talking soccer, cross country, volleyball, basketball, socer, softball and tennis.

Her efforts have earned her a pretty big honor--she's Florida's female winner of the High School Heisman.

The High School Heisman, however, doesn't just focus on what athletes do on the field. Nominees are scrutinized for academics, as well as community and school involvement. more

The Gulf Breeze Lady Dolphin soccer team split a pair of matches to open the 2009 season last week. Gulf Breeze beat Pensacola High 4-1 before losing 2-1 at Panama City Mosley. more

TAMPA - Last season ended for Plant with three corner kicks that led to East Lake goals in the final 20 minutes of the region quarterfinals. With a 2-0 lead at the second-half water break, things looked good for the Panthers, but all that changed when East Lake's Tatiana Perez put in three late goals and the Eagles ended Plant's season, 3-2. more

Wolves take shootout to win Lady Wildcat Invitational

TAMPA – A season after falling in a penalty shootout to Plant, Newsome gained a measure of revenge as it turned the tables on the Panthers, earning a 5-4 victory in a shootout that went to the seventh shooter after the two sides had played to a 2-2 tie in regulation in the final of the Lady Wildcat Invitational at Wharton High on Saturday afternoon.

After the Panthers had missed their shot in the seventh round, Kassandra Cobb gave the Wolves victory, driving a well-struck shot into the right side of the goal out of the reach of Plant goalkeeper Lauryn Bodden. more

EAST LAKE — Countryside entered the 2009-10 season with promise, especially after the Cougars knocked off defending Class 5A state champion Palm Harbor University in the preseason.

Eager to prove that win wasn't a fluke, Countryside looked to its matchup with East Lake on Thursday to show how much it had improved since a disappointing season in 2008-09. more

A Gulf Breeze High graduate and a former Dolphin soccer player, Davenport is the new coach of the Lady Dolphin soccer team. He takes over a team that lost, arguably, its best group of seniors in school history. But he warns - don’t think the cupboard is bare.

“I hope that people sell us short or think we’re ‘down,’ cause they’ll be in for a surprise,” Davenport said. “We have so much depth on this team.” more

The Lecanto varsity girls soccer team won 2-0 at Crystal River on Wednesday night in a match that featured two squads working out their kinks early in the season.

“We started out flat tonight after playing a game last night,” explained Panther head coach Roselle Seda.

“But it’s a county rivalry so the blood started to flow as the game went on. We started to take more chances on shots.” more

TRINITY — After outscoring teams 10-4 in the preseason, Mitchell had a bit more trouble finding the back of the net in the first half of Tuesday's season-opening game against Hudson.

But the Mustangs turned up the energy in the second half and used a 20-2 shot advantage in the second period to notch a 3-1 victory at Mustang Field. more

SPRINGFIELD — Lisa Tonn could find little reason to be disappointed, even after her Rutherford girls soccer team dropped its season-opening match to Choctawhatchee.

The Rams lost 13 seniors from last year’s team and were working four freshmen into the lineup. Tonn purposely scheduled the talented Indians, and she wasn’t concerned about the 5-1 outcome on Tuesday at the Vera Shamplain Sports Complex.

“I knew this would be a tough game, but I wanted this to get the team ready,” Tonn said. “You get better by playing the good teams.” more

Springstead High has captured 13 of the past 16 county championships. They've also reached regionals (7) more than any other Hernando County program.
Yet after 18 seasons, where SHS has captured a county-best 69 percent of its matches, it has oddly never captured one regional playoff match. None.
That may change, however, this winter as Springstead was reassigned to 5A-7.
In a cozy four-team district, SHS faces Central, Ocala-West Port and Ocala-Forest.
Based on recent history on paper, Forest and Springstead should meet in the 5A-7 title game. more

SEBRING - Sebring girls soccer coach Steve Ashley insists that he's not apprehensive about trotting out four, five, maybe even six newcomers this season.

That should tell you a little something about this freshmen class.

"I've been at this for 24 years, and I've been on all sides of it," Ashley said earlier this week. "We're really building for two years. We're starting a lot of the younger players, so it's going to take them a little bit of time to figure it out." more

Miami Springs coach William Drew looks at his team these days and doesn't see one of the most important pieces of his back-to-back state tournament teams.

Forward Abby Carr, The Miami Herald's Class 6A Player of the Year last season, is graduating early and will begin playing at Florida State in January.

If the last four days are any indication, Jensen Beach’s girls soccer team is going to score a lot of goals this season.

Aubrie Strohmenger broke a 2-all tie with a goal 25 minutes into the second half Tuesday as the Falcons defeated Wellington 4-2 in the regular-season opener for both teams at Jensen Beach.

Lauren Gorodetsky, Taylor Townsend and Kim McInnis added goals for Jensen Beach (1-0), which also scored four goals in preseason classic wins over Archbishop McCarthy and St. Andrew’s. more

LUTZ – It’s rare for any new high school sports program to enter its first season with the goal of hosting a region tournament game.

But for Steinbrenner High’s girls soccer team, that goal doesn’t seem at all unrealistic.

The Warriors take the field at Gaither on Tuesday night for their first regular season game with a squad far more experienced than many others have had the good fortune to field. Within Steinbrenner’s squad are a number of players who won a district title with Sickles last season, and have the intention of doing the same thing at their new school. more

Wolves and Marauders advance at Invitational

TAMPA – Newsome girls soccer coach Kelly Townsend wasn’t expecting a big drop-off in the expectations for the Wolves this season, even with the team having lost nine starters from a season ago.

After a tight first half against Alonso, the young Wolves team made big statement as they earned a 4-1 victory to open the Lady Wildcat Invitational at Wharton High on Monday night. more

TAMPA — Tampa Prep girls soccer coach Cindy Schofield was once the best high school players in the state of Florida, then she rewrote the record books at Florida State.

Bryane Heaberlin obviously couldn’t be in two places at once, but her Berkeley Prep teammates needed her for their Class 3A region semifinal game against St. Petersburg Catholic last season. ¶ Heaberlin, the Bucs’ then-freshman goalkeeper, was in Miami for a U.S. Soccer U-17 supercamp. She flew home from South Florida for just a few hours to take the net for Berkeley. She helped win the game then flew back to Miami for morning workouts. ¶ But Heaberlin, who at age 14 helped Berkeley to the Class 3A region final last year, likes being under pressure. She has played in the Olympic Development Program since she was 11. She is the only 15-year-old on the U.S. women’s national U-17 team, a squad focused on next year’s U-17 World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago. more

Cardinal Gibbons girls' soccer coach Margo Flack said the pain still lingers from last year.

Flack said she couldn't compare the feeling of her team losing the Class 4A state championship game 1-0 (4-3 PKs) to Ponte Vedra to anything else she has experienced. It was the Chiefs' (29-1-2) only loss.

They entered the title game as the No. 1-ranked team in the country.

"To be that close and to have it taken from them like that was hard. It stinks. Being undefeated meant nothing, and they know that now," said Flack, who guided Cardinal Gibbons to its first state tournament last season. more

Bartram Trail: The Bears, who move into a district with reigning Class 4A champion Ponte Vedra, are loaded with returning talent, including seniors Sam Scalf (59 goals, 22 assists last season), Bri Swift (26 goals, 21 assists), Chelsea Mayo (18 goals, 22 assists), defender Taylor Gillespie and keeper Lauren Hamilton (20 shutouts).

Bolles: Last year's Class 3A runner-up lost six starters, including All-First Coast player of the year Brooke Thigpen, but should be solid in a four-team district this season behind Florida commitment Caroline Triglia (31 goals, 28 assists), speedy senior midfielder Heather Allen and junior defender Gabby Ragazzo. more

HUDSON — Two years ago, Stacey Swezey doubted whether she could play soccer after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament.

The Hudson High and U18/19 Hudson Lady Cobras captain spent the year before last rehabbing the knee injury that she sustained during a scrimmage against a Cobra boys team. more

If this week's preseason games are any indication, the talent and competitive fire shown by area girls' soccer teams should make for an exciting season.

The success of the area's youth recreation and competitive soccer programs has led to an abundance of highly skilled players spread out at area schools.

The challenge, though, remains the same. High school teams seek leadership, unity and a well-functioning system by the time the district playoffs begin. more

When a new sports season begins, it's natural to wonder how a team compares to the competition. Of course, predictions often look foolish in retrospect. But it's fun to speculate and even more fun to poke fun at why Team A is better than Team B and why Player C should get recognition instead of Player D. This, of course, is our best guess based on speaking with coaches and combing through last year's finish to determine the best teams, players and games for the upcoming season. One thing is certain: The North Suncoast has plenty of talent and maybe a team or two that could benefit from new districts to piece together postseason wins. more

Last season, Palm Harbor University forward Catherine Brinkman scored 34 goals to lead the Hurricanes to the Class 5A state championship, the school's fourth. With Brinkman back, along with all but three starters, the Hurricanes again figure into the title picture, albeit in 6A after moving up a classification. We caught up with Brinkman in between training sessions as the senior prepares for her final high school season (PHU opens Nov. 10 at Clearwater Central Catholic).

I think so. I mean, we had Ellycia Colon and Ashlin Cook in the back, so we lost two defenders (Colon graduated; Cook, a senior, is out for the year after an offseason injury). more

Heaberlin headed to Argentina