Student athletes, coaches, teams to be recognized at third annual Breeze Breakfast of Champions
Breeze Staf f Repor t news@breezenewspapers com Now in our third year of honoring local student-athletes via Athlete of the Week program, the goal for Breeze Newspapers continues to be showcasing the best and brightest local student-athletes that call Cape Coral home As we get set for our annual Breakfast of Champions end-of-year awards banquet and recognition we hope we continue to deliver on that goal as we move forward Being Cape Coral s hometown newspaper for 60-plus years, we strive to bring our readers the most pertinent content on city happenings and developments and that includes the youth that excel in the athletic realm Countless athletes in the area's past and present -- as will future standouts -- have used their gifts to elevate not just their game, but also their mind Sports is not only a battle of fierce competitors, or a test of mind and spirit, it is a tool young men and women can harbor into a brighter future Our mission each and every week as we reviewed each box score compiled every stat and made our selections was to recognize the achievements of local student-athletes And as we traveled all around the School District's West Zone including stops at Cape Coral High School Mariner High School Island Coast High School North Fort Myers High School and Ida Baker High School along with Bishop Verot High School and Oasis High School, we wanted to let the community know the special happenings that were taking place and get to know the person behind the achievements as well “It's been another great year of high school sports across Southwest Florida and especially here in our West Zone coverage area ” said Breeze Sports Editor Chris Strine “As always there were a number of outstanding teams and countless standout individual performances highlighted again by several state champions Our annual Breakfast of Champions is a great way to cap the year recognizing all of our top student athletes It is always an honor to be able to publicize the accomplishments of these teams and players We want to congratulate not only each weekly standout and our Athletes of the Month voted upon by our readers, but each and every student athlete, coach and support staffs and crews who helped make the 202324 year an exciting one ” Each and every week from the beginning to end of the school year (minus a few holiday breaks) our sports staff with the generous help of the coaches and athletic directors, were able to shine a light on the amazing feats happening on and in athletic fields and facilities The 2023-2024 season brought us a number of individual state champions or state runners-up in wrestling weightlifting track & field soccer and others As Cape Coral s hometown newspaper, we really wanted to hone in on our athletes “It amazes us to see the progression and success of student athletes at the schools we cover each week ” said Associate Sports Editor CJ Haddad “Getting to know each and every one of the student athletes I get to chat with as well as coaches and other staff members, is what I enjoy most We ve put a lot of hard work into improving our sports coverage these past few years and we hope our local student-athletes and schools are excited when we’re on the sidelines ” Our Athlete of the Week program, that features two local student athletes from our area, is distributed in print, online and via social media each and every week We ve also created a fan-voted Athlete of the Month and now a Reader’s Choice Athlete of the Year Wanting to end each year on a jubilant note we created our Breakfast of Champions event, to be held June 1 at the Cape Vineyard Community Church As Cape Coral's hometown newspaper, we're thrilled to be able to chronicle the efforts of these hometown sports h e r o e s ” s a i d B r e e z e N e w s p a p e r s P u b l i s h e r R a y Eckenrode But we couldn't do that without the cooperation of the schools, coaches and athletic directors and without the support of our program sponsors Our guest speaker this year is Fort Myers Mighty Mussels Manager Brian Meyer who is a Cape Coral resident and now in his fourth season of coaching the SingleA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins We will honor each of our Athlete of the Week selections, all 68 of them, as well as reveal our Reader s Choice Athlete of the Year, Team of the Year, Coach of the Year, and boys and girls Athlete of the Year We graciously thank each school and their coaches and staff for working with us this year to help make this a reality, and are looking forward to continuing to grow this program -- for our students, in our area This year's sponsors include major sponsor Torched B a r & G r i l l s u p p o r t i n g s p o n s o r s Z a k ' s J e w e l r y Experience Real Estate Group and Gavin's Ace Hardware and in-kind sponsors SP Designs and Cape Vineyard Community Church
Camren French, wrestling Mackenzie De Lisle track & field Maximus Brady, wrestling 2023-24 State Champions PHOTO PROVIDED Bishop Verot’s James Little IV, Breeze Athlete of the Week on May 3, finished fourth in the 110meter hurdles event at the Class 2A FHSAA State Championship MARK CLIFFORD Island Coast center Samarrah Desir, left, gets the edge on Ida Baker s Julianna Nieves and drives to the basket in the South Fort Myers New Year ’s Howl
Nine standouts receive Breeze Athlete of the Month honors
Breeze Staf f Repor t news@breezenewspapers com
Throughout the 2023-24 school year, the Cape Coral Breeze featured a monthly online voting contest to name an Athlete of the Month The nominees for each month were compiled from the list Athletes of the Week that were selected by the Breeze staff
In all Breeze readers selected nine winners for the Athlete of the Month from September 2023 through May 2024
Those winners represented six different schools in the Breeze coverage area including Mariner Island Coast Ida Baker, Cape Coral High, Bishop Verot and Oasis Skye Persechino of Oasis was named September's Athlete of the Month as the freshman broke a school
School's soccer team that earned the nod During his nomination week, the junior tallied a hat trick in the Bulldogs first victory of the early season a decisive 10-2 decision over Gateway Charter Cameron Fallacara of Cape High was voted the December Athlete of the Month as the Seahawks’ leading scorer found the back of the net a whopping 10 times over three matches during her nomination week, including a five-goal game versus Cypress Lake and four-goal
formance against Lehigh The senior also added
assists over
As the calendar
to
Cameron O Halloran of Bishop Verot
was voted the January Athlete of the
During
nomination week the standout junior guard continued her impressive offensive output for the Vikings as they took part in the Suncoast Classic Finishing third overall in the tournament as a team O’Halloran netted 20 points versus S t P eter s b u r g , an d ad d ed 3 3 mo r
Clearwater Central Catholic knocking down eight 3pointers Mariner High School's Ryleigh Acosta was voted as February's Athlete of the Month During her nomination week the senior soccer standout helped the Tritons again return to the FHSAA 5A-3
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r e c o r d a t t h e P i r a t e I n v i t a t i o n a l i n P o r t C h a r l o t t e
week
first
500meter
was on two med-
High
Persechino set a new mark to beat for the Sharks and finished first in the pool swimming a 56 55 in the girls 100meter freestyle, a record that has stood since 2010 Hayden Tedhams of Cape Coral High School's swim team was voted Athlete of the Month for October as the sophomore took home four LCEC titles at FGCU during his nomination
Tedhams placed
in the
freestyle 200-meter freestyle and
ley-winning teams In November, it was Bryce Bruni of Ida Baker
a w in
per-
four
those matches
turned
the New Year it was
High School that
Month
her
e in
o v er
Regional Championship with an assist in the opening round versus Seminole and a two-
semifi-
Month
Island
High
week
well
Austin
Month
came up
clutch hit twice
the Island Coast baseball
the
title over Fort Myers
extra innings His RBI single in the bottom of the seventh extended the game
a bunt single brought home Jordi Guerrero with the game-winner in the bottom of the ninth
Cape Coral
Athletes
the Month
out the Breeze online at capecoralbreeze com
goal two-assist performance against Naples in the
nal match March's Athlete of the
was
Coast
School s Isaac Lopez During his nomination
the junior had a huge day at the plate as part of a 12-1 baseball win for the Gators over Lake Placid Lopez went 3for-5 with 5 RBI In April, Oasis tennis standout Emily Feichthaler was voted as The Breeze Athlete of the Month During her nomination week, the sophomore helped the Sharks remain undefeated with a win against CSN coming out on top in straight sets in her singles matches In doubles Feichthaler and partner Cecilia Menendez were victorious as
To round out the year it was Island Coast's
Schoolcraft that was voted as April's Athlete of the
During his nomination week the sophomore
with the
as
won
District 5A-11
in
and
The
Breeze congratulates its
of
Check
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Page 8 May 31 2024 w w w capecoral breeze com CAPE CORAL BREE ZE BREEZE FILE PHOTOS North Fort Myers running back Virgil Malloy, above, looks for room to run during the Red Knights’ home g a m e w i t h L e m o n B a y Malloy ran 20 times for 177 yards and a touchdown in a t o u g h l o s s f o r N o r t h M a r i n e r H i g h S c h o o l ’s Nolan Tantay, left, won the 1 9 9 - p o u n d c l a s s F H S A A 2A-14 District Champions h i p N o r t h F o r t M y e r s ’ J u l i a n G o n z a l e z , m i d d l e below, won the 165-pound w e i g h t c l a s s i n t h e L e e C o u n t y A t h l e t i c C o n f e re n c e C h a m p i o n s h i p s A t that time he boasted a 34-0 record on the mat
Standout Isaac Lopez, above, was one of the leaders of the Island Coast baseball team this season Below, Cape High s Alaysia Ivy (15) dribbles past Dunbar ’s Daniya Maycock (30) in the Seahawks’ lopsided 29-7 victory over the Lady Tigers