Sports

Sports

Storming the Diamond

Sammy Rosenthal|Sports Editor campaign with a chip on their shoulder, The pitching core also features senior pl218212@ahschool.com prepared to avenge their un nished Kansas State commit, Justin Webster, business from a year ago. junior Vanderbuilt commit Brandon

Aer the early stages of the “Unfortunately, with Covid ending our Barriera and junior Virginia commit Evan Coronavirus cut their 10-0 2020 season last year, the class of 2020 didn’t Dobias. Behind the talented group, the season short, the varsity baseball get a chance to get a ring,” senior LHP Patriots expect to stay in contention for the team plans to approach the upcoming and Vanderbilt commit Devin Futrell said. state banner, but, as the team experienced “This year, my team and I are going to win a year prior, not without the challenges a state championship for them. We lost a lot COVID-19 continues to present. of key roles in our lineup, but the plan is to “This pandemic has made everything just take one day at a time and to focus on in life a lot harder, but not much has slowed the state title.” us down as a team,” Gonzalez said. “We get Though the team had some notable our work in every day, and that has never pieces graduate, such as Enrique Brad eld changed. We have stayed on top of this and Jordan Carrion, the Florida Prep pandemic as much as possible as a team.” Baseball Report still has the Patriots While a slightly di erent group may ranked fourth overall heading into the take the eld under head coach Bruce year, citing the team’s pitching rotation as Aven, the championship aspirations from a the main separator from the competition. season ago have yet to fade as the Patriots “Since we don’t have the powerhouse set their sights on making up for lost time. we had last year,” senior 3B/RHP and FIU “We [have lost] the majority of our starters, commit Juhlien Gonzalez said, “we are so the key to winning a state title is going PITCHING HEAT: Senior Devin Futrell going to have to grind every game in and to be playing small ball and building new throws a powerful pitch against Vero Beach out. We, as a team, have a good chance at chemistry,” Futrell said. “If we play as a High School. Last season, the Patriots pitched winning state this year. With the pitching team and pick each other up when [we’re] a total of 79 strike outs. sta that we have this year, we will be a down, we are the most dominant team in (Photo submitted by Devin Futrell) very hard team to beat.” the country, and I have no doubt about it.” Sammy Rosenthal|Sports editor pl218212@ahschool.com

Serving up Aces and Winners

Heading into the new season, the boys and girls varsity tennis teams hope to pick up right where they le o last year.

“I plan to build on the chemistry we established last year through bus rides and team accomplishments,” senior Elliot Starkman said. “We have a lot of new players on the team, so it is important for them to be involved and to support their teammates.” While the distanced nature of tennis might limit the e ects of the coronavirus on games themselves, the pandemic has in uenced how much preparation for the season the Patriots have experienced.

“Due to the pandemic, the team hasn’t been able to meet as much as we would like,” sophomore Natalie Block said.

“Normally we host tryouts where we can all gather and discuss the upcoming season, but this year we had to improvise. We coordinated individual challenge matches through a group chat, and the girls reported the results to Coach Toby.”

As the two teams move further into the year, both understand that staying together and remaining consistent will prove crucial to walking away with a state championship.

“We have a lot of talent,” head coach Toby Croke said. “I think we have a team full of people that take their cra seriously. I think the appropriate word for this team is challenge. The challenge is to gure out the identity of the team and what doubles teams will work out the best.”

ACES ON DECK: Sophomore Natalie Block serves to start a point at the Orange Bowl International Cup. The Orange Bowl is a prestigious tournament that many current professionals had played at some point in their

Wrestling against all odds

Sammy Rosenthal | Sports Editor pl218212@ahschool.com

Aer last season saw the varsity wrestling team produce only one state quali er, the Patriots entered the 2021 season looking to make the next step, despite the pandemic presenting some challenges.

“We still didn’t have a full team,” junior Nicholas Gutierrez (pictured right) said on the team’s expectations heading into the year, “but we were all excited about improving from last year and getting a season since it wasn’t guaranteed.”

Following a rst place overall nish at the Coral Springs Individual Bracket Tournament to wrap up the regular season, the Patriots tackled the District Tournament Wednesday, Feb. 15, and ended the day with two rst place nishers in senior Josh Hartman and junior Jaeden Kinlock.

“I honestly expected nothing less than being a district champ from myself,” Kinlock said following the win. “I’m just going to keep working hard like I have been the whole season so that I can take that same attitude into regionals next weekend. We compete in probably the toughest region in the state, so I’m going to be treating every match as if it is the state championship.”

At regionals, 10 Patriots participated in day one, but only Kinlock nished high enough to move on to the state tournament, ending regionals with a second place crown.

For the second straight season, Kinlock competed in the state tournament March 5 and 6 in Kissimmee.

“Being able to compete at a higher level with a chance to be recognized and ranked in the state was an amazing opportunity,” Kinlock said. “[I’m] grateful for my coaches’ guidance and their support, along with my family’s.”

Kinlock nished the tournament sixth overall and looks forward to improving for next season.

NEW HARDWARE: Gutierrez shows o the

Patriots’ rst place prize from a regular season

North Miami tournament.

Despite success early on, an injury forced the junior wrestler to the sidelines mid-season.

(Photo submitted by Nicholas Gutierrez)

Tumbling into the Olympics

Eva Pierre-Antoine | Online Asst. Editor pl242581@ahschool.com

Junior Hana Starkman began her career of individual rhythmic gymnastics at age 5. By age 16, Starkman ranked top 28 in the country for her age group 12-16.

As a freshman, however, she decided to stop her training because she did not want to dedicate time to practices of six days a week, three hours a day.

Her love for rhythmic gymnastics could not be ignored, though; in September 2019, she was inspired by its growing popularity to get four of her friends, and a former Olympian as her coach, for rhythmic group competition. This group competed in early 2020, stopping due to COVID-19.

(Photo submitted by Hana Starkman)

Soon a er the group’s rst virtual competition in December, Starkman decided to try out for an open call for the National Prep Rhythmic Group. Out of the 40 girls there, they picked 14, including her, asking her to go to Chicago for ve days to do on-site training. She shined in this session, and two weeks later, they asked her to train full-time with them. Packing her bags, she le her three brothers and mom and moved to Chicago with her dad.

This National Prep Rhythmic Group prepares future Olympic competitors for group rhythmic gymnastics. Currently, a group of girls ages 19-20, are preparing for the Tokyo Olympics, and the 11 girls who are currently in the national prep group will succeed them. Of these girls, the coaches will pick ve for the main group, and the rest will be alternates. As far as balancing her gymnastics career and schoolwork, Starkman said it has been pretty easy so far. She has to wake up an hour early because of the time change and now ends school at 1:30 p.m. to start practice at 2 p.m. She has practice Sunday-Friday, training an average of 3-3 1/2 hours daily.

“[I]’ve always had to do that since I was 7 or 8. I always put rst school then gymnastics. I would also try not to skip gymnastics and time manage school work. I am used to doing online school, but being in a di erent state and waking up an hour earlier, I de nitely will have to get used to it,” Hana Starkman said.

Her goals are to compete in the Olympics in the main group and make the sport rhythmic gymnastics more popular. She acknowledges that USA gymnastics is trying to include the group sport a lot more in competitions, but she hopes to make it even more popular.

As the National Prep Rhythmic Group will train until the 2024 Summer Olympics, she assumes that she will do Florida Virtual School next year. Starkman hopes to attend college in Chicago, with her dream school being attending Northwestern.

One for the books

Varsity girls basketball makes history with fourth consecutive title

Sammy Rosenthal | Sports Editor pl218212@ahschool.com

Aer claiming the state crown for the third season in a row during the 2019-2020 campaign, the varsity girls basketball team prepared for the new year in search of their fourth consecutive title.

The Patriots postseason run began a er a commanding 73-28 victory over Northeast to clinch the District 14 Class 5A Championship, which capped o an impressive 20-2 record from the Patriots heading into the playo s.

“It meant a lot,” Coach Greg Farias said a er the District Championship win, “because it’s the sixth consecutive district championship and [we are] ready for another run in the playo s.” The Patriots continued to ride their momentum and dominated in the following two playo victories, handling Westwood 68-22 in the Regional Quarter nals behind junior Sydney Shaw’s (number 23) 18 points and breezing past Okeechobee 57-27 in the Regional Semi nals with senior Tatyana Wyche’s 18 points and 12 boards. “The mindset to make sure we stay focused and take one game at a time,” Coach Farias said as the team headed into the Regional Final. “We can’t forget what got us here, believe in the system, process, defense, hard work and teamwork.” In the Regional Finals, the team also emerged with the 42-29 win over Miami Norland behind leading scorer junior Joey Delancy’s 11 points and a combined 10 points and 22 boards from Tatyana and Taliyah Wyche. In the ensuing State Semi nals game to clinch another State Finals appearance for Heritage, Shaw once again paced with 20 points, Tatyana

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Wyche produced 14 points, Delancy The new hardware places Heritage chipped in with 10 points and the Patriots among elite company, as the team became forced 27 total turnovers to march past just the sixth program in FHSAA history Clearwater 66-29. to claim four straight state titles.

“I think it’s a combination of “It honestly means everything to me,” everything,” senior point guard Daniella Taliyah Wyche (number 00) said. “It’s the Aronsky said in regards to what has perfect way to end out my high school career.” driven the team’s playo success. “Coach is an absolute believer in preparation and I always feel we are the most prepared team (Photo/solo1photography)on the court because of his Rosenthal Sammy commitment Editor | Sports and drive. Chemistry is a huge factor as well.”

Just two days later, the Patriots took the court for the nal time of the season Saturday, Feb. 26, versus Palm Bay for the rights to their fourth consecutive state crown. A er a 17-17 rst half le both teams in position to clinch the title, the Patriots eventually snuck away with the game in the nal quarter, securing the 41-36 victory behind Taliyah Wyche’s 14 points and seven boards.

“We’re four-time state champions a er never winning,” Coach Farias said in a post-game interview with Sun Sentinel. “You’ve got to pinch me still. It’s an unbelievable feeling to make history the way we did.”