Sports Editor Justin Kline gives credit where credit is due.
What a year it’s been on the diamonds. Five of our six Plant City-area ball clubs made the FHSAA regional playoffs: Durant’s baseball team and Plant City and Strawberry Crest’s baseball and softball teams.
Even though the Lady Cougars softball team didn’t make it out of districts, that underclassman-heavy team showed it could hang with anyone (wins over Crest and Plant City) and have enough for fans to be optimistic for next year.
If the Tampa Bay area has learned anything from watching our girls go through the FHSAA brackets, it’s that the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World is home to some of the top coaches around. Raider fans must be especially pleased to finally have a long-term coach like Ashley Bullion, who can get the most out of her young players and put a winning product on the field. And, if freshman pitching sensation Ashley Blessin keeps up the good work, I’ll be pretty confident in this team’s chances in any game for the next few years.
Hats off to Strawberry Crest, as well, for going all the way to states for the first time in program history. It doesn’t get much better than that, especially for the crop of seniors who worked so hard over the last four years to make it out of regionals alive. Few coaches in the area have been as consistent as Mindy Miltner over the years and, with the talent pool she has to work with in Dover, I think that team’s just going to keep succeeding.
In the boys’ game, it was business as usual for the Durant Cougars. You’d be hard-pressed to find any sports team around that gets as much production out of the roster than these guys, which is at least part of the reason why exactly half of the players named to the All-Western Conference Federal Division First Team were Cougars. Saying that Durant will be back in the regional tournament next season, especially with Jonah Scolaro returning, is as safe a bet as anything I can think of.
Plant City got three kids on the Federal Division Second Team and, as district runner-up, finally made it back to regionals for the first time since 2013. Head coach Mike Fryrear has said after four years with the program, the culture he’s built up is finally where he wants it to be — and the players have totally bought in. Add to that the fact that Fryrear has promising young talent on deck, and Raider fans should be nothing but excited for the near future.
Strawberry Crest may not have won the district title, but the Chargers adjusted to the move to 8A-4 quite well. The team fielded three National Division first-teamers, and head coach Eric Beattie was named National Division Coach of the Year. Before the district championship loss, Crest went undefeated in 8A-4 play and picked up some quality wins outside of that, including a 5-4 win at Brandon — which is no small feat. I’m excited to see what Beattie and the Chargers can cook up next year.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
