First Coast Varsity Weekly | Open division may jolt Jacksonville girls soccer: Here's how
Open division talk is back again in Florida, and this time, there's more than just football on the menu.
The Florida High School Athletic Association board of directors is scheduled to discuss an open division — a separate championship division for the highest-ranked teams — in Monday's meeting in Gainesville.
The open division plan would pull out the top eight teams following district tournaments in all major team sports for a special, double-elimination tournament with an unusual and complex format. The Nos. 1, 4, 5 and 8 teams would occupy one group, with Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 7 in the other.
More details: FHSAA to discuss double-elimination open division bracket for all sports
The plan, if implemented in the future, would particularly shake up girls soccer in Northeast Florida. If applied to girls soccer this year, four of the eight Open Division teams would have come from the area: Bartram Trail, St. Johns Country Day and eventual state champions Creekside (Class 7A) and Ponte Vedra (Class 6A).
Boys basketball would have had two local teams selected in this formula (Jackson and Providence), with no locals in volleyball and girls basketball open divisions. Teams currently in top-eight positions of the FHSAA formula in still-active spring sports are Trinity Christian baseball, Episcopal softball and Middleburg softball.
While the double-elimination open division isn't ready to take effect at this time — it's a topic for discussion but not yet for voting at Monday's meeting — a host of other big and not-so-big ideas are on the agenda, from continued pressure toward implementing the shot clock in basketball to a new division in cheerleading.
The agenda includes a dizzying array of items for both action and discussion, some of them minor (clerical adjustments to the bylaws) and some more substantial, like a revision to FHSAA policies that would permit transfers to compete in spring football games. A few action items of note:
The FHSAA will vote on a policy revision to require schools to report final scores within 24 hours for team sports other than football.
For cheerleading, the association may add a Small Gameday division for teams of 12 or fewer cheerleaders, with limited stunts and back handsprings as the only eligible tumbling moves.
In soccer, the sport advisory committee and the athletic directors advisory committee both recommended the adoption of the traditional diagonal officiating system, with a center referee and two linesmen.
Also in the plans is a workshop for board members on Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) regulations. That workshop is listed on the association's agenda between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. Sunday, although the FHSAA provided no further details.
While the FHSAA weighs the use of the words "escaping discipline" in its bylaws (yes, it's an entire item on the agenda), several more traditional matters that remain up in the air. The FHSAA has yet to confirm classifications for winter sports for 2024-25, which would begin in slightly more than six months, and the association has yet to formally clarify what system will determine qualification for next fall's football playoffs following the demise of the Metro-Suburban system.
Eagles soar on tennis court
Maybe, Episcopal's road to tennis perfection in 2024 began… on the lacrosse field.
"We got to run this field around a bunch of times," said senior Aidan Stefanides, looking northward from the school's Clements Tennis Complex.
A cross country-style training routine around a lacrosse field has helped build Episcopal boys tennis into a machine entering this week's District 3-1A tournament, chasing a rare feat for the Florida High School Athletic Association postseason.
Episcopal entered the week at 16-0, having defeated nearly every power program in Northeast Florida in the regular season under third-year head coach Carl Solik.
"He's really developed us into a lot better players with all the conditioning that we have to do," senior Ford Rachels said. "And that just makes us all better."
While Bartram Trail (2018) and Ponte Vedra (2022) have captured FHSAA boys team championships in recent times, the wait for a team within Jacksonville's city limits goes back nearly two decades to Bolles in 2006.
And while Episcopal's boys program has gradually grown in strength during the current decade, the school is still seeking its first championship or even state final at team level.
That might be changing this year, in part thanks to a focus on conditioning and solid team leadership. On a roster with three freshmen and two sophomores, seniors Rachels and Stefanides have led the way from the No. 1 and No. 2 singles lines respectively.
"With us playing each other all the time and having these tough practices against each other, when we go and play these [district] matches, it makes it easier," Rachels said.
The future is bright, too: Owen Neal, who stands 6-2 in height while still in seventh grade, has grown into a still-undefeated force on the court this season.
"I knew this team was going to be special," Rachels said, "but it's kind of exceeded my expectations."
Pitchers' duel of the year?
Year in, year out, Clay always seems to play one game that's in the running for baseball game of the year.
Now, 2024 is no exception.
The Blue Devils gutted out a 14-inning epic on Wednesday against First Coast, one that wasn't settled until Peyton McRae's game-winning squeeze bunt scored Parker Lowrance with the game-winner in the 1-0 pitchers' duel.
The game was a masterpiece of pitching for the Blue Devils. Rylan McMahan threw five shutout innings, yielding two hits and striking out 11. He then gave way to Lowrance, who threw a complete-game distance (seven innings) with four walks and a dozen more K's. Freshman Braden Phenneger got the win, throwing hitless baseball for the 13th and 14th frames.
Total: six hits, three walks, 26 strikeouts and no runs allowed for the Blue Devils in 14 innings.
Not to be ignored was the effort of the First Coast staff. Braeden McNamee pitched seven shutout innings with four hits allowed and nine strikeouts, and Cason Shurling worked the next seven with four hits allowed, nine strikeouts and no runs until McRae's game-winner.
That highlight was the second in 24 hours for McRae: The freshman second baseman had also delivered a walk-off hit the previous night to score Merrick Rapoza, defeating Yulee 2-1. And in Clay's previous game, they had erased a two-run sixth-inning deficit when back-to-back doubles by Cole Carnell and Easton McMahan beat Fleming Island 7-6.
Jackson hoops hires PV assistant Shemwell
The Gateway Conference's most successful boys basketball program of the last decade now has its new coach.
Jackson hired former Ponte Vedra assistant Byron Shemwell as the new head coach at the Northside school, which qualified for the FHSAA Class 4A final in March in Lakeland.
He replaces longtime Tigers coach James Collins, who stepped down last month after 15 seasons, 298 wins, 13 trips to the FHSAA regional playoffs and five visits to the final four.
Shemwell, a standout guard at Columbia during the mid-2000s, played college basketball at Edward Waters University. Working under Ben Wilson, he helped Ponte Vedra extend its own final-four streak earlier this season in Class 6A.
Former Generals guard Guinyard named All-American
Add All-American honors to the hoops resume of Tarence Guinyard.
The Florida State College at Jacksonville sophomore, who also starred in high school at Lee (now Riverside), won first-team All-American honors in National Junior College Athletic Association men's basketball.
Guinyard surpassed 1,300 points and 200 assists in his two seasons with the Blue Wave, helping them to last month's NJCAA national tournament in Illinois.
He's planning to continue his basketball career beyond FSCJ, committing last week to transfer to Tennessee-Martin for his junior year.
Oakleaf races to Tocoi titles
High school track's regular season is motoring toward the finish, but not without another nice night for Knights.
Oakleaf took first place in the boys and girls team standings at the Tocoi Creek Toro Showdown, a meet that included a personal-best 36 feet, 11 1/4 inches in the girls triple jump for Brooke Linscomb and a 49.14 in the boys 400 for Josber Stimphil.
The meet's sprints belonged to Mandarin, with 100-200 sweeps for the Mustangs' Jaylin Lewis (10.73 and 21.36) and Kyla Skinner (12.23 and 24.72).
Georgia's Richmond Hill came in first at the Beachside Battery Invitational, where local highlights included Vincent Jackson's 196 feet, 1 1/2 inches for Ponte Vedra in the boys javelin, Jaden Ransom's 47.12 for Bishop Kenny in the boys 400 and Esther Nelson's 56.58 for Nease in the girls 400.
The Bolles Mile Showcase also returned with another Nease win: Matt Ryan ran 4:16.20 to edge Ponte Vedra's Tanner Andrade-Brinsko in the boys race, while Madeleine Gear of Foundation Christian Academy ran 4:53.55 to win the girls final ahead of Creekside's Alyson Johnson.
Wednesday's Ridgeview High School Invitational and Bartram Trail's Thursday Night Spikes meet are among the last events on the calendar before postseason begins April 24.
Around the area
Episcopal's Danzell Simpkins and Christian Wells signed with Methodist football. … Fleming Island defensive end Ladarius Jackson committed to Mount Union football. … Mandarin long snapper Michael Larsen committed to Hiram football. … Mandarin outside linebacker Justin Squire committed to Florida A&M football. … Stanton diver Rylie Darkatsh signed with Florida Gulf Coast women's diving. … Episcopal baseball and football athlete Carson Magyar signed with Hampden-Sydney. … Eagle's View guard Gavin Carlson committed to Carolina University basketball. … Eagle's View defensive back Owen Sheetz committed to Webber International football. … Tocoi Creek junior setter Vanessa Shevchenko committed to Stetson volleyball. … Stanton midfielder Emma Griner committed to Rollins women's soccer. ... Former St. Johns Country Day pitcher Luke Shannahan committed to North Dakota State baseball out of Northern Oklahoma College… Tocoi Creek guard Malik Lovett committed to Southern Crescent Technical College men's basketball. … Trinity Christian sophomore pitcher Brayden Harris earned a selection to the all-tournament team at the National High School Invitational for baseball in North Carolina. ... Bartram Trail's Kiera Strub surpassed 100 hits for her Bears softball career. … Brunswick's Nigel Gardner, Antonio Clark, Ja'Marious Towns and Waseem Murray set a school record 41.97 in the boys 4x100-meter relay. … Englewood has rescheduled its celebration for the 25-year anniversary of the 1999 FHSAA championship baseball team for 6:30 p.m. on April 24.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: FHSAA open division: Major effects for Jacksonville girls soccer
