{"id":205871,"date":"2026-03-25T19:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/205871\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:31:08","slug":"freedoms-orlando-classic-boys-volleyball-has-heavy-hitters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/205871\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom’s Orlando Classic boys volleyball has heavy hitters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida\u2019s pipeline to college basketball and the NBA, fueled in large part by Montverde Academy<\/a>, has expanded as more independent programs stockpile elite players with NIL deals and look more like professional teams than high school squads.<\/p>\n

That showed in the Grind Session<\/a> \u201cWorld Championship\u201d tournament, an event for teams that play outside traditional governing bodies like the Florida High School Athletic Association. The finals bracket started with 33 teams and finished last weekend in Kentucky with an all-Florida final four.<\/p>\n

Prolific Prep (38-3), which moved its franchise from Napa, California, to South Florida<\/a> last spring, won the final, 68-62, against Southeastern Prep Academy (41-9) \u2014 which poured big money into a multi-sport franchise headquartered with classrooms and a fitness center at the Orlando Sportsplex (formerly the RDV practice site for the Orlando Magic).<\/p>\n

The other semifinal teams were another Orlando team, Academy of Central Florida (28-8), and DME Academy (25-10) of Daytona Beach. All four are members of the Sunshine Independent Athletic Association (SIAA).<\/p>\n

Standouts for Prolific were Ohio State recruit Alex Smith, who went 5-for-8 on 3s in the final, Arizona commit Caleb Holt and 6-foot-9 Kansas signee Davion Adkins. Smith left Ohio, Holt migrated from Georgia, and Adkins came in from Texas as seniors.<\/p>\n

SEPA was led by Texas transplant Beckham Black (16 points), the No. 3 senior per 247Sports; and CJ Rosser (14 points), a 6-10 wing from North Carolina rated by Rivals as the top junior in the country. Black\u2019s older brother is Orlando Magic guard Anthony Black.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already had a big pool of talent and a lot of guys in the NBA,\u201d said Scott Golden, an Orlando-based scout who evaluates players for more than 300 colleges. \u201cThese guys are bringing in imports from all over the place. It\u2019s made Florida the hotbed for basketball. By a mile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prolific climbed to No. 1 in this week\u2019s FAB 50 national rankings and is one of the favorites to win next week\u2019s Chipotle Nationals tournament in Indiana. It plays seventh-ranked Montverde (21-6), Lake County\u2019s boarding school powerhouse, in a Thursday, April 2 quarterfinal at 2 p.m. on ESPN2. Semifinals are Friday at 2 and 4 p.m. on ESPN, leading to a Saturday noon final on ESPN.<\/p>\n

Boys volleyball<\/p>\n

First-year Horizon coach Kristen Caleo inherited an experienced team that is taking her on a nice ride in her debut as a high school head coach.<\/p>\n

The Hawks are No. 3 in the FHSAA rankings and were 12-0 going into a challenging Wednesday night match against No. 6 Lake Brantley (14-2).<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew we had a good group of boys. They\u2019re all best friends,\u201d Caleo said Tuesday. \u201cThe camaraderie is amazing. They work hard. It\u2019s been really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her son, James, a senior outside hitter, is the Hawks\u2019 leader in kills. The other senior starters are Joshua Robinson and Rafael Mello. They play alongside four juniors in twins Esteban and Emmanuel Tascon; Leo Cappe and Jonathan Nogueira.<\/p>\n

Next up for Horizon is this weekend\u2019s Orlando Classic tournament, which boasts seven of the state\u2019s top 18 teams.<\/p>\n

Pool play tips off at 2 p.m. Friday at the Game Pointe Event Center in South Orlando and Freedom, which is the host school. Bracket play begins at 9 a.m. Saturday at Freedom and Olympia High \u2014 leading to a noon championship match at Freedom.<\/p>\n

The 16-team field includes No. 2 Miami Columbus, No. 7 Seminole Ridge, No. 8 Freedom, No. 12 Belen Jesuit, No. 17 Winter Park and No. 18 Archbishop McCarthy.<\/p>\n

Freedom is 12-0. Winter Park is 6-2 after losing Tuesday Timber Creek, which is also in the Classic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to tell us all a lot about ourselves,\u201d Freedom coach Gina McFerren said of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Winter Park boys volleyball is first to win 3 FHSAA titles in 4 seasons<\/a><\/p>\n

Tennis<\/p>\n

Lake Nona\u2019s boys and girls tennis teams are both 12-0 and are the heavy favorites to win the Metro Conference championships on Monday afternoon at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) National Campus on Monday. The Lions boys team, state champs last year<\/a>, has a new No. 1 player in Japanese senior standout Minato Koido.<\/p>\n

Big Dance<\/p>\n

Former Windermere High basketball player Darrell Armstrong Jr., son of the famed Orlando Magic guard of the same name, scored 33 points to lead University of Maryland \u2013 Baltimore County (UMBC) to the America East Conference Tournament Championship and a ticket to the NCAA Tournament. He made 7 of 9 three-point shots. The Retrievers (24-9) lost to Howard 86-83 in a First Four play-in game.<\/p>\n

Track & field<\/p>\n

Coming off spring break, this is a big week with meets hosted by Bishop Moore and East River Wednesday; Windermere and Olympia on Friday; and Saturday\u2019s slate, including Day 2 of the FSU Relays and events at The First Academy, Freedom and Oak Ridge.<\/p>\n

A tall achievement last week was a 5-8\u00bd high jump clearance by Boone senior Naima Durandisse at the Brian Jaeger Elite Classic.<\/p>\n

Lake Minneola\u2019s Wesley Morisseau and Seminole\u2019s Jayden Aristile have both cleared 6-7\u00bd in the boys high jump.<\/p>\n

Geneva School sixth grader Lilyanna Duvra is the state leader for her grade level in the girls 100 (12.26), 200 (24.64) and (56.52) \u2014 all run in varsity victories. She was the AAU Junior Olympic 200-meter champ in August.<\/p>\n

Softball<\/p>\n

Three area teams stand No. 1 in the FHSAA rankings. Montverde Academy (8-1) is No. 1 in 2A, Lake Brantley (10-2) is tops in 7A, and Winter Springs (11-3) is the frontrunner in 5A.<\/p>\n

Hagerty (10-1) is No. 2 and East Ridge (11-1) No. 3 in 7A.<\/p>\n

Geneva School (7-1) is No. 2 and The Master\u2019s Academy (8-2) No. 2 in 1A.<\/p>\n

The First Academy (10-2) is No. 3 and Cornerstone Charter (11-1) No. 7 in 2A.<\/p>\n

TFA\u2019s Alaina Surber struck out all nine batters she faced in a relief role in a 6-0 win vs. Winter Park.<\/p>\n

Missy Odom threw a no-hitter with 17 strikeouts and hit a grand slam in a Montverde victory.<\/p>\n

Windermere Prep senior Vanessa Nawracaj pitched a one-hitter with 16 strikeouts in an eight-inning 1-0 loss to Mount Dora.<\/p>\n

\"BishopBishop Moore senior star Nate Davis is batting .441 with 10 of his 26 hits going for extra bases. That includes 3 home runs. (Stephen M. Dowell\/Orlando Sentinel)
\nBaseball<\/p>\n

Bishop Moore (16-1) scored a 3-1 Monday win against visiting Don Bosco Prep (1-1), which went 26-2 and won its third New Jersey Non-Public state title in four years last season. That win came three days after Hagerty (12-5) stopped the Hornets\u2019 15-game win streak.<\/p>\n

Hagerty\u2019s Kelton Fitzgerald went the distance and struck out eight as the winning pitcher. Bishop Moore\u2019s Nate Davis went 2 for 3 with a solo home run.<\/p>\n

Aiden Balls went 3 for 3 with a triple, double, 2 runs and 2 RBI for Orangewood Christian (16-1) in a 6-0 Tuesday win vs. 1A District 5 rival Geneva School (13-3).<\/p>\n

Flagler Palm Coast beat Lyman 10-5 in Saturday\u2019s Florida League High School Invitational title game. The Greyhounds came in with a 2-11 record before going 3-1 in the tournament. St. Cloud, which won its first 12 games, went 2-2 with losses to FPC and Lyman.<\/p>\n

Maddox Stinson pitched a two-hit 6-0 shutout win for Dr. Phillips (11-9) against Eustis.<\/p>\n

Bishop Moore is No. 3 in 4A and Orangewood is No. 3 in 1A in FHSAA rankings.<\/p>\n

West Orange (13-6) is No. 8 in 7A but lost 10-0 to No. 14 Windermere (12-6) on Tuesday. Miguel Acosta went 5 for 5 for West Orange in a 13-3 win vs. Spruce Creek.<\/p>\n

Girls lacrosse<\/p>\n

Lake Highland Prep, ranked No. 2 in the FHSAA, ran its record to 14-1 with a 14-3 win against St. Thomas Aquinas. The Highlanders were scheduled to close out their regular season with a Wednesday home game against Virginia No. 1 St. Stephen\u2019s & St. Agnes (4-0).<\/p>\n

Lake Mary (9-3) is ranked No. 2 in 3A, just ahead of Oviedo (12-1). The Rams beat the Bears 15-3 early in the season.<\/p>\n

Winter Springs (12-0) is No. 6 in that big-school class. The Bears host Oviedo on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Olivia Van Arsdall had 10 goals and an assist for Lake Minneola (6-3) in a 14-8 win over Lake Wales.<\/p>\n

Boys lacrosse<\/p>\n

Bishop Moore (10-4) and Winter Park (11-1) are the top-ranked area teams.\u00a0The Hornets are No. 5 in 1A. The Wildcats are No. 6 in 2A.<\/p>\n

Winter Park\u2019s loss was to state No. 2 Ponte Vedra. Bishop Moore has out-of-area losses to Ponte Vedra, Jupiter, Benjamin and then to undefeated Loyola of Los Angeles in a trip to California last week.<\/p>\n

Beach volleyball<\/p>\n

Montverde Academy, which was 5-0 through Tuesday, is No. 2 in 1A as the highest-ranked area team.<\/p>\n

Hagerty (6-0 through Tuesday, is No. 5 in 3A, one spot ahead of Winter Park (7-0).<\/p>\n

Girls water polo<\/p>\n

Reigning state champ Sanford Seminole (20-0) is the state\u2019s top-ranked team \u2014 just ahead of West Orange (12-2). The Seminoles beat the Warriors 13-8 and 15-11 in highly competitive matchups. They\u2019re likely to clash again in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\"WestWest Orange senior water polo goalkeeper Bailey Patriola has made 84 saves. (Stephen M. Dowell\/Orlando Sentinel)
\nBoys water polo<\/p>\n

Seminole (17-4), West Orange (12-2) and Dr. Phillips (14-2) are numbers 3-4-5 in that order in the FHSAA rankings, but it looks like it\u2019s anybody\u2019s ballgame when those teams meet each other.<\/p>\n

DP lost to Seminole 10-9 early in the season, but since then has scored tight wins against the \u2018Noles, 13-12, and West Orange, 14-11.<\/p>\n

West Orange owns an 11-9 win against Seminole.<\/p>\n

Flag football<\/p>\n

Deltona (9-0) is ranked No. 2 in 2A after scoring a decisive 34-6 road win against 3A No. 8 Oviedo, which was 6-0 before the loss. Deltona then surpassed its win total from last season (8-6) with a 19-7 win against DeLand on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Harmony (8-1) is No. 8 in 3A going into a Thursday game at Cypress Creek (5-1).<\/p>\n

Varsity content editor Buddy Collings can be contacted by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s pipeline to college basketball and the NBA, fueled in large part by Montverde Academy, has expanded as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3745,139,141,140,76046,76642,110],"class_list":["post-205871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-high-school-sports","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-social-varsity-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}