The Sentinel recognized the top players, coaches and teams from the 2017-18 varsity sports school year on Friday at Camping World Stadium in Orlando.
These were the overall award winners:
Girls athlete of the year
Alana Wolfberg, Timber Creek, Jr.
Nationally ranked tennis phenom Alana Wolfberg is a four-time state champion, having won a doubles state title and three consecutive Class 4A singles championships with her senior year to come.
She remained undefeated in high school singles matches and repeated as the Florida Dairy Farmers state player of the year.
Wolfberg is even more of a rarity as an elite college tennis prospect who also participates in other sports. She ran cross country in the fall and on the day she won her state tennis title in May she traveled to Jacksonville to compete at the state track meet. Wolfberg juggled two sports in the spring as one of four members of Timber Creek’s state medalist 4×800-meter relay and its 4×400 relay. Both set school records.
Boys athlete of the year
Joey Silva, Lake Highland Prep, Sr.
Joey Silva etched his name in the record books when he became only the sixth wrestler in Florida high school history to win five individual state titles and the first to win all five with the same school.
The Michigan recruit earned his second consecutive Florida Dairy Farmers wrestler of the year award and earned a No. 1 national ranking for his weight class — a first for Central Florida.
Silva was ranked No. 1 nationally in the 132-pound weight class but he moved up to 145 for the state tournament and dominated larger wrestlers as the Highlanders won their fifth state title in four seasons — including the FHSAA’s inaugural dual-match state tournament. LHP broke its own bracket tournament record by piling up 333 points.
Silva played an integral role in Lake Highland’s evolution as a national power.
Girls breakout athlete of the year
Taylor Head, West Orange, Soph.
Taylor Head, a 5-foot-11 sophomore outside hitter for West Orange, had a match-high 19 kills as the Warriors defeated Palm Beach Gardens in straight sets to win the Class 9A state volleyball championship and complete a perfect 29-0 season.
Head led West Orange with 343 kills, 245 digs and 78 aces as a standout in every rotation.
She also had 78 ace serves and 34 blocks and was one of just seven players — four of them from area schools — to be selected to PrepVolleyball.com’s All State team for all classifications.
Boys breakout athlete of the year
Alex Shields, The First Academy Orlando, Soph.
Alex Shields’ athletic ability cannot be confined to one sport as he competed in football, basketball and track as a sophomore. He was a starting wide receiver and defensive back in football for The First Academy and was the second-leading scorer for TFA’s basketball team. He then won four events in the Class 1A state track and field meet to lead the Royals to the state championship. He was the nation’s second-ranked 10th-grader in both the 110-meter hurdles and the long jump.
Boys coach of the year
Rodney Wells, Dr. Phillips, football
Former Dr. Phillips linebacker Rodney Wells coached his alma mater to its first-ever state football championship. The Panthers beat Delray Beach Atlantic 17-7 at Camping World Stadium to win the Class 8A title. Wells, a standout senior on DP’s first playoff team in 1996, has been on the coaching staff for 15 years. In seven seasons as head coach he has led the Panthers to seven straight district titles, four straight region finals and a total of 90 wins against only 14 defeats.
During his playing days at Dr. Phillips he set school for sacks (25) and tackles (260) that stood for 21 years until two of his own players, Robert Porcher and Dylan Meeks, surpassed them.
Girls coach of the year
Pat Costello, Oviedo, bowling
Pat Costello guided the Oviedo girls to an undefeated regular season and the program’s second consecutive state bowling championship. The Lions coach is legendary in the sport and is a member of both the U.S. Bowling Congress and the Professional Women’s Bowling Association’s halls of fame. As coach of the UCF women’s team, she led the Knights to a second-place finish at the 2006 USBC Intercollegiate national championship. As a pro, she was a two-time U.S. Open champion with 13 professional wins.
Girls team of the year
The First Academy girls golf
The First Academy girls golf team, dubbed the “dream team” by head coach Chris Bateman, shot the lowest score in state history, a combined 11-under-par as a team for 36 holes, to win the Class 1A championship by 24 shots. Sophomore Ariel Yu shot 9-under — tied for the second-lowest state tournament score ever — to win the individual title. Teammate Sophie Guo finished runner-up. Both were named to the Orlando Sentinel All-Area team in addition to TFA senior Emma Zhao, who tied for sixth at the state tournament.
Boys team of the year
Olympia boys water polo
A year after becoming the first Central Florida school to capture an FHSAA girls water polo state championship, Olympia won the boys title this year — another first for the area. The Titans broke a private school stranglehold on the championship when they recorded an 18-15 win over South Broward in Miami to finish 29-2. The link between the boys and girls title teams is Olympia aquatics coach Stephanie Johnson Possell, who has 506 high school water polo wins dating to her coaching days in Pennsylvania.
Bill Buchalter Spirit Award
Amani Brown, Lake Brantley, Fr.
Amani Brown, who wears a prosthetic foot on his right leg, led the freshman football team at Lake Brantley to a 7-1 record as a running back and defensive back in the fall before qualifying for regionals in weightlifting in the 139-pound class this spring. He bench-pressed more than 200 pounds and clean-and-jerked 160 pounds to qualify. Brown was adopted from Liberia at the age of 4 after suffering extensive burns to his lower legs near the end of the country’s 14-year civil war.