The first sports of the winter season officially opened for business in the past weeks, marking the beginning of the end for fall athletics as some athletes and coaches prepare for the inevitable overlap of their seasons. The arrival of winter sports seems to come earlier and earlier each season, with start dates occurring on a rolling basis.
Competitive cheerleading, offered only at Key West High, began practices on Sept. 30. Their competition season officially opens on Oct. 21. Next is girls weightlifting, which started practicing Oct. 7 and can begin competing on the 28th. Boys and girls soccer could start practices Oct. 14, with matches beginning the first week of November. Basketball practices begin on Oct. 28, and the window for girls wrestling opens Nov. 4, with the boys starting one week later.
One of Monroe County’s newest sports, weightlifting, has proven to be quite prolific in the hardware department. Girls weightlifting is offered at all three public schools, and the teams somehow top themselves each year.
Key West will be under the tutelage of a new coach this season in Brett Fink, who was officially hired Oct. 4, just in time for the season to begin. With two days lost to storm cancellation, Fink is still settling into the position, but he has solid goals for the upcoming season.
“Generally my goals for any team are for them to give their best effort, to focus on doing things correctly and to work together as a team. In other words, play hard, play right, play together, a play on (North Carolina) coaching legend Dean Smith’s ‘Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together,’” he said. “I include Play Right as a character-building component, which I feel is important at the high school level.”
Fink stepped up to the challenge after he learned there was no coach for the team. Many of his students were on the team and he decided to shoulder the duty for them. Fink expressed much appreciation for Jessie Schubert and Erin Hamilton, coaches for Marathon and Coral Shores, saying, “They both reached out to me when I was hired to help get us scheduled and to offer to teach me the ropes of running/organizing the meets. Just a fantastic welcome from our competitors that I am truly grateful for.”
Key West returns several key athletes, including senior Alexa Condella and junior Shylo Sanchez. Condella will serve as team captain this season, and Sanchez brought home a pair of fourth-place medals from districts last year.
Coral Shores returns a bevy of talent this season. Sydney Eysenbach is the current district champ and was a state qualifier last season. Vanessa Gabriel was second only to Eysenbach in traditional lifts and claimed bronze in Olympic. She joined the state qualifiers with an excellent showing at regionals. Jennille Arias is the two-time defending district champ and looks to make the state meet for the third time as a junior this year. Senior Rachel Rusch and sophomore Julia Rusch return in the lighter weights for the ’Canes. Rachel won district gold in traditional lifts last season while Julia won bronze, and both sisters qualified for the state meet. Kali Gomer should also make some room for more hardware this season. The senior was a district and regional runner-up in Olympic lifts and made the trip to states last season.
Marathon also returns a remarkable core of strong lifters. Senior Ella Dunn already owns one FHSAA state medal from her fifth-place performance in Olympic lifts last season. Dunn added it to a variety of district and regional medals from her past two seasons. Sabrina Schofield returns for her senior season as the defending district champ. Schofield earned a trip to states and has been working hard in the offseason in hopes of a repeat this year. Junior Ayme Maradiaga is also back after a trip to states last season.
But all eyes are on another Lady Fin: junior Justice Lee will be defending dual state titles for Marathon this season, and she did not take the offseason lightly. Lee added a Florida AAU gold to her state titles this summer, and when she is not at a meet, she is in the gym.
Lee steadily improved each week last season, culminating in her unprecedented performance at states, but she is mitigating the pressure of defending her titles the only way she knows how.
“I do feel a little bit of pressure, but not much,” she said. “I believe that if I keep training as hard as I have been, then it will go well. I have an amazing community cheering me on from the start, as well as amazing coaches.”
And just what does an athlete with two years left of eligibility do when they are already a dual (triple with the AAU title) state champion? In Lee’s case, they set the bar higher.
“My goals this season are to make it to states and hopefully get a couple of state records as well as go undefeated,” she said.
Lee can begin her quest for perfection on Oct. 30, when Marathon joins Key West at Coral Shores for the first meet of the season.
